IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jcecon/v41y2013i2p506-526.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Investor protection rights and foreign investment

Author

Listed:
  • Giofré, Maela

Abstract

Different investor classes are endowed with different rights, and conflicting interests among them can make protection afforded to one party detrimental to another. We find that investor protection laws have sizeable “cross” effects on foreign portfolio investment and the direction of these effects supports the conjecture that foreign investors are particularly sensitive to the perceived riskiness of assets. Specifically, we find that strong protection of creditor rights – limiting excessive risk taking – positively affects foreign shareholders, whereas strong protection of shareholder rights – potentially shifting firms toward riskier projects – negatively impacts foreign bondholders. These findings, on the one hand, emphasize that strengthening investor protection is not a universally desirable policy; on the other hand, they provide a rationale for the failure of convergence toward any successful standard of effective investor protection. The degree of protection enjoyed by investors in each country is indeed endogenously determined by the balancing of many forces. Among them, the political choice to promote inward investment and to favor particular categories of investor may play an important role.

Suggested Citation

  • Giofré, Maela, 2013. "Investor protection rights and foreign investment," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 41(2), pages 506-526.
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:jcecon:v:41:y:2013:i:2:p:506-526
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jce.2012.07.002
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0147596712000595
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jce.2012.07.002?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Portes, Richard & Rey, Helene, 2005. "The determinants of cross-border equity flows," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 65(2), pages 269-296, March.
    2. Thorsten Beck & Ross Levine, 2008. "Legal Institutions and Financial Development," Springer Books, in: Claude Ménard & Mary M. Shirley (ed.), Handbook of New Institutional Economics, chapter 11, pages 251-278, Springer.
    3. Vlachos, Jonas, 2004. "Does Regulatory Harmonization Increase Bilateral Asset Holdings?," CEPR Discussion Papers 4417, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    4. Karen K. Lewis, 1999. "Trying to Explain Home Bias in Equities and Consumption," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 37(2), pages 571-608, June.
    5. Michael Graff, 2008. "Law and Finance: Common Law and Civil Law Countries Compared—An Empirical Critique," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 75(297), pages 60-83, February.
    6. R. Gaston Gelos & Shang‐Jin Wei, 2005. "Transparency and International Portfolio Holdings," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 60(6), pages 2987-3020, December.
    7. Fidora, Michael & Fratzscher, Marcel & Thimann, Christian, 2007. "Home bias in global bond and equity markets: The role of real exchange rate volatility," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 26(4), pages 631-655, June.
    8. La Porta, Rafael & Lopez-de-Silanes, Florencio & Shleifer, Andrei & Vishny, Robert, 2000. "Investor protection and corporate governance," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 58(1-2), pages 3-27.
    9. Sorensen, Bent E. & Wu, Yi-Tsung & Yosha, Oved & Zhu, Yu, 2007. "Home bias and international risk sharing: Twin puzzles separated at birth," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 26(4), pages 587-605, June.
    10. Djankov, Simeon & McLiesh, Caralee & Shleifer, Andrei, 2007. "Private credit in 129 countries," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 84(2), pages 299-329, May.
    11. Acharya, Viral V. & Amihud, Yakov & Litov, Lubomir, 2011. "Creditor rights and corporate risk-taking," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 102(1), pages 150-166, October.
    12. Shleifer, Andrei & Vishny, Robert W, 1986. "Large Shareholders and Corporate Control," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 94(3), pages 461-488, June.
    13. Shleifer, Andrei & Wolfenzon, Daniel, 2002. "Investor protection and equity markets," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 66(1), pages 3-27, October.
    14. Grossman, Sanford J & Stiglitz, Joseph E, 1980. "On the Impossibility of Informationally Efficient Markets," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 70(3), pages 393-408, June.
