Beck, Thorsten

Person:
Beck, Thorsten

Tilburg University, CEPR

Fields of Specialization

Financial Economics

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Tilburg University

Departments

Tilburg University
CEPR

Last updated: December 19, 2023

Biography

Thorsten Beck is Professor of Economics and Chairman of the European Banking Center. Before joining Tilburg University and the Center, he worked at the Development Research Group of the World Bank. His research and policy work has focused on two main questions: What is the effect of financial sector development on economic growth and poverty alleviation? What are the determinants of a sound and effective financial sector? Recently, his research has focused on access to financial services by small and medium-sized enterprises and households, as well as bank resolution, especially for cross-border banks. He is co-author of several policy reports, including "Making Finance Work for Africa" and "Finance for All? Policies and Pitfalls in Expanding Access." His country experience in both research and policy work includes Bangladesh, Bolivia, Brazil, China, Colombia, Mexico, Peru, Russia and several sub-Saharan African countries.

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Now showing 1 - 10 of 79

Banking in Africa: Opportunities and Challenges in Volatile Times
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2023-12-19) Beck, Thorsten; Mare, Davide Salvatore; Valenzuela, Patricio; Mare, Davide S.
This paper surveys existing literature and data to take stock of the current state of banking systems across Sub-Saharan Africa. It documents different dimensions of the development of the banking systems in the region and compares Africa’s banking systems to those of comparable low- and lower-middle-income countries outside the region. The paper also discusses the progress in policies and institutions underpinning financial deepening and the results of specific innovations to reach traditionally unbanked segments of the population, such as innovative branch expansion programs, mobile banking, and new financial products. In view of the COVID-19 pandemic, the paper discusses government support for financial systems and banking sector performance during crises. Overall, the survey shows a picture of achievements and challenges, with progress along some fronts but other challenges persisting even as new ones arise, including the turning of the global financial cycle in 2022/23 and increasing geopolitical tensions.
Microfinance: A Critical Literature Survey
(Washington, DC: Independent Evaluation Group, 2015-11-22) Beck, Thorsten
This paper offers a critical survey of the microfinance literature of the past 10 years. It reviews studies on the effectiveness of different microfinance techniques and offers a critical assessment of the impact literature of microfinance. The literature so far suggests moderate but not transformative effects of microcredit, with effects being conditional on individuals’ characteristics. The effects of micro-savings interventions seem more promising, while micro-insurance interventions suffer mostly from limited take-up. The biggest impact seems to come from expanding payment services. The paper discusses these findings in the broader context of the financial development literature and touches on methodological issues and regulatory challenges.
Making Cross-Border Banking Work for Africa
(Eschborn, Germany: Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH, 2014) Fuchs, Michael; Beck, Thorsten; Singer, Dorothe; Witte, Makaio
Cross-border banking has been a critical part of Africa's financial history since colonial times. While the period after independence saw a wave of nationalization across the continent, with many of the colonial banks exiting, this trend was reversed in the 1980s with the arrival of financial liberalization. Failing state-owned and private banks were sold mostly to global investors or multinational banks. Increasing international and regional economic integration, including of financial services, and deregulation further increased the number of foreign banks and by the mid-2000s many African banking systems were yet again dominated by foreign banks. This introductory chapter documents trends in cross-border banking in Africa and the increasing shift in the composition of foreign banks in Africa. The next section provides a short overview of financial systems in Africa to set the stage. Section two characterizes the population of cross-border banks operating in Africa today, their expansion across the continent, and their importance in the host countries. Section three explores the reasons for the expansion of cross-border banking on the continent. Section four assesses the different business models banks use to expand across the continent as well as the characteristics of their group structures. Section five concludes.
SME Finance in Africa
(World Bank Group, Washington, DC, 2014-09) Cull, Robert; Beck, Thorsten
This paper uses cross-country firm-level surveys to gauge access to financial services and the importance of financing constraints for African enterprises. The paper compares access to finance in Africa and other developing regions of the world, within Africa across countries, and across different groups of firms. It relates firms' access to finance to firm and banking system characteristics and discusses policy challenges.
Housing Finance Across Countries : New Data and Analysis
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2014-01) Badev, Anton; Beck, Thorsten; Vado, Ligia; Walley, Simon
This paper presents new data on the depth and penetration of mortgage markets across countries. There is a large variation across both dimensions of mortgage market development, across countries, but also -- in terms of depth -- within countries. Mortgage markets seem to develop only at relatively high levels of gross domestic product per capita. Policies associated with financial system development are also associated with mortgage market development, including price stability and the efficiency of contractual and information frameworks. The development of the insurance sector and the stock market, sources of long-term funding, is strongly associated with mortgage market development, while government subsidies and support are not. A benchmarking exercise compares the actual values of mortgage market development to values predicted by structural country factors and shows a large variation across countries and over time in the gap between predicted and actual values, related to specific policies but also mortgage boom and bust cycles.
Financing Africa : Through the Crisis and Beyond
(World Bank, 2011-09-07) Faye, Issa; Beck, Thorsten; Triki, Thouraya; Maimbo, Samuel Munzele
