英国脱欧后美欧贸易投资关系及其变化

由于英国正式脱欧,美国与欧洲的贸易和投资关系快速变化。从贸易角度看,商品贸易中欧盟地位有所下降,成为美国第三大商品出口市场和第二大进口来源市场,美欧之间的贸易商品构成也发生了变化;服务贸易中由于英国所占份额最大,英国脱欧也将影响美欧之间的服务贸易额。从投资角度看,美欧仍是彼此最大的外国直接投资的来源地和目的地。     

Corporate social responsibility and Eurozone corporate bonds: The moderating role of country sustainability

In this paper, we empirically examine whether superior performance in corporate social responsibility (CSR) results in lower credit risk, measured by credit ratings and zero-volatility spreads (z-spreads). We are especially interested in how the environmental, social, and governance (ESG) related performance of the corresponding countries moderates this relationship. We find only weak evidence that superior corporate social performance (CSP) results in systematically reduced credit risk. However, we do find strong support for our hypothesis that a country’s ESG performance moderates the CSP–credit risk relationship. Superior CSP is regarded as risk-reducing and rewarded with better ratings and lower z-spreads only if it is recognized by the environment. In addition, we find a reduction of corporate bonds’ z-spreads by approx. 9.64 basis points if the CSP of a company mirrors the ESG performance of the country it is located in.     

Balanced scorecard based performance measurement of European airlines using a hybrid multicriteria decision making approach under the fuzzy environment

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the performance of the European airlines, using a balanced scorecard perspective. Within this scope, a hybrid multi-criteria approach was used by combining the Fuzzy DEMATEL, Fuzzy ANP, and MOORA methods. The results demonstrate that customer dimensions and profit per customer are the most significant key factors in the balanced scorecard perspective. Additionally, the airline companies with the largest profit (per employee) and highest number of passengers and flights (per employee) had the best scores in the multidimensional performance results. Furthermore, the airline companies with the highest profitability and efficiency are more successful than other companies. Therefore, we recommend European airlines to focus on these aspects in order to improve their performance. This study makes an important contribution to literature by helping to solve a significant problem in the market with the proposed methodology.     

The role of financial development on the underground economy in regards to Europe’s 2020 strategy

This paper attempts to investigate the relationships between development in the financial sector and the size of the underground economy in European Union countries. Our aim is to investigate the role of financial sector development when it comes to the size of the underground economy, as well as how financial development aids in meeting the growth objectives of the ‘Europe 2020 Strategy’. Panel data analysis will be conducted for the period 2004–2017 in order to examine the effects of financial sector development on the size of the underground economy. The main findings of this paper suggest that financial development has a significantly reducing effect on the size of the underground economy. In conclusion, development within the financial sector significantly lessens underground economic activity in the European Union. With further development of the financial sector, underground economies will not be an obstacle for the fulfilment of the cohesion and growth objectives of the Europe 2020 strategy.     

希腊国债危机对欧洲银行业信息披露的动态影响

本文探讨了希腊国债危机对银行信息披露的动态影响。经过对173家欧洲银行2009和2011年年度报告的数据统计,分析显示:自危机爆发以来,欧洲银行增加了其年度报告的长度,尤其是年度报告中的风险管理部分的长度。经过实证分析还发现,不管是银行的年度报告还是其风险管理报告长度的增加都与银行的资本成本所受到的外源性冲击相联系。而这种对资本成本的外源性冲击主要是希腊危机引起的。最后研究还发现,2011年风险管理报告部分的增加在一定程度上缓解了之前银行资本成本所收到的冲击,而年度报告的增加与此没有明显的关联。     

In landscape management all of us have something to say. A holistic method for landscape Preservability evaluation in a Mediterranean region

Landscape assessment methods have traditionally valued the landscape through a panel of experts with little or no participation of the population. However, after the adoption of the European Landscape Convention (ELC), the perception and the participation of the population has played an increasingly important role in landscape evaluation and planning. In this regard, the goal of this paper is to develop a model able to evaluate and integrate both the objective and subjective landscape factors into a new concept: the Preservability. This model, as well as selecting and classifying the landscape attributes according to the bio-geographic features of the study area i.e., Ricote Valley (Region of Murcia, Spain), includes two online surveys: one to assess the populatiońs landscape preferences and the other to obtain the specific weight of each objective and subjective landscape factor from a panel of experts. These landscape factors were incorporated into a GIS. To obtain the best model, the Preservability was assessed from three different approaches: objective, objective-weighted and weighted. The final results demonstrate how the Preservability weighted method returns different thresholds appropriate to the landscape attributes, the population’s perceptual preference and the protected areas. The different thresholds allows for priority areas to be identified for protection, as well as the adoption of appropriate management and planning strategies according to the landscapes characteristics, current state and uniqueness.     

