Foreign and domestic bank participation in emerging markets: lessons from Mexico and Argentina

It is generally agreed that strong domestic financial systems play an important role in attaining overall economic development and stabilization. The role played by foreign banks in achieving this goal, however, is still controversial. This article brings new evidence to the debate over foreign participation by examining the lending patterns of domestic and foreign banks in Argentina and Mexico during the 1990s. The authors conclude that foreign banks in both countries typically have stronger and less volatile loan growth than their domestic counterparts. The corollary to this finding, however, is that bank health—not ownership per se—is the critical element in the growth, volatility, and cyclicality of bank credit. Still, diversity of ownership is found to contribute to greater credit stability in times of financial system turmoil and weakness.Bank loans - Argentina ; Bank loans - Mexico ; Banks and banking, Foreign ; Argentina ; Mexico

Foreign and Domestic Bank Participation in Emerging Markets: Lessons from Mexico and Argentina

The Asian Crisis has highlighted the importance of strong domestic financial systems in overall economic development and stabilization. Less agreement is evident on the role of foreign banks in achieving this goal. We explore this issue by studying bank-specific data on lending by domestically- and foreign-owned banks in Argentina and Mexico. We find that foreign banks generally have had higher loan growth rates than their domestically-owned counterparts, with lower volatility of lending, contributing to lower overall volatility of credit. Additionally, in both countries, foreign banks show notable credit growth during crisis periods. In Argentina, the loan portfolios of foreign and domestic privately-owned banks are similar, and lending rates analogously respond to aggregate demand fluctuations. In Mexico, foreign and domestic banks with lower levels of impaired assets have similar loan responsiveness and portfolios. State-owned banks (Argentina) and banks with high levels of impaired assets (Mexico) have more stagnant loan growth and weak responsiveness to market signals. Overall, these findings suggest that bank health, and not ownership per se, is the critical element in the growth, volatility, and cyclicality of bank credit. Diversity in ownership appears to contribute to greater stability of credit in times of crisis and domestic financial system weakness.

Has foreign bank entry led to sounder banks in Latin America?

Policymakers continue to debate the merits of opening emerging market financial sectors to foreign ownership. A comparison of the 1995-2000 performance of foreign and domestic banks in select Latin American countries reveals that while foreign banks differed little from their domestic counterparts in overall financial condition, they showed more robust loan growth, a more aggressive response to asset quality deterioration, and a greater ability to absorb losses_characteristics that could help to strengthen the financial systems of their host countries.Banks and banking - Latin America ; Banks and banking, Foreign ; Economic development - Latin America

Einflüsse von Schlaf auf das episodische Gedächtnis - Replikation einer Vorstudie und Einführung intrapersoneller Abrufintervalle vor und nach Nachtschlaf

