Migrants and multinational firms: The role of institutional affinity and connectedness in FDI

We examine how, and to what extent, migrants in a host country attract foreign direct investment (FDI) from firms based in their country of origin (CO). Introducing the notion of institutional affinity, we argue that increased institutional affinity and increased connectedness of institutional environments of migrants’ CO and country of residence, make a location attractive to CO firms. Empirical analysis of FDI and migration panel data shows that in addition to the traditional factors influencing FDI patterns, there is a collective migrant effect on FDI, and this effect is statistically significant and economically meaningful for migrants from developing countries.     

Internationalization through foreign listing: A review and future research agenda

This paper reviews and synthesizes literature on foreign listing from international business, management, and finance disciplines. A systematic review of 66 studies from 25 journals indicates fragmentation of the literature across the macro and firm-specific perspectives and a limited usage of current international business theories in research on foreign listing. We propose multiple developmental paths including use of institutional theory, especially institutional distance and institutional evolution to provide more comprehensive understanding of antecedents and contingent factors for foreign listing; supply-chain disaggregation of cross-border capital flow; integrate financial and strategic implications of foreign listing; and advancement of emerging market specific theories.     

使用外语能降低经济决策偏差吗?来自实验室的证据

文章旨在检验使用外语对经济决策的两类核心问题，即不确定性（风险、模糊性）决策和跨期决策的偏差是否产生影响。两组实验被试被随机分到母语组和外语组，分别采用母语和外语完成一系列决策任务。实验结果发现使用外语能够显著降低与风险相关的决策偏差，但并不能降低与模糊性和跨期决策有关的决策偏差。具体而言，在与框架效应有关的风险决策任务中，使用外语显著减少了决策的框架效应；与母语组相比，在与小额金钱、大额金钱有关的风险决策问题中，外语组的反射效应消失了；外语组的阿莱行为也显著减少。在模糊性决策任务中，母语组与外语组在决策偏差上没有显著差异。在跨期决策任务中，使用外语对个体的焦虑程度没有显著的影响，但显著增加了双曲贴现偏好。这说明风险、模糊性和跨期决策所涉及的认知过程存在差异，使用外语对决策产生的作用具有复杂性。     

降低国有商业银行不良资产率的制度创新

制度因素是形成国有银行不良资产问题的根本原因。进行产权和法人治理结构等制度创新,是降低国有银行不良资产率的根本途径。     

对外直接投资逆向技术溢出的行业内与行业间路径检验——基于对空间计量方法的嫁接

创造性地对空间计量经济学中的空间相关性思想进行嫁接利用,在思路方法上进行开拓,构建反映同行业内企业间相互联系与各行业间相互关联的空间权重矩阵,建立空间杜宾模型,并以制造业为例,对ODI逆向技术溢出效应的行业内和行业间路径进行实证检验。对行业内路径的检验表明,企业全要素生产率受到同行业内其它企业ODI活动的影响,行业内企业通过ODI促进自身技术进步之后,又通过企业间各种竞争合作关系促进同行业其它企业生产率提高,行业内路径由此得以验证。对行业间路径的检验表明,各行业通过ODI促进本行业技术进步之后,又通过行业间前向与后向产业关联,对其它关联行业的技术进步和生产率提高起到促进作用,且产业完全关联下的促进作用大于直接关联,由此行业间路径得以验证。     

Credit risk,owner liability,and bank loan maturities during the global financial crisis

We relate credit risk and owners’ personal guarantees to bank loan maturities during the global financial crisis. The findings, which remain robust to reverse causality, show that firms rated as low risk, with a strong relationship with the bank, whose owners provided personal guarantees and with large loan sizes obtained longer maturities. Banks with larger nonperforming loans provided loans with shorter maturities. Firms with low‐ and high‐risk ratings that provided owners’ personal guarantees obtained longer maturities. These findings shed additional light on the relationship between risk and loan maturities and the role of personal guarantees in reducing information asymmetries.     

Financial capital and banks in Hilferding and Sraffa: lessons for today

Rudolf Hilferding’s Das Finanzkapital dealt with the increasing role of finance in the German economy and the resulting structural transformations. The young Sraffa shared with Hilferding an interest on the role played by the banks in the transformation of capitalism. The relationship among banking and industrial capital implied different business models of the German and UK banks and determined the resulting domination of financial capital on the economy. We deepen the methodological and practical similarities and differences of the two scholars, discussing the aspects that are still relevant today to understand financialisation and instability of capitalism.     

Causal relationship between apparel exports and macroeconomic factors

Apparel exports make a significant contribution to economic growth in major apparel exporting economies such as Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Vietnam. This study aims to investigate the causal relationship between apparel export growth and its determinants such as GDP growth, infrastructure, financial development, foreign direct investment (FDI) and labour productivity using panel data from 11 major apparel exporting countries for the period 1996 to 2013. The results confirm a long-run equilibrium association among the variables and reveal that GDP growth, infrastructure, financial development, FDI, and labour productivity have a significant positive influence on apparel export growth. Furthermore, the heterogeneous panel non-causality test results suggest that GDP growth, infrastructure and labour productivity contribute to apparel export growth in the short-run. These findings have several policy implications for the governments of the countries under study.     

National levels of corruption and foreign direct investment

We model the relationship between bilateral foreign direct investment (FDI) and the level of corruption in multinational firms’ (MCNs’) home and host countries. We construct and test a model of bilateral FDI between countries that differ in their levels of corruption. FDI is affected negatively both by the level of corruption in the host country and by differences in home- and host-country corruption. Our model emphasizes that MNCs develop skills for dealing with home-country corruption, and these skills become a competitive advantage in similarly corrupt host countries. We test the model using data on bilateral FDI stocks among a large number of home and host countries, using a variety of specifications and estimation strategies to provide robustness. Our results show that the effects of host-country corruption and of differences in corruption levels between home and host countries are statistically and economically significant.     

The Effectiveness of Unconventional Monetary Policy in Japan

Since the global financial crisis of 2007–2008, central bankers around the world have been forced to abandon conventional monetary policy tools in favor of unconventional policies such as quantitative easing, forward guidance, and even lowering the interest rate paid on bank reserves into negative territory. Japan, which faced a crisis in its banking sector and came up against the theoretical zero lower bound on interest rates nearly a decade earlier, was a pioneer in the use of many of these unconventional policy tools. This article analyzes the effectiveness of Japan’s bold experiment with unconventional monetary policy. Using a panel of bi-annual bank data covering the full universe of Japanese commercial banks over a fifteen-year period, this study analyzes the effectiveness of quantitative easing policy on the bank lending channel of monetary policy transmission. Our findings suggest that Japan’s unconventional monetary policy worked: there is a bank lending channel of monetary policy transmission in Japan. These results are robust to the inclusion of time fixed effects and generalized method of moments analysis.