This paper studies the role of insider trading in explaining cross-country differences in stock market volatility. The central finding is that countries with more prevalent insider trading have more volatile stock markets, even after one controls for liquidity/maturity of the market and the...

This paper studies the role of insider trading in explaining cross-country differences in stock market volatility. It introduces a new measure of insider trading. The central finding is that countries with more prevalent insider trading have more volatile stock markets, even after one controls...

This paper shows both theoretically and empirically the importance of bureaucratic quality in shaping the pattern of corporate finance in different countries. It argues that firm management under corrupt and interventionist governments is particularly powerful in expropriating outside investors...

This paper examines the impacts of economic institutions, including property rights protection and contract enforcement, on the location choice of foreign direct investment. From a data set of 6288 US multinationals investing in various China's regions for the period of 1993-2001, it is found...

This study demonstrates the importance of government corruption in shaping corporate finance patterns across countries. Corruption contributes to a more prevalent and higher degree of corporate equity ownership concentration and more reliance on bank financing in raising external finance. It...

This paper analyzes consumption risk sharing among provinces in the People's Republic of China (PRC) during 1980 - 2007. The analysis finds that 9.4% of shocks to gross provincial product are smoothed by the interprovincial fiscal transfer system. This system also cushions a relatively large...