Foreign Direct Investment in China: Reward or Remedy?

This paper tests the significance of FDI as a way to alleviate credit constraints. Incoming foreign investment provides additional sources of capital. Specifically in the Chinese case, enterprises may look for foreign investors, being constrained in their activity due to distortions in the state‐dominated system. First, the Chinese financial system allocates resources to the least efficient firms – state‐owned enterprises – while denying the same resources to Chinese private enterprises, forcing them to look for a foreign investor. Second, the inefficient system of state investment planning leads to mismanagement of public enterprises, increasing ‘insolvency‐induced FDI’. We propose to analyse determinants of FDI in Chinese provinces to test the above hypotheses. We control for traditional determinants of FDI such as market access, labour costs, productivity, infrastructure, reform advances and banking sector size in order to assess the impact of inter‐provincial heterogeneity in terms of the access that private enterprises have to credit and the distortive management in state‐owned firms.     

New firm formation in Italian industry: 1985–89

This paper deals with the process of new firm formation in Italian manufacturing industry during the second half of the 1980s. For this purpose we use the data base made available by the National Institute of Social Security, which provides information on both newly and already established firms with at least one employee. Two birth rates are computed and analysed for the relevant industries: the first one is the ratio between new enterprises and already established firms and the second is the share of new enterprises on industry employees. We show that Italian industries are characterized by marked differences in terms of birth rates but also that the ranking of industries is different by using the first or the second index of new firm formation. Looking at the determinants of this process, we found that industry growth affects positively both birth rates; small firm presence is effective only when the second index of new firm formation is used while inter-industry differences in profitability are always not significant. These results seem peculiar to the Italian case in which the size of newly established firms is very small in comparison with the size of previously existing firms.     

异质性生产率、货款回收与中国企业出口

采用2005-2008年东三省持续存在的8 932家企业面板数据,本文检验了生产率和货款回收因素在出口中的作用,发现出口企业的全要素生产率、货款回收率都高于非出口企业,这说明该地区并不存在出口"生产率悖论;"高生产率和规避国内账款回收困难是企业出口的决定因素,通过对应收账款的内生性分析发现这一结果是稳健的;企业所有制性质、企业规模也会促进出口,而利润和企业成立年限对出口的影响并不显著。因此,提升企业效率、改善企业运行机制、健全社会信用制度是我国亟待解决的现实问题。     

中国生产性服务业FDI影响因素实证研究

本文采用动态面板数据分析方法,利用我国20个省市2004-2010年的面板数据,分析我国生产性服务业FDI的影响因素。研究结果表明:(1)整体生产性服务业FDI与市场规模和市场增长潜力呈正向关系,但细分行业中信息传输、计算机服务和软件业,科学研究、技术服务和地质勘查业这两个行业并没有像预期的那样会促进其FDI的流入。(2)整体和细分生产性服务业FDI均明显具有追逐制造业FDI的倾向,并且与前期生产性服务业FDI具有正向关系。(3)劳动力工资水平与生产性服务业FDI流入呈正相关,这与绝大多数现有的研究尤其是关于制造业或服务业FDI影响因素的研究结论不同。(4)熟练工人、基础设施系统、政府干预和对外开放程度均与生产性服务业FDI有显著关系,是影响生产性服务业FDI的主要因素。     

Does mobile money use increase firms’ investment? Evidence from Enterprise Surveys in Kenya,Uganda, and Tanzania

Private investment can be an important engine of economic growth in East African countries that are plagued with adverse economic conditions, despite recent growth rates. Against this backdrop, there has been substantial penetration of mobile money, moving beyond simple person-to-person exchanges towards adoption by private firms. This study explores whether there is a relationship between firm adoption of mobile money and firm investment. Using firm-level data that are nationally representative of the private sector in three East African countries—Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda—a positive relationship is found between mobile money use and firm’s purchase of fixed assets. This relationship is attributed to reduced transaction costs, increased liquidity, and increased credit worthiness associated with the use of mobile phone financial services. The finding is largely driven by small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).     

Credit rationing and firm exports: Microeconomic evidence from small and medium‐sized enterprises in China

This paper examines the effect of credit rationing on export performance by small and medium‐sized firms in China. We use a detailed firm‐level data provided by the Small and Medium‐sized Enterprises Dynamic Survey (SMEDS) during 2015–16 to conduct this analysis. The SMEDS provides firm‐specific measures of credit rationing based directly on firm‐level responses to the survey rather than indirect ones, based on firm‐level financial statements. We find that, at the extensive margin, weak and strong credit rationing reduces export probability of small and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) by 15.1% and 39.6%, respectively. At the intensive margin, they decrease SMEs' export values by more than 20.0% and over 28.8%, respectively. Different than existing literature, we construct valid firm‐level instruments, firm‐level housing stock, for credit rationing rather than using province‐level instruments. We also employ county‐industry‐level instruments and obtain consistent estimates. In addition, credit rationing exhibits heterogeneous impacts on firms with different liquidity ratios, product portfolios, external collateral and capital utilisation rates.     

