Financial development and barriers to the cross-border diffusion of financial innovation

James Ang and Sanjesh Kumar

Journal of Banking & Finance, 2014, vol. 39, issue C, 43-56

Abstract: This paper explores the determinants of financial development by focusing on the role played by barriers to the diffusion of financial technology. These barriers are measured using human genetic distance from the technology frontier. The results based on cross-sectional data for 123 countries suggest that genetic distance to the global frontier has an economically and statistically significant effect on financial development, in that countries that are genetically far from the technology leader tend to have lower levels of financial development. Genetic distance is found to have the largest effect, even after controlling for other determinants of financial development established in the literature. These findings indicate that cultural barriers to the diffusion of financial technology across borders impact financial development by influencing the follower countries’ ability to adopt and adapt innovations from the frontier.

Keywords: Financial development; Genetic distance to the frontier; Financial innovation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: G15 O16 O50 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (51)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jbfina:v:39:y:2014:i:c:p:43-56

DOI: 10.1016/j.jbankfin.2013.10.011

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