Financial development and local growth: evidence from highly disaggregated Italian data

We test the nexus between local financial development and economic growth upon Italian data highly disaggregated at the territorial level, paying particular attention to the role of local banking market structure. We specify a growth model where a qualitative measure of financial development, bank profit efficiency, is considered in conjunction with a customary quantitative measure of financial development. The model is estimated on panel data over the period 2001 to 2010. The evidence suggests that both indicators of financial development have a significant impact on GDP per worker, especially when considering areas characterized by a larger number of cooperative banks. Results are not much affected by the occurrence of the ongoing recession.