Abstract
This paper studies the role of efficiency improvement in capital market on growth for Taiwan from 1961 to 2002. My empirical findings show the long-term declining trend for interest rate spreads between the deposit and loan rates (a bank efficiency indicator). In addition, there are significant distortions in investment decisions of agents operating in otherwise competitive capital markets (by a diagnostic tool developed in recent business cycle literature). Such distortions impact growth of Taiwan during this period. Based upon these two results, I conclude that capital market distortions, which attribute to financial development, may be one of the contributors to growth