‘Credit Constraints and Determinants of the Cost of Capital in Vietnamese Manufacturing’

This paper examines the extent to which borrowing constraints restrict firm access to credit and identifies individual, firm, and loan characteristics, which determine the cost of capital in Vietnamese manufacturing. Using direct information from a Vietnamese enterprise survey the paper shows that between 14 and 25% of the enterprises are credit constrained, and these enterprises would increase their debt holdings by between 40 and 115% if borrowing constraints were relaxed. Moreover, it emerges that informal credit markets play an important role for fast growing firms. Enterprises do not appear to have the necessary time to go through the many administrative difficulties in the formal credit system if they want to “seize the day”. Finally, collateralized loans face larger interest rates, explained by the significant influence of “policy lending” in Vietnamese credit markets.     

The Effects of Professional Managers’ Credit on Their Work Performance: Firm Owners’ Trust and Credit Identification Mechanisms

Finding successors for private enterprises has become an urgent problem in recent years, partially because those firms’ owners lack trust in professional managers. Previous research on agents focuses on preventing opportunistic behavior and neglects the value of their entrepreneurship. In our research, professional managers’ credit is divided into three dimensions: personal credit, professional credit and operational credit. Using a sample of 379 firm owners from 27 provinces in China, we find that credit and its detailed dimensions are positively related to private owners’ trust in professional managers. We also found that a rigorous and effective credit identification mechanism positively moderate the above relationships. Furthermore, trust affects professional managers’ work performance in a positive way. Accordingly, we advise that (1) professional managers’ credit assessment system should be established and improved; (2) professional managers and enterprise owners should attach importance to enhancing professionalism and promoting rigorous credit identification mechanisms; (3) the closed-loop of the credit-trust psychologically interactive mechanism based on credit mechanisms and credit identification mechanisms should be put to use.     

就业吸纳、产业集聚与生产者服务业发展

本文根据新经济地理学、产业经济学、城市经济学、制度经济学等理论体系和现有文献成果,将区域地位、市场规模、人力资本、信息技术及制度环境等纳入到生产者服务业就业吸纳、聚集发展等影响因素的分析框架中,对全国232个地级及以上城市的生产者服务业就业吸纳、聚集发展进行定量研究,并对影响因素和机制进行了阐释。     

Export Credit Guarantees and Export Performance: Evidence from Austrian Firm‐level Data

This paper provides an economic assessment of export credit guarantee commitments by the Austrian export credit agency, using firm‐level data on a cross‐section of Austrian exporting firms for the year 2008. In a first step, we explore various determinants of export guarantee usage. Results suggest that firm size, being part of a multinational enterprise, exposure to revenue risk and R&D intensity are important factors. In a second step, we investigate the effects of export guarantees on export performance. Identification is achieved using as instruments the exogenous determinants of export guarantee usage identified in the first step. We find that there are economically and statistically significant effects of export credit guarantee usage on firm‐specific export performance ranging from some 80 to 100 per cent compared with the control group of non‐users.     

Analysis of the Role of Banks in the Corporate Financing Mix of Nigerian Quoted Manufacturing Enterprises

Abstract

The aim of this study is to investigate the role of Nigerian banks in funding the short-term and long-term financing requirements of Nigerian quoted manufacturing enterprises in an environment of economic reforms. It has been argued that the deregulation of the financial system induces financial fragility, credit rationing and bank disinterme-diation, thus limiting the effectiveness of the monetary transmission mechanism. We analyzed relevant data from selected authoritative official publications and found that the liberalization of the Nigerian economy in 1986 under the Structural Adjustment Program (SAP) resulted in deteriorating corporate liquidity, declining bank credit to the manufacturing sector, outrageous increases in interest rates, with the consequential decline in the contribution of the manufacturing sector to the GDP. As economic reforms commence, it is necessary for managers of banks and quoted manufacturing enterprises to maintain a well diversified portfolio of liquid assets. That way, spontaneous financial gaps can be better managed. Top management must make important borrowing decisions before relatively predictable events occur. As banks continue to emphasize high asset quality in their loan portfolio, manufacturing enterprises are expected to manage strategically the resulting credit crunch by expanding their corporate finance matrix in a way that matches their operating cycles. Monetary policy should be redirected to moderate interest rates, as well as improve credit supply in order to make the banking sector more relevant as competitive pressures intensify in the Nigerian financial services industry.     

