Law, Politics, and Financial Development: The Great Reversal of the UK Corporate Debt Market

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Queens University Belfast
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC HISTORY
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0022-0507
• DOI: 10.1017/S0022050713000624
• 发表日期: 2013
• 页码: 810-846
• 关键词: legal origins; united-kingdom; OWNERSHIP; PROTECTION; governance; INVESTMENT; EVOLUTION; inflation; countries; LESSONS

摘要

This article examines the role of creditor protection in the development of the U.K. corporate bond market. This market grew rapidly in the late nineteenth century, but in the twentieth century it experienced a reversal, albeit with a short-lived post-1945 renaissance. Such was the extent of the reversal that the market from the 1970s onwards was smaller than it had been in 1870. We find that law does not explain the variation in the size of this market over time. Alternatively, our evidence suggests that inflation and taxation policies were major drivers of this market in the post-1945 era.