Search

Why do developed countries have such different financial systems? Some nations, such as Germany, France and Japan rely extensively upon bank lending for mobilizing new capital, while others, such as the US and UK, rely heavily on capital markets?why? At the beginning of the 20th century, however, Japan and France relied far more heavily on their capital markets?why did they change? Answering these questions has implications for understanding globalization’s varying effects on national economies, corporate governance, the nature of technological innovation, and for illustrating linkages among law, politics, and macroeconomics. Existing arguments focusing on legal systems and electoral systems fail to adequately answer this puzzle. I argue that the structure of a country’s financial system depends on the political power of farmers and labor relative to that of large firms, where farmers and labor prefer banks, while big firms prefer capital markets. I test the argument with data for 14 OECD countries from 1976 -1990. I also present evidence spanning the twentieth century for France and Japan. Check author’s web site for an updated version of the paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Attitudes to government responsibilities are compared in Sweden, eastern and western Germany, and the US, 1990-2006, using data from the International Social Survey Program. A substantial convergence in attitudes is found for the period 1996-2006, since Americans become more positive in their attitudes towards state intervention, while opposite trends are found for Sweden and eastern Germany. While attitudinal differences between countries diminish, class differences are fairly stable, as are the differences between men and women and between different labour market status categories. It is speculated that the 'great risk shift' from employers to employees may be part of the explanation for changing attitudes towards redistributive public policies in the US. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]