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,...

The increased volatility of exchange rates, interest rates and goods prices has focused fresh attention on the importance for developing countries of reducing their risks in these markets. Although, these countries generally cannotuse such conventional hedging instruments as currency and...

Changes in exchange rates affect both the level and the structure of a country's external debt. Indonesia's debt service increased from 10 percent in 1980 to 37 percent in 1986, largely because of the depreciation of the U.S. dollar and the fall in oil prices. Developed countries can hedge...

Commodity stabilization funds are hard-currency savings to protect against a fall in income for commodity exports in the presence of borrowing constraints. The authors develop the optimal rules for deposits in and withdrawals from such a fund by using a benchmark model of precautionary savings...

Using data for more than 2,000 companies from nine East Asian economies, the authors examine the interactions between ultimate ownership, group affiliation, and corporate diversification. They find evidence that allocation resources within business groups is associated with higher market...

As many East Asian countries plunged into economic decline, the structure of concentrated ownership and associated corporate governance, along with weak corporate performance, have been blamed for the crisis. There is little empirical evidence, however, of the nature of ownership structures in...

The internationalization of financial services -- eliminating discrimination between the treatment of foreign and domestic providers of financial services and removing barriers to the cross-border provision of financial services -- is of global interest, especially in Asia. Most of Asia limits...

The buildup of vulnerabilities in East Asia is shown here to be mainly the result of weaknesses in financial intermediation, poor corporate governance, and deficient government policies, including pro-cyclical macroeconomic policy responses to large capital inflows. Weak due diligence by...

Firm surveys often indicate that firms complain a lot about lack of access to financial services, but financing constraints are difficult to identify, given demand and supply considerations and with only surveys based on firms'perceptions. Specifically, it is difficult to separate demand for...

This paper analyzes the behavior of gross capital inflows across 34 emerging markets (EMs), including eight Asian economies. We first confirm that aggregate inflows to EMs comove considerably. Three findings are reported: (i) the aggregate comovement conceals significant heterogeneity across...