NATIONAL BUREAU OF ECONOMIC RESEARCH, INC.

Universities Research Conference

Developing and Sustaining Financial Markets, 1820-2000

December 5 and 6, 2003

Lance Davis, Larry Neal, and Eugene White, Organizers

Royal Sonesta Hotel

5 Cambridge Parkway

Cambridge, MA

PRELIMINARY PROGRAM

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 5:

8:30 AM Continental Breakfast

Session 1: Market Origins

9:00 AM ROBERT WRIGHT, New York University

Early U.S. Financial Development in Comparative Perspective:

New Data, Old Comparisons

10:00 AM DANIEL WALDENSTROM, UC, Los Angeles

Understanding the Emergence of Stock Exchanges: The Case of Pre-WWI Stockholm

What Happened to Liquidity When World War I Shut the NYSE?

Discussant: JOHN JAMES, University of Virginia

12:30 PM Lunch

Session 3: Credit for the Stock Market

1:30 PM MARC FLANDREAU, UC, Berkeley

PIERRE SICSIC, Banque de France

Speculative Credit and the Money Market:

The Marche des Reports in France 1875-1914

Discussant: PETER LINDERT, UC, Davis

2:30 PM Break

Session 4: Emerging Financial Markets

3:00 PM MARC FLANDREAU, UC, Berkeley

NATHAN SUSSMAN, Hebrew University

Old Sins: Exchange Clauses and European Foreign Lending in the 19th Century

Financial Innovation in an Emerging Market:

Petroleum Derivatives Trading in the 19^th Century

The Cross-Section of Stock Returns before World War I

10:00 AM HANS-JOACHIM VOTH, MIT

Stock Price Volatility and Political Uncertainty:

Evidence from the Interwar Period

Discussant: BENJAMIN CHABOT, University of Michigan and NBER

11:00 AM Break

Session 6: Information and the Market

11:30 AM EFRAIM BENMELECH, University of Chicago

Asset Salability and Debt Maturity:

Evidence from the 19^th Century American Railroads

12:30 PM GERHARD KLING, University of Tuebingen

Disclosure of Mergers without Regulatory Restrictions:

Comparing Insider Trading in the year 1908 and 2000 in Germany

Discussant: MARC WEIDENMIER, Claremont McKenna and NBER

1:30 PM Adjourn

11/5/03