Do Foreign Firms Transfer Gender Norms in the Labour Market? Evidence from Sub-Saharan Africa

Closing the gender gaps in economic opportunities is crucial for boosting economic growth and the empowerment of women. In this paper, we study how foreign firms contribute in reducing gender disparities in the labour market by transferring the gender norms of their country of origin to the affiliates in the host countries. We use cross sectional data on foreign firms located in 19 Sub Saharan Africa countries in 2010 by UNIDO. We find that firms coming from more gender equal countries employ more female workers in their affiliates. This effect is more relevant for the highly skilled female workers.     

Patent Propensity in Small Technologybased Firms： Evidence from Zhongguancun Science Park

Using a survey administered in Zhongguancun Science Park in Beijing, China, this paper investigates the impact of R ＆D personnel-related intellectual property management practices on the patent propensity of small technology-based firms. It is found that R＆D personnel- related management practices, including training and reward mechanisms, are effective in enhancing a firm ＇s willingness to patent. In particular, we find that reward mechanisms can negatively moderate the effect of size on a firm ＇s willingness to patent. One implication that emerged from the analysis is that a small firm can counteract its size disadvantage in patenting by introducing a well-developed reward mechanism.     

Are REITs more resilient than non-REITs? Evidence from natural experiments

REITs draw attention from investors around the world, yet our understanding of the various risks associated with such securities is limited. Using the introduction of Arrowhead, a low-latency high-frequency trading platform, to the Tokyo Stock Exchange and the financial crisis of 2008 as natural experiments, we compare the resilience of REITs and equities in terms of liquidity and volatility. The results indicate that the introduction of Arrowhead improved the quality of the Japanese REIT market but also increased the probability of flash crashes. We also find that although the financial crisis significantly deteriorated overall equity market quality, the Japanese REIT market was resilient. Finally, using a difference-in-differences regression model, we show that the higher transparency and better price discovery of REITs, compared to non-REITS, protected them from the negative effects of the financial crisis and the introduction of Arrowhead. Overall, our analysis shows that REITs are more resilient than non-REITs.     

Does Competition Lead Firms to Bribery? A Firm-Level Study in Southeast Asia

Economists have paid close attention to economic development in Southeast Asia, where corruption and bribery are believed to be ubiquitous. In this article, we study the reasons why firms bribe. Specifically, we study the effects of the competition encountered by Southeast Asian firms on their bribing behavior. This article focuses on two types of bribing behavior: (1) informal payments given to the government so that it will ignore rule violations and (2) informal payments to the government to secure a contract. Using firm-level and country-level data from Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Myanmar, the Philippines, and Vietnam between 2009 and 2014, we find that the market competition will increase bribing behavior, while political competition within the country will reduce the likelihood of bribing.     

Cheaper and More Haircuts After VAT Cut? Evidence from the Netherlands

We study the effect of the reduction in the VAT rate on hairdresser services from 17.5 to 6% in the Netherlands in January 2000. Following Kosonen (J Public Econ 131:87–100, 2015), we use differences-in-differences to estimate the effects of this reform, with beauty salons as the main control group. In our preferred specification, we find close to full pass-through of the VAT cut into lower prices. However, we find no statistically or economically significant effect on the volume of sales or employment.     

Can Trade Facilitation Prevent the Formation of Zombie Firms? Evidence from the China Railway Express

Using data on firms listed on Chinese A‐share markets from 2009 to 2017, this paper applies the difference‐in‐difference model to test the effect of trade facilitation on preventing the formation of zombie firms. We find that the China Railway Express (CRE) significantly prevented the formation of such firms. Mechanism tests show: (i) the CRE has accelerated the speed of sales, which increased the overseas sales revenue of firms; (ii) the economies of scale and the capital accumulation effect caused by the CRE can help increase firms’ solvency and development ability. Heterogeneity analysis indicates that the effect of the CRE on preventing the formation of zombie firms is mainly reflected in non‐state‐owned firms, firms in highly competitive industries, and firms in the eastern region of China. We suggest that China should continue to promote trade facilitation by expanding the CRE and strengthening the market's dominant role in preventing the formation of zombie firms. Disadvantaged firms should seize the development opportunities brought by the CRE.     

Are more children better than one? Evidence from a lab experiment of decision making

This paper examines the impacts of siblings on people's social preference, risk attitude and time preference with a data set from a large-scale lab experiment. Employing the variation of fine rates under One-Child Policy for excess birth in different regions as instrument to address the endogeneity of whether having siblings, we find that sibling's role mainly focuses on shaping people's social preference that subjects with siblings demand less as responders in ultimatum game and behave more cooperatively in sequential prisoner's dilemma. This conclusion survives through several robustness checks. Our further result suggests that more sibling interactions and less parental expectations are two potential mechanisms through which siblings play a role in making people more prosocial. Our findings point to a positive externality along with Two-Child Policy which is widely neglected in both policy evaluation and relevant theory such as quantity-quality theory, and provide implications for the fertility policy such as the recent Three-Child Policy in China and beyond.     

