The origins of bank-based and market-based financial systems: Germany, Japan, and the United States

Sigurt Vitols

No FS I 01-302, Discussion Papers, Research Unit: Economic Change and Employment from WZB Berlin Social Science Center

Abstract: This paper examines the historical origins of the bank-based financial systems in Germany and Japan and the market-based financial system in the US. It critically examines the "timing of industrialization" (TOI) thesis, i.e. the assertion that variation in the current structure of financial systems can be explained by differences in the timing of the "take-off" phase of industrialization. The first major claim I make is that TOI overstates both the significance of bank-based finance for the rapid industrialization of Germany and Japan and the extent to which the financial systems really were different. Second, I argue that TOI understates the importance of different patterns of state regulation, particularly starting in the 1930s, for explaining postwar differences in the financial systems. The third claim I make is that differences in financial regimes are dependent not only upon the narrow issue of financial regulation but also on the nature of the regulation of labor, including welfare regimes.

Date: 2001
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:zbw:wzbece:fsi01302

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