A rapidly growing empirical literature is studying the causes and consequences of bank fragility in present-day economies. The paper reviews the two basic methodologies adopted in cross-country empirical studies-the signals approach and the multivariate probability model-and their application to...

This paper discusses the different functions that capital markets and banks have in economic development, and it reviews the debate about marketbased vs. bank-based financial systems. Using data for a sample of 40 countries over the period 1975-98, the paper then shows that variation in both...

We study the effects of product market risk on entrepreneurial activities in China, using a favorable change in U.S. trade policy as a plausibly exogenous shock. We do not find an increase in entry rates for domestic firms in exposed industry. However, for upstream suppliers, entry rates...