Financial Harmonization and Industrial Growth: Evidence from Europe

This paper analyzes the growth effects of the Financial Services Action Plan (FSAP) of the European Commission, a set of measures and directives that aim to harmonize European financial markets. Using a panel of 25 countries and 30 industries, we find that the standard specification predicts harmonization to lower growth, though the negative effect is mitigated for industries that depend more on external finance. We then show that this seemingly surprising result is due to omitted variable bias. We would expect early adopters to bear more of the costs and experience less of the benefits of harmonization. Once we control for the relative timing of adoption, harmonization is shown to have a positive effect on growth. This finding is robust to including further controls, splitting up the sample into different groups of countries, and extending the model to a dynamic setting

Financial Openness and Financial Development: An Analysis Using Indices

This paper examines the link between financial openness and financial development through panel data analysis on advanced and emerging market countries. Using indices, financial openness together with institutional and educational variables explains a large part of the variation in financial development across countries and over time. Our analysis demonstrates that different indexing strategies serve in finding better measures for financial openness and financial development in comparison to the individual indicators used in the literature. Our principal component type financial openness index conveys a positive effect on financial development independent from the lag structure or specifications used

Financial Harmonization and Industrial Growth: Evidence from Europe

This paper analyzes the growth effects of the Financial Services Action Plan (FSAP) of the European Commission, a set of measures and directives that aim to harmonize European financial markets. Using a panel of 25 countries and 30 industries, we find that the standard specification predicts harmonization to lower growth, though the negative effect is mitigated for industries that depend more on external finance. We then show that this seemingly surprising result is due to omitted variable bias. We would expect early adopters to bear more of the costs and experience less of the benefits of harmonization. Once we control for the relative timing of adoption, harmonization is shown to have a positive effect on growth. This finding is robust to including further controls, splitting up the sample into different groups of countries, and extending the model to a dynamic setting

Financial Harmonization and Financial Development: An Application of Europe’s Financial Services Action Plan

The Financial Services Action Plan (FSAP) of the European Commission intends to create an open, secure, integrated financial market across EU member countries. Although recent research has shown a positive impact of the FSAP directives on cross-border lending and industrial growth, the effect on financial development remains to be examined. Using principal component analysis to construct financial, banking sector, bond and stock market development indices, we investigate the impact of financial harmonization policies of the FSAP on financial development in a panel of twenty five EU member states for the period of 1996 – 2007. Taking into account the timing perspective in implementing the FSAP directives across countries we find a positive link between financial harmonization and financial development. The results are shown to be robust to different approaches in constructing the harmonization index and the harmonization difference (relative timing of adoption) variable, and adding further controls and years to account for the recent period

Financial Openness and Financial Development: An Analysis Using Indices

This paper examines the link between financial openness and financial development through panel data analysis on advanced and emerging market countries. Using indices, financial openness together with institutional and educational variables explains a large part of the variation in financial development across countries and over time. Our analysis demonstrates that different indexing strategies serve in finding better measures for financial openness and financial development in comparison to the individual indicators used in the literature. Our principal component type financial openness index conveys a positive effect on financial development independent from the lag structure or specifications used

Financial Harmonization and Financial Development: An Application of Europe’s Financial Services Action Plan

The Financial Services Action Plan (FSAP) of the European Commission intends to create an open, secure, integrated financial market across EU member countries. Although recent research has shown a positive impact of the FSAP directives on cross-border lending and industrial growth, the effect on financial development remains to be examined. Using principal component analysis to construct financial, banking sector, bond and stock market development indices, we investigate the impact of financial harmonization policies of the FSAP on financial development in a panel of twenty five EU member states for the period of 1996 – 2007. Taking into account the timing perspective in implementing the FSAP directives across countries we find a positive link between financial harmonization and financial development. The results are shown to be robust to different approaches in constructing the harmonization index and the harmonization difference (relative timing of adoption) variable, and adding further controls and years to account for the recent period

Financial Harmonization and Financial Development: An Application of Europe’s Financial Services Action Plan

