Using a dataset of traded Mexican firms, I document two stylized facts about firms in the non- tradable sector: (i) they take on large amounts of dollar-denominated debt and (ii) their earnings are not sensitive to the exchange rate. I propose an explanation based on imperfect competition in the...

A large previous literature has examined the relative importance of country and industry effects for international stock returns. We find that there is a third important driver, ownership. We develop a simple measure of international ownership linkages and show that ownership linkages are of...

We develop a model where institutions form connections through swaps of projects in order to diversify their individual risk. These connections lead to two different network structures. In a clustered network groups of financial institutions hold identical portfolios and default together. In an...

We argue that the entry of commercial banks into bond underwriting led to the evolution of co-led underwriting arrangements and lowered the screening incentives of underwriters. Lead underwriters in co-led syndicates faced weaker incentives to screen issuer quality. In boom markets, issues...

The case studies for each country survey the literature on the role of their financial systems in their development. The sources of finance for industrial development include (i) banks, (ii) securities markets, (iii) internal finance, (iv) alternative sources of finance such as angel finance,...

This paper examines the effect of both geographic and industrial diversification on firm value for a sample of over 20,000 firm-year observations of US corporations from 1987-1993. Our multivariate tests indicate the average value of a firm with international operations is 2.2% higher than a...