This paper examines the importance of political risk, the financial risk, and economic risk in portfolio and direct investment decisions. In addition, the components of each of these risk measures are examined. First, I explore whether any of these measures contain information about future expected

We model consumption and dividend growth rates as containing (i) a small long-run predictable component and (ii) fluctuating economic uncertainty (consumption volatility). These dynamics, for which we provide empirical support, in conjunction with Epstein and Zin’s (1989) preferences, can explain

This paper evaluates (1) whether the exogenous component of financial intermediary development influences economic growth and (2) whether cross-country differences in legal and accounting systems (e.g., creditor rights, contract enforcement, and accounting standards) explain differences

develop disproportionately faster in countries with more developed nancial markets. We nd this to be true in a large sample of countries over the 1980s. We show this result is unlikely to be driven by omitted variables, outliers, or reverse causality. (JEL O4, F3, G1) A large literature, dating at least

closely on the Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS), measures neither household income nor consumption expenditures. As a proxy for long-run household wealth we construct a linear index from a set of asset indicators using principal components analysis to derive the weights. This “asset index ” is robust

, where the real interest rate is decomposed in an international rate and a country risk component. Country risk is affected by fundamental shocks but, through the presence of working capital, also amplifies the effects of those shocks. The model generates business cycles consistent with Argentine data

Domestic investors hold a substantially larger proportion of their wealth portfolios in domestic assets than standard portfolio theory would suggest, a phenomenon called "equity home bias. " In the absence of this bias, investors would optimally diversify domestic output risk using

and other chronic diseases; and then provides estimates of the burden of cardiovascular (CV) diseases with specific focus on the developing countries. Next, we summarize key information on risk factors for cardiovascular disease (CVD) and indicate that their importance may have been underestimated. Then, we

are highly crosscorrelated, and principal components analysis implies they are mostly driven by a single common factor. Although we consider several macro-economic and financial variables as candidate proxies, we cannot explain this common systematic component. Our results suggest that monthly credit spread

. This article analyzes several indexes of ‘perceived corruption’ compiled from business risk surveys for the 1980s and 1990s. Six arguments find support. Countries with Protestant traditions, histories of British rule, more developed economies, and (probably) higher imports were less ‘corrupt’. Federal states