Does China Transfer Productivity Enhancing Technology to Sub‐Saharan Africa? Evidence from Manufacturing Firms*

Abstract: This paper considers whether trade between China and sub‐Saharan Africa results in productivity‐enhancing technology transfers to sub‐Saharan African manufacturing firms. As trade flows between countries potentially results in interactions that lead to technological improvements in the production of goods and services, we parameterize the level of total factor productivity for African manufacturing firms as a function of foreign direct investment flow, and for the country in which it operates, trade openness with China, and its interaction with foreign direct investment. With micro‐level data on manufacturing firms in five sub‐Saharan African countries, we estimate the parameters of firm‐level production functions between 1992 and 2004. Our parameter estimates reveal that across the firms and countries in our sample, there is no relationship between productivity‐enhancing foreign direct investment and trade with China. In addition, increasing trade openness with China has no effect on the growth rate of total factor productivity. To the extent that total factor productivity and its growth is a crucial determinant of economic growth and living standards in the long run, our results suggest that increasing trade openness with China is not a long‐run source of higher living standards for sub‐Saharan Africa.     

How Does FDI Affect Private Firms' Financing Constraints?——Firm-Level Evidence from China

本文首先从理论上阐述了外商直接投资缓解民营企业融资约束的微观机制,并运用企业层面的统计数据佐证了上述机制的存在性,接下来基于面板数据就外商直接投资对民营企业的融资效应进行计量检验.实证研究发现:在产品市场,外商直接投资通过产业集聚效应缓解了民营企业的融资约束,其融资效应由合资企业、处于产业集聚区的非合资企业和未处于产业集聚区的非合资企业依次递减;而在信贷市场上,FDI对不同类型民营企业却起到截然相反的融资效应,对于合资民营企业起到明显的融资缓解效应,却加剧了非合资企业原本的融资困境.     

Do Female Managers Affect Productivity? Evidence from Zimbabwean Manufacturing Firms

Using a large dataset of Zimbabwean manufacturing firms extracted from the two waves of World Bank Enterprise Surveys of 2011 and 2016, the study investigates the impact of female management on firm's productivity in Zimbabwe's manufacturing firms. The study estimates a modified production function, to incorporate gender dimension, using a random effects estimation model. The results show that the effect of having a female manager on firm productivity varies by geographical location in the case of Zimbabwe. Specifically, the productivity of firms which have a female top manager, and are located in Harare, experience a negative productivity differential as they significantly reduce their productivity gap by 9.9 percent. On the other hand, the study found that having a female top manager in manufacturing firms located in Bulawayo significantly increases productivity by 7.9 percent compared to firms located in the Midlands area. We also find that the effect of a female manager on firm productivity differs by sectors, stressing the need for domestic economic policy to consider these dynamics. Given the importance of location in determining the contribution of a production manager on firm performance, the government may need to implement policies that consider location‐specific factors to enhance productivity of the manufacturing sector of Zimbabwe.     

Are long-term return anomalies illusions?: Evidence from the spot Yen

This study investigates the sensitivity of the long-term return anomaly observed in the US$/Yen currency market to sample and method bias during the period from 11 October 1983 to 21 July 1999. Initially the CUSUM statistic is employed to identify subperiods of sign shifts in the mean returns. Then the dependence in these subperiods is investigated using the Hurst [Hurst, H.E., 1951. Trans. Am. Soc. Civil Eng. 116, 770–799] and the Lo [Lo, A.W., 1991. Econometrica 59 (5), 1279–1313] rescaled range statistics. The results suggest that rejection of the random null is conditional on both the procedure and the period being tested. The Hurst test may incorrectly lead to a rejection of the null hypothesis. However, the Lo test is a more appropriate approach to the data in this study. Thus previous research based on the Hurst test may have inadvertently introduced a method bias.     

Are poor able to access the informal credit market? Evidence from rural households in China

The poor are often excluded from formal credit markets, but few empirical studies in literature have investigated whether the poor are constrained in the informal credit market. This paper uses recent micro data of rural China to answer this question. An instrumental variable model is estimated to account for potential endogeneity issues. Results show that poorer households have lower probability of entering the informal credit market. Further examination shows that the poor are limited by social network and that they have no financial means to invest in their social capital to expand their social network. Our findings shed light on potential solutions of reducing poverty in rural areas.