International Insurance Markets: Between Global Dynamics and Local Contingencies—An Introduction -- The United States … Industry—Structure and Performance -- The French Insurance Market: Background and Trends -- The German Insurance Industry … globalization of insurance markets means that understanding both international developments and local trends around the world is now …

bank lending. We are using a dataset on assets and liabilities of commercial banks from five countries (France, Germany … information costs increase in distance, distance should - ceteris paribus - become less important in determining international …, Italy, UK, US) in up to 50 host countries for the years 1983 through 1998 to test this hypothesis. For the European banks …