Investors and managers now routinely face counterparts who operate within different legal systems and who do not share similar social priorities. This tension between global markets and domestic institutions fuels the debate on corporate-governance reform; it also frames the debate in this volume.

Markets for capital, products, and managerial talent are expanding rapidly across national borders, yet domestic laws and practices have never had greater impact on corporate structures and cross-border deals. Investors pursuing high returns and diversification, entrepreneurs seeking capital, and managers endeavoring to restructure troubled enterprises now routinely face transaction counter-parties who operate within different legal and political systems, and who rank social priorities quite differently. This dynamic tension between global markets and domestic institutions fuels the debate on corporate governance reform now raging in virtually every region of the world. It also frames the intellectual agenda of the distinguished contributors to this volume, who examine such issues as the possible convergence of corporate governance practices around the world, national variations in the quality of corporate law, and the fiduciary responsibilities corporate managers around the world owe to their shareholders. Among the book's many insights is the contention that "globalization" and "global markets" are misleading terms, because they mask the local quality of much of the activity occurring within those rubrics. Case studies focus on France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, and the transition economies of Eastern Europe.

In a modern world with rapidly growing international trade, countries compete less based on the availability of natural resources, geographical advantages, and lower labor costs and more on factors related to firms' ability to enter and compete in new markets. One such factor is the ability to demonstrate the quality and safety of goods and services expected by consumers and confirm compliance with international standards. To assure such compliance, a sound quality infrastructure (QI) ecosystem is essential. Jointly developed by the World Bank Group and the National Metrology Institute of Germany, this guide is designed to help development partners and governments analyze a country's quality infrastructure ecosystems and provide recommendations to design and implement reforms and enhance the capacity of their QI institutions.

Gregory Fairchild introduces readers to the rising set of entrepreneurs whose efforts to reach marginalized groups are reshaping the emerging markets of the United States. He explores how minority-owned and community-development institutions are achieving innovations in financial services to further economic development and reduce inequality.

A thoroughly revised and updated edition of a textbook for graduate students in finance, with new coverage of global financial institutions. This thoroughly revised and updated edition of a widely used textbook for graduate students in finance now provides expanded coverage of global financial institutions, with detailed comparisons of U.S. systems with non-U.S. systems. A focus on the actual practices of financial institutions prepares students for real-world problems. After an introduction to financial markets and market participants, including asset management firms, credit rating agencies, and investment banking firms, the book covers risks and asset pricing, with a new overview of risk; the structure of interest rates and interest rate and credit risks; the fundamentals of primary and secondary markets; government debt markets, with new material on non-U.S. sovereign debt markets; corporate funding markets, with new coverage of small and medium enterprises and entrepreneurial ventures; residential and commercial real estate markets; collective investment vehicles, in a chapter new to this edition; and financial derivatives, including financial futures and options, interest rate derivatives, foreign exchange derivatives, and credit risk transfer vehicles such as credit default swaps. Each chapter begins with learning objectives and ends with bullet point takeaways and questions.

"Institutions fix the confines of and impose form upon the activities of human beings."-Walton Hamilton, 'Institutions', 1932.The 'World Development Report 2002: Building Institutions for Markets' undertakes the complex issue of the basic institutions needed for markets to function properly. This year's 'World Development Report' goes beyond a simple examination of institutional structure and explores the functions of institutions. Recognizing that one size does not fit all, the report asks what do all institutions which support markets do?The answer is simple: Institutions channel information, define and enforce property rights, and increase or prevent competition. Understanding the functions that current institutions and their proposed replacements would provide is the first step. The report contends that once you have identified the institutional functions that are missing, you can then build effective institutions by following some basic principles:- Complement what exists already - in terms of other supporting institutions, human capacities, and technology.- Innovate to suit local norms and conditions. Experimenting with new structures can provide a country with creative solutions that work.- Connect communities of market players through open information flows and open trade. Open trade and information flows create demand for new institutions and improve the functioning of existing structures.- Compete among jurisdictions, firms, and individuals. Increased competition creates demand for new institutions as old ones lose their effectiveness. It also affects how people behave - improving institutional quality.These broad lessons and careful analyses, which links theory with pertinent evidence, are provided in the report. 'World Development Report 2002: Building Institutions for Markets' contains selected 'World Development Indicators'.

