This study finds that the set of policies that favor liberalization in credit markets (regulatory
quality) are negatively correlated with countries' resilience to the recent recession as
measured by output growth in 2008 and 2009. The Global nature of the recession and the
cross-country heterogeneity of its depth provide a unique opportunity to examine the link
between the structural characteristics of economic and social systems before and after the
crisis.

In this study we find that the set of policies that favor liberalization in credit markets
(regulatory quality) are negatively correlated with countries? resilience to the recent
recession as measured by output growth in 2008 and 2009.