Testing the fire-sale FDI hypothesis for the European financial crisis

Using a panel of corporate transactions in 27 EU countries from 1999 to 2012, we investigate the impact of the financial crisis on the market for corporate assets. In particular, we test the ‘fire-sale FDI’ hypothesis by analyzing the number of cross-border transactions, the price of corporate assets and the impact of credit and macroeconomic conditions. According to the fire-sale FDI hypothesis, countries affected by a crisis attract foreign buyers selling assets at a discount. We find a dampening effect of the crisis on cross-border transactions in all EU countries. Although countries with higher sovereign default risk and lower economic demand attracted more foreign buyers in the crisis, lower domestic credit is associated with less cross-border transactions. Corporate assets in crisis countries are cheaper, particularly if domestic credit is low; however, these findings are not limited to the crisis period. This pattern is strikingly different from the East Asian and Latin American financial crises. Overall, we find little evidence for ‘fire-sale FDI’ suggesting an integrated European market without significant frictions.     

The Gendered Nature of Poverty in the EU: Individualized versus Collective Poverty Measures

Due to the adoption of the household as a unit of analysis, researchers have failed to identify accurate measures of women's income poverty. This study proposes an individualized measure of European poverty to highlight gender differences in the economic crisis. Employing data from the European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC) for the period 2007–12, it compares the household-based at-risk-of-poverty rate (ARPR) and the individualized financial dependency rate (FDR). The study shows that the gender gap in poverty in Europe is considerably higher when computed through FDR. Indeed, since the ARPR constitutes a proxy of the household's average conditions, it levels down gender inequalities within the household and also variations in individuals’ incomes over time. Only more detailed data collection on intrahousehold resource sharing will possibly allow the development of more precise and realistic indicators of women's and men's risks of poverty and financial dependency.     

The Geography of Innovation in China and India

The BRICS countries in general, and China and India in particular, are now widely regarded as the areas of the world likely to challenge the economic leadership of the United States (US) and the European Union (EU). A large part of this challenge will come from rapid technological catch‐up by China and India. Yet, despite a recent rise in interest, there is limited knowledge about how and where innovation takes place in these two leading emerging countries and to what extent the Chinese and Indian territorial systems of innovation differ from those in the EU or the US. In this article we explore the geography of innovation in China and India, concentrating on understanding key territorial‐level innovation trends by country, region and technology field, using the US and the EU as benchmarks. We find significant contrasts between the geography of innovation in China and India and that of the US and the EU. First, the degree of concentration of innovative activities in both countries is extremely high. Levels of agglomeration of innovation in the coastal provinces of China, as well as in Delhi and the South of India, significantly exceed the levels of agglomeration found in the USA and the EU. Secondly, China has witnessed a more rapid increase in the degree of concentration of innovation than India. We posit that the differences in the geography of innovation between, on the one hand, China and India and, on the other hand, between these countries and the developed world are rooted in different institutional settings, different systems of innovation and different national innovation strategies.     

Are EU trade preferences really effective? An impact evaluation assessment of the Southern Mediterranean Countries’ case

This work assesses the causal impact of the EU trade preferences granted to the Southern Mediterranean Countries (SMCs) in agriculture and fishery products over the period 2004–2014. It overcomes some of the weaknesses of previous assessments and presents several methodological improvements. Firstly, it relies on a continuous treatment – i.e. preferential margins – to capture the ‘average treatment effect’ of trade preferences, rather than on a binary treatment based on dummy variables. Secondly, it uses highly disaggregated data at sectoral level in order to evaluate properly the preferential treatment. Thirdly, it applies a non-parametric matching technique for continuous treatment – specifically, a generalized propensity score matching. The results show, on the one hand, that the impact of the EU preferences is positive and significant on SMCs trade and is better evaluated using impact evaluation techniques. On the other hand, they demonstrate that the relationship between preferences and trade flows is asymmetric and warn against the risk of providing too much of a good thing. These results raise important issues for policy-making. First, they demonstrate that raising the level of preferences is not the solution to foster the SMCs trade towards EU. Second, that the policy-makers should put more emphasis on complementary factors other than trade barriers.