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Working Paper
Banking relationships in Germany: empirical results and policy implications
Expanding the range of activities by banks and other financial intermediaries has attracted much attention in the 1990s. Proponents of universal banking point to the benefits of German system of finance. Germany is the prototypical economy where universal banks, which offer a wide-range of financial services, allegedly exert substantial influence over firms and generate beneficial effects for the economy-wide allocation of credit. Arguments for replacing the specialized banking system currently in place in the United States with a universal banking system rely on a favorable evaluation of the ...