6/29/01

LOWDER EMINENT SCHOLAR AT AU CONTRIBUTES TO PWC PROJECT

AUBURN -- James Barth, the Lowder Eminent Scholar in Finance at Auburn University, is an academic contributor to Investigating the Costs of Opacity: Deterred Foreign Direct Investment, a report released by PricewaterhouseCoopers.

It is the second in a series of reports on the Opacity Index Project.

The Opacity Index Project, developed by a team of senior economists, survey professionals, analysts, and distinguished advisors focuses on estimating the degree of opacity and the economic costs of that opacity.

Opacity refers to "the lack of clear, accurate, formal, easily discernible, and widely accepted practices in the world's capital markets."

The initial report, co-authored by Barth, measured the impact of opacity on cost of capital in 35 countries worldwide.

The second report in the series, to which Barth contributed, presented findings that measured the impact of opacity on levels of foreign direct investment in the same 35 nations. Based on the findings, individual countries lost as much as $40 billion in foreign direct investment to countries with greater transparency.

Such indicators are significant in linking the impact of policy changes in the area of transparency to economic growth and investment, the report said.

Barth, a Senior Fellow at the Milken Institute, was chief economist for the federal Office of Thrift Supervision and the Federal Home Loan Bank Board before coming to Auburn in 1990. He is the author of The Great Savings and Loan Debacle.

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jun01:AU-barth

CONTACT: Barth, 334.844- 2469.