The value of information in cross-listing

Until 2004, the London Stock Exchange allowed firms to be traded in the specialized SEAQ-I platform without the firm's involvement. Trading only required an application by one LSE trading member firm. Such an institutional arrangement, which made cross-listings possible without a firms' approval, allows for a direct test of different theories of foreign listing. In particular, we can differentiate between market segmentation and liquidity hypotheses, which rely on a firm trading in a foreign exchange and informational hypotheses, which assume that a firm makes the decision to trade in a foreign exchange. We identify a sample of international firms that are admitted to trading on London's SEAQ-I platform without their involvement. We estimate the valuation effects of this multi-market trading event and compare them to those enjoyed by firms that pursue a standard London Stock Exchange cross-listing. A cross-sectional abnormal returns analysis documents significant evidence in support of information-related hypotheses of cross-listing. An analysis of the firms' home market price volatility corroborates the results.     

Oil import costs and domestic inflation in industrial countries

Zusammenfassung Kosten der ?limporte und heimische Inflation in Industriel?ndern.- In diesem Aufsatz wird das monet?re Modell erweitert, um zu untersuchen, welche Bedeutung der kr?ftige Anstieg der Preise und Ausgaben für importiertes Erd?l in den Industriestaaten von Herbst 1973 bis heute hatte und über welche Kan?le er sich auswirkte. Die empirischen Ergebnisse zeigen, da\ die Inflation vorwiegend durch die Abwertung der W?hrung des Einfuhrlandes “importiert” wurde, die sich aus den stark gestiegenen Einfuhrrechnungen für Erd?l ergab, und weniger durch die Erh?hung der Erd?lpreise selbst, der L?hne oder Haushaltsdefizite. Die Zunahme der Geldversorgung und inflation?ren Erwartungen sind für die Erkl?rung der heimischen Inflation weit wichtiger, wenn es sich um Entwicklungsl?nder und nicht um Industriel?nder handelt. Das Gegenteil gilt hinsichtlich der Ausweitung der heimischen Produktion und Preiserh?hung für importiertes Erd?l.

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Résumé Co?ts de pétrole importé et l’inflation locale dans les pays industriels. - Dans cet article l’auteur étend le modèle monétaire pour examiner le mécanisme et l’effet de l’augmentation forte du prix et des dépenses pour le pétrole importé sur l’inflation dans les pays industriels à partir de la fin 1973 jusqu’aujourd’hui. Les résultats empiriques démontrent que l’inflation apparamment fut importée particulièrement par les dévaluations des monnaies des pays d’importation résultant de leurs dépenses fortement accrues pour le pétrole importé au lieu de directement par l’augmentation des prix pétroliers eux-mêmes ou par l’augmentation des salaires industriels et des déficits budgétaires. L’ augmentation de la masse monétaire et les expectatives inflationnistes sont beaucoup plus importantes comme explication de l’inflation locale dans les pays en voie de développement que pour les pays industriels pendant que le contraire est vrai pour l’expansion de la production locale et l’augmentation du prix de pétrole importé.

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Resumen El costo del petróleo importado y la inflación interna en los países industrializados.- En este trabajo se extiende el modelo monetario para examinar el impacto de las manifestaciones y la importancia relativa del aumento del precio del petróleo y del gasto para importarlo sobre la inflación en los países industrializados a partir del oto?o de 1973. Los resultados empíricos demuestran que la inflación pareciera haber sido importada através de las devaluaciones de las monedas de los países importadores, debido más al importante aumento de las importaciones que al aumento de los precios mismos del petróleo, o que a aumentos de los salarios industriales o del déficit fiscal. Los aumentos de la oferta monetaria y de las expectativas inflacionarias tienen mayor importancia para explicar la inflación interna en los países en desarrollo que en los países industrializados, mientras que sucede lo contrario con la expansión de la producción nacional y con el aumento del precio del petróleo importado.

