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Title: Geography and Capital: Explaining Foreign Listings of U.S. Railroad Securities during the First Era of Financial Globalization

Citation Type: Miscellaneous

Publication Year: 2012

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Abstract: We study motivations for the globalization of capital markets by examining the role of geography in the financing of U.S. railroad investment from 1866 to 1913. The selected industry and period provide a natural experiment to study the first globalization wave due to the relative underdevelopment of contemporary U.S. financial markets, the dramatic change in global communication technology, the enormity of capital investment needs, and the unique geography specific nature of railroad assets. We observe an intense level of foreign listing activity in the European markets of Amsterdam, Frankfurt, and London on a scale much larger than that studied in more recent work. We find strong cross-regional variation in foreign listing frequency and its effects. Our evidence suggests that differences in capital constraints have a profound impact on geographic distribution of foreign listing activity.

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Authors: Sarkissian, Sergei; Schill, Michael J.; Chambers, David

Publisher: Economic History Association

Data Collections: IPUMS USA

Topics: Labor Force and Occupational Structure, Migration and Immigration, Other

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