توسعه مالی، ساختار مالی و سرمایه گذاری داخلی: شواهد بین المللی

Does it matter for domestic investment whether a country's financial system is bank-based or stock-market based? This paper posits that financial intermediation affects domestic investment notably by alleviating financing constraints, allowing firms to increase investment in response to increased demand for output. The key result is that the structure of the financial system has no independent effect on investment, in the sense that it does not enhance the response of investment to changes in output, while financial development makes investment more responsive to output growth. Consequently, rather than promoting a particular type of financial structure, countries should implement policies that reduce transactions costs in financial intermediation and enforce creditor and investor rights. This will facilitate the development of banks and stock markets, which will stimulate domestic investment.

For over a century, economists have debated the comparative merits of bank-based systems and stock-market-based systems in mobilizing resources and enhancing economic growth (see Levine, 2002 for a review of this debate).1 This paper examines whether bank-based or stock-market-based financial systems are better at promoting domestic investment. To investigate this empirical question, the paper posits that financial intermediation affects investment notably by alleviating financing constraints, and that better functioning financial systems allow firms to invest more in response to increased demand for output. It follows that at the aggregate level, developed financial systems are associated with a stronger response of domestic investment to an increase in per capita GDP. This analysis draws from the accelerator theory, which predicts a positive relationship between investment and changes in output.2

This study has examined two related but different questions about the links between financial intermediation and domestic investment. The first question is whether higher financial development induces higher domestic investment. The second is whether the structure of the financial system (bank-based vs. stock-market based) matters for domestic investment. The empirical results are informative with regard to both questions. The evidence shows that the various indicators of financial development are positively related to domestic investment. This implies that financial development facilitates domestic investment to the extent that it is accompanied by an increase in the supply of funds to investors. This suggests that as a country's financial system becomes more sophisticated, capital becomes more available and cheaper, and it is allocated more efficiently. As a result, investors find it easier to obtain the funds necessary to respond to an increase in the demand for output, which raises the level of investment.