Asia in Global Governance: A Case for Decentralized Institutions

The global economic crisis refocused attention on the governance of international economic institutions (IEIs). This study uses the analytical framework of club theory to highlight structural obstacles to reform in international macroeconomic management, development finance, trade, and financial stability. The authors argue that reforms currently being discussed—for example, in voting power in the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank—are important, but not sufficient to make IEIs adaptable to the demands of a rapidly changing world economy. The authors propose transforming IEIs by shifting more decisions from the global to sub-global level. Partially decentralized decision making already exists in some policy areas (for example in regional development banks) and could expand and improve the provision of international public goods.global governance decentralized institutions; decentralizing international economic institutions; international institution reform

The Asset Management Industry in Asia: Dynamics of Growth, Structure and Performance

management industry in Asian developing economies – specifically in China, Indonesia, Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, Philippines and Thailand. We focus on the size and growth of the buy-side of the respective financial markets, asset allocation, the regulatory environment, and the state of internationalization of the fund management industry in its key components – mutual funds, pension funds and asset management for high net worth individuals. We link these the evolution of professional asset management in these environments to the development of the respective capital markets and to the evolution of corporate governance. We find that the fund management industry occupies a very small niche in domestic financial systems that are dominated by banks. At the same time, we find that its growth has been very rapid in the early 2000s and we suggest that this is likely to persist as the demand for professional management of financial wealth in the region develops and as the pension fund sectors of the respective economies are liberalized to allow larger portions of assets to be invested in collective investment schemes

CEO incentives and bank risk over the business cycle

We examine whether the relationship between managerial risk-taking incentives and bank risk is sensitive to the underlying macroeconomic conditions. We find that risk-taking incentives provided to bank executives are associated with higher bank riskiness during economic downturns. We attribute this finding to the increase in moral hazard during macroeconomic downturns when the perceived probability of future bailouts and government guarantees rises. This association is particularly strong for larger banks, banks that maintain lower capital ratios and banks that are managed by more powerful Chief Executive Officers (CEOs). Our findings highlight the importance of the interaction between managerial incentives and the macroeconomic environment. Boards and regulators may find it useful to consider the countercyclical nature of the relationship between risk-taking incentives and bank riskiness when designing managerial compensation