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Begin New Search Topic International Trade and Finance Publication Year within 25 Years

2171. Institutional Investors, Corporate Ownership, and Corporate Governance: Global Perspectives

Author:
Stuart L. Gillan and Laura T. Starks
Publication Date:
01-2002
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
United Nations University
Abstract:
We examine the role of institutional investors in financial markets and in corporate governance. In many countries, institutional investors have become the predominant players in financial markets and their influence worldwide is growing, chiefly due to the privatization and development of pension fund systems. Moreover, foreign institutional investors are becoming a significant presence, bringing their trading habits and corporate governance preferences to international markets. In fact, we argue that the primary actors prompting change in many corporate governance systems are institutional investors, often foreign institutional investors. In other countries the role of institutional investors is limited. Instead, large blockholders, often in the form of individuals, family groups, other corporations, or lending institutions are the dominant players. We present the theoretical arguments for the involvement of investors in shareholder monitoring and a brief history of institutional ownership and activism in the United States and other countries. We also discuss studies of the efficacy of such activism.
Topic:
Economics, Government, and International Trade and Finance
Political Geography:
United States

2172. Proposals for Curbing the Boom-Bust Cycle in the Supply of Capital to Emerging Markets

Author:
John Williamson
Publication Date:
01-2002
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
United Nations University
Abstract:
This paper examines what might be done to limit the boom-bust cycle in the flow of capital to emerging markets. Although the paper accepts that some types of capital flow (notably foreign direct investment) are much less problematic in this respect than others (notably short-term bank loans), it argues that influencing the mix would have to be done by capital controls by capital-importing countries rather than supply-side policies. Where supply-side reforms might help is in making some types of flow less unstable: for example, the Buiter/Sibert proposal for a Universal Debt Rollover Option (which needs amendment to alter the term for which rollover might apply); allowing investors with fiduciary responsibilities to hold (though not to buy) bonds of sub-investment grade; penalizing put options in bond contracts and inserting collective action clauses; requiring foreign loans to be denominated in domestic currency; and modifying the remuneration practices of portfolio managers.
Topic:
Economics, Emerging Markets, and International Trade and Finance

2173. Ratings since the Asian Crisis

Author:
Helmut Reisen
Publication Date:
01-2002
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
United Nations University
Abstract:
The increased importance of rating agencies for emerging-market finance has brought their work to the attention of a wider group of observers - and under criticism. This paper evaluates whether the importance of ratings for developing-country finance has changed since the Asian Crisis and whether rating agencies have modified the determinants for their rating decisions. It also provides an analysis on recent suggestions by the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision, as these are very important for gauging the future role of sovereign ratings for foreign debt finance in developing countries. While the explanatory power of conventional rating determinants has declined since the Asian crisis, recent rating performance for Argentina and Turkey can still be qualified as lagging the markets, as variables of financial-sector strength and the endogenous effects of capital flows on macroeconomic variables seem to remain underemphasized in rating assessments. The market impact of sovereign ratings is predicted to decline as agencies have started to modify their country ceiling policy and as market participants try to exploit bond trading opportunities arising from the lagged nature of ratings. The paper presents theory and evidence to suggest that the Basel II Accord will destabilise private capital flows to the developing countries, if the current proposal to link regulatory bank capital to sovereign ratings is maintained: Assigning fixed minimum capital to bank assets whose risk weights are in turn determined by market-lagging cyclically determined ratings will reinforce the tendency of the capital ratio to work in a pro-cyclical way.
Topic:
Development, Economics, and International Trade and Finance
Political Geography:
Turkey, Asia, and Argentina

2174. From Pre-Bush to Bush to Post-Sep-11-Bush: Changes In Transatlantic Relations —The Particular Case of Germany

Author:
Michaela Hertkorn
Publication Date:
04-2002
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Columbia International Affairs Online
Abstract:
"There is the perception that, while France is a complicated country, but not posing a problem, Germany is not a complicated case, but can pose a problem." "America and Germany will never drift apart. We have never been closer. Any tensions are simply due to 'Reibungsverluste durch Nähe'. It is a relationship of grown up kids with their parents.
Topic:
Foreign Policy, Diplomacy, and International Trade and Finance
Political Geography:
United States and Europe

