CD-ROM contains: World Bank data.

A country's level of financial development and the legal environment in which financial intermediaries and markets operate critically influence economic development. In countries whose financial sectors are more fully developed and whose legal systems protect the rights of outside investors, economies grow faster, industries dependent on external finance expand more quickly, new firms are created more easily, firms have more access to external financing, and firms grow faster.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) presents the full text of the December 2000 paper entitled "Financial Development and Economic Growth: An Overview," prepared by Mohsin S. Khan and Abdelhak S. Senhadji. The text is available in PDF format and the paper is part of the IMF's Working Paper series. This paper provides a review of literature on financial markets and discusses the relationship between financial development and economic growth.

This book looks into the relationship between financial development, economic growth, and the possibility of a potential capital flight in the transmission process. It also examines the important role that financial institutions, financial markets, and country-level institutional factors play in economic growth and their impact on capital flight in emerging economies. By presenting new theoretical insights and empirical country studies as well as econometric approaches, the authors focus on the relationship between financial development and economic growth with capital flight in the era of financial crisis. Therefore, this book is a must-read for researchers, scholars, and policy-makers, interested in a better understanding of economic growth and financial development of emerging economies alike.

Finance and growth emerged as a distinct field of economics during the last three decades as economists integrated the fields of finance and economic growth and then explored the ramifications of the functioning of financial systems on economic growth, income distribution, and poverty. In this paper, I review theoretical and empirical research on the connections between the operation of the financial system and economic growth and inequality. While subject to ample qualifications, the preponderance of evidence suggests that (1) financial development—both the development of banks and stock markets—spurs economic growth and (2) better functioning financial systems foster growth primarily by improving resource allocation and technological change, not by increasing saving rates. Some research also suggests that financial development expands economic opportunities and tightens income distribution, primarily by boosting the incomes of the poor. This work implies that financial development fosters growth by expanding opportunities. Finally, and more tentatively, financial innovation—improvements in the ability of financial systems to ameliorate information and transaction costs—may be necessary for sustaining growth.

Non-technical summary; The model; Risk and transactions costs; Financial intermediaries: researcher/mobilizer.