This timely volume addresses three important recent trends in the internationalization of United States equity markets: extensive market integration through foreign investment and links among stock prices around the world; increasing securitization as countries such as Japan come to rely more than ever before on markets in equities and bonds at the expense of banks; and the opening of national financial systems of newly industrializing countries to international financial flows and institutions, as governments remove capital controls and other barriers. Eight essays examine such issues as the current extent of international market integration, gains to U.S. investors through international diversification, home-country bias in investing, the role of time and location around the world in stock trading, and the behavior of country funds. Other, long-standing questions about equity markets are also addressed, including market efficiency and the accuracy of models of expected returns, with a particular focus on variances, covariances, and the price of risk according to the Capital Asset Pricing Model.

The landscape of international finance has drastically changed within the last decade. The institutions inherited from the Bretton-Woods conference—the IMF and the WBD— have become obsolete, in part, due to their lack of reforming. Meanwhile newly created institutions including The New Development Bank and the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank are increasing their sphere of influence. Developing countries from Africa, Asia, and Latin America are more eager than ever to work with the NDB or the AIIB. Meanwhile, new players such as Sovereign Wealth Funds are reshaping financial markets, through their weights and influence in global markets. The book looks to enhance understanding of the real markets of international finance and proposes ways to bring the old and new players together in this sand-shifting world of international finance.​

This book presents the economic foundation of international equity investments providing a practical guide to invest in international equity exchange-traded funds (ETFs). It shows how to gain exposure to foreign stock markets through both theoretical foundations of international diversification and in-depth characteristics of global, regional, country-specific, and international sector/thematic ETFs. Unlike other books in the field which broadly discuss different aspects of the ETF market, this book explores one specific market segment, offering the first in-depth and state-of-the-art analysis of international equity ETFs and including, in particular, ETFs with global, regional, single-country, and international sector/thematic exposures. The number and variety of such financial instruments are constantly growing. Hence, it seems obvious that there is an urgent need for a book that will help investors who are willing to diversify their portfolios outside the domestic market—in both developed and emerging/frontier markets. International Equity Exchange-Traded Funds presents a comprehensive review of investment possibilities offered by international ETFs for stock market investors.

Recent changes in technology, along with the opening up of many regions previously closed to investment, have led to explosive growth in the international movement of capital. Flows from foreign direct investment and debt and equity financing can bring countries substantial gains by augmenting local savings and by improving technology and incentives. Investing companies acquire market access, lower cost inputs, and opportunities for profitable introductions of production methods in the countries where they invest. But, as was underscored recently by the economic and financial crises in several Asian countries, capital flows can also bring risks. Although there is no simple explanation of the currency crisis in Asia, it is clear that fixed exchange rates and chronic deficits increased the likelihood of a breakdown. Similarly, during the 1970s, the United States and other industrial countries loaned OPEC surpluses to borrowers in Latin America. But when the U.S. Federal Reserve raised interest rates to control soaring inflation, the result was a widespread debt moratorium in Latin America as many countries throughout the region struggled to pay the high interest on their foreign loans. International Capital Flows contains recent work by eminent scholars and practitioners on the experience of capital flows to Latin America, Asia, and eastern Europe. These papers discuss the role of banks, equity markets, and foreign direct investment in international capital flows, and the risks that investors and others face with these transactions. By focusing on capital flows' productivity and determinants, and the policy issues they raise, this collection is a valuable resource for economists, policymakers, and financial market participants.

This monograph reviews the existing accounting, finance and economics literature on the economic effects of transparency in international equity markets, considers aspects of an international setting that make it an interesting environment for investigating these effects, and suggests directions for future research

An in-depth look at the nature of market making and exchanges From theory to practicalities, this is a comprehensive, up-to-date handbook and reference on how markets work and the nuances of trading. It includes a CD with an interactive trading simulation. Robert A. Schwartz, PhD (New York, NY), is Marvin M. Speiser Professor of Finance and University Distinguished Professor in the Zicklin School of Business, Baruch College, CUNY. Reto Francioni, PhD (Zurich, Switzerland), is President and Chairman of the Board of SWX, the Swiss Stock Exchange, and former co-CEO of Consors Discount Broker AG, Nuremberg.

This paper investigates empirically the degree of international integration of industrial and emerging country equity markets. It analyzes two issues: first, the extent to which equity prices have tended to move similarly across countries and regions in the long run; and second, the strength of cross-country “contagion” effects. The paper’s findings suggest that both intra-regional and inter-regional linkages across national equity markets have strengthened in recent years. In addition, using impulse response functions, the paper shows that cross-country contagion effects of country-specific shocks dissipate in a matter of weeks while contagion effects of global shocks take several months to unwind themselves.