this paper presents evidence that the weakness of legal institutions for corporate governance had an important effect on the extent of depreciations and stock market declines in the Asian crisis. By corporate governance we mean the effectiveness of mechanisms that minimize agency conflicts involving managers, with particular emphasis on the legal mechanisms that prevent the expropriation of minority shareholders. The theoretical explanation is simple and quite complementary to the usual macroeconomic arguments. If expropriation by managers increases when the expected rate of return on investment falls, then an adverse shock to investor confidence will lead to increased expropriation as well as lower capital inflow and greater attempted capital outflow for a country. these in turn, will translate into lower stock prices and a depreciated exchange rate. in the case of the Asian crisis, we find that corporate governance provides at least as convincing and explanation for the extent of exchange rat depreciation and stock market decline as any or all of the usual macroeconomic arguments.
The Bangkok Bank of commerce is a well-documented example of expropriation by managers that worsened as the bank's financial troubles deepened.
As the losses mounted, Thai authorities say, more and more money was moved offshore, much of it through a now-defunct Russian bank. it came to look like straight siphoning