As in other sectors, competition in finance matters for allocative, productive and dynamic efficiency. Theory suggests, however, that unfettered competition is not first best given the special features of finance. I review these analytics and describe how to assess the degree of competition in...

Banking markets are becoming increasingly international through financial liberalization and general economic integration. Using bank-level data for 80 countries for 1988-95, the authors examine the extent of foreign ownership in national banking markets. They compare net interest margins,...

For a large number of companies from different countries, we analyze how company corporate governance practices and country regulatory regimes interact in terms of company valuation. We confirm that corporate governance plays a crucial role in efficient company monitoring and shareholder...

The Reader in International Corporate Finance offers an overview of current thinking on six topics: law and finance, corporate governance, banking, capital markets, capital structure and financing constraints, and the political economy of finance. This collection of 23 of the most influential...

Using bank-level data, the authors apply the Panzar and Rosse (1987) methodology to estimate the extent to which changes in input prices are reflected in revenues earned by specific banks in 50 countries'banking systems. They then relate this competitiveness measure to indicators of...

Cross-sectional tests of asset returns have a long tradition in finance. The often-used capital asset pricing model (CAPM) and the arbitrage pricing theory both imply cross-sectional relationships between individual asset returns and other factors, and tests of those models have done much to...

The objective of this paper is to explore the application of risk management techniques to a typical developing country state-owned oil company (SOC) involved in importing and refining crude oil and to make estimates of the potential gains from using such techniques. The paper is structured as...

This paper presents a pricing model for secondary market debt designed to assess the market value of various forms of guarantees and the impact of debt reduction on the value of remaining claims. The model is more flexible and realistic than other models. The technique used, option pricing,...

The authors study the determinants of the growing migration of stock market activity to international financial centers. They use a sample of 77 countries and document that higher economic growth and more macroeconomic stability help stock market development. Countries with higher income per...

The authors study international financial integration analyzing firms from various countries raising capital, trading equity, and cross-listing in major world stock markets. Using a large sample of 39,517 firms from 111 countries covering the period 1989-2000, they find that, although...