Bond Market Access,Credit Quality,and Capital Structure: Canadian Evidence

We examine the impact of bond market access (measured by having a credit rating) on leverage for Canadian high credit quality (HQ) and low credit quality (LQ) firms, and find that the leverage impact is more pronounced for LQ firms. The results are similar for U.S. firms. Our results are confirmed when we control for the firm's credit quality, examine the change in leverage around rating initiation, and account for the issue size effect. A similar leverage impact for Canadian and U.S. LQ firms suggests that the Canada‐U.S. bond market integration has mitigated the financial constraints for Canadian LQ firms.     

Hedging in Presence of Crop Yield,Crop Revenue and Rainfall Insurance

Journal of Quantitative Economics - This paper analyses hedging using price risk management instruments in presence of crop yield, crop revenue and rainfall insurance for soybean farmers in Dewas...     

MONEY AND INFLATION IN INDIA: EVIDENCE FROM P‐STAR MODEL

This study uses P‐star model to examine the role of money in explaining inflation in India. In particular, we compare the performance of traditional Phillips curve approach against P‐star model in forecasting inflation. Moreover, the study estimates P‐star model using the alternative measures of money such as simple sum and Divisia M3, to examine the relevance of aggregation theoretic monetary aggregates in explaining inflation. The empirical results indicate that P‐star model with real money gap has an edge over traditional Phillips curve approach in forecasting inflation. More importantly, we found that the P‐star model estimated with Divisia real money gap performs better than its simple sum counterpart. These empirical findings suggest that the changes in real money gap play a crucial role in explaining inflation in India.     

Detecting trading response using transaction-based research designs

This paper examines issues pertinent to using number of transactions in event-type studies of market trading response. It presents rejection frequencies for portfolios of 20, 50, and 100 observations corresponding to different abnormal trading measures and test approaches. Findings include: (1) A cross-sectionalt-statistic approach performs almost as well as more elaborate test approaches and is robust to nonnomality in the number of transactions distribution; (2) a logarithmic transformation induces near-normality in the number of transactions distribution; and (3) for equal induced percentage increases in trading, rejection rates for number of transactions exceed those for percentage of outstanding shares trades (i.e., volume). The advantage of transactions over volume is relatively more important for small sample studies (e.g.,n<100) and those with small average increases in trading activity.     

Valuation of Urban Air Pollution: A Case Study of Kanpur City in India

This study estimates the monetary benefits to individuals from health damages avoided if air pollution is reduced in the urban industrial city of Kanpur in India. A notable feature of this study is that it uses data from weekly health-diaries collected for three seasons. For measuring monetary benefits, the study considers two major components of health cost that is incurred due to adverse effects of air pollution on health i.e., the loss in wages due to workdays lost from work and the expenditure incurred on mitigating activities. The study estimates that a representative working individual from Kanpur would gain Rs. 165.47 per year if air pollution were reduced to a safe level. The extrapolated annual benefits for the entire population in the city are Rs. 224.55 million.     

Small enterprise promotion role of incentives

The focus of this study is on the appropriateness of regional incentives for small scale enterprise location in less developed areas. The attempt is to identify the location factors in countries at different levels of socio-economic development; it is noticed that these factctrs tend to be dynamic in nature. A detailed analysis of the role of incentives shows that entrepreneurs do not consider incentives in detail, and the influence of incentives on location choice varies between the UK, Japan, and India, the three countries studied. The quality of administration also needs improvement for incentives to be effective. Finally, entrepreneurial perceptions about what constitutes an ideal incentive are elicited.     

Patent Regimes,Host Country Policies,and the Nature of MNE Activities*

This paper provides useful insights in the debate regarding the relationship between stronger patent rights, host country policies and multinational activity using panel data from US MNEs. It analyzes the impact of stronger patent protection on the exports, local affiliate sales and licensing activities by explicitly modeling the joint nature of the MNE's decision‐making process in servicing a foreign market. The key findings support the idea that the policy environment in the host country influences the impact of stronger IPRs on US MNE activities during the period 1992 to 2000. A risky environment in the host country appears, on average, to have a negative and significant impact on unaffiliated exports and affiliate sales. Increased patent protection in high‐risk countries, on average, appears to reduce licensing, and increase unaffiliated exports, suggesting a dominant monopoly effect of stronger IPRs in the former case and a dominant market expansion effect in the latter case.     

What Companies Need to Know About International Cross‐Listing

This article addresses four questions about cross‐listing by non‐U.S. companies on a U.S. stock exchange: Why do companies cross‐list? Does a U.S. listing increase firm value? If so, what are the sources of the increased valuation? And finally, how has the Sarbanes‐Oxley Act (SOX) affected the value of a U.S. listing? Both managerial surveys and academic research show that companies list in the U.S. to increase visibility and share liquidity, to broaden their shareholder base, to gain access to cheaper financing and reduce the cost of capital, and, in some cases, to implement a global business strategy. Foreign companies also typically cross‐list after periods of strong market performance and experience a positive valuation effect around the time of listing, but then underperform the market in the period after the cross‐listing. On average, cross‐listed companies exhibit higher valuations than their home‐market peers, but with significant variation based on firm characteristics: The valuation premiums are larger for smaller companies with higher past sales growth, higher ROAs, and lower financial leverage. In the long run, the companies that show a permanent increase in valuation are those that succeed in expanding their U.S. shareholder base and improving their levels of shareholder protection. Finally, the evidence suggests that SOX, while perhaps deterring some would‐be overseas listings, has not seriously eroded the net benefits of a U.S. listing.