生产性服务效率、中间投入变化与中国制造企业生产率

通过使用中国服务企业的微观数据,分服务行业从投入效率与投入变化两个角度对制造业投入服务化影响制造企业生产率问题进行研究,结果显示:生产性服务投入效率的提高对中国制造企业生产率均产生正向促进效应(除教育服务外);生产性服务投入对较高生产率制造企业所产生的生产率促进效应更明显;随着高技术生产性服务投入的增加,其对制造企业生产率的正向促进效应增强,而随着中低技术生产性服务投入的增加,其对制造企业生产率的影响并不明显或者被削弱;生产性服务投入的增加提升了东部和中部地区制造企业生产率,却抑制了西部地区制造企业生产率。     

Foreign environments: The internationalisation of environmental producer services

The ‘greening’ of manufacturing firms has created new markets for environmental producer services. Environmental service providers from industrialised countries are more and more forced to internationalise, often due to the international activities of their client firms or to an insufficient offer of such services in the host countries. While knowledge-intensive services in general face problems entering foreign markets, environmental producer services are particularly confronted with specific non-tariff barriers. The latter are not only related to regulatory frameworks, accreditation problems (‘neo-protectionism’) or missing cultural skills, but also to specific aspects such as confidence between service provider and client firm.     

中国生产者服务业的增长、结构变化及其影响——基于投入-产出法的分析

本文采用投入-产出方法,在生产者服务的本来意义上,而不是从具体的带有生产者服务特性的服务部门出发,对中国生产者服务业的增长、结构变化及其影响进行经验研究,由此得出一些基本结论:1981年以来,中国生产者服务业在国民经济中的地位逐步上升,服务业的生产者服务功能逐渐显现,但与英、美等国相比,中国生产者服务占国民总产出比重偏低;中国服务业及其有关分部门与国民经济其他产业或部门的前后向联系效应相对较弱,说明中国服务业的增长不仅不能对国民经济产生应有的带动作用,而且其本身受其他部门的需求拉动作用也不大.     

Rekommunalisierung: Renaissance öffentlicher Unternehmen?

The decision to provide services of general interest by public or private enterprises has to be based on the following key issue: should one refer to these services as public goods? This question cannot be answered generally but has to be addressed on a case-tocase basis. Although there are some tendencies for remunicipalisation, especially in the energy sector, empirical studies show a lack of evidence about actual remunicipalisation of public service provisions and its impacts. To explain why local governments in Germany are presently thinking about remunicipalising some services there are changing factors to be identified. However, a closer look at the changing determinants makes clear that there are other options apart from remunicipalisation. Local politicians may have many reasons for providing services by public entities. The most relevant reason is nevertheless the option to organise and govern these services which are relevant for the local community.     

Firm-Specific Advantages Intra-Regional Sales and Performance of Multinational Enterprises

This article is an extension of recent work that has examined the intra-regional sales of large multinational enterprises (MNEs). First, we examine the interaction between the performance of MNEs and four proxies for their firm-specific advantages (FSAs). This includes: firm size, knowledge (as represented by R&D), marketing ability, and industry type. We find that FSAs in R&D and service sector type are best exploited within the home region. In contrast, the FSA firm size is better exploited by global and bi-regional firms. Second, we find that a service MNE tends to be more home-region oriented and has a higher proportion of intra-regional sales than a manufacturing firm.     

Supporting Social Enterprises to Support Vulnerable Consumers: The Example of Community Development Finance Institutions and Financial Exclusion

This article examines the role of social enterprises in providing fair services to vulnerable consumers, focusing on the vulnerability of low-income consumers to high-cost exploitative credit as a result of a lack of access to mainstream financial services. It will be argued that both the state and the corporate sector have a role to play in providing the means with which vulnerable consumers can overcome financial exclusion, through access to fair services. However, this cannot and should not be achieved through increased welfare provision or through reliance on corporate social responsibility initiatives alone. In rejecting solutions focused on increased welfare or voluntary corporate social responsibility initiatives, this article suggests that regulatory support for the development and growth of social enterprises, such as community development finance institutions, will most effectively give rise to a social framework in which vulnerability and unequal opportunity with respect to financial services is addressed.     

Does direct foreign investment affect domestic credit constraints?

Firms in developing countries cite credit constraints as one of their primary obstacles to investment. Direct foreign investment may ease credit constraints by bringing in scarce capital. Alternatively, if foreign firms borrow heavily from domestic banks, they may crowd local firms out of domestic capital markets. Using firm data from the Ivory Coast, we test whether: (1) domestic firms are more credit constrained than foreign firms, and (2) whether borrowing by foreign firms exacerbates domestic firm credit constraints. Results provide support for both hypotheses. We also find that state-owned enterprises (SOEs) are less financially constrained than other domestic enterprises.     

Does Trade Credit Affect Technical Efficiency? Empirical Evidence from Italian Manufacturing SMEs

Using firm‐level data from the Italian manufacturing sector, we investigate the relationship between small and medium‐sized firms technical efficiency and trade credit. Our contribution is twofold: we provide evidence on an open empirical question, and disentangle the channels through which trade credit may influence firms' efficiency. According to our findings, based on the Simar and Wilson (2007) procedure, trade credit seems to positively affect firm efficiency by mitigating financial constraints. Indeed, trade credit enhances efficiency especially for firms that are more likely to be financially constrained (i.e., smaller and/or younger firms) and during the most recent financial crisis.