Ryan Hahn's blog

AAF blog readers who are in Washington, DC this week may be interested in attending an event this Wednesday on Conflict Between an International Financial Agreement and the Borrower’s Domestic Law: Which One Prevails?. The event is part of the World Bank Group's annual Law, Justice and Development week. More details on the event are here, and full details on the LJD week are here.

Rich countries and emerging markets alike have participated in a rapid integration into global capital markets over the last 25 years. Proponents of financial globalization believed this would bring a myriad of benefits via improved financial intermediation, with a more efficient allocation of capital to productive firms and increased access to finance to those outside the halls of political power.

But the recent financial crisis has given pause to the pro-globalization advocates. The marked increase in capital flows to emerging markets quickly reversed in the wake of the financial crisis, leaving these countries looking vulnerable. Might the globalizers have gotten their prescriptions wrong?

A recent paper entitled Does Financial Openness Lead to Deeper Domestic Financial Markets? finds that, in fact, developing countries have reaped a number of benefits from financial globalization. In particular, the authors of the paper have found that greater financial openness:

Is Africa the next hotspot for international investment? That's one of the contentions of the McKinsey Global Institute in a recent report entitled Lions on the Move: The progress and potential of African economies. Collectively, African economies saw a significant uptick in growth over the last decade, with GDP growing at a 4.9 percent annual rate from 2000 through 2008.

As part of Asli's FPD Chief Economist Talk series, Susan Lund, the principal author of the report, came to the World Bank last week to discuss her findings. A video of her talk appears below the jump. The talk itself runs to the 29-minute mark, and the Q&A that follows runs another 52 minutes. Clearly, this presentation captured the attention of World Bank staff.

Readers of the All About Finance blog may have noticed a change in our format over the weekend. That's because we have moved to the platform that supports the World Bank Group's family of blogs, located at http://blogs.worldbank.org. We'll share a common face with the Bank's many blogs, but continue to bring you the same content from Asli and colleagues.

According to a new paper by World Bank economists Paulo Correa and Mariana Iootty, the recovery won't look pretty. The financial crisis and concomitant global economic crisis have had a disproportionately harsh impact on young and innovative firms in Eastern Europe, and this does not bode well for future growth prospects.

A few weeks ago, our corner of the World Bank hosted an event where Correa and Iootty presented their findings. (This was the first in a new series called FPD Academy that will highlight excellent new analytical work on financial and private sector development.) Video of the event appears below the jump. The presentation itself starts at 4:30 and runs to 27:30. A discussant provides remarks immediately after the presentation, and a Q&A follows. 

Stephen O'Connell, a consultant in the South Asia region of the World Bank, has some interesting questions in the comments section of this post on how firms finance investment:

On May 25 we invited Professor Charles Calomiris of Columbia University to come speak at the World Bank as part of our FPD Chief Economist Talk series. Professor Calomiris discussed the on-going process of regulatory reform, particularly in the U.S., and was, to put it mildly, less than sanguine about the legislation that is currently making its way through the U.S. Congress. Watch a video of his talk (below the jump). The talk itself runs about 46 minutes, and a Q&A session follows.

As promised, here is the video of Professor Ross Levine's presentation at the World Bank on April 28 on the theme of An Autopsy of the Financial System: Suicide, Accident, or Negligent Homicide. For background information on the event, please see Professor Levine's earlier post.