Financing Africa: through the crisis and beyond is a call to arms for a new approach to Africa's financial sector development. First, policy makers should focus on increasing competition within and outside the banking sector to foster innovation. This implies a more open regulatory mindset, possibly reversing the usual timeline of legislation-regulation-innovation for new players and products. It also implies expanding traditional infrastructure, such as credit registries and payment systems beyond banks. Second, the focus should be on services rather than existing institutions and markets. Expanding provision of payment, savings and other financial services to the unbanked might mean looking beyond existing institutions, products, and delivery channels, such as banks, traditional checking accounts, and brick-and-mortar branches. All financial sector policy is local. To reap the benefits of globalization, regional integration, and technology, policy makers have to recognize the politics of financial deepening and build constituencies for financial sector reform. While the challenges of expanding access, lengthening contracts, and safeguarding the financial system are similar, the ways of addressing them will depend on the circumstances and context of each country. With its cautiously optimistic tone, this book creates an opportunity for Africa's policy makers, private sector, civil society, and development partners to harness the progress of the past as a way to address the challenges of the future and enable the financial sector to play its rightful role in Africa's transformation.
Financial Sector Development in Africa : Opportunities and Challenges
(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2013) Beck, Thorsten; Maimbo, Samuel Munzele; Beck, Thorsten; Maimbo, Samuel Munzele
Africa's financial systems face challenges across many dimensions, as discussed in the report financing Africa: through the crisis and beyond. The analysis in that report was based partly on several detailed background papers that are included in this volume. The next six chapters are written by experts in their respective areas and provide an in-depth analysis of these challenges and present possible solutions. In this introduction, the authors provide an overview of the different chapters and how they are related to each other and the main volume. The three chapters in first part focus on key challenges concerned with access to financial services, including financial and operational deficiencies in the microfinance market, reaping the benefits from the technological revolution of retail banking, and deepening and broadening agricultural finance across Africa. The three chapters thus each cover different aspects with a different focus, ranging from an institutional approach to a focus on innovation as a driver of financial broadening to an important element of financial infrastructure to a specific sector. The second part includes the fourth chapter, it involves documents the sizable need for additional housing in many African countries, based on these countries' continuous population growth and an ongoing urbanization trend. The third part includes fifth chapter, which discuss the repercussions of regulatory reforms in Europe and North America for African regulators as well as local challenges. The fourth part includes the sixth chapter, which is the final chapter of this volume. It discusses the politics of financial sector reform in Africa and, more specifically, the space needed for an activist role for government to help create the markets and coordination mechanisms necessary for financial markets to deepen and broaden.
Financial Institutions and Markets across Countries and over Time : Data and Analysis
(2009-05-01) Levine, Ross; Beck, Thorsten; Demirgüç-Kunt, Asli
This paper introduces the updated and expanded version of the Financial Development and Structure Database and presents recent trends in structure and development of financial institutions and markets across countries. The authors add indicators on banking structure and financial globalization. They find a deepening of both financial markets and institutions, a trend concentrated in high-income countries and more pronounced for markets than for banks. Similarly, the recent increase in cross-border lending and debt issues has been concentrated in high-income countries, while low and lower-middle income countries have experienced an increase in remittance flows. Low net interest margins, rising profitability and declining stability in high-income countries banking sectors characterize the recent financial sector boom in high income countries leading up to the global financial crisis of 2007.
Islamic vs. Conventional Banking : Business Model, Efficiency and Stability
(2010-10-01) Merrouche, Ouarda; Beck, Thorsten; Demirgüç-Kunt, Asli
This paper discusses Islamic banking products and interprets them in the context of financial intermediation theory. Anecdotal evidence shows that many of the conventional products can be redrafted as Sharia-compliant products, so that the differences are smaller than expected. Comparing conventional and Islamic banks and controlling for other bank and country characteristics, the authors find few significant differences in business orientation, efficiency, asset quality, or stability. While Islamic banks seem more cost-effective than conventional banks in a broad cross-country sample, this finding reverses in a sample of countries with both Islamic and conventional banks. However, conventional banks that operate in countries with a higher market share of Islamic banks are more cost-effective but less stable. There is also consistent evidence of higher capitalization of Islamic banks and this capital cushion plus higher liquidity reserves explains the relatively better performance of Islamic banks during the recent crisis.
Is Small Beautiful? Financial Structure, Size and Access to Finance
(Elsevier, 2013-06-15) Beck, Thorsten; Demirgüç-Kunt, Asli; Singer, Dorothe
Combining two unique data sets, this paper explores the relationship between financial structure and firms’ access to financial services. Specifically, it considers the importance of three different types of financial institutions: low-end financial institutions, specialized lenders, and banks. Two findings stand out. First, dominance of the financial system by banks is associated with lower use of financial services by firms of all sizes, while low-end financial institutions and specialized lenders seem particularly suited to ease access to finance in low-income countries. Second, there is no evidence that smaller institutions are better in providing access to finance.