Income diversification and bank risk in Asia Pacific

This paper investigates the effect of income diversification on bank risk for a large sample of commercial banks in 14 Asia Pacific economies over the period 2011–2016. Using a dynamic panel data model with a system generalized methodof moments estimator, we find that banks with a higher level of income diversification are less risky in general. We further consider both developed and emerging economies according to the International Monetary Fund's classification of the level of economic development. Specifically, for emerging economies, the results indicate that banks with a higher level of income diversification face less risk. However, the diversification of commercial bank income has no significant impact on bank risk in developed Asia Pacific economies.     

Performance of microfinance institutions in Europe—Does social capital matter?

This paper investigates performance drivers of microfinance suppliers in Europe. As such suppliers, in contrast to advanced microfinance suppliers in developing economies, typically focus on uncollateralized microcredit services to individuals at the margins of society and of labor markets, we draw on the theory of social capital and empirically investigate the role that social capital may play in the overall performance of European microfinance suppliers. We build a unique, unbalanced panel data set of 302 microfinance service providers in Europe covering the years 2008–2015, and measure their performance in terms of credit risk, financial and social performance, and efficiency. Pursuing an econometric approach, we test a series of hypotheses using various measures of conditions conducive to building social capital on both the institutional and the country level, such as the client base of a microfinance supplier and the level of cultural fractionalization in a society. Our findings confirm that a higher intensity of social capital is positively associated with all areas of the performance of microfinance suppliers in Europe. Our conclusions could help in the design and launch of microfinance institutions in those European countries in which microfinance markets are developed not at all or only to a very limited extent. Our paper thus contributes to the nascent literature on microfinance in developed economies by applying and extending the theoretical framework and empirical models on social capital and microfinance that were originally elaborated for developing economies.     

Exploring variations in employment practices in the emerging economies of Europe: assessing the impact of foreign ownership and European integration

Few studies have assessed the impact of European Union (EU) integration on the emerging economies of Europe, especially with regard to employment practices. In this study, we focus on three aspects of employment practices and assess whether EU integration has lead to any differences between the emerging economies aligned to the EU and those that remain out of the EU fold. This comparison is quite valid because the emerging economies that we compare have all had a similar background in terms of their economic systems. We use a large World Bank database to compare domestically owned and foreign‐owned firms separately. The results show that, while there is some level of divergence between the two blocs of countries in terms of the percentage of temporary employees and education level of employees, in terms of the percentage of skilled workers employed, however, there is no divergence between firms in the two blocs of countries.     

城市居民财产性收入与贫富差距的实证分析

利用1988～2009年国家统计局全国入户调查数据,本文研究了我国城市居民财产性收入的规模、组成、变化以及其对收入差距的贡献。采用基尼系数的分解方法,将每年的收入差距分解到各个收入成分的贡献,并发现与其他收入形式相比,财产性收入分布的基尼系数是最高的,对总收入差距的贡献也在迅速扩大,这一现象值得重视。本文还分别对东、中、西部地区进行了分析,发现财产性收入主要集中在东部地区。     

HOW SHOULD CAPITAL BE TAXED?

This survey discusses how capital should be taxed in advanced economies. We review the theoretical optimal tax literature, survey empirical studies on the distribution of capital and the distortionary costs of capital taxation, and analyze the desirability of specific taxes on capital income, wealth, property, inheritances, and corporate profits. Our overall conclusion is that capital taxation plays an important role in an optimal tax system, but only certain ways of taxing capital are able to strike a balance between optimality and administrative feasibility.     

Real income convergence and the patterns of financial integration in the EU

We analyse real income convergence among the EU28 countries throughout 1995–2017 and the relationship with the convergence patterns of financial systems. We apply the nonlinear latent factor model of Phillips and Sul (2007, 2009) to real incomes and the IMF financial development indices for financial markets and financial institutions (Svirydzenka, 2016), and identify convergence clubs endogenously. We have several results. First, income disparities narrowed significantly over the last twenty years; yet, the growth convergence process lost momentum triggered by the global financial crisis and countries legacies shaped up asymmetries that have crystallised. Second, countries' financial systems exhibit high fragmentation, especially for financial markets, with the new EU member states at a lower financial development, confirming the existence of a two-tier Europe. Overall, the convergence patterns for real incomes and financial development are strongly correlated. Finally, the financial structure matters and market-oriented economies feature higher long-run growth, indicating the need to implement pan-European policy actions that increase the opportunities of risk diversification, enhance capital raising and channel large-scale financing to firms.     

