What’s behind the slow adoption of equity investing in developing markets? For an equity-investing culture to take root, there must be trusted, transparent markets with strong protections for small investors, as well as the institutions and systems to provide easy market access. Rules and regulations may be in place in emerging markets today, but enforcement is often unreliable. When the correct conditions are in place, investors are likely to gravitate to equities for higher returns.

Unless there ischange in investor behavior in the largest emerging economies, the role of equities in the global financial system will likely be reduced in the coming decade. That’s the central finding ofThe emerging equity gap: Growth and stability in the new investor landscape, a new report from the McKinsey Global Institute (MGI).

As emerging-market households attain a level of income that enables them to purchase financial assets, they are becoming a powerful new investor class, whose choices will help determine global demand for different asset classes. The actions of these new investors will, in turn, shape how businesses obtain the capital they need to grow, how other investors around the world fare, and how stable and resilient economies will be.