     

A theoretical and empirical evaluation and extension of the Todaro migration model

"This paper postulates that it is theoretically and empirically preferable to base internal labor migration on the relative difference in rural-urban real income streams and rates of unemployment, taken as separate and independent variables, rather than on the difference in the expected real income streams as postulated by the very influential and often quoted Todaro model. The paper goes on to specify several important ways of extending the resulting migration model and improving its empirical performance." The analysis is based on Italian data.     

Selling information to competitive firms

Internal agency conflicts distort firms' choices and reduce social welfare. To limit these distortions, principals dealing with privately informed agents often acquire information from specialized intermediaries, such as auditing and certification companies, that are able to ascertain, and credibly disclose, agents' private information. We study how the structures of both the information provision and the final good markets affect information accuracy. A monopolistic information provider may supply imprecise information to perfectly competitive firms, even if the precision of this information can be increased at no cost. This is due to a price effect of information: although more accurate information reduces agency costs and allows firms to increase production, it also results in a lower price in the final good market, which reduces principals' willingness to pay for information.     

Economic Change,Subjective Perception and Institutional Evolution

Following Hayek's intuitions on the role of subjective perception in economics, I attempt to integrate path‐dependent dynamics in evolutionary economics, as emerging in the recent theorizing about economic change. The starting point is an open question in evolutionary economics: is there a unifying principle which characterizes change at individual, organizational and institutional levels? In the attempt to answer this question, I propose some considerations on the nature of learning processes and on the mechanisms of adjustment, discovery and selection that are consistent with cognitive psychology and contemporary neurobiology. In particular, I link imperfect perception to guided variations, like those contained in Dosi's technological paradigms. More generally, I attempt to integrate the evolutionary theory as conceived by Nelson and Winter with the evolutionary theory as conceived by Hayek.     

Traffic lights and food choice: A choice experiment examining the relationship between nutritional food labels and price

In this paper we investigate how consumers respond to the UK nutritional food label Traffic Light System (TLS). Employing a choice experiment (CE) we find that consumers appear to behave in a manner consistent with our expectations regarding the impact of the TLS. We identify a strong preference on the part of respondents to avoid a basket of goods containing a mix of foods with any “Red” lights. In addition, we find that consumers have a hierarchy of importance in terms of perception of the various nutrients examined and there are clear behavioural differences associated with particular socio-economic characteristics confirming early research on the use of nutrition labels. Overall our results indicate significant heterogeneity in the attitudes and responses of consumers to the TLS nutritional food labels within and across socio-economic strata.     

An Experimental Investigation of Emotions and Reasoning in the Trolley Problem

Elaborating on the notions that humans possess different modalities of decision-making and that these are often influenced by moral considerations, we conducted an experimental investigation of the Trolley Problem. We presented the participants with two standard scenarios (‹lever’ and ‹stranger’) either in the usual or in reversed order. We observe that responses to the lever scenario, which result from (moral) reasoning, are affected by our manipulation; whereas responses to the stranger scenario, triggered by moral emotions, are unaffected. Furthermore, when asked to express general moral opinions on the themes of the Trolley Problem, about half of the participants reveal some inconsistency with the responses they had previously given.     

The whip and the Bible: Punishment versus internalization

A variety of experimental and empirical research indicate that prosocial behavior is important for economic success. There are two sources of prosocial behavior: incentives and preferences. The latter, the willingness of individuals to “do their bit” for the group, we refer to as internalization, because we view it as something that a group can influence by appropriate investment. This implies that there is a trade-off between using incentives and internalization to encourage prosocial behavior. By examining this trade-off we shed light on the connection between social norms observed inside the laboratory and those observed outside in the field. For example, we show that a higher value of cooperation outside the laboratory may lower the use of incentives inside the laboratory even as it increases their usage outside. As an application we show that the model calibrated to experimental data makes reasonable out-of-sample quantitative forecasts.     

What drives the growth of academic spin-offs? Matching academics,universities, and non-research organizations

International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal - This paper aims to contribute to the on-going debate on the factors that affect the growth of academic spin-off firms (ASOs) in the...