Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law
CDDRL Publications


Do Stock Market Liberalizations Cause Investment Booms?

Working Paper

Author
Peter B. Henry - Stanford University

Published by
CDDRL Working Papers, January 2007


Stock market liberalizations lead private investment booms. In a sample of 11 developing countries that liberalized, 9 experience growth rates of private investment above their non-liberalization median in the first year after liberalizing. In the second and third years after liberalization this number is 10 of 11 and 8 of 11 respectively. The mean growth rate of private investment in the three years immediately following stock market liberalization exceeds the sample mean by 22 percentage points. The evidence stands in sharp contrast with recent work that suggests capital account liberalization has no effect on investment.