This paper analyses the development of the banking sector in twelve transition countries. Foreign banks have become major players in the financial system of these countries. Still, foreign bank presence and financial development in general vary considerably between these economies. Distance from...

This paper surveys the economic literature on the links between finance, law and growth in the Central and Eastern European transition countries. The literature that is surveyed at the outset of the paper shows that if a financial system is based on an adequate legal system it can positively...

One of the most enduring debates in economics is whether financial development causes economic growth or whether it is a consequence of increased economic activity. Little research into this question, however has used a true causality framework. This paper fills this lacuna by using...

This paper investigates the efficiency of the two major stock indexes of the Iberian Peninsula, the Portuguese Stock Index (PSI-20) and the Spanish Stock Index (IBEX-35). We used daily data from January 1993 to September 2001 for the Portuguese stock index and daily data from October 1990 to...

After the stock market crash of 1987, Fischer Black proposed a model in which he explained the crash by inconsistencies in the formation of expectations of mean reversion in stock returns. Following this explanation, a model that allows for mean reversion in stock returns is estimated on daily...

The behaviour of an emerging market, the Athens Stock Exchange (ASE), after the introduction of the euro is investigated. The underlying assumption is that stock prices would be more transparent; their performance easier to compare; the exchange rate risk eliminated and as a result we expect the...

This paper investigates the time-varying behavior of systematic risk for eighteen pan-European industry portfolios. Using weekly data over the period 1987-2005, three different modeling techniques in addition to the standard constant coefficient model are employed: a bivariate t- GARCH(1,1)...

This paper investigates the time-varying behavior of systematic risk for eighteen pan-European sectors. Using weekly data over the period 1987- 2005, four different modeling techniques in addition to the standard constant coefficient model are employed: a bivariate t-GARCH(1,1) model, two Kalman...

Current evidence on the relationships between growth and inequality is predominantly based on cross-country data sets or panel data sets covering a small number of time periods. But these relationships, being fundamentally dynamic in nature, need to be considered over a much longer time horizon....

Since 1 January 1999 the ECB has conducted a single monetary policy in the euro area, but the mechanisms by which and the extent to which monetary shocks are transmitted into prices and real economic activity may vary from country to country. This paper investigates how and to what extent the...