Asian Capital Markets

This course provides an overview of current Asian capital markets. The growth of Asian economies has been spectacular in the past 60 years; the advancement of Japan from the 1950s until the beginning of 1990s, the emerging Asian Tigers (Hong Kong, Korea, Singapore, Taiwan) in the 1980s, and the rapid transformation and growth of China and India since the 1990s. Asian capital markets are quite diverse as they consist of emerging markets at different stages of development as well as mature markets. Therefore, it is not easy to view Asian capital markets through a single lens. However, this course not only introduces students to capital markets in various Asian countries but also attempts at introducing a unified conceptual framework to understand markets in these countries. The framework focuses on institutional environments (such as legal systems) in different countries and their impacts on corporate behaviour. We also present empirical evidence that such a framework might not necessarily explain the recent developments in China and India. Two of the important features in Asian capital markets, which contrast those of capital markets in UK-US, are the roles played by the State and closely tied families, which we will discuss in detail. The globalization of the world economy in the past two decades has affected the developments of Asian capital markets. Although our course may discuss the development of capital markets of individual countries, we will discuss Asian economies in the global context and will explore the increasing weight of Asia in the world economy.