Utilizing approximately 51,000 sample firms from developed markets over 1995-2014, we document a stark heterogeneity in global integration at the firm-level and study its implications for diversification. Specifically, the adjusted R-square, our integration measure, is widely distributed across...

In this paper, we examine the behavior of stock prices of individual firms with different bond ratings surrounding the October market crash of 1987 and therefrom make inferences about the significance of bankruptcy costs borne by stockholders. The key findings are as follows: Immediately...

In this paper, we show (i) that the risk-return characteristics of our sample of 17 developed stock markets of the world have converged significantly toward each other during our study period 1974-2004, and (ii) that this international convergence in risk-return characteristics is driven mainly...

Using four decades of data, we provide novel evidence that the increasing interstate synchronization of house price growth leads to higher business cycle alignment across U.S. states. The relation is stronger between states with similar banking development and in non-tradable sectors, and is...

Investors are known to exhibit home (local) bias even when they invest in their domestic markets. Since home bias is symptomatic of market segmentation, the ‘home bias at home' phenomenon raises an important question: How well integrated are domestic financial markets? The answer for this...

This paper studies the cross-currency and temporal variations in the random walk behavior in exchange rates. We characterize currencies with relatively large investment flows as investment intensive and conjecture that the more investment intensive a currency is, the closer its exchange rate...

Consistent with predictions from the psychology literature, we find that stock prices co-move more (less) in culturally tight (loose) and collectivistic (individualistic) countries. Culture influences stock price synchronicity by affecting correlations in investors' trading activities and a...

Motivated by the rising importance of international sourcing by U.S. firms in recent decades, we study the influence of international sourcing on capital structure. We find that international sourcing has a significant negative influence on financial leverage. The negative influence is stronger...

China's stock markets have grown rapidly since their inception and have become an increasingly important emerging market for international investors. However, there are few systematic studies on how asset prices are formed in Chinese domestic equity markets; popular financial media even depict...

To the extent that investors diversify internationally, large-cap stocks receive the dominant share of fund allocation. Increasingly, however, returns to large-cap stocks or stock market indices tend to co-move, mitigating the benefits from international diversification. In contrast, stocks of...