There is an ongoing intraregional attempt to develop bond markets in Asia. This is to some extent a result of the Asian financial crisis, which showed the need for well-functioning fixed income markets in the region. This paper analyzes the relationships among four Asian bond markets....

While finance has been shown to influence the distribution of income, little research has been devoted to the potential impact of financial policy on income inequality. This study analyzes the relationship between repressive financial policies and inequality across countries. We show that...

This paper analyzes the relationship between financial repression and structural change. We present a simple theoretical model of structural transformation in which the impact of financial repression on unbalanced growth is studied. The model suggests that governments may choose to repress the...

Increasing domestic and external imbalances pose a serious challenge to economic development in China. While several forms of economic imbalances have been identified and discussed, many of these imbalances represent symptoms rather than the main issues that Chinese policymakers have to deal...

In March 2008, Malaysia’s political landscape was shaken by election results showing that the Barisan Nasional had won less than two thirds of the parliamentary seats and lost five states to the opposition. A two-thirds supermajority had been seen as a sacred threshold for the coalition to...

This paper examines the economic consequences of political participation by entrepreneurs in China. Using unique data on political participation and initial public offerings by entrepreneurial firms, we find that firms controlled by entrepreneurs who participate in politics exhibit superior...

This study examines the stock-picking ability of mutual funds in China using evidence from the IPO market. We hypothesize that the decision to invest in the IPO market contains positive information about a fund’s underlying expectation of newly listed firms’ future prospects. Using residuals...

We study the effects of political participation on holdings of liquid assets in Chinese privately controlled listed firms. Previous research has shown that the risk of political extraction by politicians and bureaucrats in countries with weak institutions has an adverse effect on holdings of...

This paper examines how repressive financial policies influence external balances. We argue that financial repression holds back financial development and distorts the process of structural transformation by constraining the service sector and promoting the manufacturing sector, thereby...

This study looks at the time-varying nature of systematic risk in the Greater China equity markets. The Shanghai and Shenzhen markets both have a low average systematic risk when measured against the world market. The short outbursts in systematic risk for these two markets seem to be directly...