时间：2015/11/02，9：00-11：00

地点：经济学院一楼院史馆

主讲人：Michael Graff

主讲题目：Are Institutions Shaping the Finance-Growth-Nexus?

主讲人介绍：Michael Graff is a professor of ETH Zürich. His research is directed to various fields of Economics with emphasis on macroeconomic topics related to economic performance and growth. He is also engaged in comparative analyses of educational, financial political and socioeconomic systems and their effects on economic performance.

内容简介：Before the global financial crisis (GFC), many economists adhered to a consensus that financial activity was a solid strategy to promote growth. The policy implications were that financial development should be promoted and restrictions on financial activity be lifted. The GFC challenged this view, as those countries that had the most vibrant financial markets tended to be most affected by the general downturn. The finance-growth nexus now appears less benign − at times rather hindering than fostering overall economic performance. It is thus in order to re-assess the earlier pro-finance findings. To this end, we consider the possible links between financial activity and economic performance as depending on the institutional environment. Based on a large panel of countries with observations on proxies for financial sector activity, real performance and a wide range of institutions, extending from 1960 to 2014, this study paper investigates in how far the institutional context in which a financial system operates, determines the nature of the finance-growth nexus. So far, the literature has considered the inherited legal tradition, the colonial past, the overall sophistication of the financial sector’s clients as well as the rule of law as conditional variables, but from a rather narrow perspective. This study extends the perspective to two largely neglected institutional features; (1) the predominant type of dwelling (renting or home-owning), which to some degree explains the financial depth (indebtedness) of an economy, and (2) the country’s attitude towards finance as a means of tax evasion and money laundering (banking secrecy, anonymity of investors, status of international financial center), which too contributes to explaining the range of activity and size of a country’s financial system. The results so far confirm that this approach has the potential to deepen our understanding of these issues.