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

961799 Fohlin该项目的目的是为19世纪和20世纪初德国全能银行的作用提供新的证据，更一般地说，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发挥着至关重要的作用，而德意志帝国（1871-1914）的德国全能银行经常被挑出来作为主要例子。这些银行将短期商业贷款与长期投资银行业务结合起来，并被认为与它们资助的工业企业建立了长期关系。人们认为，德国银行通过整合职能和发展与实业家的密切联系，提高了投资的效率和力度，进而加快了工业化进程。本研究的基础假设是，许多被认为是德国银行模式不可或缺的特征在工业增长的主要井喷之后出现，而采用德国形式的公司金融体系对于工业化既不充分，甚至也不是必要的。通过详细研究德国的案例，并在每个阶段进行国际和跨时期的比较，本研究有望对现代和历史相关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.