Review of Pacific Basin Financial Markets and Policies

This paper is concerned with the relative volatility of international flows of debt and equity capital. It is shown that if foreign investors are less well informed about the domestic economy than domestic investors, then international flows of debt capital will be more volatile than flows of equity capital in the sense that the proportional change of foreign bondholdings in an economy in response to a change in that economy's economic prospects will be greater than the proportional change in foreign stockholdings. This is shown to be consistent with the behavior of international flows of debt and equity capital during the Asian crisis.

The price discovery process of the Taipei residential real estate market is examined. Using data from the Ta-An District of Taipei City, empirical evidence indicates that there exists a causal relationship between rental rates and property prices. Results here suggest that the two real estate markets are linked together; hence investors and end users can use price information in one market to predict future movements of the other market.

The choice of a thesis topic is the first yet also the most important step in writing a master's thesis. The present paper therefore addresses two interrelated aspects involved in choosing a thesis topic: First, it is argued that empirical topics should be given priority over theoretical ones. Among them, refutational empirical studies with their associative differentiating power are preferred to confirmational empirical studies. The paper then moves on to discuss steps that may help students come up with a well-defined thesis topic, and the properties that distinguish a good topic from a less desirable one.