Public external debt,informality and production efficiency in developing countries

This paper proposes an alternative approach to investigate the non-linear effect of external debt on growth. In the theoretical part, we develop an endogenous growth model with formal and informal sectors to analyse the effect of the public external debt on the production efficiency. We show that an increase of the public external debt share increases the production efficiency through a positive externality effect. However, it generates an opposite effect via the reduction of the formal sector’s size in favour of a less efficient informal sector. The resultant effect becomes negative beyond an optimal level. Besides, we show that a large stock of public external debt reduces the production efficiency when it leads to a tight fiscal policy which reduces the formal sector size. Empirically, using a stochastic frontier technique with unobserved heterogeneity, for a panel of 27 developing countries for the period of 1970–2005, we confirm that the turning point associated to the effect of the share external public debt is apparent at 84%.     

PURCHASING POWER PARITY FOR DEVELOPING AND DEVELOPED COUNTRIES. WHAT CAN WE LEARN FROM NON‐STATIONARY PANEL DATA MODELS?

Abstract.  The aim of this paper is to apply recently developed panel cointegration techniques proposed by Pedroni ( Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics 61 (1999): Supplement, 653–670; Econometric Theory 20 (2004): 597–625) and generalized by Banerjee and Carrion-i-Silvestre (Working Paper 591, European Central Bank, February 2006) to examine the robustness of the PPP concept for a sample of 80 developed and developing countries. We find that strong PPP is verified for OECD countries and weak PPP for Middle East and North African countries. However, in African, Asian, Latin American and Central and Eastern European countries, PPP does not seem relevant to characterize the long-run behavior of the real exchange rate. Further investigations indicate that the nature of the exchange rate regime does not condition the validity of PPP, which is more easily accepted in countries with high rather than low inflation.     

Institutions,governance and technology catch-up in North Africa

This paper aims to analyse the effects of institution quality on technology catch-up in five North African countries (Algeria, Egypt, Morocco, Sudan and Tunisia) compared to 3 groups of developing and emerging countries (Sub Saharan Africa, Asia, and Latin America) over the period 1970–2005. The study adopts a two-stage methodology. First, we estimate the technology gap using the metafrontier approach. Then we test the relationship between the technology gap and the quality of governance. The empirical results show that institutions (corruption, law and rules and investment climate) are very important in closing the technology gap and speeding up the technology catch-up. Other determinants of the technology gap are also identified: foreign direct investment, human capital and trade.     

Efficiency frontier and matching process on the labour market: Evidence from Tunisia

The purpose of this paper is to study the determinants of the inefficient functioning of the Tunisian labour market. The study takes advantage of the recent development in the stochastic frontier techniques and estimates, the matching function for Tunisia using disaggregated data. We include control variables as determinants of matching efficiency and regional disparities. We confirm that the persistently high rate of unemployment is the result of not only excess labour supply but is also related to a shortfall between supply and demand (sector, location, and qualification).     

The Effect Of International Acquisitions on Firm Leverage

To determine whether corporate international diversification leads firms to increase their leverage, we perform an event study that compares the leverage of corporations before and after they acquire foreign subsidiaries. We find that on average leverage increases from the first to the third year following the acquisition. When we examine the relation between additional debt financing after foreign acquisitions and the characteristics of these acquisitions, we find that in addition to such major determinants as size and profitability, debt financing is explained by geographical and industrial diversification effects.     

Existence of equilibria in the overlapping generations model: the nontransitive case

Summary This paper investigates the existence of competitive equilibria in dynamic exchange models with countably many periods and countably many agents. At each period the commodity space can be finite or infinite dimensional. The preferences of agents are not assumed to be transitive or complete. A first equilibrium existence theorem is established under the classical assumption that there exists a finite set of non-negligible agents. In the particular case of an overlapping generations model, a second existence theorem allows simultaneously for finite-lived assets and infinite-lived assets and limits the previous assumption to infinite-lived assets. This theorem covers obviously the standard case of an overlapping generations model where the agents have no endowment outside their lifetime.     

Are financial derivatives related to intra-entities' tax aggressiveness? UK evidence

This study investigates the effect of hedged versus nonhedged financial derivative instruments on the intra-entities' tax aggressiveness. Our findings provide evidence that multinational enterprises manage derivatives instruments to avoid their tax expenses aggressively. Specifically, nonhedged derivatives are an excellent determinant of the tax aggressiveness practices of corporate groups. Besides, this study speaks to the central role of governance quality in mitigating this aspect of tax aggressiveness and provides practical guidance to tax authorities and regulators for establishing new policies for governing financial derivative instruments and preventing tax aggressiveness from negatively affecting firms and society.