This paper investigates the link between privatization and emerging market sovereign bond spreads. We conjecture that the way privatization is implemented may help to build a favorable market sentiment by gradually building investor confidence, which should then lead to a lower required...

Recent research emphasizes that corporate governance becomes critical during economic crises, when the incentives for expropriation of minority shareholders increase. Using the high-profile Asian financial crisis of 1997–1998 and a sample of 566 firms from eight East Asian countries over...

The purpose of this paper is to replicate Euromoney's and Institutional Investor's country risk ratings on the basis of economic and political variables. The evidence reveals that country risk ratings respond to some of the variables suggested by the theory. In particular, both the level of per...

This paper examines the benefits of portfolio investment in the stock markets of politically risky countries by evaluating the effects of political risk constraints on the performance of a portfolio of international stocks. We use monthly data on political risk ratings and stock returns for a...

This paper examines the reaction of the foreign exchange market to the announcement of changes in the business environment of a country. Our results suggest that sampled political risk news conveys important information about a country's investment climate and causes its currency's exchange rate...

This paper examines the impact of political risk in Canada on the volatility of stock returns. Our results suggest that political news associated with the possible separation of Quebec from Canada plays an important role in the volatility of stock returns. However, our evidence indicates that...

This paper examines the ability of forward rates that are implicit in the term structure of Eurocurrency interest rates to predict future interest rates and to incorporate the information in past interest rates. The findings suggest that forward rates are unbiased estimators of future interest...

We investigate the impact of political institutions on corporate risk-taking. Using a large sample of non-financial firms from 77 countries covering the period from 1988 to 2008, we find that sound political institutions are positively associated with corporate risk-taking, and that this...

This paper examines how national culture, and collectivism in particular, influences corruption in bank lending. We hypothesize that interdependent self-construal and particularist norms in collectivist countries lead to a higher level of lending corruption through their influence both on the...

This interdisciplinary study examines how national culture affects corporate dividend policies. The dividend puzzle is one of the most studied, yet unresolved, issues in financial economics. Prior theoretical and empirical research has suggested several explanations of the dividend puzzle that...