How many and which firms from developed and emerging countries have issued debt and equity during the big expansion in capital markets that started in the 1990s? How much have issuing firms grown relative to non-issuers? Have these patterns varied along the firm size dimension?
In a new paper, Tatiana Didier, Ross Levine, and I address these questions by constructing a new dataset by matching information on firm-level domestic and international issuances of equities and bonds with balance sheets of 45,527 listed firms in 51 countries from 1991 to 2011. We document new patterns about the comparative behavior of assets, sales, and employment for issuing and non-issuing across firms of different sizes. We conduct these analyses over a period of rapid capital market growth, when the annual amount raised through equity or corporate bond offerings relative to GDP almost doubled for the median country in our sample. To read about the results and implications of this study read this VOXEU article.
In a new paper, Tatiana Didier, Ross Levine, and I address these questions by constructing a new dataset by matching information on firm-level domestic and international issuances of equities and bonds with balance sheets of 45,527 listed firms in 51 countries from 1991 to 2011. We document new patterns about the comparative behavior of assets, sales, and employment for issuing and non-issuing across firms of different sizes. We conduct these analyses over a period of rapid capital market growth, when the annual amount raised through equity or corporate bond offerings relative to GDP almost doubled for the median country in our sample. To read about the results and implications of this study read this VOXEU article.
Join the Conversation