Using a newly-available World Bank survey of over 28,000 firms from 46 countries, we examine how financial development affects firm innovation around the world. We find that while stock market development significantly enhances firm innovation, banking sector development has mixed effects. We...

Using newly available data, we examine the effects of the agency conflicts between ultimate controlling shareholders and minority shareholders in China's publicly listed firms between 2004 and 2009. We measure the severity of these agency problems by the excess control rights of the ultimate...

Using two newly available datasets of listed firms covering the period from 1994 to 2003, we test if share-issue privatization, defined here as the change of corporate control from the State to private owners rather than the IPO event as in earlier studies, improved firm performance in China. To...

Using quarterly data for 1995-2005, we examine the role of financial factors in China's recent increases in real sector activity. A series of cointegrated VAR models indicate that banking sector development was central to these successes, but that stock market development, as measured by market...

In this paper we investigate whether inefficient bank loans can reduce the value of borrowing firms when expropriation of the stock of minority shareholders by controlling shareholders is a major concern. Using data from Chinese banks, we find that bank loan announcements generate significantly...