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Government Ownership of Banks
Author(s) -
La Porta Rafael,
LopezDeSilanes Florencio,
Shleifer Andrei
Publication year - 2002
Publication title -
the journal of finance
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 18.151
H-Index - 299
eISSN - 1540-6261
pISSN - 0022-1082
DOI - 10.1111/1540-6261.00422
Subject(s) - government (linguistics) , per capita , property rights , per capita income , business , productivity , politics , financial system , economics , monetary economics , economic growth , political science , population , philosophy , linguistics , demography , sociology , law , microeconomics
We assemble data on government ownership of banks around the world. The data show that such ownership is large and pervasive, and higher in countries with low levels of per capita income, backward financial systems, interventionist and inefficient governments, and poor protection of property rights. Higher government ownership of banks in 1970 is associated with slower subsequent financial development and lower growth of per capita income and productivity. This evidence supports “political” theories of the effects of government ownership of firms.