Bankruptcy Reform in Russia: The Case for Creditor Rights in Russia

Russia at the dawn of the 21st century is experiencing a collapsing economy. In a world where healthy economies create and maintain capital, it is critically important that all efforts be made to assure all creditors and especially private direct investors that in the event of debtor-insolvency their business interests are protected. The role of bankruptcy law under a regime of what I call creditor rights is limited. The court system can be used to avoid a creditors's race to grab assets. Whenever the going concern value of a firm is greater than the sum of the assets sold separately a case can be made for a bankruptcy procedure as a way of protecting creditor rights. This paper examines the historical origins of the creditor rights tradition and advocates such a regime for modern Russia. This paper holds that especially with respect to Russia, we would do well to heed John Stuart Mill's advice and support reforms that favor creditors and protect the value of their rights. Those insolvent firms owned and managed by political oligarchs should be cut down, dismembered, and the assets they command transferred to new and more imaginative and solvent groups of managers.     

A LINEAR PROGRAMMING STUDY OF FAMILY-RUN DAIRY FARMS IN NORTHERN IRELAND

The paper presents the results of a study in which multiperiod linear programming models were used to examine the probable responses of small and medium sized dairy farms in Northern Ireland to various policy, farm indebtedness and development options and to project consequent structural change in the dairy sector. The introduction of quotas has curtailed the considerable potential for expansion of output on these farms while having a less detrimental effect on farm profits and the survival of the smaller dairy herd than the price cut necessary to produce the same reduction in output.     

The modelling of demographic-economic change within the context of regional decline: Analytical procedures and empirical results

This paper is concerned with the modelling of demographic-economic change within an input-output framework. Several different modes of such change are identified and iterative and simultaneous mechanisms representing their effects are explored in detail. Analytical methods are developed to measure the consequences of demographic-economic change: particular attention is paid to the problem of assessing the regional impact of transfer payments such as unemployment benefit and old age pensions. The application of these methods is demonstrated using a modelling framework constructed for the Merseyside metropolitan county in North West England.     

Dynamic interfeed substitution: implications for incorporating ethanol byproducts into feedlot rations

This study examines interfeed substitution with a focus on the relationship between distiller’s dried grain with solubles (DDGS) and traditional feed grains. The dynamic linear logit model is used for the empirical analysis of interfeed substitution. The estimation results reveal that an increase in livestock and poultry outputs reduces the relative shares of corn and soybean meal to DDGS. The estimated adjustment rate indicates that the demand for feed grains is responsive in the short run with about 37% of the long-run response. This study also finds that the demand for corn and soybean meal remains inelastic even in the long run, showing the possibilities that livestock and poultry producers face high feed costs in response to an increase in the prices of corn and soybean meal. The pressures on feed costs can be alleviated by the substitutable relationship between DDGS and corn, but the substitution of DDGS for corn has a potential to provide livestock and poultry with different nutritional contents.     

The role of credit constraints and government subsidies in farmland valuations in the US: an options pricing model approach

The Modigliani–Miller (M–M) theorem of financial asset theory concludes that asset values are independent of financing. In other words, debt-solvency (credit constraints) does not affect asset values. Therefore, using the M–M theorem one can argue that credit constraints in the farm sector (where land is the most important asset) do not affect the value of farmland. However, this proof relies on several arbitrage assumptions that are violated in the case of agricultural assets. This paper examines the effect of debt-solvency and government payments on changes in annual farmland values by state in the United States. Using panel cointergration method, results indicate that farmland values are significantly affected by both solvency and government payments. In addition, the results imply that government payments may affect agricultural asset values beyond the direct effect hypothesized in the literature.      

Is Financial Regulation Good or Bad for Real Estate Companies? – An Event Study

The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics - This study investigates how three regulatory reforms undertaken in the aftermath of the global financial crisis have affected returns of real...