    15. Djankov, Simeon & Glaeser, Edward & La Porta, Rafael & Lopez-de-Silanes, Florencio & Shleifer, Andrei, 2003. "The new comparative economics," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 31(4), pages 595-619, December.
    16. Jensen, Michael C. & Meckling, William H., 1976. "Theory of the firm: Managerial behavior, agency costs and ownership structure," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 3(4), pages 305-360, October.
    17. Brennan, Michael J & Cao, H Henry, 1997. "International Portfolio Investment Flows," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 52(5), pages 1851-1880, December.
    18. Giuseppe Bruno & Riccardo De Bonis, 2009. "Do financial systems converge? New evidence from household financial assets in selected OECD countries," IFC Bulletins chapters, in: Bank for International Settlements (ed.), Proceedings of the IFC Conference on "Measuring financial innovation and its impact", Basel, 26-27 August 2008, volume 31, pages 383-401, Bank for International Settlements.
    19. Pistor, Katharina & Keinan, Yoram & Kleinheisterkamp, Jan & West, Mark D., 2003. "Innovation in corporate law," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 31(4), pages 676-694, December.
    20. Christian Leuz & Karl V. Lins & Francis E. Warnock, 2010. "Do Foreigners Invest Less in Poorly Governed Firms?," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 23(3), pages 3245-3285, March.
    21. Rajan, Raghuram & Zingales, Luigi, 2003. "Banks and Markets: the Changing Character of European Finance," CEPR Discussion Papers 3865, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    22. Dahlquist, Magnus & Pinkowitz, Lee & Stulz, René M. & Williamson, Rohan, 2003. "Corporate Governance and the Home Bias," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 38(1), pages 87-110, March.
    23. Beck, Thorsten & Demirguc-Kunt, Asli & Levine, Ross, 2003. "Law and finance: why does legal origin matter?," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 31(4), pages 653-675, December.
    24. Rafael La Porta & Florencio Lopez-de-Silanes & Andrei Shleifer & Robert W. Vishny, 1998. "Law and Finance," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 106(6), pages 1113-1155, December.
    25. Raman Uppal & Tan Wang, 2003. "Model Misspecification and Underdiversification," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 58(6), pages 2465-2486, December.
    26. Bruno, Giuseppe & De Bonis, Riccardo & Silvestrini, Andrea, 2012. "Do financial systems converge? New evidence from financial assets in OECD countries," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 40(1), pages 141-155.
    27. Karolyi, G. Andrew & Stulz, Rene M., 2003. "Are financial assets priced locally or globally?," Handbook of the Economics of Finance, in: G.M. Constantinides & M. Harris & R. M. Stulz (ed.), Handbook of the Economics of Finance, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 16, pages 975-1020, Elsevier.
    28. Djankov, Simeon & La Porta, Rafael & Lopez-de-Silanes, Florencio & Shleifer, Andrei, 2008. "The law and economics of self-dealing," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 88(3), pages 430-465, June.
    29. K.J. Martijn Cremers & Vinay B. Nair & Chenyang Wei, 2007. "Governance Mechanisms and Bond Prices," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 20(5), pages 1359-1388, 2007 07.
    30. Philip R. Lane, 2006. "Global Bond Portfolios and EMU," International Journal of Central Banking, International Journal of Central Banking, vol. 2(2), May.
    31. Klerman, Daniel & Mahoney, Paul G., 2007. "Legal origin?," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 35(2), pages 278-293, June.
    32. Di Mauro,Filippo & Anderton,Robert (ed.), 2007. "The External Dimension of the Euro Area," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521867009, September.
    33. Maurice Obstfeld & Kenneth Rogoff, 2001. "The Six Major Puzzles in International Macroeconomics: Is There a Common Cause?," NBER Chapters, in: NBER Macroeconomics Annual 2000, Volume 15, pages 339-412, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    34. Luigi Guiso & Paola Sapienza & Luigi Zingales, 2009. "Cultural Biases in Economic Exchange?," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 124(3), pages 1095-1131.
    35. Hölzl, Werner, 2006. "Convergence of financial systems: towards an evolutionary perspective," Journal of Institutional Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 2(1), pages 67-90, April.
    36. Myers, Stewart C., 1977. "Determinants of corporate borrowing," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 5(2), pages 147-175, November.
