Recent market developments have heightened concerns about the potential for systemic risk in the payments system. At the same time that markets are becoming more integrated and global in scope, they are becoming more segmented in the sense that there is a growing separation evolving between the...

Most stock market investors believe that the ideal equity portfolio should be well diversified to lower overall portfolio risk. International financial markets offer a means for diversification, but most investors do not exploit this risk-sharing opportunity and instead hold large shares of...