Using a Markov switching model applied to the VIX and VDAX implied volatility indexes, we find that the volatility of the U.S. S&P100 index and German DAX index switched from a low-value state to a high-value state around the events of the Asian financial crisis. Moreover, the U.S. and German...

Selling (buying) a country’s equity index in exchange for equity investments elsewhere during a stock market crash (boom) is analogous to exercising an option to exchange an underperforming country (global benchmark) index for a global benchmark (country) index. This can be shown by extending...

This paper shows that globalization of securities markets exacerbates the volatility of capital flows by strengthening incentives for herding behavior. This is a prediction of a mean-variance portfolio optimization model with imperfect information, in which investors acquire country-specific...

This paper examines financial market comovements across European transition economies and compares their experience to that of other regions. Correlations in monthly indices of exchange market pressures can partly be explained by direct trade linkages, but not by measures of other fundamentals....

We analyze a dual currency search model in which agents are allowed to hold multiple units of both currencies. Hence, agents hold portfolios of currency. We study equilibria in which the two currencies are identical and equilibria in which the two currencies differ according to the magnitude of...

This paper examines the causality between the exchange rates and stock prices in the Middle East and North Africa Region before and after Asian financial crisis. Applying a non-causality testing procedure developed by Toda and Yamamoto (1995), we empirically find that there is a unidirectional...

We propose that the limited financial development of emerging markets is a significant factor behind the large share of dollar-denominated external debt present in these markets. We show that when financial constraints affect borrowing and lending between domestic agents, agents undervalue...

The Mexican, Asian, and Russian crises of the mid- and late 1990s, have renewed the interest among policymakers in the determinants and effects of private capital flows. This paper analyzes whether policies can affect the composition of capital inflows and whether different compositions...