    37. Epstein, Larry G. & Miao, Jianjun, 2003. "A two-person dynamic equilibrium under ambiguity," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 27(7), pages 1253-1288, May.
    38. Kang, Jun-Koo & Stulz, Rene M., 1997. "Why is there a home bias? An analysis of foreign portfolio equity ownership in Japan," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 46(1), pages 3-28, October.
    39. Simeon Djankov & Oliver Hart & Caralee McLiesh & Andrei Shleifer, 2008. "Debt Enforcement around the World," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 116(6), pages 1105-1149, December.
    40. Giannetti, Mariassunta & Koskinen, Yrjö, 2010. "Investor Protection, Equity Returns, and Financial Globalization," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 45(1), pages 135-168, February.
    41. Rossi, Stefano & Volpin, Paolo F., 2004. "Cross-country determinants of mergers and acquisitions," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 74(2), pages 277-304, November.
    42. Mark Grinblatt & Matti Keloharju, 2001. "How Distance, Language, and Culture Influence Stockholdings and Trades," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 56(3), pages 1053-1073, June.
    43. Safavian, Mehnaz & Sharma, Siddharth, 2007. "When do creditor rights work?," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 35(3), pages 484-508, September.
    44. Merton, Robert C, 1969. "Lifetime Portfolio Selection under Uncertainty: The Continuous-Time Case," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 51(3), pages 247-257, August.
    45. Aggarwal, Reena & Klapper, Leora & Wysocki, Peter D., 2005. "Portfolio preferences of foreign institutional investors," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 29(12), pages 2919-2946, December.
    46. Nenova, Tatiana, 2006. "Takeover laws and financial development," Policy Research Working Paper Series 4029, The World Bank.
    47. Kalok Chan & Vicentiu Covrig & Lilian Ng, 2005. "What Determines the Domestic Bias and Foreign Bias? Evidence from Mutual Fund Equity Allocations Worldwide," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 60(3), pages 1495-1534, June.
    48. Roe, Mark J., 2007. "Juries and the political economy of legal origin," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 35(2), pages 294-308, June.
    49. Sattar A. Mansi & William F. Maxwell & John K. Wald, 2009. "Creditor Protection Laws and the Cost of Debt," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 52(4), pages 701-717, November.
    50. Holger Spamann, 2010. "The "Antidirector Rights Index" Revisited," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 23(2), pages 467-486, February.
    51. Poshakwale, Sunil S. & Thapa, Chandra, 2011. "Investor protection and international equity portfolio investments," Global Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 22(2), pages 116-129.
    52. Narcissa Balta & Juan Delgado, 2009. "Home Bias and Market Integration in the EU," CESifo Economic Studies, CESifo Group, vol. 55(1), pages 110-144, March.
    53. repec:bla:scandj:v:95:y:1993:i:1:p:97-109 is not listed on IDEAS
    54. Cooper, Ian & Kaplanis, Evi, 1994. "Home Bias in Equity Portfolios, Inflation Hedging, and International Capital Market Equilibrium," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 7(1), pages 45-60.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Tatsiana Kliatskova & Loïc Baptiste Savatier, 2020. "Insolvency Regimes and Cross-Border Investment Decisions," Discussion Papers of DIW Berlin 1862, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research.
    2. Bremus, Franziska & Kliatskova, Tatsiana, 2020. "Legal harmonization, institutional quality, and countries’ external positions: A sectoral analysis," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 107(C).
    3. Konstantin A. Kholodilin & Linus Pfeiffer, 2021. "Measuring Unmeasurable: How to Map Laws to Numbers Using Leximetrics," Discussion Papers of DIW Berlin 1933, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research.
    4. Kliatskova, Tatsiana & Savatier, Loïc Baptiste & Schmidt, Michael, 2023. "Insolvency regimes and cross-border investment decisions," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 131(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Giofré, Maela/M., 2009. "Investor protection and foreign stakeholders," MPRA Paper 20238, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised Jan 2010.
    2. Giofré, Maela, 2014. "Domestic investor protection and foreign portfolio investment," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 46(C), pages 355-371.
