Examines various issues concerning the strategies of institutional investors, the role of institutional investors in corporate governance, their impact on local and international capital markets, as well as the emergence of sovereign and other asset management funds and their interactions with micro and macro economic and market environments.

December 1998 The answer varies by type of investor. Pension funds and insurance companies should be promoted for their own sake, but mutual funds are unlikely to thrive without well-regulated securities markets. Anglo-American experience suggests that institutional investors can provide a strong stimulus to market development. This takes time and requires both critical mass and conducive regulations. Institutional investors comprise pension funds, insurance companies, and mutual funds. Should a country promote their creation if it lacks well-developed securities markets? The answer to this question, says Vittas, varies by type of investor. He argues that private pension funds and insurance companies are promoted for their own sake and for their potential economic, fiscal, and financial benefits, whether or not a country already has well-developed securities markets. Mutual funds, by contrast, are unlikely to thrive without strong and well-regulated securities markets. A limited supply of financial instruments should not be a major obstacle to the creation of pension funds and insurance companies. Such institutions build up their financial resources gradually but steadily, giving reforming governments ample time to develop securities markets. More important than the prior development of securities markets is a strong and lasting political commitment to holistic reform: macroeconomic, fiscal, banking, and capital market reform, as well as pension and insurance reform. Institutional investors need to attain critical mass and to be supported by conducive regulations. Vittas reviews Anglo-American experience since the 1940s. This shows that institutional investors can serve as a countervailing force to commercial and investment banks, helping to stimulate financial innovation, modernize capital markets, enhance transparency and disclosure, strengthen corporate governance, and improve financial regulation. This paper-a product of Finance, Development Research Group-was presented at the Annual Bank Conference on Development Economics, Latin America and the Caribbean, June 18-30, 1998, in San Salvador. The author may be contacted at [email protected].

Annotation. This study reviews the recent developments in capital markets and institutional investors in Russia, and examines the policy challenges ahead for the development of the sector. The analysis covers key impediments for further development and policy challenges for securities markets, in particular legal and regulatory framework, market infrastructure, government bonds, sub-sovereign bonds, corporate bonds, and equities. The analysis also covers key impediments for furhter development and policy challenges for mutual funds, pension funds, and insurance companies.

The volume contains 23 articles by international experts, both scholars and practioners dealing with the development of institutional investors (such as banks, insurances, investment companies, pension funds etc.), their investment and voting policies, the impact on managements of the companies concerned and related issues. The consequences of the international development on capital markets as well as policy implications for the respective national legislations are treated.

This book is about what institutional investors do, how they do it, and when and where they do it; it is about the production of investment returns in the global economy. Being a book about the production process, it also tackles some of the key issues found in the academic literature on the theory of the firm.

The Future of Domestic Capital Markets in Developing Countries addresses the challenges that countries face as they develop and strengthen capital markets. Based on input from the world's most prominent capital market experts and leading policymakers in developing countries, this volume represents the latest thinking in capital market development. It captures the views of a global gathering of experts, with perspectives from developing and developed countries, from all regions of the world, from the public and private sector. This volume should be of interest to senior financial sector policymakers from developed and developing countries in securities and exchange commissions, regulators, central banks, ministries of finance, and monetary authorities; private sector executives in stock exchanges, bond markets, venture capital markets, and investment funds; and researchers and academicians with an interest in capital market development in emerging markets. What are the key factors threatening the development and survival of stock exchanges in developing countries? What domestic strategies are needed to protect the future of local markets? Should exchanges consider linkages or alliances? Merging with, or buying up, other exchanges? Demutualization? The volume provides practical guidance on strategies such as nurturing issuers, improving rules and institutions, addressing regulatory challenges, and sequencing reforms. The contributors address a variety of country experiences, and suggest steps that policymakers and practitioners in emerging markets can take to promote an orderly transition toward efficient, well-regulated, and accessible capital markets. Contributors include Reena Aggarwal (Georgetown University), Alexander S. Berg (World Bank), Alan Cameron (Sydney Futures Exchange), Olivier Fremond (PSACG), Amar Gill (Credit Lyonnais Securities Asia), Gerd Hausler (IMF), Jack Glen (International Finance Corporation), Peter Blair Henry (Stanf