domain of our eco-social system is thereby transformed. We live in a new economy, characterized by three fundamental features. First, it is informational , that is, the capacity of generating knowledge and processing/managing information determine the productivity and competitiveness of all kinds

A particularly important sector for the stability of financial systems is the banking sector. Banks play a central role in the money creation process and in the payment system. Moreover, bank credit is an important factor in the financing of investment and growth. Faltering banking systems have

of the growth and volatility of short term portfolio capital flows towards emerging markets are to be found in systemic characteristics of global financial markets, particularly the way in which investment funds are managed in order to confront uncertainty. Securities markets in developing countries are both

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Corporate Governance determinants of voluntary disclosure and its effects on information asymmetry: an analysis for Iberian Peninsula listed companies.

Paper prepared for the NBER project on “Risks of Financial Institutions”. We benefited from suggestions and criticism by many participants in the NBER project on “Risks of financial institutions”, in particular by the organizers Mark Carey (also involving Dean Amel and Allen Berger) and Rene Stulz, by our discussant Tony Saunders and by Patrick de Fontnouvelle, Gary Gorton, Andy Lo, Jim O’Brien and Eric Rosengren. Furthermore, we are grateful for comments we received at the 2004 European Finance Association Meetings in Maastricht, in particular by our discussant Marco da Rin and by Christian Upper, at the 2004 Ottobeuren seminar in economics, notably the thoughts of our discussant Ernst Baltensberger, of Friedrich Heinemann and of Gerhard Illing, as well as at seminars of the Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods, the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, the ECB and the University of Frankfurt. Gabe de Bondt and David Marques Ibanez supported us enormously in finding yield spread data, Lieven Baele and Richard Stehle kindly made us aware of pitfalls in Datastream equity data. Very helpful research assistance by Sandrine Corvoisier, Peter Galos and Marco Lo Duca as well as editorial support by Sabine Wiedemann are gratefully acknowledged. Any views expressed only reflect those of the authors and should not be interpreted as the ones of the ECB or the Eurosystem. The views expressed herein are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Bureau of Economic Research.

I would like to express my appreciation for the help of

of New York, the Federal Reserve System, or the National Bureau of Economic Research. NBER working papers are circulated for discussion and comment purposes. They have not been peer-reviewed or been subject to the review by the NBER Board of Directors that accompanies official NBER publications.