There are "ve reasons why a loss of con"dence can cause the net capital in#ow
to fall and why this fall can be larger when corporate governance is weaker.
First, when the expected return to outside investors is lower, investing in
a country is less attractive. Outside investors receive less because the actual
returns on investment projects are lower and because managers steal more. For
a given level of expected risk, lower expected returns tend to reduce the net
Finec=1093=KGM=VVC
148 S. Johnson et al. / Journal of Financial Economics 58 (2000) 141}186capital in#ow to a particular country. In a full model, if investors learn that the
expected return in a country is lower, while risk is unchanged or has even increased,
their preference for assets in this country will be reduced. This is one reason why
many global investment funds cut their positions in emerging markets in 1997}98
(see International Organization of Securities Commissions (1998)). Weaker corporate
governance means lower short-term expected returns or more risk or both.