IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/etrans/v3y1995i2p169-195.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Finance, economic development and the transition: the East German case

Author

Listed:
  • Wendy Carlin
  • Peter Richthofen

Abstract

The role of banks in the transition concerns three issues: the bad loans problem, the role of banks in providing a solution to the problems of corporate governance of privatized enterprises and the access of new enterprises to finance for investment. This paper shows how the combination of early privatization of the banking system plus financial restructuring of enterprises by the Treuhand prevented the development of a 'bad loans' problem in East Germany. The merits of banks as large stakeholders in privatized enterprises has been frequently debated in Eastern Europe. Although the role of banks as owners of non-financial companies in West Germany is frequently exaggerated, there was a widespread public expectation that they would play a considerable role in the restructuring of East German enterprises. We show that their role in acquiring stakes in privatized firms in East Germany has been negligible and suggest reasons for this outcome. East Germany is characterized by a very high level of investment and the second part of the paper investigates how the financial system can affect the relationship between investment and growth. It has been argued that the inefficiencies of both development and commercial banking in the Italian Mezzogiorno have contributed to the failure there of high levels of investment to translate into growth. The efficiency characteristics of development and commercial banking in Southern Italy are contrasted with those in East Germany. Considerable attention is given to the extent of competition in commercial banking and to the delegation by the development banks of screening and monitoring activities to the commercial banks, which characterizes the German system. It is argued that the German banking system which has been transferred to East Germany does not suffer from the inefficiencies found in Italy. Evidence is provided for the convergence of the structure of banking in East and West Germany. Nevertheless, in spite of the extensive acces
(This abstract was borrowed from another version of this item.)

