Previous work by Dumas and Solnik (1993) has shown that a CAPM which incorporates foreign-exchange risk premia (a so-called 'international CAPM') is better capable empirically of explaining the structure of worldwide rates of return than does the classic CAPM. In the specification of that test, moments of rates of return were allowed to vary over time in relation to a number of lagged 'instrumental variables'. Dumas and Solnik used instrumental variables which were endogenous or 'internal' to the financial market (lagged world market portfolio rate of return, dividend yield, bond yield, short-term rate of interest). In the present paper, I use as instruments economic variables which are 'external' to the financial market, such as leading indicators of the business cycles. This is an attempt to explain the behavior of the international stock market on the basis of economically meaningful variables which capture 'the state of the economy'. I find that the leading indicators put together by Stock and Watson (NBER working paper no. 4014, 1992) as predictors of the U.S. business cycle also predict stock returns in the U.S., Germany, Japan and the United Kingdom. These instruments lead again to a rejection of the classic CAPM and no rejection of the international CAPM.

This timely volume addresses three important recent trends in the internationalization of United States equity markets: extensive market integration through foreign investment and links among stock prices around the world; increasing securitization as countries such as Japan come to rely more than ever before on markets in equities and bonds at the expense of banks; and the opening of national financial systems of newly industrializing countries to international financial flows and institutions, as governments remove capital controls and other barriers. Eight essays examine such issues as the current extent of international market integration, gains to U.S. investors through international diversification, home-country bias in investing, the role of time and location around the world in stock trading, and the behavior of country funds. Other, long-standing questions about equity markets are also addressed, including market efficiency and the accuracy of models of expected returns, with a particular focus on variances, covariances, and the price of risk according to the Capital Asset Pricing Model.

This volume contains chapters on a range of topics which include economic methodology in macroeconomics, central bank independence, policy signalling, public policy as second best analysis, the determinants of economic growth, a continuum approach to unemployment policy, and pensions. The volume dispels the notion that these are largely unrelated issues and illustrates the merger process which is taking place between hitherto rather separate economic sub-disciplines. They move the focus of attention and challenge received wisdom.

In this second collection of his writings on financial markets (the first, On Exchange Rates, covered international finance), Jeffrey Frankel turns his attention to domestic markets, with special attention to how national monetary policy is handled. The decade of the 1980s left many central bankers disillusioned with monetarism, so that the question of the optimal nominal anchor remains an open one. In this second collection of his writings on financial markets (the first, On Exchange Rates, covered international finance), Jeffrey Frankel turns his attention to domestic markets, with special attention to how national monetary policy is handled. The fifteen papers are divided into three sections, each introduced by the author. They cover, respectively, optimal portfolio diversification, indicators of expected inflation, and the determination of monetary policy in the face of uncertainty. In the first section, Frankel explores what information the theory of optimal portfolio diversification can give the macroeconomist. In the second section, he considers what economic variables central bankers might use to gauge whether monetary policy is too tight or too loose. And in the final section, he looks at the range of uncertainty over policy effects and how that complicates coordination of macroeconomic policymaking. The book concludes with a sympathetic analysis of nominal GDP targeting.

Judith Klähn proves that some of the most important variables in predicting U.S. equity returns are not significant for the German stock market. She shows that the composition of Germany's investor base plays an important role, and she outlines the variables crucial for the German stock market.

Incorporating an accurate measure of risk is important to the appraisal of an international investment. This book examines and recommends how decisions on international investment projects are made. Critiquing and integrating existing theory, it shows how risk can be incorporated into the present value formula produce a clear decision rule.

Wolfgang Drobetz provides empirical evidence on the time variation of expected stock returns over the stages of the business cycle.