The Company States Keep International Economic Organizations and Investor Perceptions

This book argues that investor risk in emerging markets hinges on the company a country keeps. When a country signs on to an economic agreement with states that are widely known to be stable, it looks less risky. Conversely, when a country joins a group with more unstable members, it looks more risky. Investors use the company a country keeps as a heuristic in evaluating that country's willingness to honor its sovereign debt obligations. This has important implications for the study of international cooperation as well as of sovereign risk and credibility at the domestic level.

1. Introduction: the company you keep; 2. International institutions and sovereign risk; 3. The company you keep in comparative perspective; 4. The effects of good company; 5. When emerging markets join up with bad company; 6. How risk for core members changes on IO expansion; 7. Conclusion.

Julia Gray is an Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of Pennsylvania. Her work in international political economy and international organization has appeared or is forthcoming in the American Journal of Political Science, Comparative Political Studies, International Studies Quarterly, the European Journal of Political Research, Political Science Research Methods and the Review of International Organizations. Prior to her career in academia, she worked for four years as a journalist and editor in Prague and Budapest.