This paper presents an analysis on how the expected development of pension funds in Italy will contribute toenhance corporate governance. The existing evidence on this issue comes mainly from the Anglo Saxon countries but it does notshow unequivocal effectiveness of activism on firm performance....

Sovereign spreads can be broken up into two components=the expected loss from default and the risk premium, with the latter reflecting how investors price the risk of unexpected losses. We show that the risk premium is often the larger part of the spread.

Securitisation can transform ordinarily illiquid or risky assets into more liquid or less risky ones. Despite the recent rapid growth of securitisation, the Latin American market remains in its infancy, as reflected in the size and type of assets involved in transactions. Because of its...

Using information on 98 internationally active banks headquartered in 27 countries over the period 1994--2012, we analyse the nonlinear link between income diversification (defined as noninterest income to total income) and bank return on assets (ROA). The main result is that income...

Bank capital ratios have increased steadily since the financial crisis. For a sample of 94 large banks from advanced and emerging economies, retained earnings account for the bulk of their higher risk-weighted capital ratios, with reductions in risk weights playing a lesser role. On average,...

Foreign exchange turnover evolves in a predictable fashion with increasing income. As income per capita rises, currency trading cuts loose from underlying current account transactions. In parallel, an increasing share of trading in the currency takes place outside the home country. At given...