The Program Committee was formed by Thorsten Beck, Antonio Ciccone, Xavier Freixas, Philipp Hartmann, Luc Laeven, Ross Levine, and Paola Sapienza. The conference was sponsored by the Centre de Recerca en Economia Internacional (CREI), the Journal of Financial Intermediation, and the Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR) and held at the facilities of CREI-UPF. The conference brought together the latest international research on the impact of financial development on growth. Topics included: econometric methodology: new approaches to the finance-growth nexus; volatility, financial development and economic growth; financial development and the distribution of income; and financial markets, competitive advantage, and the pattern of international specialization.