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This paper studies the factors associated with outbound bilateral mergers and acquisitions (M&A) activity by firms located in emerging economies. The authors document recent trends in emerging market M&A flows, which have risen dramatically over the past decade, and explore the factors that may have contributed to this rise. They find distinct patterns for M&A deals according to whether the acquisition targets are in other emerging economies or advanced countries, and that these differences can be attributed to differing theoretical motivations behind foreign direct investment. The authors also consider the implications of their model for future M&A originating in the global South, in light of the global financial crisis of 2008.

Currencies and Exchange Rates --- Debt Markets --- Economic Theory & Research --- Emerging Markets --- Macroeconomics and Economic Growth --- Markets and Market Access --- Mergers and acquisitions --- Private Sector Development --- South-South capital flows

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Controlling for bond and issuer characteristics, bond spreads are expected to be equal across different legal jurisdictions, and differences are expected to disappear through arbitrage. However, an analysis of 435 U.S. dollar-denominated bonds issued by 53 emerging market sovereigns during 1990-2015 reveals that after the financial crisis of 2008, the launch spread of sovereign bonds issued under U.K. law has been higher than those issued under U.S. law, by 130 basis points for BB+ bonds and 175 basis points for B- bonds. This effect was not significant for investment grade bonds. On average, bonds issued under U.K. law had weaker ratings and shorter tenors post-crisis. The post-crisis impact of governing law on sovereign bond spreads is not explained by collective action clauses, or first-time bond issuances. Instead, the difference seems to be related to the perception that U.S. law offers stronger investor protection, and that the investor base for bonds issued under U.S. law is larger than that for bonds issued under U.K. law. The difference in spreads persists in the secondary market even after 180 days, perhaps because of the lack of liquidity, as investors tend to buy and hold these more attractive bonds on a longer term basis.

Bond Spreads --- Development Finance --- Emerging Markets --- Governing Law --- Sovereign Ratings

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We provide new measures of ethnic, linguistic and religious fractionalization for about 190 countries. These measures are more comprehensive than those previously used in the economics literature and we compare our new variables with those previously used. We also revisit the question of the effects of ethnic, linguistic and religious fractionalization on quality of institutions and growth. We partly confirm and partly modify previous results. The patterns of cross-correlations between potential explanatory variables and their different degree of endogeneity makes it hard to make unqualified statements about competing explanations for economic growth and the quality of government.