Economics and political economy lack the analytical tools to explain the differing impact of the recent international financial crisis that erupted in 2007 on developed economies. The principal contribution of this edited volume is to offer a "market-based banking" framework which transcends the dominant dichotomous understanding of financial systems in terms of credit-based and capital-based. It demonstrates why this dichotomy is obsolete through an appreciation of the activities of banks. Further, it employs "market-based banking" to overcome the inability of existing typologies to explain financial system change.

"Market-based banking" provides a framework that is more reflective of banking in modern financial systems, and one that provides a more successful explanation of the differential impact of the recent financial crisis. The comparative and single-country chapters in this volume compare the extent of "market-based banking" across eleven countries, including all of the G7 economies. The chapters also consider the impact of the financial crisis in terms of necessary government support and lending to non-financial companies. The edited volume includes work by authors who are widely respected experts in national political economies, finance, financial regulation, banking, central banking, and monetary policy. This volume is one of the first book-length comparative studies of the financial crisis and its impact and one of the few recent comparative studies of national banking / financial systems in any discipline.

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David Howarth is Professor of Politics at the University of Essex, UK.

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