Political corruption shielding and corporate acquisitions

Corruption includes rent‐seeking behavior by public officials (e.g., lavish in‐kind benefits and monetary kickbacks for contracts/permits/regulatory leniency, improper political contributions/support, etc.) that can negatively affect firm valuations, performances, and strategic choices. Shielding strategies are used to diminish rent‐seeking attractiveness of firms. Acquisitions provide a better channel than cash or leverage for assessing the wealth effects of shielding strategies. We find that the mean 3‐day announcement returns for acquirers for a large sample of U.S. domestic acquisitions between 1990 and 2014 is significantly lower for firms headquartered in relatively higher corruption states. Our results survive an array of robustness tests.     

Countering Counterfeit Branding: Implications for Public-Sector Marketing

Counterfeit products are a large and growing problem. Counterfeiting has negative effects from both an economic and a consumer perspective. The majority of the research on counterfeiting has focused its attention at the individual level regarding consumers’ motivation toward buying counterfeit brands, which did not consider the influence of copy culture or mimesis. This paper conceptualizes counterfeit or fake branding at a cultural process level to more clearly illuminate the persistent marketing problem. First, we discuss the counterfeit-brand issue, then introduce the theory of mimesis to illuminate consumers’ relationships with counterfeit brands and issues of cultural appropriation. Next a model with implications for action and consequent propositions for policy are discussed. The paper concludes with suggestions for future research.     

U.S. POLITICAL CORRUPTION AND LOAN PRICING

Using U.S. Department of Justice data on state-level political corruption, we find that banks charge higher loan spreads (all-in-drawn spreads) to firms in states with higher corruption and that these effects are more pronounced for firms facing financial constraints but less pronounced for firms experiencing greater external monitoring. These results are robust to additional controls, alternative corruption measures, a measure of the lack of oversight of lobbyist activities, and the use of instrumental variables. Overall, our findings are consistent with the harmful corruption environment hypothesis, which states that banks charge higher loan spreads to firms in states with greater political corruption environments as these firms are susceptible to making suboptimal financial decisions to fend off rent-seeking behavior.     

The role of training in reducing poverty: the case of agricultural workers receiving microcredit in Bangladesh

The policy of providing microcredit and skill training to poor agricultural workers in developing countries is well‐established. In this study, an attempt has been made to assess the effectiveness of the training part of that policy. BRAC (formerly the Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee), the largest non‐governmental organization in Bangladesh, is making efforts to alleviate poverty by providing microcredit and relevant training to landless and marginal borrowers, who have less than 1.5 acres of land, in order to enhance their standard of living. The study aims to assess the effects of BRAC's training programs on the recipients' total household expenditure. Primary data were collected from female borrowers who participated in the microcredit programs of BRAC and these data reflect the key role women play in agricultural work and the lack of research on their status. The study shows that the training provided to the borrowers failed to create any significant impact on their household expenditure because only a small percentage of borrowers received training and the duration of the training was limited (on average three days per person). Moreover, many of those who received training experienced only a modest income effect. The findings are important not just for the practical purpose of influencing policies for reducing poverty in Bangladesh but also for their contribution to the understanding of the effectiveness of training. The existing literature is concerned mainly with the effectiveness of training in the context of business and other organizations in developed countries. Research on the effectiveness of training in developing countries, particularly in alleviating poverty, is less evident. Moreover, the present research is also exceptional as it focuses only on female trainees.     

Pricing of mobile phone attributes at the retail level in a developing country: Hedonic analysis

This study has been undertaken to determine the effect of mobile phone attributes on their retail market prices. A log-linear hedonic price model was fitted to a total of 348 handsets, for which data were collected about various attributes from different websites, while the price data were obtained from mobile phone retailers in two major cities of Pakistan from November 2016 to February 2017. Results indicate that brand, battery capacity, weight, operating system, RAM, memory size and display size have a significant positive effect on mobile phone prices. Given the significant premium associated with various characteristics, manufacturers need to formulate strategies to emphasize the battery capacity of 2000-3000?mAH, RAM of more than 1GB, screen size of more than 5 inches, memory size of more than 8GB, back camera of over 15MP, 4G network mode, front camera and FM radio.