The Financial Services Action Plan (FSAP) of the European Commission intends to create an open, secure, integrated financial market across EU countries. Using principal component analysis to construct financial development indices, we investigate the impact of financial harmonization policies of the FSAP on financial development in a panel of 25 EU countries for 1996–2007. Taking into account the timing perspective in implementing the FSAP directives across countries we find a positive link between financial harmonization and financial development. The results are robust to different approaches in constructing the harmonization index and the addition of further controls. JEL Classification: F36, F63, G2; K4, O11, O1

The Analysis of Poisoning Cases Presented to the Emergency Department within a One-Year Period

SUMMARY: Objectives: Intoxication is the emergence of unwanted signs and symptoms in an organism after exposure to potentially harmful chemical, physical or organic materials. In our study, we evaluated demographic and etiological factors of adult patients admitted to the emergency department with suicidal or accidental poisoning. Methods: This study was conducted retrospectively by using data from the forensics books, protocol notebooks and patient files. Patients over the age of 14 years that were admitted to the Goztepe Training and Research Hospital during a 1-year period (September 2011-September 2012) with poisoning were included in the study. Results: A total of 430 patients were included in the study and 278 of those patients were females (64.7%). The male/female (F/M) ratio was 1.82/1 and the mean age of the patients was 27.4±11.75 years. The analyses showed that in 348 patients (80.93%) the cause of poisoning was medicine, in 39 patients (9.06%) alcohol and drugs, in 37 patients (8.6%) rat poison, in 4 patients (0.93%) a caustic substance and organophosphates in 2 patients (0.46%). The highest rate of admittance due to poisoning was seen in July, followed by August and September. When the frequency of admittance was evaluated in terms of seasons: summer had the highest frequency with 35.6%, then autumn with 29.1%, spring with 19.8% and winter with 15.6%. Conclusions: The results of our studies are similar to previously reported studies in Turkey. Poisoning cases are more common in women and the most common way of poisoning is by medication. Unlike previous reports from the literature, we found that poisoning was most frequent in the summer. ÖZET: Amaç: Zehirlenme potansiyel olarak zarar verebilen herhangi bir kimyasal, fiziksel veya organik maddeye maruziyet sonrası organizmada bazı istenmeyen belirti ve bulguların ortaya çıkmasıdır. Biz bu çalışmamızda intihar amaçlı veya kazara zehirlenme nedeniyle acil servisimize başvuran erişkin hastaların demografik ve etiyolojik faktörlerini araştırdık. Gereç ve Yöntem: Çalışma geriye dönük bir çalışma olup veriler adli defter, protokol defteri ve hasta dosyalarından elde edilmiştir. Bir yıllık süre içerisinde (Eylül 2011-Eylül 2012) Göztepe Eğitim ve Araştırma Hastanesi'ne zehirlenme ile başvuran 14 yaş üstü hastalar çalışmaya dahil edildi. Bulgular: Çalışmaya toplam 430 hasta dahil edildi. Olguların 278'i kadın (%64.7), 152'si erkekti (%35.3). Kadın/erkek (K/E) oranı 1.82/1, yaş ortalaması 27.4±11.75 idi. Zehirlenme nedeni incelendiğinde; 348'inin (%80.93) ilaç, 39'unun (%9.06) alkol ve ilaç, 37'sinin (%8.6) fare zehiri, dördünün (%0.93) kostik madde, ikisinin (%0.46) organofosfat olduğu görüldü. En yüksek başvurunun sırasıyla temmuz, ağustos, eylül aylarında olduğu görüldü. Mevsimlere göre başvuru sıklığına bakıldığında %35.6 yaz, %29.1 sonbahar, %19.8 ilkbahar ve %15.6 kışın başvuru olduğu tespit edildi. Sonuç: Çalışmamızın sonuçları literatürde Türkiye'de daha önce yapılan çalışmalarla benzerlik göstermektedir. Zehirlenme olguları kadınlarda daha sık olup en sık ilaç alımı yolu ile olmaktadır. Literatürden farklı olarak en sık yaz mevsiminde zehirlenme tespit edildi. Key words: Emergency services, poisoning, suicide, Anahtar sözcükler: Acil servis, zehirlenme, intiha