Finance and Development: The Unfinished Agenda

OVERVIEW
AGENDA
SPEAKERS

An efficient, stable, and inclusive financial sector is essential to development. But many questions remain about how to build financial systems that can deliver sustained poverty reduction and shared prosperity.

This conference will present the latest research on a number of fundamental questions: How can finance support a vibrant private sector? What is the role of government in supporting SME finance? How can finance expand opportunities for the bottom 40 percent? And how can regulation achieve its objective of a stable financial sector while still supporting rapid progress toward development goals?

Last Updated: Sep 27, 2016

9:00 – 9:10	Welcoming Remarks Mahmoud Mohieldin, Senior Vice President, World Bank
9:10 – 10:10	Panel Session Finance and Development: What We Know and Need to Learn What do we know and what do we need to learn about the relationship between finance, (inclusive) growth, and poverty reduction as well as the trade-off between development and stability. Chair: Mahmoud Mohieldin, Senior Vice President, World Bank Speakers: Asli Demirguc-Kunt, Research Director, World Bank Randall Morck, University of Alberta Bill Maloney, Chief Economist, Equitable Growth, Finance and Institutions, World Bank
10: 10– 10:30	Coffee
10:30–11:30	Promoting SME Finance: When and How? Does fostering SME finance matter for economic growth? What works and what does not work in fostering SME finance? The role of government in promoting SME finance. Chair: Simon Bell, SME Global Lead, Finance & Markets, World Bank Speakers: Allen Berger, University of South Carolina (Presentation) Mauricio Larrain, Columbia Business School (Presentation) Discussants: Scott Frame, Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta Sergio Schmukler, World Bank (Presentation)
11:30 – 12:30	Finance and Entrepreneurship Is it institutions and policies that matter for entrepreneurship or the intrinsic characteristics of entrepreneurs? What is the role of finance? Chair: Robert Cull, Research Manager, World Bank Speakers: Vojislav Maksimovic, University of Maryland Meghana Ayyagari, George Washington University Ross Levine, Haas School of Business, University of California Berkeley Discussants: Miriam Bruhn, World Bank (Presentation) Itay Goldstein, Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania (Presentation)
12:30 – 2:00	Lunch

2:00- 3:30

Financial Inclusion

The role of finance in expanding opportunities

Chair: Gloria Grandolini, Senior Director, Finance & Markets, World Bank

Speakers:

Leora Klapper, World Bank (Presentation)

Jonathan Morduch, New York University

Alex Popov, European Central Bank (Presentation)

Discussant:

Maria Soledad Martinez Peria, Division Chief, IMF (Presentation)

Xavier Gine, Word Bank (Presentation)

Romain Ranciere, Paris School of Economics (Presentation)

3:30 – 4:00

Coffee

4:00 – 5:30

Closing Panel Session

The Future of Financial Regulations and Globalization

Is Basel III achieving what it set out to do? Do we need even higher capital standards? What is the role of macro-prudential regulation? Shadow financial institutions and the regulatory perimeter. The role of Fintech and Challenges for Regulators. Retrenchment and its Implications. Policy lessons for developing countries

Chair: Joaquim Levy, Managing Director and CFO, World Bank

Speakers:

Patrick Honohan, Trinity College and Peterson Institute

Ceyla Pazarbasioglu, World Bank

Thorsten Beck, Cass Business School

Stijn Claessens, Federal Reserve Board

CONFERENCE ORGANIZERS
Thorsten Beck
Thorsten Beck is professor of banking and finance at Cass Business School in London. He is also a research fellow of the Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR) and the CESifo. He was professor of economics from 2008 to 2014 at Tilburg University and the founding chair of the European Banking Center from 2008 to 2013. Previously he worked in the research department of the World Bank and has also worked as consultant for – among others - the European Central Bank, the BIS, the IMF, the European Commission, and the German Development Corporation. His research, academic publications and operational work have focused on two major questions: What is the relationship between finance and economic development? What policies are needed to build a sound and effective financial system? Recently, he has concentrated on access to financial services, including SME finance, as well as on the design of regulatory and bank resolution frameworks.
Asli Demirgüç-Kunt, Director of Research
Asli Demirgüç-Kunt is the Director of Research in the World Bank. After joining the Bank in 1989 as a Young Economist, she has held different positions, including Director of Development Policy, Chief Economist of Financial and Private Sector Development Network, and Senior Research Manager, doing research and advising on financial sector and private sector development issues.
Ross Levine, Professor, University of California, Berkeley
Ross Levine is an American economist who currently holds the Willis H. Booth Chair in Banking and Finance at the University of California at Berkeley. He is also a Senior Fellow at the Milken Institute, a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and an advisor to the World Economic Forum. As of May 2016, he is the 10th most cited economist in the world.
CHAIRS AND PANELISTS
Mahmoud Mohieldin, Sr. VP, World Bank
Mahmoud Mohieldin is the World Bank Group Senior Vice President for the 2030 Development Agenda, United Nations Relations, and Partnerships. Before joining the World Bank, Mohieldin held numerous senior positions in the government of Egypt, including minister of investment from 2004 until 2010. He also served on several boards of directors, including the Central Bank of Egypt and the banking and corporate sector. He was a member of the Commission on Growth and Development and selected a Young Global Leader of the World Economic Forum.
Randall Morck, University of Alberta
Randall Morck holds the Stephen A. Jarislowsky Distinguished Chair in Finance and is a Distinguished University Professorship at the University of Alberta’s Alberta School of Business. Professor Morck holds a B.Sc. summa cum laude in applied mathematics and economics from Yale and a Ph.D. in economics from Harvard. He returns periodically to teach at both almae matres – most recently as William Lyon Mackenzie King Visiting Professor at Harvard in 2005 and as Schoen Visiting Professor of Finance at Yale in 2009. Prof. Morck is also a Research Associate with the National Bureau of Economic Research. Google Scholar records almost 26,000 citations to Prof. Morck’s over 100 research articles (Google Scholar H index = 53), and the Social Sciences Research Network ranks him the 56th most highly cited business author in the world. His articles appear in leading research journals including the American Economic Review, Journal of Finance, Review of Financial Studies, and Journal of Financial Economics, in which two of his articles won “citations all-star award”.
Bill Maloney, Chief Economist, Equitable Growth, Finance and Institutions, World Bank
William F. Maloney is Chief Economist for Equitable Growth, Finance and Institutions in the World Bank Group. Previously he was Chief Economist for Trade and Competitiveness and Global Lead on Innovation and Productivity. Prior to the Bank, he was a Professor of Economics at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign (1990-1997) and then joined, working as Lead Economist in the Office of the Chief Economist for Latin America until 2009. From 2009 to 2014, he was Lead Economist in the Development Economics Research Group. From 2011 to 2014 he was Visiting Professor at the University of the Andes and worked closely with the Colombian government on innovation and firm upgrading issues.
Simon Bell, SME Global Lead, F&M GP
Since January 2015, Simon Bell has taken over the role of Global Lead for SME Finance in the Finance and Markets Global Practice where he is coordinating the financing support provided through F&M with colleagues dealing with SME issues in the Trade and Competitiveness Global Practice, the Financial Institutions Group of the IFC, the Advisory Services units of the IFC and the World Bank, and the SME Finance Forum. Simon also leads the SME Finance Community of Practice which includes over 50 staff from F&M – as well as other associated staff from the IFC and other Global Practices, the IFC and World Bank Treasuries, and MIGA.
Allen Berger, University of South Carolina
Allen N. Berger is the H. Montague Osteen, Jr., Professor in Banking and Finance and Ph.D. coordinator of the Finance Department, Moore School of Business, and Carolina Distinguished Professor, University of South Carolina; Senior Fellow, and Wharton Financial Institutions Center; Fellow, European Banking Center. He also currently serves on the editorial boards of six professional finance journals. In addition, Professor Berger is past editor of the Journal of Money, Credit, and Banking from 1994-2001 and has co-edited six special issues of various professional journals and both editions of the Oxford Handbook of Banking.
Mauricio Larrain, Columbia Business School