The saving,human wealth and asset pricing nexus: Evidence from around the world

The present study examines the dynamics of the saving, human wealth and asset pricing nexus across developed and emerging economies. We introduce two equilibrium asset pricing models in an intertemporal capital asset pricing framework, including the priced factors human wealth and market portfolio in the first framework and the saving and market portfolio in the second framework. Both asset pricing frameworks consist of two-factor, four-factor and five-factor asset pricing models. We control for size and value factors in the four-factor model and size, value and momentum factors in the five-factor model. The IV-GMM estimation and GRS test results indicate that human wealth and market portfolio for the first framework and saving and market portfolio in the second framework are primary priced factors in explaining the average returns for developed economies and the aggregate level. On the contrary, both frameworks fail to yield significant results explaining the average returns for emerging economies.     

Unemployment in East and West Europe

We use new 1991–2005 panel data to address the issue of unemployment in Central-East Europe. We compare the evolution of unemployment, its dynamics and related phenomena in five former communist economies in the Central Europe and use the geographically close West Germany as a benchmark for a mature market economy. We identify the differences and similarities in the evolution of the key labor market variables and contrast different outcomes with the diverse initial conditions and subsequent paths. All countries have experienced aggregate demand shocks, structural shocks and hysteresis. Despite diverse initial conditions and subsequent paths, the patterns observed are surprisingly similar. The eastern part of Germany appears to be a special case with extraordinary high unemployment inflows. Contrary to the theoretical models, in the transition economies we do not observe an initially rapid rise in the inflow rate, followed by a convergence of this rate to the levels of market economies. Rather, there is a relatively gradual rise in the inflow rate towards the level of market economies. The differences in unemployment rates turn out to be attributable to a considerable extent to the actual differences in the inflow rates. The trajectories in the unemployment-vacancy space observed in the Central-East European countries increasingly resemble those observed in the developed market economies. Interestingly, these similarities arise despite differences in the institutional setting across these economies.     

短期国际资本流动新趋势、对我国的影响及其防范

当前,全球资本流动总量小幅但不均衡回升,未来有可能缓慢增长;发展中国家资本市场的发展正在逐渐改变国际资本流动的结构;国际金融市场参与者的角色发生很大的变化;国际资本向新兴经济体特别是亚洲新兴经济体大量流动.在短期国际资本的持续冲击下,新兴经济体已有形成资产泡沫的风险,并且在未来仍有继续扩大的趋势.对于中国而言,热钱在中国的投机空间有限,短期内大规模持续流入的条件还不具备,温和流入并时有反复可能将成长期趋势.要摆脱国际热钱大规模流动带来的包括人民币升值压力在内的一系列困扰,必须采取疏堵结合的方式:一方面,采取有效的防御性措施,监控各类热钱,加强流入管制;另一方面,应重视疏导的作用,抑制泡沫膨胀,吸引中长期国际资本,防范和限制短期资本泛滥.     

Heterogeneous networks and resource acquisition of SMEs in emerging economies

It is acknowledged that social capital plays an important role in the growth of entrepreneurial firms. However, few studies have examined the contribution and function of social capital networks that contain structural holes (heterogeneous networks) in emerging economies. It is not clear how trustworthiness and behavioural commitment impact on effectiveness of these networks in obtaining resources. This study explores how heterogeneous networks characterize successful entrepreneurship of small-medium enterprises in such setting. We find that behavioural commitment moderates the relationship between heterogeneous networks and resource acquisition, while trustworthiness does not significantly moderate this relationship. The impact of the findings on the literature and practice in emerging economies is discussed, as is the need for future research in this domain.     

