University of Chicago Press The Internationalization of Equity Markets (National Bureau of Economic Research Project Report)

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.