Levine-Loayza-Beck Data Set: Financial Intermediation and Growth

Variable	Definition
Level and growth rate of real per capita GDP
Government size	Government expenditure as share of GDP
Openness to trade	Sum of real exports and imports as share of real GDP
Terms of Trade	Ratio of export price index to import price index
Growth rate of terms of trade	Log difference of the terms of trade, divided by five
Population growth rate	Log difference of the total population, divided by five
Inflation rate	Log difference of Consumer Price Index
Average years of schooling	Average years of schooling in the population over 25
Average years of secondary schooling	Average years of secondary schooling in the population over 15
Black market premium	Ratio of black market exchange rate and official exchange rate minus one
Liquid Liabilities	{(0.5)*[F(t)/P_e(t) + F(t-1)/P_e(t-1)]}/[GDP(t)/P_a(t)], where F is liquid liabilities (line 55l), GDP is line 99b, P_e is end-of period CPI (line 64) and P_a is the average annual CPI.
Commercial-Central Bank	DBA(t) / (DBA(t) + CBA(t)), where DBA is assets of deposit money banks (lines 22a-d) and CBA is central bank assets (lines 12 a-d).
Private Credit	{(0.5)*[F(t)/P_e(t) + F(t-1)/P_e(t-1)]}/[GDP(t)/P_a(t)], where F is credit by deposit money banks and other financial institutions to the private sector (lines 22d + 42d), GDP is line 99b, P_e is end-of period CPI (line 64) and P_a is the average CPI for the year.
Bank Assets	{(0.5)*[F(t)/P_e(t) + F(t-1)/P_e(t-1)]}/[GDP(t)/P_a(t)], where F is domestic assets of deposit money banks (lines 22a-d), GDP is line 99b, P_e is end-of period CPI (line 64) and P_a is the average CPI for the year.
Bank Credit	{(0.5)*[F(t)/P_e(t) + F(t-1)/P_e(t-1)]}/[GDP(t)/P_a(t)], where F is credit by deposit money banks to the private sector (lines 22d ), GDP is line 99b, P_e is end-of period CPI (line 64) and P_a is the average CPI for the year.
Legal origin	Dummy variables for British, French, German and Scandinavian legal origin
Accounting	Index created by examining and rating companies’ 1990 annual reports on their inclusion or omission of 90 items in balance sheets and income statements. The maximum is 90, the minimum 0.
Rulelaw	Measure of the law and order tradition of a country. It is an average over 1982-1995. It ranges from 10, strong law and order tradition, to 1, weak law and order tradition.
Conrisk	Measure of the risk that a government will modify a contract after it has been signed. It ranges from 10, low risk, to 1, high risk and is averaged over 1982-1995.
Enforce	Average of Rulelaw and Conrisk
Autostay, Manages, Secured1	AUTOSTAY equals one if a country’s laws impose an automatic stay on the assets of firms upon filing a reorganization petition, and zero otherwise. MANAGES equals one if firm managers continue to administer the firm’s affairs pending the resolution of reorganization processes, and zero otherwise. SECURED1 equals one if secured creditors are ranked first in the distribution of the proceeds that result from the disposition of the assets of a bankrupt firm, and zero otherwise.
Revolutions and Coups	A revolution is defined as any illegal or forced change in the top governmental elite, any attempt at such a change, or any successful or unsuccessful armed rebellion whose aim is independence from central government. Coup d’Etat is defined as an extraconstitutional or forced change in the top government elite and/or its effective control of the nation’s power structure in a given year. Unsuccessful coups are not counted. Data are averaged over 1960-90
Assassinations	Number of assassinations per thousand inhabitants. Data are averaged over 1960-90
Ethnic fractionalization	Average value of five indices of ethnolinguistic fractionalization, with values ranging from 0 to 1, where higher values denote higher levels of fractionalization.
Bureaucratic efficiency	Average of three indices published by Business International Corporation (1984): efficiency of the judiciary system, red tape and corruption. The data are averages over the period 1980-83.
Corruption	Measure of corruption, with the scale readjusted to 0 (high level of corruption) to 10 (low level). Data are averaged over 1982-1995.
Index of state-owned enterprises	Measures the role of SOEs in the economy, ranging from 0 to 10, with data averaged over 1975-95. Higher scores denote countries with less government owned enterprises, which are estimated to produce less of the country’s output.
Property rights	Rating of property rights on a scale from 1 to 5. The more protection private property receives, the higher the score.
Cost of business regulation	Rating of regulation policies related to opening and keeping open a business. The scale is from 0 to 5, with higher scores meaning that regulations are straightforward and applied uniformly to all businesses and that regulations are less of a burden to business.
Risk of expropriation	Assessment of risk of “outright confiscation” or “forced nationalization”. It ranges from 0 to 10, with lower scores indicating a higher risk and data are averaged over 1982-1995.
Religious Composition	Percentage of the population that were (1) Roman Catholic, (2) Protestant, and (3) Muslim in 1980.
Distance from equator	The distance of the country from the equator, scaled between 0 and 1.
Capital growth rate	Growth rate of physical capital per capita
Productivity growth 1	Real per capita growth rate - 0.3*Capital growth rate
Productivity growth 2	Real per capita growth rate - 0.3Capital growth rate - 0.5 Groth rate in average years of schooling
Productivity growth 3	[Real per capita growth rate - 0.3Capital growth rate - 0.7change in(average years of schooling*return on schooling)]/0.7
Level and growth rate of real per capita GPDI
Private Savings Rate	Ratio of gross private savings and GPDI. Gross private saving is measured as the difference between gross national saving (gross national product minus consumption expenditure, both measured at current prices) and gross public saving. GPDI is measured likewise as the difference between gross national disposable income (GNDI) and gross public disposable income (sum of public saving and consumption).
Government Saving/GPDI	Ratio of gross public saving and gross private disposable income
Real interest rate	ln[(1+i)/(1+p)], where i is the nominal interest rate and p the inflation rate. The inflation rate is the average of the current and year-ahead inflation
Old dependency ratio	Share of population over 65 in total population
Young dependency ratio	Share of population under 15 in total population
Urbanization ratio	Share of urban population in total population

Data6095	Data used for cross-sectional regressions 1960-95
Data8095	Data used for cross-sectional regressions 1980-95
Panel	Data used for Panel regressions 1960-95
Saving regressions 7095	Data used for cross-sectional savings regressions 1970-95
Savings panel	Data used for savings panel regressions 1970-95
Variables	Description of variable names