The Effect of Urbanization and Industrialization on Energy Use in Emerging Economies: Implications for Sustainable Development

This article investigates the impact of two important socio‐economic variables—urbanization and industrialization—on energy consumption in a panel of emerging economies. The results indicate that income increases energy consumption in both the long run and the short run. In the long run, urbanization decreases energy consumption, while industrialization increases it. Long‐run dynamics are important as evidenced by the estimated coefficient on the error correction term. These results have implications for sustainable development. Economic growth policies designed to increase income and industrialization will increase energy consumption. Since most energy needs in emerging economies are currently met by the burning of fossil fuels, economic growth and industrialization policies will be at odds with sustainable development.     

Relative deprivation,reference groups and the assessment of standard of living

This paper proposes two new indices of relative deprivation, derived from an extension of the concept of generalized Gini to the measurement of distributional change. Population- and income-weighted relative deprivation indices are then defined and, using panel data from the Consortium of Household Panels for European Socio-Economic Research (CHER), we check which of the various ways of defining individual deprivation best fits the answers given by individuals on the degree of their satisfaction with income. We find that the deprivation indices proposed are consistently and negatively correlated with income satisfaction as reported by respondents, that income weighted measures fit better than population weighted measures and that this fit improves with countries that experienced deep institutional changes such as the transitional economies of Eastern Europe.     

Do European Firms Behave as if they Converge toward a Target Capital Structure?

Utilizing a large sample of European firms, we demonstrate that firms behave as if they converge toward a target capital structure (“leveraging process”), defined by traditional trade‐off variables. Moreover, we find that such behavior is evident regardless of firm size and ownership structure. We compare the degree of convergence among different groups of firms and find that medium‐sized firms, firms from the new EU member states, and firms from Southern Europe exhibit a stronger “leveraging process” than the rest of the sampled firms. Our results also highlight that the economic crisis, which began in the late 2008, impacted the leveraging dynamics; however, the general pattern of convergence remained unchanged.     

The relationship between R&D,innovation and productivity in emerging economies: CDM model and alternatives

CDM (Crépon, Duguet and Mairesse, 1988) is a workhorse model in the economics of innovation, which explains productivity in a three-stage procedure driven initially by R&D and leads to patents and then to productivity improvements. Based on the logic of this model, an increasing number of papers applies it to emerging economies but modifies the original model without being explicit about the nature and implications of this modification. We argue in this paper that, in its original form, CDM does not capture stylized facts of the determinants of productivity in emerging economies and that we need alternative models. Accordingly, we are critical of papers that try to maintain the validity of the model but actually change it. For that purpose, we test the original CDM model and its two alternatives: investment and production capability–driven models. Our research is based on a large sample of firms in Central and Eastern Europe, former Soviet republics and Turkey, and we show that the alternative models are much closer to the stylized facts of innovation activities and technology upgrading in these and other emerging economies. Our conclusions have important policy implications, which we discuss.     

REGIONAL SHORT-RUN EFFECTS OF TRADE LIBERALIZATION IN BRAZIL

We use a single-country multi-regional computable general equilibrium model to evaluate regional short-run impacts of reduction in import tariffs resulting from recent free trade area agreements, on poverty and distribution of income in Brazil. Results show that trade can reduce inter-regional income inequality, but poor urban households lose with trade liberalization. Trade policy alone is not sufficient for achieving more equitable income distribution goals in Brazil. Without greater investment in human and physical capital, incomes in most regions of Brazil are likely to lag behind incomes in the South/Southeast, the most developed regions in the country.     

Accounting in Transitional and Emerging Market Economies

The aim of this introduction is to discuss some of the challenges and problems faced by researchers who are interested in conducting research in transitional and emerging market economies and to highlight some of the key attributes and characteristics of these economies. The papers contained in this Special Section are introduced by way of providing a brief overview of their contributions and identifying other important areas that future researchers might wish to pursue.

This Special Section of European Accounting Review is devoted to publishing papers on various accounting issues in transitional and emerging market economies. In this introduction, we aim to set the scene for the papers contained in this Special Section, to highlight some of the key attributes and characteristics of transitional and emerging market economies, to provide a brief overview of the contributions published here and finally to identify some other important areas that future researchers might wish to pursue.