Global private regulations—who wins, who loses, and why Over the past two decades, governments have delegated extensive regulatory authority to international private-sector organizations. This internationalization and privatization of rule making has been motivated not only by the economic benefits of common rules for global markets, but also by the realization that government regulators often lack the expertise and resources to deal with increasingly complex and urgent regulatory tasks. The New Global Rulers examines who writes the rules in international private organizations, as well as who wins, who loses--and why. Tim Büthe and Walter Mattli examine three powerful global private regulators: the International Accounting Standards Board, which develops financial reporting rules used by corporations in more than a hundred countries; and the International Organization for Standardization and the International Electrotechnical Commission, which account for 85 percent of all international product standards. Büthe and Mattli offer both a new framework for understanding global private regulation and detailed empirical analyses of such regulation based on multi-country, multi-industry business surveys. They find that global rule making by technical experts is highly political, and that even though rule making has shifted to the international level, domestic institutions remain crucial. Influence in this form of global private governance is not a function of the economic power of states, but of the ability of domestic standard-setters to provide timely information and speak with a single voice. Büthe and Mattli show how domestic institutions' abilities differ, particularly between the two main standardization players, the United States and Europe.

Examines various issues concerning the strategies of institutional investors, the role of institutional investors in corporate governance, their impact on local and international capital markets, as well as the emergence of sovereign and other asset management funds and their interactions with micro and macro economic and market environments.

A Brookings Institution Press, the World Bank, and the International Monetary Fund publication The extensive reforms and liberalization of financial services in emerging markets worldwide call for cutting-edge strategies to capture the benefits of new investment opportunities. In Open Doors, a volume of papers from the third annual Financial Markets and Development conference, multidisciplinary financial sector experts analyze current economic and political trends and prescribe practical advice to the financial development community. The book addresses the key issues of concern regarding the emerging markets, including the trends, motivations, and scope of FDI in finance; policy options that will best capture the opportunities of foreign entry; and the role of foreign institutions in e-finance innovation. The authors focus on specific topics such as foreign participation in emerging market banking systems and securities industries, WTO policies and enforcement, the role of foreign banks, liberalization of insurance markets, the need for capital markets, and the policy, regulatory, and legal issues associated with e-finance. For policymakers and financial practitioners affected by the WTO's Financial Services Agreement, this timely book should be of particular interest. Contributors include Donald Mathieson (International Money Fund), Pierre Sauvé (Trade Directorate, OECD), George J. Vojta (formerly with Bankers Trust and Citibank), Harold D. Skipper (J. Mack Robinson College of Business, Georgia State University), Benn Steil (Council on Foreign Relations), Morris Goldstein and Edward M. Graham (Institute for International Economics), Nicolas Lardy (Brookings Institution), Phillip Turner (Bank of International Settlements), and Robert Ledig (Fried, Frank, Shriver & Jacobson).

Many questions have been raised about America's status in the increasingly interconnected global economy. Yet key factsâ€"such as the amount of foreign assets abroad owned by U.S. citizensâ€"are not known. The crucial data needed to assess the U.S. position are unavailable. This volume explores significant shortcomings in U.S. data on international capital transactions and their implications for policymakers. The volume offers clearcut recommendations for U.S. agencies to bring data collection and analyses of the global economy into the twenty-first century. The volume explores: How factors emerging since the early 1980s have shaped world financial markets and revealed shortcomings in data collection and analysis. How the existing U.S. data system works and where it fails how measurements of international financial transactions are recorded; and how swaps, options, and futures present special reporting problems. How alternative methods, such as collecting data, from sources such as global custodians and international clearinghouses, might improve coverage and accuracy.