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Finance and Economic Development in the Very Long Run: A Review Essay

Yongseok Shin

Washington University in St. Louis, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, and NBER

Journal of Economic Literature 2018

I review William N. Goetzmann’s Money Changes Everything: How Finance Made Civilization Possible. This magnificent book offers insightful coverage of more than 5,000 years of human history under the theme of “how finance made civilization possible.” I reinterpret its main hypotheses in the context of recent economic research on finance and development, and also compare them with other economic historians’ views. I suggest that further examinations of the historical facts in the book could guide us in rethinking financial regulation. ( JEL E42, E44, G00, N20)

DOI
10.1257/jel.20171407
Volume
56 (4)
Pages
1577-1586
Language
en
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