This paper argues that contractual savings (assets of pension funds and life insurance companies) contribute to the improvemnet of banks' efficiency, credit, and liquidity risk. The authors use bank level panel data across countries to assess the impact of contractual savings on bank efficiency...

Countries with small financial systems are generally small economies with a reduced dimension of institutional relationships, a greater concentration of wealth, and a relatively less independent civil service. These characteristics facilitate concentration of functions and, more generally, weak...

The authors assess empirically the impact of contractual savings institutions portfolios (pension funds and life insurance companies) on securities markets, for example, depth and liquidity in the domestic stock market, and depth in the domestic bond market. They discuss how the...

The authors study the relationship between the development of contractual savings (assets of pension funds, and life insurance companies) and non-life insurance, and, the development of stock markets (market capitalization and value traded). Their contribution lies in providing time-series...

The authors analyze the relationship between the development and asset allocation of contractual savings and firms' capital structures. The authors develop a simple model of firms' leverage and debt maturity decisions. They illustrate the mechanisms through which contractual savings development...