The Czech Republic's mass-privatization scheme improved the management of privatized firms by concentrating ownership. And contrary to expectations, banks with an (indirect) equity stake in a privatized firm have a positive influence on the firm's corporate governance. The Czech Republic's...

The authors argue that mass privatization in the Czech Republic has spurred enterprise restructuring and that investment funds have played a key part in this outcome. Using 1992-95 data for more than 700 Czech firms, the authors find strong positive relationships between ownership concentration...

A central puzzle in international finance is that real exchange rates are volatile and, in stark contradiction to effcient risk-sharing, negatively correlated with cross-country consumption ratios. This paper shows that incomplete asset markets and a low price elasticity of tradables can account...

This paper looks at the impact on Australia’s trade in crops (non-wheat grains and oilseeds) where GM technology has been introduced. The model includes assumptions about the productivity gains of GM crops, possible consumer responses and regulatory costs for Australia and its major trading...