Emilio Colombo Books

We would like to thank Akos Valentinyi and Mark Schaffer for their advice on various stages of this research project. We also would like to thank our col­ leagues at the Department of Economics of the University of Milan - Bicocca for their advice and support. This book is the result of a long term project financed by various research in particular the Phare-Ace programme (Project P-96-6151-R) and a research grant from the Italian Ministry of Education under the young researchers scheme. Milan, March 2005 Emilio Colombo Luca Stanca Contents Introduction 1 Financial market imperfections and corporate theory and evidence 7 2. 1 Introduction 7 2. 2 Financial market imperfections, investment and cycles 9 2. 2. 1 The Stiglitz view 9 2. 2. 2 Agency costs and macroeconomic fluctuations 15 2. 2. 3 Assessing the differences 18 2. 2. 4 Further developments 20 2. 2. 5 Empirical evidence 22 2. 3 Financial market imperfections and corporate capital structure 24 2. 3. 1 Asymmetric information and capital structure choice . . 25 2. 3. 2 Agency costs and capital structure choice 30 2. 3. 3 Empirical evidence 32 The transformation of the Hungarian financial system 35 3. 1 Introduction 35 3. 2 Macroeconomic background 36 3. 3 Liberalisation, privatisation and financial development 44 3. 3. 1 Banking and credit 45 3. 3. 2 Equity market 48 3. 3. 3 Foreign direct investment 49 3. 4 Financial sector reform 50 3. 4.

Financial Markets play an important role in economic development, channeling saving to investments and facilitating growth. In Eastern Europe financial markets were initially much underdeveloped, and lacked the skills and infrastructure they needed to be efficient, having not acquired them in the pre-transition era. The book offers a both theoretical and empirical analysis of financial markets in transitional economies. It investigates financial markets in Hungary, the Czech Republic, and Poland, and their role in the developments in the 1990s.