Role of Financial Intermediaries

Chapter 2
(in S. B. Dahiya and V. Orati (eds.) Economic Theory in the Light of Schumpeter 's Scientific Heritage, Spellbound Publishers, Rohtak, India, 2001)

THE ROLE OF FINANCIAL INTERMEDIATION IN ECONOMIC GROWTH: SCHUMPETER REVISITED
TAPEN SINHA Chair Professor, Instituto Tecnologico Autonomo de Mexico (ITAM), Mexico and Professor, University of Nottingham, UK Email: [e-mail] ABSTRACT Nineteenth Century Classical Economists ignored financial intermediation as an important element in explaining economic growth until Bagehot. Bagehot, for the first time, gives explicit examples of how money market developments in England could make capital flow across the country in search of the highest rate of return. However, analysis of Bagehot was incomplete. It was Schumpeter, who put the role of financial intermediation at the center stage of economic development. Curiously, renewed interest in economic growth in the post Second World War saw a development in the literature that completely ignored the role of financial intermediation. For example, Solow-Swan model of development and growth has no role of financial intermediation. For all practical purposes, the economies were seen to be well approximated by a one good (corn producing corn) model. It took the international financial crisis of Latin America in the early 1980s to force economists to take the role of financial intermediaries seriously. I examine why financial intermediation is important in the tradition of Schumpeter. There are important contributions by banks and other financial intermediaries on the economy. This process can be seen when we examine how the economy is affected when there are banking crises. Latin America provides an extremely fertile test-bed. There are important ways financial intermediaries can contribute to growth by examining the models of new growth theory in the tradition of Arrow-Romer. Elements of these models can be found in the writings of Schumpeter. Current debate about

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