We use the spreads of emerging market bonds traded in secondary markets to study investors’ perception of country risk. Speci...cally, we ask whether investors apply the “sovereign ceiling,” which says that no ...rm is more creditworthy than its government. To do this we compare the...

We study the relationship between corruption and borrowing costs for governments and firms in emerging markets. Combining data on bonds traded in the global market with survey data on corruption compiled by Transparency International, we show that countries that are perceived as more corrupt may...

Asymmetric volatility refers to the stylized fact that stock volatility is negatively correlated to stock returns. Traditionally, this phenomenon has been explained by the financial leverage effect. This explanation has recently been challenged in favor of a risk premium based explanation. We...

This paper derives a dynamic version of the international CAPM. The exchange-rate risk factors and intertemporal hedging factors are derived endogenously in a model that builds upon Campbell (1993). We provide a theoretical foundation for empirical risk factors often used in international asset...

This paper examines the link between capital market governance (CMG) and several key measures of market performance. Using detailed data from individual stock exchanges, we develop a composite CMG index that captures three dimensions of security laws: the degree of earnings opacity, the...

Using firm-level data from 46 countries, we investigate the relation between corruption – the misuse of public office for private gains – and international corporate values. Our analysis shows that firms from more (less) corrupt countries trade at significantly lower (higher) market...

Department: Economics.

We investigate the role of "country risk" in determining the default risk of firms in emerging markets. In particular, we study the relationship between the secondary market spreads (over hard-currency government bond yields) of bonds issued by emerging market firms and bonds issued by their...

In markets where buyers cannot observe the quality of sellers' goods, there may be a role for intermediation. A certification intermediary is an agent that gathers information about seller quality and reports it to buyers. This paper examines the choice of such an intermediary between selling...