Richard Deeg, Financial Capitalism Unveiled: Banks and the German Political Economy [Book Review]

Financial system design – a topic of enduring concern to economists and policymakers – has attracted particular attention from scholars in the last ten or so years. Partly motivated by questions surrounding the redevelopment of transition economies, political scientists and economists have been trying to determine how the structure of the financial system influences industrial growth and development. Richard Deeg's book contributes to this literature by examining the German financial and political-economic systems over the past several decades. The book is divided into two parts: the first skims the history of the banking industry and investigates more recent trends in corporate finance and governance in the country as a whole; the second presents case studies on three geographical regions and their varying approaches to industrial development, finance, and political intervention.