This paper analyzes recent trends of Latin America's institutional development regarding investor protection. In spite of the underdevelopment of the region's financial markets, there is slow movement towards legal reforms intended to protect investors and make regional markets more attractive...

The law and finance theory predicts that the common law system provides the best basis for financial development and economic growth, followed by Scandinavian and German origin civil law and finally French origin civil law. Referring to a number of sceptical views, this paper argues that the...

We examine the degree of natural gas market integration in Europe, North America and Japan, between the mid 1990's and 2002. The relationship between the international gas marker prices, and their relation to the oil price, are investigated through principal component analysis and Johansen...

Prices may differ between regional markets if transport capacities are limited. We develop a new approach to determine to which extent such differences stem from limited participation in cross-border trader, i.e. lack of integration, rather than from bottlenecks. This approach considers both...

Die Bundesregierung hat einen Gesetzentwurf zur Zusammenlegung der deutschen Bundesaufsichtsämter vorgelegt. Welchen neuen Anforderungen muß sich die Finanzaufsicht stellen? Wie ist eine Zentralisierung der Aufsicht im europäischen Kontext zu beurteilen?

In this paper, Nicolas Veron argues that the EU regulatory response to the crisis has been generally slower in the EU than in the United States, for four main reasons: swifter financial crisis management and resolution in the US; structural differences in legislative processes; the EU's...

Financial markets underwent significant changes worldwide within the last decades. Structural changes involving traditional operators led to modifications of the regulatory as well as supervisory settings of the financial system. Therefore, the paper tries to find a solution for a proper and...

Was vor gut vier Jahren mit dem Verfall der Immobilienpreise in den USA als rein amerikanische Krise begann, hatte sich zu einer weltweiten Finanz- und Wirtschaftskrise ausgeweitet und entwickelte sich zur schwersten Krise an den internationalen Finanzmärkten seit den 1920er Jahren. Um den...