Nuno Fernandes

Does International Cross-Listing Improve the Information Environment?

We investigate whether cross-listing in the U.S. affects the information environment for non-U.S. stocks. Our findings suggest cross-listing has an asymmetric impact on stock price informativeness around the world, as measured by firm-specific stock return variation. Cross-listing improves price informativeness for developed market firms. For firms in emerging markets, however, cross-listing decreases price informativeness. The added analyst coverage associated with cross-listing likely explains the findings in emerging markets, rather than changes in liquidity, ownership, or accounting quality. Our results indicate that the added analyst coverage fosters the production of marketwide information, rather than firm-specific information.

Are U.S. CEOs Paid More? New International Evidence

This paper challenges the widely accepted stylized fact that CEOs in the United States are paid significantly more than their foreign counterparts. Using CEO pay data across 14 countries with mandated pay disclosures, we show that the US pay premium is economically modest and primarily reflects the performance-based pay demanded by institutional shareholders and independent boards. Indeed, we find no significant difference in either level of CEO pay or the use of equity-based pay between US and non-US firms exposed to international and US capital, product, and labor markets. We also show that US and non-US CEO pay has largely converged in the 2000s. The findings are robust to alternative methods for adjusting the risk of equity-based pay.

Sources of gains from international portfolio diversification

Abstract This paper looks at the determinants of country and industry specific factors in international portfolio returns using a sample of forty eight countries and thirty nine industries over the last three decades. Country factors have remained relatively stable over the sample period while industry factors have significantly increased during the last decade and dropped again since 2000. The importance of industry and country factors is correlated with measures of economic and financial international integration and development. We find that financial market globalization is the main driving force behind the changes in relative magnitude of the different shocks. Country factors are smaller for countries integrated in world financial markets and have declined as the degree of financial integration and the number of countries pursuing financial liberalization has increased. Higher international financial integration within an industry increases the importance of industry factors in explaining returns. Economic integration of production also helps in explaining returns. Countries with a more specialized production activity have higher country shocks.

Sources of Gains from International Portfolio Diversification

This Paper looks at the determinants of country- and industry-specific factors in international portfolio returns using a sample of 36 countries and 39 industries over the last three decades. Country factors have remained relatively stable over the sample period while industry factors have significantly increased during the last decade. The importance of industry and country factors is correlated with measures of international economic and financial integration and development. Country factors are smaller for countries integrated in world financial markets and have declined as the degree of financial integration and the number of countries pursuing financial liberalizations has increased. Higher international financial integration within an industry increases the importance of industry factors in explaining returns. Economic integration of production also helps in explaining returns. Countries with a more specialized production activity have higher country factors.

Market Integration and International Asset Allocation

During the last two decades, liberalization of capital markets caused an increased responsiveness to world factors. Indeed, as argued in this paper, emerging markets are now behaving like certain developed markets asset classes. This study develops a framework for asset classes comparisons in an increasingly integrated world market, focusing on two aspects - diversification benefits and risk profiles. The set of tools used includes the mean-variance analysis, spanning tests, the International CAPM, lower-moment CAPM and a conditional asset pricing model which allows for time-varying risk. The empirical analysis shows that after allowing investment in several developed market asset classes, there are no significant gains from an aggregate investment in emerging market equities. Furthermore, the mean variance spanning test shows that emerging markets as a whole are spanned by developed market indices. These results contrast with previous studies, and can be justified by the increasing integration of emerging markets, broader definition of the benchmark portfolio, and a longer (and more realistic) time frame. Also, this study provides one important investment implication. It advises against indexing strategies in emerging markets.