Does Banking Structure Matter? Quantifying the Development and Impact of Universal Banking in the German Industrialization

961799 FOHLIN本项目的目的是为19世纪和20世纪初德国全能银行的作用提供新的证据，更广泛地说，阐明金融中介机构在现代背景下促进经济增长和发展的能力。长期以来，经济学家和历史学家一直认为，金融机构在工业发展中扮演着至关重要的角色，而凯撒瑞克时期(1871-1914)的德国全能银行经常被挑出来作为主要的例子。这些银行将短期商业贷款与长期投资银行业务结合在一起，被认为与它们资助的工业企业建立了长期关系。通过整合职能并与实业家发展密切联系，德国的银行被认为提高了投资的效率和力度，进而加快了工业化进程。这项研究背后的假设是，许多被认为是德国银行业范式不可或缺的特征，在工业增长主要爆发之后很久就出现了，而德国式的企业融资体系既不足以实现工业化，也不是工业化所必需的。通过对德国案例的详细研究，并通过在每个阶段进行国际和跨期比较，这项研究有望对与现代和历史相关的问题产生广泛的见解。

961799 Fohlin The purpose of this project is to provide new evidence on the role of universal banks in Germany during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and, more generally, to shed light on the ability of financial intermediaries to promote economic growth and development in the modern context. Economists and historians have long suggested that financial institutions play a vital role in industrial development, and the German universal banks of the Kaiserreich (1871-1914) are often singled out as the prime example. These banks joined short-term commercial lending with long-term investment banking and are thought to have fostered long-term relationships with the industrial firms they financed. By combining functions and developing close ties with industrialists, German banks are thought to have improved the efficiency and strength of investment and, in turn, to have accelerated industrialization. The hypothesis underlying this study is that many of the characteristics considered integral to the German banking paradigm emerged well after the main spurt of industrial growth and that the corporate finance system taking the German form was neither sufficient nor even necessary for industrialization. By examining the German case in detail, and by drawing international and intertemporal comparisons at each stage, this study promises to yield a wide range of insights into questions of both modern and historical relevance.