Anhand dieser Arbeit sollte überprüft werden, ob Schlaf die Bildung von episodischem Gedächtnis und insbesondere die Einbindung einer Erinnerung in ihren räumlich-zeitlichen Kontext unterstützt. Hierzu sollten zunächst die Ergebnisse einer Vorstudie repliziert werden. Dort war basierend auf visuellen Erkundungsmustern bei erneuter Präsentation von zuvor implizit enkodierten Gesichterpositionen, ein episodischer Score zur Beschreibung einer Interaktion von räumlichen und zeitlichen Aspekten der Erinnerung nach dem Nachtschlaf entwickelt worden. Dieser hatte mit den Abfrageergebnissen nach dem „Was-Wo-Wann“-Paradigma korreliert. Zusätzlich wurde in der vorliegenden Studie untersucht, wie sich die Erinnerung über eine Nacht Schlaf verändert. Deshalb wurden zwei Probandengruppen getestet, eine lediglich nach dem Schlafen wie in der Vorstudie und eine weitere Gruppe sowohl vor dem Schlaf als auch nach dem Schlaf. Tatsächlich konnte in der Gruppe, die lediglich nach dem Schlaf getestet wurde, eine Interaktion zwischen den zeitlichen und räumlichen Komponenten der Aufgabe festgestellt werden, jedoch war hier das Erkundungsmuster eher gegensätzlich zur Vorstudie und eine Korrelation zwischen den Ergebnissen der impliziten und expliziten Abfrage war nicht zu erkennen. Eine exakte Replikation der Vorstudie war somit nicht erreicht worden. In der Gruppe, die vor und nach dem Schlaf getestet wurde, ließ sich vor dem Schlaf kein spezifisches Erkundungsmuster feststellen, erstaunlicherweise war in dieser Gruppe aber auch nach dem Schlaf kein signifikantes Muster erkennbar. Kontrollmessungen hatten keine Unterschiede zwischen den Gruppen aufgezeigt, sodass die Ursache im Design selbst vermutet wurde. Und wirklich fielen in Subgruppen gegensätzliche Ergebnisse auf, abhängig davon, ob vor dem Schlaf ein expliziter Abruf stattgefunden hatte oder nicht. In der Gruppe mit explizitem Abruf vor dem Schlaf konnte in der impliziten Abfrage nach dem Schlaf ein deskriptiv positiver epsiodischer Score nachgewiesen werden. Allerdings war die Gruppengröße sehr gering. Trotzdem zeigt sich auch in dieser Studie, dass sich über die Nacht etwas an der räumlich-zeitlichen Interaktion zu ändern scheint. Dies spricht dafür, dass auch das episodische Gedächtnis von Schlaf profitiert. Möglicherweise entwickelt sich der episodische Score erst nach einer gewissen Zeit und sogar erst nach mehreren Stunden. Zukünftige Studien sollten eine Abfrage direkt nach der Enkodierung und Abfragen vor dem Schlaf zu unterschiedlichen Zeitintervallen berücksichtigen, auch wenn hierdurch die Abfragen nach dem Schlaf ebenfalls beeinflusst werden können. Auch diesbezüglich sind weitere Untersuchungen erforderlich

A Model of Electoral Competition with Media Bias

I reinterpret the Hotelling model of electoral competition through the lens of media bias. Bias levels are determined in a separate, near classical, Hotelling model that represents competition between two media firms. These bias levels create intervals, in both symmetric and asymmetric cases, within which candidates are able to deviate from the median and still maintain equal shares of votes. Subsequently, I assume candidates have personal ideologies that they wish to remain close to in order to resolve the multiplicity of equilibria. The results explain political candidates choosing distinct and non-median ideologic platforms. As an extension, I allow for voluntary voting behavior and distinct editorial policies; the need for my home-base assumption is eliminated, and the firms' chosen editorial policies determine the electoral outcome.</p

DNA supercoiling, a critical signal regulating the basal expression of the lac operon in Escherichia coli

Escherichia coli lac repressor (LacI) is a paradigmatic transcriptional factor that controls the expression of lacZYA in the lac operon. This tetrameric protein specifically binds to the O1, O2 and O3 operators of the lac operon and forms a DNA loop to repress transcription from the adjacent lac promoter. In this article, we demonstrate that upon binding to the O1 and O2 operators at their native positions LacI constrains three (−) supercoils within the 401-bp DNA loop of the lac promoter and forms a topological barrier. The stability of LacI-mediated DNA topological barriers is directly proportional to its DNA binding affinity. However, we find that DNA supercoiling modulates the basal expression from the lac operon in E. coli. Our results are consistent with the hypothesis that LacI functions as a topological barrier to constrain free, unconstrained (−) supercoils within the 401-bp DNA loop of the lac promoter. These constrained (−) supercoils enhance LacI’s DNA-binding affinity and thereby the repression of the promoter. Thus, LacI binding is superhelically modulated to control the expression of lacZYA in the lac operon under varying growth conditions

Foreign ownership, bank information environments, and the international mobility of corporate governance

This paper investigates how foreign ownership shapes bank information environments. Using a sample of listed banks from 60 countries over 1997–2012, we show that foreign ownership is significantly associated with greater (lower) informativeness (synchronicity) in bank stock prices. We also find that stock returns of foreign-owned banks reflect more information about future earnings. In addition, the positive association between price informativeness and foreign ownership is stronger for foreign-owned banks in countries with stronger governance, stronger banking supervision, and lower monitoring costs. Overall, our evidence suggests that foreign ownership reduces bank opacity by exporting governance, yielding important implications for regulators and governments