The Effects of Future Capital Investment and R&D Expenditures on Firms' Liquidity

The paper explores factors that lead to accumulation or decumulation of firms' cash reserves. In particular, the paper empirically examines whether additional future fixed capital and R&D investment expenditures induce firms to change their liquidity ratio while considering the role of market imperfections. Implementing a dynamic framework on a panel of US, UK, and German firms, it is found that firms in all three countries make larger adjustments to cash holdings when they plan additional future R&D rather than fixed capital investment expenditures. This behavior is particularly prevalent among financially constrained firms.     

The relative economic performance of foreign subsidiaries in UK manufacturing

This paper compares the economic performance of UK and foreign-owned firms in UK manufacturing industry. A panel data set covering 14 233 firms for the period 1992–1996 is used and the influences of firm-, industry- and country-specific advantages on productivity are examined. The results of the study show that labour productivity is higher in foreign subsidiaries than in UK firms and that foreign subsidiaries as a whole employ higher levels of human capital and enjoy greater economies of scale. A further source of productivity advantage for US subsidiaries is their higher level of intangible assets, and for European and Japanese subsidiaries their higher level of capital intensity. The results have policy implications for the targeting of promotion activities to attract FDI.     

Market timing and corporate capital structure: a transatlantic comparison

This article provides comparative international evidence on the effect of market timing on corporate capital structures using panel data for US, UK and continental European firms. We document that the empirical regularity found for US firms, that historical market-to-book ratios and corporate leverage correlate negatively does not extend to UK and continental European firms. The latter tend to raise debt rather than equity when stock prices are high, thus sticking more closely to a pecking order in which debt is preferred over external equity.     

A comparison of clustering dynamics in the US and UK computer industries

This paper compares the dynamics of the process by which geographical clusters emerge in the US and UK computer industries, by modelling the evolution of firm growth and entry. In both countries, new companies are attracted by industry strength in particular sub-sectors in a particular region. Moreover, incumbent firms located in a cluster that is strong in their own sub-sector of the industry tend to grow faster than average. While there are some second order differences between the models estimated for the US and the UK, it appears that the dynamics of clustering are similar. In particular, there is no evidence that clustering effects are weaker in the UK than in the US.     

R&;D and productivity: using UK firm-level data to inform policy

The UK’s business R&D (BERD) to GDP ratio is low compared to other leading economies, and the ratio has declined over the 1990s. This paper uses data on 719 large UK firms to analyse the link between R&D and productivity during 1989–2000. The results indicate that UK returns to R&D are similar to returns in other leading economies and have been relatively stable over the 1990s. The analysis suggests that the low BERD to GDP ratio in the UK is unlikely to be due to direct financial or human capital constraints (as these imply finding relatively high rates of return).     

Economics of scale and scope in multiproduct firms: evidence from US railroads

Recently, there has been a surge of interest in analysing scale economies in US railroad firms. The analysis of scale economies in existing studies is, however, limited in view of recent advances in the theory of the multiproduct firm. In this paper, the previous work is extended to address the issue of scale and scope economies in multiproduct firms. The findings show that US railroads experience mild overall economies of scale, but rather marked product-specific economies of scale with respect to both freight and passenger services. However, there appear to be diseconomies of scope associated with the joint production of the two services. Based on these results, this study indicates that US railroad firms would have no tendency to behave as a natural monopoly in the absence of regulation.     

Worker flows, job flows and unemployment in a matching model

Standard matching models of unemployment generate far too little volatility in unemployment and vacancies relative to the variation in the shock variables. Shimer (2005) showed that in US data the vacancy-to-unemployment ratio is about 26 times more volatile than the standard model predicts. He identified the flexibility of wages as the key issue and triggered a heated debate on possible improvements of the core model to accommodate these empirical facts. In this paper, we first document Shimer's facts for the UK and find them to be qualitatively similar to US facts. We then develop and calibrate a model based on the Mortensen and Pissarides approach that increases the volatility of the v/u ratio 20-fold compared to the standard framework. The key features of our model relate to the job creation decision by firms and the search options of workers. We allow these to search whilst employed, and firms to re-advertise jobs that have been quit from. This leads us to use a different job creation process, whereby potential vacancies, or job ‘ideas’, arise at a finite rate per period over a range of idiosyncratic productivities. Calibrating the model to UK data, we show that it delivers volatility in unemployment and vacancies much closer to, though still not as large as, that observed for the UK, whilst retaining the standard wage determination process.     

