After the Mexican, Asian, and Russian financial crisis, the phenomenon ofcontagion became increasingly important. Existing studies indicate that variousexplanations for the transmission of crises exist. This book gives an overviewover theories that try to explain contagion caused by portfolio flows ofinternational investors. Theories such as the occurrence of information cascades,the effects of international portfolio diversification and optimization,the importance of information asymmetries, cross-market re-balancing effects,risk aversion, and wealth effects are discussed in detail. The analysissuggests that information asymmetries and changes in risk aversion hold animportant role in explaining contagious sellouts. The book addresses itself toeconomists, policy makers as well as portfolio and fund manager.