Relationship and Transaction Lending: New Evidence and Perspectives

In this article, I try to answer three questions: (1) How do relationship lending and transaction lending vary over the cycle? (2) How do economic systems that are more “bank oriented” perform compared to “market-oriented” systems? (3) What are the consequences on relationship banking of the recent structural bank regulation reforms adopted to separate specific investment and commercial banking activities? Building on some recent evidence, the main conclusions are as follows: (1) Relationship banks protect their clients in normal downturns; (2) when recessions coincide with a financial crisis, countries that rely relatively more on bank financing tend to be more severely hit; (3) the effects of structural bank regulation initiatives on relationship banking are uncertain.     

Monopoly regulation under asymmetric information: prices versus quantities

We compare two instruments to regulate a monopoly that has private information about its demand or costs: fixing either the price or quantity. For each instrument, we consider sophisticated (screening) and simple (bunching) mechanisms. We characterize the optimal mechanisms and compare their welfare performance. With unknown demand and increasing marginal costs, the sophisticated price mechanism dominates that of quantity, whereas the sophisticated quantity mechanism may prevail when marginal costs decrease. The simple price mechanism dominates that of quantity when marginal costs decrease, but the opposite may arise if marginal costs increase. With unknown costs, both instruments are equivalent.     

Debt Sustainability and the Ongoing Financial Crisis: The Case of IDA‐only African Countries*

Abstract: The ongoing financial crisis has raised concerns in many circles about a potential future wave of sovereign defaults spreading among developing countries and, therefore, the need for additional rounds of debt relief in poor indebted countries. This paper addresses this issue for a group of 31 International Development Association (IDA)‐only African countries, which are in a fragile debt situation. Using the most recent debt sustainability analyses (DSAs) undertaken for these countries by the World Bank and the IMF, this paper studies the potential adverse effect of the ongoing financial crisis on the countries’ debt burden indicators, as a function of the depth and length of the crisis. The latter is measured by the fall and the duration of such fall in exports revenues, and by the terms at which each country can obtain financing to muddle through the crisis period. The analysis underscores the importance of concessional financing for these countries, especially if the crisis proves to be a protracted one. This, because the likelihood of countries being able to muddle through the crisis without defaulting on their external debt decreases with the hardening of the financial conditions faced by them — alternatively, the size of the downsizing in domestic (fiscal) expenditures needed to ensure the service of their foreign debts increases with the tightening of financial conditions.     

MACROECONOMIC ADJUSTMENT UNDER AN EXTERNAL AND FISCAL CONSTRAINT: A FIX‐PRICE/FLEX‐PRICE APPROACH

This paper presents a dual economy model of the fix‐price/flex‐price kind that explicitly allows for the existence of a government budget constraint in a fully open economy. Both the external and fiscal closures resemble very much the contemporary experience of several Latin American countries, where fiscal discipline and fix exchange rate systems have been the norm. Thus, within the public sector, it is assumed that public investment is the adjustment variable, while foreign reserves variation adjusts the external balance. Short‐run impacts of policy‐induced variables and changes in exogenous external financing are analysed. Relevant trade‐offs, especially between output and inflation, follow from an analysis in which the time perspective is rather short. However, in the medium term, some balancing forces in the economy can moderate the trade‐offs. We show among a wide range of events and policy options that this is the case of debt relief or a concerted lending strategy.     

On input market surplus and its relation to the downstream market game

Abstract In order to analyze the welfare effects of price changes in input markets – following for example a price‐fixing conspiracy – economists have studied the relationship between the surplus measured in the input markets and the surplus in the output markets. The latest results hinge on simplifying assumptions, which are relaxed here by linking the input markets surplus question to another stream of literature, which characterizes functions that oligopolists collectively, yet unintentionally, maximize. It is shown that the area under the input demands is equal to the change in a function for which critical points coincide with the equilibria of the downstream game. A particular case of these functions is the exact potential function.     

Market access,organic farming and productivity: the effects of Fair Trade affiliation on Thai farmer producer groups*

The study analyses the impact of Fair Trade (FT) and organic farming on a sample of FT rice producers in Thailand. It finds that per capita income from agriculture is positively and significantly affected by years of organic certification and FT affiliation. The estimated FT and organic certification contributions to producers’ economic well‐being are higher when account is taken of the relatively higher proportion of self‐consumption among affiliated farmers. But the per capita income effect does not translate into higher productivity owing to a concurrent increase in hours worked.     

Resident attitudes towards gaming and tourism development in Macao: Growth machine theory as a context for identifying supporters and opponents

Despite global recession, Macao continues to develop as an international gaming destination. However, as the intensity of development increases, the government is losing support for the gaming industry among some residents. This loss of support may be examined within the context of growth machine theory. This paper surveys residents regarding their attitudes towards gaming and development. The findings suggest residents can be divided into two groups — gaming supporters and gaming opponents. From these findings, recommendations are made for future planning, development and marketing in Macao. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Endogenous capital utilization in a neoclassical growth model

This paper introduces a variable rate of capital utilization and depreciation into a modified Ramsey-type neoclassical growth model via the well-known concept of pure user cost. The optimal utilization rate is found to be determined by the opportunity cost of holding capital or the net real interest rate. As a consequence, this rate may vary in the short run, so total services of capital become a control rather than a state variable. Furthermore, the introduction of a variable utilization rate yields a slower rate of convergence toward the steady state, inducing more persistence in the transitional dynamics. To illustrate how the endogenous choice of utilization acts on the system, some simulations are carried out, including the transition period when there is a temporary fall in the exogenous real interest rate.     

Focus on practice service process innovation in the Brazilian electric energy sector

Service outsourcing has become widespread in the electric energy sector in Brazil. In this article, we present a case study of an innovative model for outsourcing management designed by a large electric energy distribution organization in Brazil, which outsources core and support business processes. This article reports how this company faced the challenges imposed after suffering serious operational problems with outsourcing companies and the innovative approach that was taken in order to improve performance and reduce safety risks. Post-implementation results corroborate the positive financial and operational consequences of the innovative model.