Financial Structure, Financial Development and Banking Fragility:... 147 Antonio Ruiz-Porras* Financial Structure, Financial Development and Banking Fragility: International Evidence

In this work the effects of financial structure and financial development on banking fragi-lity are examined. The study is developed using fixed-effects panel-data regressions and by controlling the effects of certain banking indicators. We use individual and principal-components indicators of the activity, size and efficiency of intermediaries and markets are also used. The indicators include data for 211 countries between 1990 and 2003. The main results suggest that banking stability is enhanced in market-based financial systems, whilst financial development reduces it. However, this fragility-enhancing effect can be discovered only when the financial structure is taken into account. Therfore, financial structure and development jointly matter to assess banking fragility