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Deviations from efficiency widely documented for the case of developed capital markets include the presence of seasonal patterns. These anomalies, fairly well known by investors, could possibly lead to obtaining extraordinary gains. Although markets from the developing and transitional economies have grown significantly during the last decades, research concerning their seasonal behavior is limited. This paper examines the day-of-the week and month-of-the year effect for the seven Latin American stock exchanges: Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Peru, and Venezuela. Returns derived from the local nominal indexes, adjusted for inflation indexes, and dollar adjusted indexes are analyzed to identify the behavior of each exchange and draw some comparisons.

This book is an attempt to reflect on what we have learned from financial policies and financial crises in Latin America. The 21 chapters in this volume capture the developments in various ways. They cover theoretical contributions, regional empirical studies, and specific inquiries on Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Cuba, Ecuador, Mexico, Peru and Venezuela. The breadth of methodologies implemented suggests that researchers are looking at Latin American financial markets through a variety of lenses. The chapters are divided into 7 parts, including, in Part I, an initial overview. Part II examines the foreign exchange markets in Latin America and their interactions with other markets. Part III discusses dollarization issues in the region. Part IV then takes up the issue of banking in Latin America. Equity and bond markets are considered in Parts V and VI, respectively. Lastly, Part VII considers pension systems in Latin America. Taken as a whole, the 21 chapters seize the excitement of studying Latin America and provide lessons that are applicable around the world.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between the inflow of foreign direct investment (FDI) into emerging market economies and its determinants between 1997 and 2005 from a new perspective emphasizing the role of accounting standards and corporate governance.

Methodology: The study covers 27 emerging market and transition economies that are classified into three groups: Asian, Central and Eastern European, and Latin American. Considering the possible endogeneity in studies on corporate governance, Generalized Two-Stage Least Squares (G2SLS) and Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) estimation techniques are used in this study.

Findings: Results indicate that the adoption of high quality accounting standards and effective corporate governance lead to an increase in FDI. I conclude that, in order to attract more FDI, emerging market countries should improve the quality of financial reporting and corporate governance in addition to improving their macroeconomic indicators.

Originality: This is, to my knowledge, the first study that aims to explore the association of FDI with accounting standards and corporate governance.

Research limitations: Difficulty in obtaining data constitutes the major limitation in international accounting research, in general, and in this study, in particular. Therefore, some emerging market countries are necessarily excluded from the study.

In this paper we investigate the empirical performance of an alternative beta risk estimator, which is designed to be superior to its conventional counterparts in situations of extreme thin trading. The estimator used is based on the sample selectivity model. The study compares the resultant selectivity-corrected beta to the OLS beta and Dimson Betas. We demonstrate the empirical behaviour of the selectivity corrected beta estimator using a sample of stocks in seven countries from Latin America. The results indicate that the selectivity-corrected beta does correct the downward bias of the OLS estimates and is likely to better estimate stock risk.

This paper analyzes two views on the issue of FDI and stock market development. The first view is that FDI is negatively correlated with the development of stock markets. The second view is that FDI is positively related to stock market development. After addressing the issues that might lead to these conclusions, the hypothesis is tested that the level of stock market development in a country is positively correlated to FDI. Data is collected from four Latin American countries and an empirical model is proposed to explain the observed relationship. Additional explanatory variables were included, and a model is developed.

In emerging economies, internationalization endeavors have been historically complex and uncertain. Issues such as competitiveness and financial volatility often act as detractors for exploring foreign markets. Nevertheless, state policies and commercial agreements have been boosting an increased participation in host economies, particularly relating to the metalworking sector. This study explores the underlying factors related to the internationalization of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in two rising Latin American economies: Mexico and Peru. Comparisons are presented with the aim of understanding the global arena through both perspectives.

The effects of economic liberalization have been subject to academic and political discussion for many decades. The trade war between the United States and China brought new perspectives to this debate and raised the question: do fewer trade barriers and more economic freedom lead to better functioning societies? Following the perspective of the transaction cost theory, we argue that more economic freedom reduces non-productive expenses and allows private companies to improve the allocation of resources. It also allows more competition among companies, which facilitates access to funding. In this research, we use data of 1,248 publicly traded companies in the seven largest Latin American countries to analyze the effect OF increasing economic freedom on administrative expenses and financial. Our results indicate that, on average, increasing economic freedom allows the reduction of transaction costs and facilitates financial leverage for companies.

After the collapse of communist and socialist regimes at the beginning of 1990s, a number of Central and Eastern European (CEE) economies started their journey into capitalism by establishing private property and capital markets. As a result, a number of stock markets have since been established in the region. Since then, they have displayed considerable growth in size and degree of sophistication, and they have attracted the interest of academics for a number of reasons. First, these markets provide a possibility to re-examine existing asset-pricing models and pricing anomalies in the conditions of the evolving markets. Market efficiency of the CEE markets is tested in Ratkovicova (1999) and Gilmore and McManus (2001); a version of the CAPM is tested in Charemza and Majerowska (2000); Mateus (2004) explores the predictability of European emerging market returns within an unconditional asset-pricing framework while the January-pricing anomaly is studied in Henke (2003). Second, in the light of growing interdependencies between world equity markets due to enhanced capital movements, numerous studies have investigated the extent to which emerging European stock markets are integrated with global markets, and the extent to which they are subjects to global shocks (Gelos & Sahay, 2000; Gilmore & McManus, 2002; Scheicher, 2001). Among the CEE markets, those of the Vysegrad countries (Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic) have attracted most of the attention of the academics due to their economies faster growth relative to their regional counterparts (Slovakia, Slovenia, Bulgaria, Croatia and Baltic countries), in addition to political stability and their (successfully realized) prospects of joining the European Union (EU).

This study examines laws regarding the legal features of traded shares in 25 developed and emerging economies. Included are civil and common laws in South and North America, Eastern and Western Europe, South Asia, Australia, and Middle Eastern countries. Significant changes have been implemented during the last two decades, especially those related to harmonization of corporate governance principles, best practices, and codes of conduct concerning stock trading. However, there are still significant differences among types of shares traded in world stock markets which may have different responds in case of high price volatility.