Financial Structure, Creditworthiness and Stock Market Development: A Cross-Country Analysis

This paper examines the empirical relationship between financial structure, creditworthiness and stock market development in a cross-section of countries. This paper fills a necessary gap by testing the extent to which stock market development might affect creditworthiness on the one hand.  On the other hand, creditworthiness and legal institutions are tested as plausible explanatory factors of stock market development. The stock market contributes to economic growth in various ways. An efficient stock market may play a key role in economic growth.