To analyze whether stock-market prices follow a random walk, the algebraic sign of their returns has been compared with a coin toss, which is a prominent example for a Bernoulli trial with equiprobable outcomes. Like coin tosses, signed returns lend themselves for a simple runs test for...

Using count data on the number of bank failures in US states during the 1960 to 2006 period, this paper endeavors to establish how far sources of economic risk (recessions, high interest rates, inflation) or differences in solvency and branching regulation can explain some of the fragility in...

This paper develops an empirical framework giving rise to a nonlinear behaviour of the exchange rate pass-through (ERPT). Rather than shifts between low and high inflation, the nonlinearity arises when large swings in the exchange rate trigger market entries and exits of importing firms....

Within the context of the firm location choice problem, Guimara?es et al. (2003) have shown that a Poisson count regression and a conditional logit model yield identical coefficient estimates. Yet, the corresponding interpretation differs since these discrete choice models reflect polar cases as...

By using data on cross-border acquisitions (CBAs), this paper explores the distribution of the strategies pursued when multinational enterprizes integrate a foreign subsidiary into their organisational structure. Based on a measure of vertical relatedness, each of the 165,000 acquisitions in our...

This paper examines an uncovered interest parity (UIP) condition that arguably held as regards the continental investment demand for London bills of exchange during the classical gold standard. At that time, practical guide books about the foreign exchanges explained in detail how exchange and...

This paper assesses the uncovered interest parity (UIP) condition by means of Indian government bonds during the 1869 to 1906 period. As emphasised by Irving Fisher, interest and exchange rates between Britain and India from that period concur closely with the theoretical assumptions of UIP...

In the eighteenth century, a fierce political debate broke out in Sweden about the causes of an extraordinary depreciation of its currency. More specifically, the deteriorating value of the Swedish daler was discretionarily blamed on monetary causes, e.g. the overissuing of banknotes, or...

The free-banking history of Switzerland is commonly subdivided into a period with unfettered competition (1826 - 1881) and strong banknote regulation (1881 - 1907). This paper suggests that unrestricted competition between private note-issuing banks gave rise to a fragmented paper-money system,...

This paper employs the opening of the first international telegraph between London and Paris on 13 November 1851 as a unique event that enabled a virtually instantaneous information exchange between the largest financial centers. Before this opening, a London currency speculator comparing the...