Suggested Citation

  • Wendy Carlin & Peter Richthofen, 1995. "Finance, economic development and the transition: the East German case," The Economics of Transition, The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, vol. 3(2), pages 169-195, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:etrans:v:3:y:1995:i:2:p:169-195
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1468-0351.1995.tb00134.x
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-0351.1995.tb00134.x
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/j.1468-0351.1995.tb00134.x?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Faini, Riccardo & Giannini, Curzio & Ingrosso, Fulvio, 1992. "Finance and Development: The Case of Southern Italy," CEPR Discussion Papers 674, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    2. Corbett, Jenny & Mayer, Colin, 1991. "Financial Reform in Eastern Europe: Progress with the Wrong Model," Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Oxford University Press and Oxford Review of Economic Policy Limited, vol. 7(4), pages 57-75, Winter.
    3. Dennig, Ulrike, 1991. "Die Finanzstruktur in den neuen Bundesländern," Wirtschaftsdienst – Zeitschrift für Wirtschaftspolitik (1949 - 2007), ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 71(3), pages 125-131.
    4. Carlin, Wendy & Mayer, Colin, 1992. "Restructuring Enterprises in Eastern Europe," CEPR Discussion Papers 700, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    5. Alexander, Ian & Mayer, Colin, 1990. "Banks and Securities Markets: Corporate Financing in Germany and the UK," CEPR Discussion Papers 433, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    6. John R. Griffin, 1994. "Investment and Ownership in a Volatile Economy: Big Banks and the Case of the East German Economic Transition," Politics & Society, , vol. 22(3), pages 389-420, September.
    7. Philippe Aghion & Olivier Jean Blanchard & Wendy Carlin, 1997. "The Economics of Enterprise Restructuring in Central and Eastern Europe," International Economic Association Series, in: John E. Roemer (ed.), Property Relations, Incentives and Welfare, chapter 11, pages 271-325, Palgrave Macmillan.
    8. Giovannini,Alberto (ed.), 1993. "Finance and Development," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521440172, October.
    9. Burda, Michael C & Funke, Michael, 1993. "Eastern Germany: Can't We Be More Optimistic?," CEPR Discussion Papers 863, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    10. King, Robert G. & Levine, Ross, 1993. "Finance, entrepreneurship and growth: Theory and evidence," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 32(3), pages 513-542, December.
    11. Stiglitz, Joseph E & Weiss, Andrew, 1981. "Credit Rationing in Markets with Imperfect Information," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 71(3), pages 393-410, June.
    12. Cohen, Daniel, 1992. "Growth, productivity, and access to the world financial markets," Journal of the Japanese and International Economies, Elsevier, vol. 6(4), pages 365-382, December.
    13. Wagner, Helmut, 1993. "Reconstruction of the financial system in East Germany: Description and comparison with Eastern Europe," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 17(5), pages 1001-1019, September.
    14. Edwards,Jeremy & Fischer,Klaus, 1996. "Banks, Finance and Investment in Germany," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521566087, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Schmidt, Klaus-Dieter, 1996. "German unification: A progress report," Kiel Working Papers 722, Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel).
    2. De Haas, Ralph & Naaborg, Ilko, 2006. "Foreign banks in transition countries. To whom do they lend and how are they financed?," MPRA Paper 6320, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    3. Hancké, Bob & Coulter, Steve, 2013. "The German manufacturing sector unpacked: institutions, policies and future trajectories," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 56090, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    4. Ralph de Haas & Ilko Naaborg, 2005. "Does Foreign Bank Entry Reduce Small Firms' Access to Credit? Evidence from European Transition Economies," DNB Working Papers 050, Netherlands Central Bank, Research Department.
    5. Quack, Sigrid & Hildebrandt, Swen, 1995. "Das Geheimnis der Banken: Zum Einfluß von Organisationsstrukturen und Personalpolitiken deutscher und französischer Kreditinstitute im mittelständischen Unternehmensgeschäft," Discussion Papers, Research Unit: Organization and Employment FS I 95-103, WZB Berlin Social Science Center.
    6. Hyman, Richard, 1996. "Institutional transfer: industrial relations in Eastern Germany," Discussion Papers, Research Unit: Economic Change and Employment FS I 96-305, WZB Berlin Social Science Center.
    7. De Haas, Ralph & Ferreira, Daniel & Taci, Anita, 2007. "What determines banks’ customer choice? Evidence from transition countries," MPRA Paper 6319, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    8. De Haas, Ralph & Ferreira, Daniel & Taci, Anita, 2010. "What determines the composition of banks' loan portfolios? Evidence from transition countries," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 34(2), pages 388-398, February.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Vitols, Sigurt, 1995. "Corporate governance versus economic governance: banks and industrial restructuring in the US and Germany," Discussion Papers, Research Unit: Economic Change and Employment FS I 95-310, WZB Berlin Social Science Center.
    2. Vitols, Sigurt, 1995. "Financial systems and industrial policy in Germany and Great Britain: the limits of convergence," Discussion Papers, Research Unit: Economic Change and Employment FS I 95-311, WZB Berlin Social Science Center.
    3. Christian Weller, 2000. "Financial Liberalization, Multinational Banks and Credit Supply: The case of Poland," International Review of Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 14(2), pages 193-211.
    4. Buch, Claudia M., 1995. "The emerging financial systems of the Eastern European economics: A progress report," Kiel Working Papers 716, Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel).
    5. Buch, Claudia M., 1993. "An institutional approach to banking reform in Eastern Europe," Kiel Working Papers 560, Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel).
    6. Dimelis, Sophia & Giotopoulos, Ioannis & Louri, Helen, 2015. "Can firms grow without credit?: evidence from the Euro Area, 2005-2011: a quantile panel analysis," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 61157, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    7. Rosen Azad Chowdhury & Dilshad Jahan & Tapas Mishra & Mamata Parhi, 2023. "A Quality Dimension? A Re-appraisal of Financial Development and Economic Growth Nexus in a Quality-Quantity Setting," Working Papers 2023-02, Swansea University, School of Management.
    8. A. Ganesh-Kumar & Kunal Sen & Rajendra R. Vaidya, 2002. "Does the source of financing matter? Financial markets, financial intermediaries and investment in India," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 14(2), pages 211-228.
    9. William M. Gentry & R. Glenn Hubbard, 2000. "Entrepreneurship and Household Saving," NBER Working Papers 7894, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    10. Saliu Mojeed Olanrewaju, 2021. "Financial System Stability and Manufacturing Performance in Nigeria," International Journal of Finance & Banking Studies, Center for the Strategic Studies in Business and Finance, vol. 10(1), pages 109-118, January.
    11. Budina, Nina & Garretsen, Harry & Jong, Eelke de, 1999. "Liquidity constraints and investment in transition economies : the case of Bulgaria," Research Report 00E05, University of Groningen, Research Institute SOM (Systems, Organisations and Management).
    12. repec:dgr:rugsom:14031-eef is not listed on IDEAS
    13. Donou-Adonsou, Ficawoyi & Sylwester, Kevin, 2017. "Growth effect of banks and microfinance: Evidence from developing countries," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 64(C), pages 44-56.
    14. Rousseau, Peter L., 1998. "The permanent effects of innovation on financial depth:: Theory and US historical evidence from unobservable components models," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 42(2), pages 387-425, July.
    15. Laeven, Luc & Levine, Ross & Michalopoulos, Stelios, 2015. "Financial innovation and endogenous growth," Journal of Financial Intermediation, Elsevier, vol. 24(1), pages 1-24.
    16. Huang, Hongyun & Mbanyele, William & Wang, Fengrong & Song, Malin & Wang, Yuzhang, 2022. "Climbing the quality ladder of green innovation: Does green finance matter?," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 184(C).
    17. Steffen Andersen & Kasper Meisner Nielsen, 2012. "Ability or Finances as Constraints on Entrepreneurship? Evidence from Survival Rates in a Natural Experiment," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 25(12), pages 3684-3710.
    18. Pranvera Dalloshi, 2018. "The Nexus between Bank Sources and Firms Capital Expenditures in SEE Countries," Acta Universitatis Danubius. OEconomica, Danubius University of Galati, issue 14(5), pages 255-267, OCTOBER.
    19. Juan Fernandez de Guevara & Joaquin Maudos, 2009. "Regional Financial Development and Bank Competition: Effects on Firms' Growth," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 43(2), pages 211-228.
    20. Yan Li & Md. Main Uddin & Ye An, 2020. "Has financial development benefited the performance of publicly traded cultural and creative firms? Evidence from China," Journal of Cultural Economics, Springer;The Association for Cultural Economics International, vol. 44(3), pages 351-395, September.
    21. Giorgio Fagiolo & Daniele Giachini & Andrea Roventini, 2020. "Innovation, finance, and economic growth: an agent-based approach," Journal of Economic Interaction and Coordination, Springer;Society for Economic Science with Heterogeneous Interacting Agents, vol. 15(3), pages 703-736, July.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:etrans:v:3:y:1995:i:2:p:169-195. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/ebrdduk.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.