2175. Managing Asia Pacific's Energy Dependence on the Middle East: Is There a Role for Central Asia?

Author:
Kang Wu and Fereidun Fesharaki
Publication Date:
06-2002
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
East-West Center
Abstract:
The Middle East is Asia Pacific's largest energy supplier, satisfying a demand for oil that must keep pace with the region's continued economic growth. This dependence on the Middle East has caused Asia Pacific to join the United States and other Western nations in the hunt for alternative suppliers. Central Asia, located between the Middle East and Asia Pacific and already an oil and gas exporter, is an attractive possibility. With energy production projected to rise rapidly over the next decade, Central Asia is poised to become a major player in the world energy market. But the land-locked region's options for transporting oil and gas to Asia Pacific markets are limited and problematic. Passage via pipeline east through China presents construction challenges; south through Iran, or through India and Pakistan via Afghanistan, is fraught with political difficulties. Not until geopolitics become more favorable to the south-bound options, or technologies make the China route possible, will Asia Pacific be able to tap the energy resources of Central Asia.
Topic:
Security and International Trade and Finance
Political Geography:
Pakistan, Afghanistan, United States, China, Iran, Middle East, and Asia

2176. Back to the Nest? Europe's Relations with the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of Countries

Author:
John Ravenhill
Publication Date:
12-2002
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Institute of European Studies
Abstract:
Europe's association with African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries was the first of its interregional relationships. In the nearly half century since the signature of the Treaty of Rome, it developed into Europe's most institutionalized and multidimensional interregional relationship. It embraces not only trade and investment issues but also a development "partnership" that includes what has traditionally been the EU's largest single aid program, a joint parliamentary assembly, meetings of organizations representing civil society, and a dialogue on human rights. This chapter examines the factors that have shaped this relationship over the last four decades. The principal focus is on the trade regime, not just for consistency with the other contributions to this volume but also because it is in its trade dimension that the relationship has changed most dramatically over time.
Topic:
International Political Economy and International Trade and Finance
Political Geography:
Africa, Europe, Caribbean, and Rome

2177. Lessons of the Euro for the Rest of the World

Author:
Barry Eichengreen
Publication Date:
12-2002
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Institute of European Studies
Abstract:
Europe's single currency is widely invoked as a potential solution to the monetary and exchange rate problems of other regions, including Asia, Latin America, North America and even Africa. This lecture asks whether the Europe's experience in creating the euro is exportable. It argues that the single currency is the result of a larger integrationist project that has political as well as economic dimensions. The appetite for political integration being less in other parts of the world, the euro will not be easily emulated. Other regions will have to find different means of addressing the tension between domestic monetary autonomy and regional integration. Harmonized inflation targeting may be the best available solution.
Topic:
Economics, International Trade and Finance, and Political Economy
Political Geography:
Africa, Europe, Asia, and Latin America

2178. The Development of Europe's Linkages with East Asia: Hybrid Trans-Regionalism?

Author:
Julie Gilson
Publication Date:
12-2002
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Institute of European Studies
Abstract:
This chapter argues that the EU-Asia trans-regional relationship is still very hard to measure but that there is developing both a notion of economic Asia, a desire to collectivise responses in the face of differentiated resource allocation and a growing dominance of the form of regionalism demonstrated by the EU.
Topic:
International Political Economy and International Trade and Finance
Political Geography:
Europe and Asia

2179. The European Union and North America

Author:
Edward A. Fogarty
Publication Date:
10-2002
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Institute of European Studies
Abstract:
This paper assesses the past, present, and future of transatlantic commercial relations in terms of EU trade strategies. After surveying the medium-term trajectories of the relationships with the United States, Mexico, and Canada-both separately and as a group-it will consider several possible sources of European Union trade preferences vis-à-vis NAFTA, including interest groups' incentives to seek to capture national and European governing institutions, the balance between the European Commission and the Council of Ministers, European leaders' desire to balance against overweening American power, and possible attempts to construct either a common Western identity or, alternatively, a European identity in contradistinction what the United States seems to represent. The hope is that these different approaches provide a contrasting set of interpretations whose comparison side-by-side allows new insights into the dynamics governing EU-North American trade relations.
Topic:
International Trade and Finance
Political Geography:
United States, Europe, Canada, North America, and Mexico

2180. Further Financial Services Liberalization in the Doha Round?

Author:
Wendy Dobson
Publication Date:
08-2002
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Peterson Institute for International Economics
Abstract:
Recent evidence demonstrates strong links between developing countries' long-term growth and financial reform. Deputy Treasury Secretary Kenneth Dam has suggested that developing countries can transform their domestic financial sectors into "engines of growth."
Topic:
Economics, Emerging Markets, International Organization, and International Trade and Finance