GOVERNANCE and TRUST: an Institutional Economics Perspective on Taiwan's Financial Reform
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GOVERNANCE AND TRUST: An institutional economics perspective on Taiwan's financial reform Doris Hsiao-Chi Chuang A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the University of Brighton for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy 2012 The University of Brighton Abstract Evolution of the financial system involves continual institutional changes for reform pur- poses. However, reform experiences differed considerably from one country to another. Why is it that some countries can effectively implement reforms to foster successful devel- opment while others fail to do so? This study takes a first step in answering this question. It aims to explain the variations of financial reform experience in terms of informal institu- tional influence and highlight the importance of governance in shaping the reform outcome. The thesis studies governance characteristics that influence Taiwan’s banking evolution and examines the development of both formal and informal institutions. It argues that de- velopment of Taiwan’s banking sector has been path-dependent and significantly influ- enced by informal institutions, which held back its recent reform progress. The study com- prises three parts: theoretical framework, quantitative statistical research and qualitative country study. It applies the analytical framework set out in the theoretical part and draws on empirical evidences from quantitative research to form the basis for an empirical inves- tigation into the historical financial development and recent reform experience in Taiwan. At the conceptual level, the research adopts the New Institutional Economics (NIE) framework and argues that governance bears a decisive importance for an effective reform because it fosters trust in the institutions and facilitates the reform by encouraging coopera- tive behaviours among actors. It identifies that governance of financial service industry is perceived from institutional qualities of property rights protection, corruption prevention, and political stability. Using the case of Taiwan’s banking sector, the research explores the sector has been shaped and conditioned by the institutional contexts in which it operates. It discovers that that the underdeveloped mechanism for creditors’ rights protection, collu- sion between financial businesses owners and politicians, deadlocked political situation with China contribute to weak governance which amplified its 1990s banking crises. It is observed that government’s behaviours did not transform with the reform to form new hab- its and thoughts under the influence of the institutional persistence, hence only had limited success in inducing policy enforcement. In terms of policy implications, the research en- courages policy makers to study historical development and to build upon existing initia- tives taking into account the path-dependent environment and informal institutional em- beddedness of implemented projects. 2 Content List Abstract ................................................................................................................... 2 Content List ................................................................................................................... 3 List of Tables ................................................................................................................... 7 List of Figures ................................................................................................................... 9 Preface ................................................................................................................. 10 Acknowledgements ................................................................................................................ 11 Declaration ................................................................................................................. 12 List of Abbreviations ............................................................................................................. 13 Introduction ................................................................................................................. 15 1 Overview of Taiwan’s financial system ............................................... 25 1.1 General background of Taiwan ............................................................... 25 1.2 Financial system structure ....................................................................... 27 1.2.1 Supervisory authorities ............................................................................ 27 1.2.2 Financial institutions ............................................................................... 29 1.2.3 Financial markets .................................................................................... 29 1.3 Financial system evolution ...................................................................... 30 1.3.1 Early development stage 1949-1988 ....................................................... 30 1.3.2 Banking privitisation 1989-2000 ............................................................. 31 1.3.2.1 Deregulation of interest rates and foreign exchange rates ...................... 31 1.3.2.2 Liberalisation of capital movement ......................................................... 32 1.3.2.3 Liberalisation of the establishment of financial institutions ................... 33 1.3.2.4 Deregulation of securities market ........................................................... 33 1.3.3 Financial reform post 2001 ..................................................................... 34 1.4 Summary ................................................................................................. 35 2 Literature review ................................................................................... 36 2.1 New Institutional Economics .................................................................. 37 2.1.1 NIE evolution .......................................................................................... 38 2.1.2 Definitions of transaction costs and institutions ..................................... 39 2.1.3 Institutional changes ................................................................................ 40 2.1.4 Informal constraints on institutional changes ........................................ 42 2.2 Financial system from NIE perspectives ................................................. 43 2.2.1 Existence of financial intermediaries ...................................................... 44 2.2.2 Functions of banking intermediaries ....................................................... 45 2.2.3 Asymmetric information problems ......................................................... 47 2.2.4 Trust in financial system ......................................................................... 48 2.3 Institutional quality and financial development ...................................... 50 2.3.1 Formal institutional influence ................................................................. 50 2.3.2 Informal institutional influence ............................................................... 53 2.3.3 Decisive institutional quality: Governance ............................................. 54 2.4 Governance and financial reform ............................................................ 55 2.4.1 Property rights protection ........................................................................ 56 2.4.2 Corruption prevention ............................................................................. 58 3 2.4.3 Political stability ...................................................................................... 59 2.5 Summary ................................................................................................. 60 3 Approach and methodology of the study ............................................ 62 3.1 The structure of the thesis ....................................................................... 62 3.1.1 Theoretical framework ............................................................................ 65 3.1.2 Quantitative research ............................................................................... 66 3.1.3 Qualitative research ................................................................................. 67 3.2 The research method ............................................................................... 67 3.2.1 Data collection ........................................................................................ 67 3.2.2 Analytical approaches ............................................................................. 68 3.3 Justification of research design ............................................................... 70 3.3.1 Data source .............................................................................................. 70 3.3.2 Mixed research strategy .......................................................................... 72 3.3.3 Methodology reviews of similar studies ................................................. 73 4 Quantitative research: Institutional qualities and trust in banks .... 75 4.1 Part 1 - Trust in banks: Institutional influence ........................................ 76 4.1.1 Statistical technique and data collection ................................................. 78 4.1.2 Discriminant variables ............................................................................ 80 4.1.3 Discriminant functions ............................................................................ 84 4.1.4 Graphical interpretation of findings