In this paper, we develop multi-country indices of financial system stress and quality of financial policies and use them in regression analysis of the determinants of financial stress. We find that countries with higher quality of financial policies are better able to contain the effects of...

We analyze the structure, performance, and role of banking systems in the three member countries of the East African Community Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda against the backdrop of recent financial sector reforms. Focusing on the behavior of different types of banks, we find no support for the...

This paper explores insurance as a source of financial system vulnerability. It provides a brief overview of the insurance industry and reviews the risks it faces, as well as several recent failures of insurance companies that had systemic implications. Assimilation of banking-type activities by...

We explore the relationship between banking sector performance and the quality of regulation and supervision as measured by compliance with the Basel Core Principles for Effective Banking Supervision (BCP). Using BCP assessment results for 65 countries and 1998-2002 panel data for other...

The bid-ask spread affects significantly the performance of financial markets. We explore the impact of informed trading on the composition of the bid-ask spread in high frequency data from the Czech equity market, which has been plagued by informed trading due to insufficient regulation and...

The link between informed trading and the bid-ask spread has been the focus of abundant literature and some authors feared that a large amount of informed trading might lead to shutdown of markets. We explore this issue using data from the Czech Republic. Our estimates confirm that the share of...

This paper contributes to the discussion on the efficiency of newly emerged financial markets in transition economies. We use data on one of the most developed financial markets in transition, the Czech Republic, to investigate financial market efficiency by examining the reaction to...

We investigate the effects of market fragmentation and information flows in the case of stocks cross-listed on markets in Central Europe and London. First, we test for co-movement, interaction and error correction behavior between the local and London markets. Our results suggest that strong...

This paper contributes to the discussion on the efficiency of newly emerged financial markets in transition economies. We use data on one of the most developed financial markets in transition, the Czech Republic, to investigate financial market efficiency by examining the reaction to...

The announcement of European Union enlargement coincided with a dramatic rise in stock prices in accession countries. This paper investigates the hypothesis that the rise in stock prices was a result of the repricing of systematic risk due to the integration of accession countries into the world...