Throughout much of the twentieth century, economists paid little heed to the role of financial intermediaries in procuring a beneficial allocation of capital. But by the end of the century some financial historians had begun to turn the tide, and the phrase 'finance-growth nexus' became part of the lexicon of modern economics. Recent experience has added another dimension in that countries with broader, deeper and more active financial systems might be prone to financial crises, particularly if regulatory structures are inadequate. In this book, Peter L. Rousseau and Paul Wachtel have gathered together some of today's most distinguished financial historians to examine this finance-growth nexus from historical and modern perspectives. Some essays examine the nexus in a particular historical or cross-country context. Others, in the light of recent experience, explore the expanded nexus of finance, growth, crises, and regulation.
Introduction Peter L. Rousseau and Paul Wachtel
1. Growing up to stability? Financial globalization, financial development, and financial crises Michael D. Bordo and Christopher M. Meissner
2. Episodes of financial deepening: credit booms or growth generators? Peter L. Rousseau and Paul Wachtel
3. Financing US economic growth, 1790-1860: corporations, markets, and the real economy Robert E. Wright
4. Banks and democracy John Joseph Wallis
5. Finance, economic growth, and globalization in the era of the Cold War Niall Ferguson
6. Anatomy of a regime change: underwriters' reputation, New Deal financial acts and the collapse of international capital markets, 1920-35 Marc Flandreau
7. Protecting financial stability in the aftermath of World War I: the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta's dissenting policy Eugene N. White
8. Rediscovering macro-prudential regulation: the national banking era from the perspective of 2015 Charles W. Calomiris and Mark Carlson.
