This paper studies the relation between firm's financing choices and financial globalization. Using an East Asian and Latin American firm-level panel for the 1980s and 1990s, we study how leverage ratios, debt maturity structure, and sources of financing change when economies are liberalized and...

This paper examines the potential benefits of security fungibility by conducting the first comprehensive analysis of Global bonds. Unlike other debt securities, Global bonds' fungibility allows them to be placed simultaneously in bond markets around the world; they trade, clear and settle...

Debt-equity ratios do not tend to increase after financial liberalization, but there is a shift from long-term to short-term debt. Globalization has uneven effects for firms with and without access to international capital markets. Countries with deeper domestic financial markets are less...

This paper examines governance explanations for the discount of preferred shares to common shares in the Russian market. Conflicts between shareholder classes may help explain the discount. However, for this to be the sole explanation the estimated models suggest that the magnitude of future...

Cross-border mergers allow firms to alter the level of protection they provide to their investors, because target firms usually import the corporate governance system of the acquiring company. This article extends the existing literature by evaluating the effect of changes in corporate...

This paper shows that the real investment by non-financial firms is systematically related to the size of their defined-benefit plan. In particular, these plans allow R&D-intensive firms to retain and borrow from their employees, which is attractive since they have high adjustment costs, require...

This paper shows that defined benefit pension and health care plans are important for firm leverage around the world. While consolidating off-balance sheet post-retirement plans typically increases effective leverage by 32%, firms reduce their level of regular debt by only 23 cents for every...

Patented knowledge capital improves transparency of research and development expenditures, converts intangible intellectual property into collateralizable and salable assets, enhances sustained competitive advantage, and lowers future financing risk and growth uncertainties. We conjecture and...

We explore the determinants of equity price risk of non-financial corporations. Operating and asset characteristics are by far the most important determinants of risk. For the median firm, financial risk accounts for only 15% of observed stock price volatility. Furthermore, financial risk has...

We develop a simple measure of international ownership linkages and show that this measure is of similar importance as the traditional effects coming from country and industry fundamentals. International ownership linkages are not explained by omitted country/industry variations, wealth effects...