The Motives for Joint Ventures: A Transaction Costs Analysis of Japanese MNES in the UK

What factors determine the choice of Japanese companies between part and full ownership of their UK subsidiaries? In seeking to answer this question, this study employs data of Japanese foreign direct investment (FDI), through joint ventures, in the UK, not previously used. The main findings of the econometric work presented is that transaction costs are the principal consideration when Japanese firms choose between part and full ownership of their UK subsidiaries{softhyphen}. Variables that have featured prominently in studies relating to either US parents or for subsidiaries in the US do not appear to play a significant role. The European Union (EU) market appears to be the target of Japanese foreign direct investment in the UK.     

On the real effects of inflation in open economies: theory and empirics

Based on the quarterly data from four open economies (the US, the UK, Canada, and Italy) and estimated correlations and impulse responses within the traditional vector autoregressive (VAR) analysis, we find that inflation, both in the short and long term, negatively affects consumption and investment, and has a positive influence on the current account. We propose an infinite-horizon optimizing model of an open economy with a fixed rate of time preference that explains these empirics. In this type of economy, households consume both durable and non-durable goods, firms operate under costly investment, and all the transactions involving consumption and investment are subject to cash-in-advance (CIA) constraints. Employing the new ‘sign restriction’ identification procedure due to Uhlig (J Mone’t Econ 52(2)381–419, 2005), we corroborate the empirical validity of the proposed model. In order to verify the robustness of our results, we consider another shock, namely, productivity shock in our empirical analysis and find that while productivity shock dominates in the case of the US, inflationary shock has a dominating effect in the case of the UK, Canada, and Italy.     

Cross-listing premium in the US and the UK destination

This paper tests the main hypothesis that firms that cross-list have higher valuations, and provides evidence on the valuation effect of cross-listing on a major non-US market, the UK compared to the US market from source countries in the Asia-Pacific region in 2003–2004. We find evidence that there is a cross-listing premium in both markets. However, the evidence on whether the premium is significantly different in the two countries is mixed. Using univariate, OLS and random effects methods, we find some evidence that the premium in the US is higher, but using a treatment effect methodology we find that the difference is not robust.     

私有化更有效率吗

本文对始自里根和撒切尔夫人主政时期的私有化浪潮提出了批评和质疑。本文认为,以解决政府失灵问题的私有化浪潮,可能导致更为严重的市场失灵问题。虽然在总体上私有企业比国有企业有更强的盈利能力,但这并不意味着私有企业比国有企业更有效率。即使能够证明私有企业比国有企业更有效率,也不能说私有化是可取的。     

The globalisation of research in the pharmaceutical industry: A case of uneven development

The paper discusses different conceptualisations of the term globalisation of research. From this discussion five dimensions of globalisation of research are identified. Using three different type of data, the paper goes on to examine the extent, motivations and mechanism for the globalisation of research along these five dimensions among leading European and US pharmaceutical multinational companies (MNCs). The evidence for the period 1975–1998 shows that the general process of international expansion of research activities varied significantly between leading US and European MNCs. It is also clear that the development of the process of globalisation has proceeded unevenly along the five dimensions studied. The data also show the increasing concentration of both US and European research investment in the USA.     

CONVERGENCE IN THE UK SERVICE SECTOR: FIRM LEVEL EVIDENCE, 1988–1998

Bernard and Jones (1996) have previously argued that similarity in the technologies used by firms in the service sector helps to explain evidence of absolute convergence at the cross‐country level. This paper searches for convergence at the firm level using data for the UK service sector over the period 1988–1998. Initial mixed support for this view is partly explained by strong business cycle effects in the data. Upon closer examination we find evidence that convergence was more likely in industries that had high levels of technology investment, greater exposure to new technologies and high levels of absorptive capacity.     

