Legal Institutions and Financial Development

A burgeoning literature finds that financial development exerts a first-order impact on long-run economic growth, which raises critical questions, such as why do some countries have welldeveloped growth-enhancing financial systems, while others do not? The law and finance theory focuses on the role of legal institutions in explaining international differences in financial development. First, the law and finance theory holds that in countries where legal systems enforce private property rights, support private contractual arrangements, and protect the legal rights of investors, savers are more willing to finance firms and financial markets flourish. Second, the different legal traditions that emerged in Europe over previous centuries and were spread internationally through conquest, colonization, and imitation help explain cross-country differences in investor protection, the contracting environment, and financial development today. However, there are countervailing theories and evidence that challenge both parts of the law and finance theory. This paper describes the law and finance theory along with skeptical and competing views and reviews empirical evidence on both parts of the law and finance view.