This paper considers the structure, governance and performance of a unique class of mutual funds that receives capital only from individuals, and reinvests this contributed capital in private companies, as opposed to traditional mutual funds that invest in publicly traded companies. We consider...

This article reports the results of an experiment designed to assess the impact of last-sale trade reporting on the liquidity of BBB corporate bonds. Overall, adding transparency has either a neutral or a positive effect on liquidity. Increased transparency is not associated with greater trading...

This paper introduces a new dataset from 100 Dutch institutional investors' domestic and international asset private equity allocations. The data indicate that the perceived comparative dearth of regulations of private equity funds impedes institutional investor participation in private equity...

Income trust units are some of the highest selling products in the Canadian securities industry, but they have been less successful beyond Canadian borders. The author discusses the remarkable profitability and proliferation of income trusts in Canada, but maintains that arguments in favour of...

This paper surveys the current state of the Chinese debt capital markets. As judged by its size and sophistication of its infrastructure the Chinese bond market it is already a leading market globally. China is unusual in that non-financial corporate issues account for a large fraction of the...

Crowdfunding has experienced rapid growth in some EU Member States. However, home bias by investors and regulatory barriers prevent the crowd and the project from moving freely across borders. Crowdfunding has, for the most part, remained a phenomenon of those larger Member States that ‘draw a...

As of 31 December 2016 investment fund managers in the European Union (EU) and the European Economic Area (EEA) managed more than €14trillion, equivalent to 33.2% of worldwide investment fund assets. More importantly all asset classes and fund types experience significant growth for more than...

An overview of the investments made by Sovereign Wealth Funds (SWF) in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), defined as the region encompassing the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Slovakia. The analysis considers all investments made by the funds as of the end of July...

An inquiry into the potential political risks associated with the investment activity of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries. It starts with an analysis of the importance of the GCC SWFs in terms of their global investments. It then analyzes the main directions of these investments,...

The research seeks to gauge the global competitiveness of Central and Eastern European (CEE) financial markets. The assessment is made using quantitative and hybrid metrics of financial centre development while placing particular emphasis on competitiveness drivers relevant to the activity of...