Mauricio Larrain is Roger F. Murray Associate Professor of Finance at Columbia Business School. Larrain’s research focuses on corporate finance, financial intermediation, and international finance. His research has been published in the leading finance journals, including the Journal of Finance, Journal of Financial Economics, and Review of Financial Studies. His work has received several awards, including the Rising Scholar Award from the Review of Financial Studies. Professor Larrain is an associate editor of the Journal of Financial Intermediation. He received a PhD in Economics from the University of California at Berkeley and holds a BA and MA in Economics from the Catholic University of Chile.
Robert Cull, Research Manager, World Bank
Robert Cull is a Lead Economist in the Finance and Private Sector Development Team of the World Bank's Development Research Group. His most recent research is on the performance of microfinance institutions, African financial development, Chinese financial development and firm performance, the effects of the global financial crisis on developing economies, and the design and use of household surveys to measure access to financial services. He has published more than thirty articles in peer-reviewed academic journals including the Economic Journal, Journal of Development Economics, Journal of Economic Perspectives, Journal of Financial Economics, Journal of Law and Economics, and the Journal of Money, Credit, and Banking. The author or editor of multiple books, his most recent co-edited book, “Banking the World: Empirical Foundations of Financial Inclusion” was published by MIT Press January, 2013. He is also co-editor of the Interest Bearing Notes, a bi-monthly newsletter reporting on financial and private sector research.
Vojislav Maksimovic, University of Maryland
"Max" Maksimovic is the William A. Longbrake Chair in Finance & Chair of the Department of Finance. His recent research focuses on how a firm's organizational structure affects the flow of resources across its divisions. He has also worked on how competition in high technology industries determines the timing of initial public offerings. Maksimovic is interested in international finance, specifically in how a country's legal and institutional environment influences the financing and investment by firms. Maksimovic's research has been published in the Journal of Finance, Review of Financial Studies, Rand Journal of Economics, Journal of Financial Economics, and Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis. He is an associate editor of Journal of Financial Intermediations and a past member of the board of directors of the Western Finance Association.
Meghana Ayyagari, George Washington University
Meghana Ayyagari received her Ph.D. in Finance from the University of Maryland, College Park in 2004. She teaches courses in international financial management and international business. Professor Ayyagari's research focuses on international corporate governance structures and property rights protection across countries. Her research interests also include the theory of the firm with an emphasis on the constraints faced by firms in developing economies. Professor Ayyagari's academic research has been published in the Review of Financial Studies andSmall Business Economics.
Gloria Grandolini, Sr. Director, F&M Practice
Gloria M. Grandolini is Senior Director, Finance and Markets Global Practice of the World Bank Group, since July 1, 2014. She is responsible for delivering tailored development solutions integrating World Bank Group financial, knowledge/advisory, and convening services to our clients. The FMGP delivers comprehensive World Bank Group solutions, including World Bank loans/credits, guarantees, and risk-management products and WB and IFC knowledge, advisory, and convening services to public sector clients.
Leora Klapper, World Bank
Leora Klapper is a Lead Economist in the Finance and Private Sector Research Team of the Development Research Group at the World Bank. Since joining the Bank as a Young Economist in 1998, she has published on entrepreneurship, banking, access to finance, corporate governance, bankruptcy, and risk management. Her current research focuses on consumer finance, digital payments, and measuring financial inclusion (Global Findex). Prior to coming to the Bank she worked at the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, the Bank of Israel, and Salomon Smith Barney. She holds a Ph.D. in Financial Economics from New York University Stern School of Business.
Jonathan Morduch, New York University
Jonathan Morduch is Professor of Public Policy and Economics at the NYU Wagner Graduate School of Public Service, and Managing Director of the Financial Access Initiative (www.financialaccess.org), a consortium of researchers focused on financial inclusion. His research centers on microfinance, social investment, and the economics of poverty. He is currently developing a theoretical framework with Jonathan Conning for understanding how governments and philanthropists can use market forces to create social change.
Alex Popov, European Central Bank
Alexander Popov is a senior economist in the Financial Research Division of the European Central Bank. His research focus is on international finance, on the finance-and-growth nexus, on the link between financial intermediation and entrepreneurship, and on empirical banking. Alexander’s research has been published in leading journals in both economics and finance, such as American Economic Review Papers & Proceedings, Journal of International Economics, Journal of Development Economics, Journal of Financial Economics, Review of Financial Studies, Journal of Financial Intermediation, and Journal of Money, Credit, and Banking. A native of Bulgaria, Alexander holds a PhD in economics from the University of Chicago, a Master’s degree in Public Policy from the University of Chicago, and a Master’s degree in Slavic studies from the University of Sofia.
Joaquim Levy, Managing Director and CFO, World Bank
As Managing Director and World Bank Group Chief Financial Officer, Joaquim Levy is responsible for the financial and risk management strategies of the World Bank Group and for the institutions that make up the Group. This includes development of new, innovative financial products and services, oversight of the financial reporting, risk management, and mobilization of financial resources in alignment with the Group’s strategy.
