In our microeconomic data, we address the endogeneity of financial
development relying on an instrument proposed by Guiso et al.
(2004) which is correlated with financial development, but is not
affected by the degree of underground economy. The instrument is
based on the characteristics of the 1936 Banking Law, which over
time has constrained the growth of the Italian banking system and
is an exogenous determinant of the trajectories of local financial
development. Following a period of frequent banking crises, in 1936
Italian legislators attempted to stabilize the financial system by strictly
limiting in each region the number of banks and bank branches. In
achieving this aim, the law has worked very well, as witnessed by the
fact that the number of new branches in Italy after 1936 has expanded
very little.