Beck, Demirguc-Kunt, and Maksimovic investigate how a country's financial institutions and the quality of its legal system explain the size attained by its largest industrial firms in a sample of 44 countries. Firm size is positively related to the size of the banking system and the efficiency...

Theory makes ambiguous predictions about the effects of bank concentration on access to external finance. Using a unique data base for 74 countries of financing obstacles and financing patterns for firms of small, medium, and large size, Beck, Demirguc-Kunt, and Maksimovic assess the effects of...

Using a firm-level survey database covering 48 countries, Beck, Demirguuml;ccedil;-Kunt, and Maksimovic investigate whether differences in financial and legal development affect the way firms finance their investments. The results indicate that external financing of investments is not a function...

Using a unique firm-level survey data base covering 54 countries, Beck, Demirguc-Kunt, and Maksimovic investigate whether different financial, legal, and corruption issues that firms report as constraints actually affect their growth rates. The results show that the extent to which these factors...