Bulgaria has operated a currency board since 1997. It is expected to join the EU in 2007 and the EMU thereafter. This paper uses survey data to analyze public attitudes toward adoption of the euro in advance of EMU membership. Bulgarians are equally split in support for and opposition to...

The relationship between financial development and economic growth has received a lot of attention in the economic literature in recent years. This literature has generally found that financial development has a strong positive effect on growth. In this paper, we propose that the relationship...

This paper studies the effects of financial development on the sources of growth in different groups of countries. Recent theoretical work shows that financial development may affect productivity and capital accumulation in different ways in industrial versus developing countries. This...

While the theoretical and empirical finance literature has focused almost exclusively on enterprise credit, about half of credit extended by banks to the private sector in a sample of 45 developing and developed countries is to households. The share of household credit in total credit increases...

This paper studies the effects of financial development on the sources of growth in different groups of countries. Recent theoretical work shows that financial development may affect productivity and capital accumulation in different ways in industrial versus developing countries. This...

While theory predicts different effects of household credit and enterprise credit on the economy, the empirical literature has mainly used aggregate measures of overall bank lending to the private sector. We construct a new dataset from 45 developed and developing countries, decomposing bank...

This paper studies the effects of stock markets and banks on the sources of economic growth, productivity and capital accumulation, using a large cross country panel that includes high- and low-income countries. Results show that, in low-income countries, banks have a sizable positive effect on...

Theory predicts that a fixed exchange rate regime will be abandoned after a sizable economic shock as currency devaluation could stimulate exports and output. However, devaluation is risky as the new level of the exchange rate and the rate of inflation cannot be predicted. We show that this...

We use unique survey data from Bulgaria to investigate the effect of recent bailouts on the perceived benefits of joining the European Monetary Union (EMU). The data show that the EMU is perceived as an insurance mechanism where member states can receive financial assistance in times of crisis....

We study the effect of credit information sharing on the likelihood of banking crises using a comprehensive cross-country dataset for the period from 1975 to 2006. The empirical analysis shows that credit information sharing reduces the likelihood of banking crises and it does more so in low...