This thesis examines some of the assumed channels linking financial opening and economic growth. The analysis surveys the approaches to measurement used in the literature and presents a comparative analysis of "de jure" indicators of financial openness. The thesis empirically examines the correlation between degrees of financial openness with that of financial integration and financial deepening. On the aggregate level, the regression results support the assertions made in theory positively linking greater financial openness with greater financial integration and financial deepening, however the findings are not robust when broken down into sub-groupings. The results place into question the assumptions and assertions that greater financial openness, the removal of "repressive" policies, is necessarily correlated with greater financial integration and financial deepening and my provide one explanation for the lack of evidence linking such reforms to higher levels of economic growth