Emerging Market Makers: The Power of Institutional Investors

Abstract

The nineteenth century ideal of a world based on the unencumbered operation of a free market once again permeates the public policies and politics of the late twentieth century. International investors are today playing a central role in pushing the gospel of the free market, particularly in the developing countries in Asia, Latin America and Africa. The most effective means of attracting capital into developing countries has shifted rapidly from pledging allegiance to one of the cold war rivals to marketing the nation-state to the world’s financiers. Where once a strategic geopolitical position could have ensured a consistent flow of assistance, now an economic policy based on deregulation, privatization, and stabilization is the path to financial success. Moreover, the power of the purse lies more and more with private institutional investors.