United States banking organization abroad

Banks and banking, International

Portfolio inertia and stock market fluctuations

Several recent studies have addressed household participation in the stock market, but relatively few have focused on household stock trading behavior. Household trading is important for the stock market, as households own more than 40% of the NYSE capitalization directly and can also influence trading patterns of institutional investors by adjusting their indirect stock holdings. Existing studies based on administrative data offer conflicting results. Discount brokerage data show excessive trading to the detriment of stockholders, while data on retirement accounts indicate extreme inactivity. This paper uses data representative of the population to document the extent of household portfolio inertia and to link it to household characteristics and to stock market movements. We document considerable portfolio inertia, as regards both changing stockholding participation status and trading stocks, and find that specific household characteristics contribute to the tendency to exhibit such inertia. Although our findings suggest some dependence of trading directly-held equity through brokerage accounts on the performance of the stock market index, they do not indicate that the recent expansion in the stockholder base and the experience of the stock market downswing have significantly altered the overall propensity of households to trade in stocks or to switch participation status in a way that could contribute to stock market instability. JEL Classification: G110, E21

Competition Among Securities Markets: Can the Canadian Market Survive?

According to Coffee (2002), the number of securities exchanges in the world is likely to eventually shrink radically, under the effects of globalization and technology, thus leading to the question of the survival of relatively small exchanges. However, little information exists regarding the current competitive position of the Canadian market, and there exists but scant evidence to document its evolution over the last decade. Two visions of the development of Canadian securities markets are proposed. Some view this market as thriving, observing no evidence that domestic capital markets have been abandoned by Canadian firms. In contrast, other authors depict the TSX as the “Incredible Vanishing Exchange,” asserting that it symbolizes the hollowing out of corporate Canada. In fact, Canadian firms represent the largest group of foreign stocks listed in the U.S. market, even though their number has apparently been decreasing since 1998. Our study presents evidence relative to the evolution and current competitiveness of the Canadian securities market. We also attempt to predict the effect competition will likely have on this market. Our general conclusion is that survival will probably constitute a real challenge for the Canadian securities market. Selon Coffee (2002), le nombre de Bourses dans le monde devrait diminuer radicalement, sous l’effet de la mondialisation et de la technologie. On peut alors s’interroger sur la survie des Bourses de petite taille. Peu d’informations sont actuellement disponibles quant à la position compétitive du marché boursier canadien et son évolution au cours de la dernière décennie. Deux visions de son développement sont avancées. Certains pensent que ce marché est florissant. Ils ne constatent aucune trace d’un abandon par les entreprises canadiennes. À l’opposé, d’autres décrivent le TSX comme une Bourse en perte de vitesse, qui serait en train de disparaître. En fait, les entreprises canadiennes constituent le plus important groupe de titres étrangers listés aux États-Unis, même si leur nombre semble diminuer depuis 1998. Notre étude analyse l’évolution du marché boursier canadien et sa position compétitive actuelle. Nous tentons de prévoir l’effet qu’aura la concurrence sur ce marché. Notre conclusion générale est que son plus grand défi est certainement sa survie.securities exchange, competition, cross-listed securities, marché boursier, concurrence, titres interlistés

On Uneven Ground: How Corporate Governance Prioritizes Short-term Speculative Investments, Impedes Productive Investments, and Jeopardizes Productivity Growth

The economic recovery after the Great Recession highlighted a continuous divergence between soaring profits and lagging investment. These trends are related at the corporate level, where corporate managers have stronger incentives to pursue short-term profit-seeking activities than to invest in longer-term productive activities, such as hiring and training people and investment in physical infrastructure. This prioritization results because the corporate governance system is biased towards the short run. The policy goals that we discuss aim to find a better economic balance between short-run and long-run goals by defining long-term performance measures and finding a better balance in the incentives of short-run and long-run oriented corporate stakeholders.Business investment; corporate governance; short-term speculation; long-term productivity growth

Development of Auditing in Malaysia:Legal,Political and Historical Influences

This work investigates the role and contribution of external auditing as practised in the Malaysian society during the forty year period from independence in 1957 to just before the onset of the Asian Financial Crisis in 1997. It applies the political economic theory introduced by Tinker (1980) and refined by Cooper & Sherer (1984), which emphasises the social relations aspects of professional activity rather than economic forces alone. In a case study format where qualitative data was gathered mainly from primary and secondary source materials, the study found that the function of auditing in the Malaysian society in most cases is devoid of any essence of mission; instead it is created, shaped and changed by the pressures which give rise to its development over time. The largely insignificant role that it serves is intertwined within the contexts in which it operates