Patrick Honohan, Trinity College and Peterson Institute
Patrick Honohan joined the Peterson Institute for International Economics in March 2016 as a nonresident senior fellow. Honohan was governor of the Central Bank of Ireland and a member of the governing council of the European Central Bank from September 2009 to November 2015.
Ceyla Pazarbasioglu, World Bank
From 1992 and 1998, Pazarbasioglu was an Economist at the International Monetary Fund (IMF), providing technical assistance to the Czech Republic, Poland, Turkey, Ghana, Korea, Thailand, Russia, and some of the component states of the CIS. After leaving the IMF, she was Chief Economist at ABN AMRO UK until 2001. From July 2001 to June 2003, Pazarbasioglu was Vice President of the Banking Regulatory and Supervisory Agency of Turkey.
Stijn Claessens, Federal Reserve Board
Stijn Claessens’s policy and research interests include firm finance and corporate governance; risk management; globalization; and business and financial cycles. His research has been published in many journals and he has edited several books. Over his career, he has provided policy advice to many countries.
DISCUSSANTS
Scott Frame, Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta
W. Scott Frame is a financial economist and senior adviser on the financial markets team in the research department of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta. His major fields of study are financial institutions, credit markets, real estate, and public policy. Dr. Frame has been with the Bank since 2001, although he spent two years as the Belk Distinguished Professor of Finance at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte (2012–14). Before joining the Bank, Dr. Frame was a senior financial economist at the U.S Treasury Department from 1996 to 2000. He also worked at the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta as an economic analyst from 1993 to 1995 and as an instructor at the University of Georgia. Dr. Frame was promoted to financial economist and policy adviser in 2007 and assumed his current duties in 2012.
Sergio Schmukler, World Bank
Sergio’s research area is international finance and international financial markets and institutions. In particular, he works on emerging market finance, financial globalization, financial crisesand contagion, financial development, and institutional investor behavior. Sergio obtained my Ph.D. in Economics from the University of California at Berkeley in 1997, when he joined the World Bank's Young Economist and Young Professionals Programs.
Miriam Bruhn, World Bank
Miriam Bruhn is a Senior Economist in the Finance and Private Sector Development Team of the Development Research Group. She joined the Bank as a Young Economist in September 2007. Her research interests include the effect of regulatory reform on entrepreneurial activity, the informal sector, micro and small enterprises, financial literacy, and the relationship between institutions and economic development. She holds a Ph.D. in Economics from MIT and a B.A. in Economics from Yale University.
Itay Goldstein, Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania
Itay is a Professor of Finance at the Wharton School. He is also the coordinator of the PhD program in Finance. He has been on Wharton’s faculty since 2004. He is an expert in the areas of corporate finance, financial institutions, and financial markets, focusing on financial fragility and crises and on the feedback effects between firms and financial markets. His research has been published in major academic journals, including the Review of Economic Studies, the Journal of Finance, the Journal of Financial Economics, the Review of Financial Studies, and the Journal of Economic Theory. Itay’s research has also been featured in the popular press in the Financial Times, Bloomberg, Forbes, National Public Radio, and others. He is an editor of the Review of Financial Studies and has been an editor of the Finance Department at the Management Science as well as an editor of the Journal of Financial Intermediation.
Maria Soledad Martinez Peria, Division Chief, IMF
Maria Soledad Martinez Peria is on external leave until February 2018. Her published work has focused on currency and banking crises, depositor market discipline, foreign bank participation in developing countries, bank financing to SMEs, the impact of remittances on financial development and the spread of the recent financial crisis. Prior to joining The World Bank, Sole worked at the Brookings Institution, the Central Bank of Argentina, the Federal Reserve Board, and the International Monetary Fund. She holds a Ph.D. in economics from the University of California, Berkeley and a B.A. from Stanford University.
Romain Ranciere, Paris School of Economics
Romain Ranciere is Professor at the Paris School of Economics (PSE), a Research Affiliate of the CEPR (London), and the Scientific Director of the Banque de France Chaire at PSE. His research focus is international finance and economic growth. He has written extensively on financial fragility and financial crises and their long run growth consequences. His articles appear in the Quarterly Journal of Economics, the Journal of Monetary Economics and the Journal of Development Economics.
Xavier Gine, Word Bank
Xavier Gine is a Lead Economist in the Finance and Private Sector Development Team of the Development Research Group. He is currently a BREAD affiliate and Associate Editor for the Journal of Development Economics. Since joining the World Bank as a Young Economist in 2002, his research has focused on access to financial services and rural financial markets. In recent papers he investigated the macroeconomic effects of a credit liberalization; the relationship between formal and informal sources of credit in rural credit markets; indigenous interlinked credit contracts in the fishing industry and the impact of microfinance services such as business training and financial literacy, microinsurance and microsavings.