TY - JOUR
T1 - A new measure of financial development
T2 - Theory leads measurement
AU - Boyd, John H.
AU - Jalal, Abu M.
PY - 2012/11
Y1 - 2012/11
N2 - This study presents a new measure of financial development that is directly derived from theory. Our measure, the Marginal Utilization of Debt (hereafter, MUD) comes from the seminal work of Myers (1984), Myers and Majluf (1984) and Shyam-Sunder and Myers (1999). Further, it is directly related to the development facts of Gurley and Shaw (1955). MUD is a global measure that reflects conditions in both debt and equity markets. It varies enormously across nations; from 0.23 in Australia at one extreme to 0.96 in Turkey at the other. Cross-country variations in MUD are not random; they are related to special-purpose measures of debt and equity market advancement from the financial development literature. Richer, more advanced nations have smaller average MUDs. We argue that the MUD may be useful for a variety of purposes and provide three example applications.
AB - This study presents a new measure of financial development that is directly derived from theory. Our measure, the Marginal Utilization of Debt (hereafter, MUD) comes from the seminal work of Myers (1984), Myers and Majluf (1984) and Shyam-Sunder and Myers (1999). Further, it is directly related to the development facts of Gurley and Shaw (1955). MUD is a global measure that reflects conditions in both debt and equity markets. It varies enormously across nations; from 0.23 in Australia at one extreme to 0.96 in Turkey at the other. Cross-country variations in MUD are not random; they are related to special-purpose measures of debt and equity market advancement from the financial development literature. Richer, more advanced nations have smaller average MUDs. We argue that the MUD may be useful for a variety of purposes and provide three example applications.
KW - Debt
KW - Financial development
KW - Financial markets
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84864386990&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=84864386990&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.jdeveco.2012.04.002
DO - 10.1016/j.jdeveco.2012.04.002
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84864386990
SN - 0304-3878
VL - 99
SP - 341
EP - 357
JO - Journal of Development Economics
JF - Journal of Development Economics
IS - 2
ER -