We examine whether financial systems facilitate efficient allocation of resources into perspective projects. Employing European micro-level data from 1996-2005, we show that firms in industries with the best growth opportunities use more external finance in financially more developed countries....

We contribute to the previous literature on the use of derivatives by studying separately the determinants for profit seeking versus hedging in a sample of firms from four different Nordic countries. While the hedging motive clearly dominates, more than half of the firms in our sample give some...

This paper considers financial, operational, solvency, and performance ratios, in order to detect when there were balance sheets' variations related to the 1994 Mexican currency crisis. Quarterly results for 88 non-financial Mexican companies that survived the crisis are used, and tests for...

While the importance of currency movements to industry competitiveness is theoretically well established, there is little evidence that currency risk impacts US industries. Applying a conditional asset-pricing model to 36 US industries, we find that all industries have a significant currency...

In this paper we investigate the impact of a voluntary corporate governance initiative on firm value in an emerging market context. We consider the corporate governance code introduced by the Stock Exchange of Thailand in 2002, applying to all listed firms on a quot;comply-or-explainquot; basis....

Using data from 20 countries that have suffered a currency crisis, this paper studies firm-level leverage and performance before and after a crisis has occurred. First we provide some evidence of increasing leverage both before and after a crisis. We show that, in the years preceding a currency...

The paper works with a sample of 95 newly privatized firms (NPFs) that went public through stock markets in four Middle East and North Africa countries (Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia and Turkey). We find that these firms experience significant increase in profitability and operating efficiency, and...

This paper examines the extent to which investment financing and market-timing explanations motivate public equity offers. We consider a sample of 16,958 initial public offerings and 12,373 seasoned equity offerings from 38 countries between 1990 and 2003. We provide estimates of the change in...

The implementation of the final phase of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) has produced a flurry of merger and acquisitions across Canada, Mexico and the United States. This process has brought in wholesale acquisition of companies offering financial services in Mexico. More than...

This paper studies the optimal hedging and production strategies of financially constrained firms in imperfectly competitive markets. A hedging policy that minimizes the volatility of earnings reduces a firm's financial constraints most effectively on average, but makes it impossible for the...