We document beneficial associations between openness to foreign equity investors and the information environment in emerging stock markets. Openness is reflected in legal, regulatory, and cross-listing events, the fraction of stock available to foreign investors, and the size of U.S. portfolio...

The Latin Monetary Union was initiated in 1865 by France, Belgium, Italy, and Switzerland. We find that LMU membership or adoption of a gold standard is frequently associated with lower volatility of private bill yields, bond yields, inflation, and deviations from Purchasing Power Parity....

The stock market should fund promising new firms, thereby breeding competition, innovation, and economic growth. However, using three decades of data from 47 countries, we show that concentrated stock markets dominated by a small number of very successful firms are associated with less efficient...