Academics pay little attention to international bank lending, focusing instead on rapidly growing market segments such as the international bond market and derivative credit instruments. The authors argue for paying more attention to international bank lending. Why? Three reasons. First, the...

Using a specially designed survey, the authors identify the characteristics of Japanese firms likely to invest world wide and in key Asian countries and country characteristics associated with Japanese investment in Asia. Investment abroad is related negatively to research and development (R&D)...

Increasing foreign participation and high concentration levels characterize the recent evolution of banking sectors'market structures in developing countries. The authors analyze the impact of these factors on Latin American bank spreads during the late 1990s. Their results suggest that foreign...

We examine the implications for borrowing costs of including collective-action clauses in loan contracts. For a sample of some 2,000 international bonds, we compare the spreads on bonds subject to UK governing law, which typically include collective-action clauses, with spreads on bonds subject...

In this article, we examine whether IMF programmes influence the ability of developing country issuers to tap international bond markets and if they improve spreads paid on the bonds issued. We find that Fund programmes do not provide a uniformly favourable signalling effect. Instead, the...

We compare launch spreads on emerging-market bonds subject to UK governing law, which typically include collective action clauses, with spreads on bonds subject to US law, which do not. Collective-action clauses reduce the cost of borrowing for more creditworthy issuers, who appear to benefit...