e. The Surge in Mergers and Acquisitions Worldwide (来源：英语杂志 http://www.EnglishCN.com)

The almost incredible increase in the total volume of merger and acquisition activity that has occurred since 1990. While takeovers have always played an important role in the United States, the rise in M&A (Merger and Acquisition) activity in Europe during the 1990s was even more dramatic. From less than $ 50 billion annually in the late-1980s, the total value of M&A involving a European target reached $ 592 billion in 1998, before more than doubling to $ 1.22 trillion in 1999--rivaling the US total. The global value of M&A activity in 1999 reached&n bsp;$ 3.4 trillion, an astounding 10% of world GDP.
Next I will document that share issue privatizations have truly transformed share ownership patterns of investors in many different countries.

B. Privatization's Impact on Stock and Bond Market Development

We should be careful in inferring causation regarding privatization's impact on market growth, since a shift in ideology or some other exogenous political or economic change might have caused both the privatization and the overall boom.

a. Total Proceeds Raised by Privatization Programs

It is clear that national governments have been among the biggest winners from privatization programs, since these have dramatically increased government revenues, which is clearly one reason the policy has spread so rapidly. As mentioned above, Privatisation International [Gibbon (1998, 2000)] reports that the cumulative value of proceeds raised by privatizing governments exceeded $ 1 trillion sometime during the second half of 1999. As an added benefit, this revenue has come to governments without having to raise taxes or cut other public services.

b. Privatization's Impact on International Investment Banking

All international investment banks compete fiercely for share issue privatization mandates, for two principal reasons. First, because the offerings are so large and so visible--and are almost always designed to help promote the market's capacity to absorb subsequent stock offerings by private companies--these are very prestigious mandates. To date, the large US and British brokerage houses have had the most success in winning advisory and underwriting mandates, though all countries that launch large-scale SIP programs tend to favor local investment banks as "national champions" to& nbsp;handle the domestic share tranche. The second reason banks compete so fiercely for SIP mandates is because they can be extremely profitable. In spite of the fact--documented by Jones, et al (1999) and Ljungqvist, et al (2000)--that SIPs have significantly lower underwriting spreads than private sector offerings, their sheer size and lack of downside price risk make them very lucrative for underwriters.

2. Will this growth continue throughout the 2000s?

As we indicated above, the global capital market has grown so rapidly in recent decades cause of the privatizations rise. Privatizations increased the market liquidity. Now we have already stepped into the 21st century. I believe that the growth will continue for the following reasons. First, most of the south-east Asia countries have recovered from the 1997 financial crisis. For these countries, they now have the capital to do businesses. And they get back on the fast growing track. Second, by the end of 2001, world's biggest developing country, China, has  ;entered the WTO (World Trade Organization). This is real great news. As we all know, today's China takes a serious position in world's economy. Its innovation and opening policy make china keep achieving high GDP growth rate. This drives the global capital market keep growing.

Summary and Conclusions

This essay examines the impact of share issue privatizations (SIPs) on the growth of world capital markets (especially stock markets). I begin by documenting the increasing importance of capital markets, and the declining role of commercial banks, in corporate financial systems around the world. I then show that privatization programs-- particularly those involving public share offerings--have had a dramatic impact both on the development of non-US stock markets and on the participation of individual and institutional investors in those stock markets.

This has told the reason of the fast growth of global capital market. And then I succinctly indicated the continuance of the rapid growth, the great future.

The last but not the least is the recommendation. I can confidently assert that, if executed properly, a series of share issue privatizations can indeed promote the growth of global capital market, which will yield economic and political dividends for many years to come. That means there is a need to encourage the development of SIPs in order to gain growth of global capital market.

References

Dictionary of Business, Oxford University Press, ? Market House Books Ltd 1996

The Economist (April 12, 1997), "Fragile, Handle With Care: A Survey of Banking In Emerging Markets."