‘Cornerstone’ investor agreements, in which high net-worth entities receive a guaranteed block of IPO shares, constitute an important potential signal of IPO value. Their recent emergence in the Hong Kong market setting, in tandem with detailed prospectus disclosures on such items, opens-up...

A key precursor of twentieth-century financial crises in emerging and advanced economies alike was the rapid buildup of leverage. Those emerging economies that avoided leverage booms during the 2000s also were most likely to avoid the worst effects of the twenty-first century's first global...

This paper provides an empirical investigation of the relationship between surges in capital inflows and the probability of subsequent banking, currency and balance-of-payment crises. Using a panel of developed and emerging economies from 1970 to 2007, it is shown that a large capital inflow...

The stylised facts of currency crises in emerging markets include output contraction coming hard on the heels of devaluation, with a prominent role for the adverse balance-sheet effects of liability dollarisation. In the light of the South East Asian experience, we propose an eclectic blend of...

The Argentine convertibility regime, where the peso was fixed at parity with the US dollar, ended with a ‘twin crisis’ – a tripling in the price of a dollar and a protracted closure of the entire banking system – accompanied by an economic contraction so severe that it is often referred...

This paper analyzes the Chilean experience with capital flows. We discuss the role played by capital controls, financial regulations and the exchange rate regime. The focus is on the period after 1990, the period when Chile returned to international capital markets. We also discuss the early...

We study the sensitivity of credit supply to bank financial conditions in 16 emerging European countries before and during the financial crisis. We use survey data on 10,701 applicant and non-applicant firms that enable us to disentangle effects driven by positive and negative shocks to the...

This paper outlines a framework for mapping the effects of Basel III increases in capital and liquidity requirements on cross-border bank lending to emerging market economies. In a traditional push and pull scheme, the effects of capital and liquidity ratios are disentangled through 6 specific...

We analyze the transmission of bank-specific liquidity shocks triggered by a credit rating downgrade through the lending channel. Using bank-level data for US Bank Holding Companies, we find that a credit rating downgrade is associated with an immediate and persistent decline in access to...

The current account has always been a neglected variable in the management of the Euro area and in the assessment of its members' performance; so has, as a consequence, the savings-investment balance. This paper first reviews the arguments that explain this attitude and justify, under some...