Macroeconomic Effects of Corporate Finance.

• Position: National Bureau for Economic Research - Universities Research Conference

An NBER--Universities Research Conference on "The Macroeconomic Effects of Corporate Finance" took place in Cambridge on December 10 and 11. Organizers Jeremy C. Stein, NBER and Harvard University, and Luigi Zingales, NBER and University of Chicago, chose these papers for discussion:

Jeffrey Wurgler, Yale University, "Financial Markets and the Allocation of Capital"

Discussants: Ross Levine, University of Minnesota, and David S. Scharfstein, NBER and MIT

Peter Blair Henry, Stanford University, "Do Stock Market Liberalizations Cause Investment Booms?"

Discussants: Rene M. Stulz, NBER and Ohio State University, and Sheridan Titman, NBER and University of Texas

Karl Lins and Marc Zenner, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and Deon Strickland, Ohio State University, "Do Non-U.S. Firms Issue Stock on U.S. Equity Markets to Relax Capital Constraints?"

Discussants: John Coffee, Columbia University, and Rafael La Porta, NBER and Harvard University

Paola Sapienza, Northwestern University, "What Do State-Owned Firms Maximize? Evidence from the Italian Banks"

Discussants: Alberto F. Alesina, NBER and Harvard University, and Anil K Kashyap, NBER and University of Chicago

Nicola Cetorelli and Michele Gambera, Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, "Banking Market Structure, Financial Dependence, and Growth: International Evidence from Industry Data"

Discussants: Judith Culver, NBER and University of Chicago, and Gary B. Gorton, NBER and University of Pennsylvania

Simon Johnson, MIT; Peter Boone, Brunswick Warburg; Alasdair Breach, Goldman Sachs: and Eric Friedman, Rutgers University, "Corporate Governance in the Asian Financial Crisis"

Discussants: Kenneth A. Froot and Julio J. Rotemberg, NBER and Harvard University

Ricardo J. Caballero, NBER and MIT, and Arvind Krishnamurthy, Northwestern University, "Emerging Market Crises: An Asset Markets Perspective"

Discussants: David Backus, NBER and New York University, and Oliver D. Hart, NBER and Harvard University

Michael W. Klein, NBER and Tufts University; Joe Peek, Boston College; and Eric Rosengren, Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, "Troubled Banks, Impaired Investment: The Case of Japanese FDI"

Discussants: Chris James, University of Florida, and Randall Morck, University of Alberta

Economists have long believed that financial markets and institutions encourage capital to flow toward high value uses and away from low value uses. Wurgler analyzes the patterns of manufacturing investment in 65 countries...