Is globalisation undermining the welfare state?

This paper analyses the evolution of the welfare states in themajority of OECD countries during the pre-globalisation (1946–80)and globalisation (1980–2000) periods. Our purpose isto find out whether globalisation has produced a convergencetowards a smaller welfare state, funded increasingly by non-mobilefactors such as labour, property and consumption rather thanby mobile factors such as capital. The data presented here challengethe claims about such a convergence, showing that social publicexpenditures and public employment have continued to expandduring the globalisation period in most OECD countries. We alsoshow that the welfare states remain rooted in the politicaltraditions that have governed them.     

International merger activity and the national regulation of mergers: A UK perspective

This paper traces out recent changes in the globalisation of merger activity and considers its implications for national and international regulation of mergers and joint ventures. It argues that a large proportion of mergers involve small firms which may have an important effect on the competitive process and that regulation of large mergers should be complemented by industrial and financial policies to encourage the growth of smaller independent firms.     

The globalisation of research in the pharmaceutical industry: A case of uneven development

The paper discusses different conceptualisations of the term globalisation of research. From this discussion five dimensions of globalisation of research are identified. Using three different type of data, the paper goes on to examine the extent, motivations and mechanism for the globalisation of research along these five dimensions among leading European and US pharmaceutical multinational companies (MNCs). The evidence for the period 1975-1998 shows that the general process of international expansion of research activities varied significantly between leading US and European MNCs. It is also clear that the development of the process of globalisation has proceeded unevenly along the five dimensions studied. The data also show the increasing concentration of both US and European research investment in the USA.     

Labour market deregulation, 'flexibility' and innovation

Labour ‘flexibility’ is often portrayed as importantto competitive success. Using evidence from an original surveyof UK firms, this paper investigates the relationships betweenfirms' use of, on the one hand, various flexible work practices,human resource management techniques, and industrial relationssystems and, on the other hand, the innovative activities ofthose firms. Our results suggest that the sort of ‘lowroad’ labour flexibility practices encouraged by labourmarket deregulation—short-term and temporary contracts,a lack of employer commitment to job security, low levels oftraining, and so on—are negatively correlated with innovation.     

Codification,Abstraction, and Firm Differences: A Cognitive Information-based Perspective

Synopsis The resource-based view shares with population ecology, organizational systematics, organizational cladistics, and institutional theory a concern with why firms differ and with what keeps them different. These two questions only have meaning if – as has been the case in the eoclassical theory of the firm – similarities between firms are taken as the default assumption. This paper distinguishes between ontological heterogeneity – differences in the world – and epistemic heterogeneity – differences in the way that the world is construed. Focusing on the latter, it puts forward an argument for taking epistemic heterogeneity between firms as the default assumption. It starts with a general analysis of how living systems make sense of the world. It then goes on to identify the cognitive activities of codification and abstraction as key sources of epistemic heterogeneity. The findings are applied to those systems called firms where a dominant logic allows epistemic heterogeneity to persist. In some case this leads to competitive advantage, in others to a debilitating inertia. The implications for a knowledge-based theory of the firm are briefly explored.     

Technological Entrepreneurship and Capability Building in Biotechnology

The question addressed in this paper is whether and how intermediate developed countries (IDCs) can profit from the possibilities opened by globalisation to set off processes of capability building in advanced technological sectors. While most debates have taken place in the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) field, the paper addresses the case of biotechnology. It is argued that, given the specific characteristics of biotechnology, opportunities may emerge for technology-intensive entrepreneurial initiatives in countries that have developed a reasonable science base and built the capacity to connect to and plug into international biotechnology networks. The exploitation of these opportunities requires strategies that combine good indigenous scientific competences and a pool of skilled human resources, with transnational linkages, and that rely on firms' abilities to find a position in globally coordinated 'knowledge value chains'. The paper conducts a first assessment of the viability of this approach, drawing on empirical research on 'distant networking strategies' adopted by Portuguese new biotechnology firms.