Incorporated in Bermuda while most China address firms are incorporated in the Cayman

Islands. Most uk address firms incorporate in the nearby British Crown Dependencies Jersey,

Isle of Man, and Guernsey. Interestingly, Greek firms are most likely to incorporate in the

Marshall Islands, where they are the most frequent address country.25 These findings suggest

that certain jurisdictions may cater to the needs of firms from specific home countries or

perhaps even particular industries.

Panels C and D of Table 1 summarize the exchanges where our sample firms are listed.

We note several prominent patterns in these two panels. First, listing on formal US exchanges

(Panel C) is unusual except for Chinese firms incorporated in the Cayman Islands and, to a

lesser degree, the British Virgin Islands. Panel D indicates several hundred firms headquartered

In Hong Kong but incorporated in Bermuda or the Cayman Islands are also listed in Hong

Kong. Most unexpected is the huge number of Hong Kong and China address firms which are

OFC incorporated and listed on Germany’s Berlin or Frankfurt stock exchanges.

Panel A of Table 2 reports averages of Tobin’s q broken down by country of incorporation

and country of address. Note that the sample size is smaller than in Table 1 as all firms with

total assets less than ten million US dollars are excluded to avoid problems computing Tobin’s

q. Substantial differences across the rows and columns are evident. Hong Kong firms that

Incorporate in an ofc have higher q than control firms, except for those that incorporate in the

25

The Marshall Islands specialized in special provisions for the incorporation of maritime shipping companies.

28