财务管理外文文献.doc

财务管理外文文献
Japan and the World Economy
15 (9>2003) 447–458
Financial systems, risk management, and
entrepreneurship: historical perspectives
Richard Sylla*
Department of Economics, Stern School of Business, New York University,
44 W1>. 4th Street, New York, NY 10012, USA
Received 15 January 2003; accepted 15 April 2003
Abstract
Economic historians ??nd that the most essful economies of history tend to be ones that early in
their modern histories developed sophisticated ??nancial systems that subsequently sustained their
development and growth. Financial economists are ??nding the same association of ??nancial devel-
opment and growth across a wider range of countries and levels of economic development in recent
decades. This essay argues that more sophisticated ??nancial systems not only mobilize more capital
and allocate capital more ef??ciently than do less developed systems. By offering more sophisticated
methods of managing and reducing risks than primitive ??nancial systems, modern ??nancial systems,
perhaps paradoxically, also promote higher levels of risk taking and entrepreneurship.
# 2003 Elsevier Science . All rights reserved.
JEL classification: G20; M13; N20; O16
Keywords: Financial systems; Risk management; Entrepreneurship; Economic growth
1. Introduction
Evidence building at a rapid rate indicates that ??nancial development plays a leading
role in economic growth and in accounting for the relative performance of the world’s
national economies. The evidence challenges older interpretations, still held to by some,
that ??nancial development is mostly a passive response to the needs of economies that
began to grow more rapidly for other reasons, such as the exploitation of international
trading opportunities—the globalization of trade—and technological breakthroughs in
production—the industrial revolution. Instead of being a passive response to changes
arising in non-??nancial sectors of economies, ??nancial development now