This paper examines empirically the effects of domicile and SEC registration and reporting requirements on information asymmetry. We compare the adverse-selection component of the relative bid–ask spread (our measure of information asymmetry) for three samples of Nasdaq NMS companies that trade in different home markets and are subject to different standards of disclosure: registered U.S. companies, registered non-Canadian foreign companies, and unregistered non-Canadian foreign companies covered by the information-supplying exemption of the Securities and Exchange Act of 1934. We find that the adverse-selection component is not significantly larger for the two foreign samples, and it is not reliably different for the registered and unregistered foreign samples. Therefore, we are unable to document that less stringent SEC registration and reporting requirements for foreign companies are associated with greater information asymmetry among investors for non-U.S. securities traded on Nasdaq.

We examine operating performance and ownership of joint venture and wholly-owned merchant banks operating in Singapore from the formation of the industry to its maturity. For our sample, joint ventures dominated wholly-owned banks as an organizational form only within the first six years of the industry's life, when there were opportunities for organizational learning and risk sharing by venture partners. Thereafter, new banks were typically wholly-owned subsidiaries and 71% of surviving joint ventures switched to wholly-owned status. Despite their higher mortality rates, we find no evidence of lower performance for joint ventures.