This paper studies the financing of enterprise investment in listed Hungarian firms during the first years of transition. These firms were selected for listing on the exchange and presumably had better access to external capital. In particular, we look for evidence of financial constraints that...

This paper investigates the determinants of underpricing at initial public offerings in the Hungarian Initial Public Offerings (IPO) market in 1990-1998, a period of transition from socialist to market economy and immaturity of the domestic capital market. The evidence suggests that political...

Banks are highly leveraged institutions, potentially attracted to speculative lending even without deposit insurance. A counterbalancing incentive to lend prudently is the risk of loss of charter value, which depends on future rents. We show in a dynamic model that current concentration does not...

On August 17, 1998, Russia defaulted on its domestic public debt, declared a moratorium on the private banks' foreign liabilities which was equivalent to an outright default, and abandoned its exchange rate regime. The depth of the Russian meltdown shocked the international markets, and...

This paper studies optimal financial contracts and product market competition under a strategic transparency decision. When firms seeking outside finance resort to actively monitored debt in order to commit against opportunistic behaviour, the dominant lender can influence corporate...

We investigate the valuation of platform investment, such as a software operating system or an internet portal webpage. Platform investment is the creation of an innovative distribution and production infrastructure which increases access to customers; as a result it reduces entry costs in...

On August 17, 1998, Russia defaulted on its domestic public debt, declared a moratorium on the private banks' foreign liabilities and abandoned its pegged exchange rate regime. This created a considerable international financial instability and marked a major turning point in the history of...

We argue that in an unreliable enforcement regime, transactions tend to become intermediated through institutions or concentrated among agents bound by some form of private enforcement. Provision of funding shifts from risk capital to debt, and from markets to institutions with long term...

We study the governance role of Russian Financial-Industrial Groups (FIG) and their impact on financing of investment. We compare member firms of a group with a control set of large firms categorized by dispersed ownership or/and management and employee control. We find that investment is...

The paper analyses foreign investment and asset prices in a context of uncertainty over future government policy. The model endogenizes the process of learning by foreign investors facing a potentially opportunistic government, which chooses strategically the timing of a policy reversal in order...