    3. Giofré, Maela, 2017. "Financial education, investor protection and international portfolio diversification," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 71(C), pages 111-139.
    4. Giofré, Maela, 2013. "International diversification: Households versus institutional investors," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 26(C), pages 145-176.
    5. Giofré, Maela, 2021. "Stock exchange consolidation and cross-border investment: An empirical assessment," Journal of Financial Stability, Elsevier, vol. 53(C).
    6. Giofré, Maela, 2009. "The role of information asymmetries and inflation hedging in international equity portfolios," Journal of Multinational Financial Management, Elsevier, vol. 19(4), pages 237-255, October.
    7. Coeurdacier, Nicolas & Guibaud, Stéphane, 2011. "International portfolio diversification is better than you think," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 30(2), pages 289-308, March.
    8. Maela Giofré, 2012. "Convergence of EMU Equity Portfolios," Open Economies Review, Springer, vol. 23(2), pages 381-419, April.
    9. Nicolas Coeurdacier & Hélène Rey, 2013. "Home Bias in Open Economy Financial Macroeconomics," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 51(1), pages 63-115, March.
    10. Baltzer, Markus & Stolper, Oscar & Walter, Andreas, 2013. "Is local bias a cross-border phenomenon? Evidence from individual investors’ international asset allocation," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 37(8), pages 2823-2835.
    11. repec:spo:wpecon:info:hdl:2441/c8dmi8nm4pdjkuc9g70969520 is not listed on IDEAS
    12. Chou, Julia & Zaiats, Nataliya & Zhang, Bohui, 2014. "Does auditor choice matter to foreign investors? Evidence from foreign mutual funds worldwide," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 46(C), pages 1-20.
    13. repec:hal:wpspec:info:hdl:2441/c8dmi8nm4pdjkuc9g70969520 is not listed on IDEAS
    14. Lee, Junyong & Lee, Kyounghun & Oh, Frederick Dongchuhl, 2023. "International portfolio diversification and the home bias puzzle," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    15. Ferreira, Miguel A. & Miguel, Antonio F., 2011. "The determinants of domestic and foreign bond bias," Journal of Multinational Financial Management, Elsevier, vol. 21(5), pages 279-300.
    16. Bong‐Chan Kho & René M. Stulz & Francis E. Warnock, 2009. "Financial Globalization, Governance, and the Evolution of the Home Bias," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 47(2), pages 597-635, May.
    17. repec:hal:wpspec:info:hdl:2441/c8dmi8nm4pdjkuc9g81p7j6b6 is not listed on IDEAS
    18. Andrei Shleifer & Florencio Lopez-de-Silanes & Rafael La Porta, 2008. "The Economic Consequences of Legal Origins," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 46(2), pages 285-332, June.
    19. repec:hal:spmain:info:hdl:2441/c8dmi8nm4pdjkuc9g81p7j6b6 is not listed on IDEAS
    20. Abdioglu, Nida & Khurshed, Arif & Stathopoulos, Konstantinos, 2013. "Foreign institutional investment: Is governance quality at home important?," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 32(C), pages 916-940.
    21. repec:spo:wpecon:info:hdl:2441/c8dmi8nm4pdjkuc9g81p7j6b6 is not listed on IDEAS
    22. Eichler, Stefan, 2012. "Equity home bias and corporate disclosure," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 31(5), pages 1008-1032.
    23. Diyarbakirlioglu, Erkin, 2011. "Domestic and foreign country bias in international equity portfolios," Journal of Multinational Financial Management, Elsevier, vol. 21(5), pages 301-329.
    24. Socaciu, Erzsébet-Mirjám & Nagy, Bálint-Zsolt & Benedek, Botond, 2023. "No place like home: Home bias and flight-to-quality in Group of Seven countries," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 129(C).
    25. Kim, Woochan & Sung, Taeyoon & Wei, Shang-Jin, 2011. "Does corporate governance risk at home affect investment choices abroad?," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 85(1), pages 25-41, September.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    International portfolio investments; Investor protection rights; Bondholder-shareholder conflicts; Home bias;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G11 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Portfolio Choice; Investment Decisions
    • G15 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - International Financial Markets
    • G30 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - General

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:jcecon:v:41:y:2013:i:2:p:506-526. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/inca/622864 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.