The Internationalization of Equity Markets

This volume addresses three important recent trends in the internationalization of equity markets. These trends are: extensive market integration through foreign investment and links among stock prices around the world; increasing securitization of other markets at the expense of banks; and the opening of national financial systems of newly industrializing countries to international financial flows and institutions. Eight essays examine such issues as: the current extent of international market integration; gains to US investors through international diversification; home-country bias in investing; the role of time and location around the world in stock-trading; and the behaviour 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.