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...

In this paper we focus on two issues. First, we examine whether firms in a thirty country sample finance long-term and short-term investment similarly. Second, we investigate whether perceived differences in the efficiency of the legal systems and in financial institutions across countries are...

This paper uses survey data from 120 developing countries to compare the role of institutions with firm characteristics at the time of creation of the firm in explaining the size, growth, and productivity of firms over their lifecycle. The study finds that firm-level characteristics have...

Is it the institutions or firm characteristics at birth that shape startups and their early growth in developing countries? Using comprehensive data from the Indian Annual Survey of Industries this paper addresses this question by studying the early lifecycle of firms across diverse...

The differences in financial development across Indian states, while seeming substantial, have a minor effect on firm lifecycle and growth. These results hold controlling for differences in labor regulations across states, capital intensity, and for firms born before and after the major reforms....