Financial Structure Database
Financial Development and Structure Dataset (updated September 2019)
Authors: Thorsten Beck, Asli Demirguc-Kunt, Ross Eric Levine, Martin Cihak, and Erik H.B. Feyen
Web Address: Finance Research
Topics: Financial Sector
Report Number: WPS2146, WPS4943, WPS6175
Citation:
Thorsten Beck, Aslı Demirgüç-Kunt and Ross Levine, 2000, "A New Database on Financial Development and Structure," World Bank Economic Review 14, 597–605. (An earlier version was issued as World Bank Policy Research Working Paper 2146.)
Thorsten Beck, Aslı Demirgüç-Kunt, and Ross Levine, "Financial Institutions and Markets across Countries and over Time: Data and Analysis", World Bank Policy Research Working Paper 4943, May 2009.
Martin Čihák, Aslı Demirgüç-Kunt, Erik Feyen, and Ross Levine, “Benchmarking Financial Development around the World”, World Bank Policy Research Working Paper 6175, August 2012.
Disclaimer: These data are provided on an "as-is" basis and their accuracy is not guaranteed by the World Bank. All errors are the authors' own.
This dataset contains annual data starting from 1960. It has been last updated in September 2019 and contains data through 2017 for 31 indicators, capturing various aspects of financial institutions and markets.
The compiled data permits the construction of financial structure indicators to measure whether, for example, a country's banks are larger, more active, and more efficient than its stock markets. These indicators can then be used to investigate the empirical link between the legal, regulatory, and policy environment and indicators of financial structure. They can also be used to analyze the implications of financial structure for economic growth.
Latest Version:
September 2019: The Financial Structure Dataset has been updated with data through 2017.
Earlier Versions:
July 2018 Version | June 2017 Version | September 2015 Version
An additional compressed file contains macroeconomic and institutional data averaged over the period 1980–95 that have been used as dependent or controlling variables by some of the authors in recent papers.
Beck, Demirgüç-Kunt, and Levine (2000) describe the sources and construction of, and the intuition behind, different indicators and present descriptive statistics of the Financial Development and Structure dataset.
Čihák, Demirgüç-Kunt, Feyen, and Levine (2012) discuss the related Global Financial Development Database, which encompasses all the statistics from the Financial Development and Structure dataset, plus several additional series.