We document that firms in eight East Asian countries and Japan diversify into more segments and engage into more related businessesas measured by the degree of vertical relatedness and complementaritythan firms in the USA. Using data for the 1990-6 period, we observe a trend towards...

This paper investigates the benefits and associated agency costs of using internal capital markets through affiliating with groups using data of two thousand firms from nine East Asian economies between 1994-6. We find that mature and slow-growing firms with ownership structures more likely to...

In the East Asian crisis, connections - with industrial groups or influential families - increased the probability of distress for financial institutions. Connections also made closure more, not less, likely, suggesting that the closure processes themselves were transparent. But larger...