Firms’ performance under different bankruptcy systems: a Europe–USA empirical analysis

This study empirically analyses the effect that the bankruptcy law has on firms’ performance based on its financial situation. To do this, we considered the different types of efficiency and their influence on firms’ value. The study was carried out for Germany, Spain, the United States, France and the United Kingdom. We applied System‐GMM estimation to dynamic panel data. The main results show that under creditor‐oriented systems, there is a decrease in the value of both financially distressed firms and those filing for bankruptcy.     

Optimal fiduciary monetary systems

In a fiduciary monetary system, there is a social agreement to quote prices and denominate financial instruments in terms of a specific paper liability of the government. What are the best terms for this paper instrument? I investigate a system where the terms involve not only paying market interest rate on the monetary instrument, as proposed by many economists earlier, but also indexing the returns to the price level. The result is a homeostatic monetary system with a highly stable price level in the face of shifts in money demand and other disturbing influences. The paper examines the performance of the new fiduciary standard in equilibrium and disequilibrium models.     

Modelling the economic value of credit rating systems

In this paper we develop a model of the economic value of credit rating systems. Increasing international competition and changes in the regulatory framework driven by the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision (Basel II) called forth incentives for banks to improve their credit rating systems. An improvement of the statistical power of a rating system decreases the potential effects of adverse selection, and, combined with meeting several qualitative standards, decreases the amount of regulatory capital requirements. As a consequence, many banks have to make investment decisions where they have to consider the costs and the potential benefits of improving their rating systems. In our model the quality of a rating system depends on several parameters such as the accuracy of forecasting individual default probabilities and the rating class structure. We measure effects of adverse selection in a competitive one-period framework by parameterizing customer elasticity. Capital requirements are obtained by applying the current framework released by the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision. Results of a numerical analysis indicate that improving a rating system with low accuracy to medium accuracy can increase the annual rate of return on a portfolio by 30–40 bp. This effect is even stronger for banks operating in markets with high customer elasticity and high loss rates. Compared to the estimated implementation costs banks could have a strong incentive to invest in their rating systems. The potential of reduced capital requirements on the portfolio return is rather weak compared to the effect of adverse selection.     

Relative economic efficiency of banking systems in a developing country

Duality between profit functions and transformation functions is applied to a subset of the banking system in the Philippines. By estimating the restricted profit functions of two groups of banks, hypothesis testing of their relative economic efficiency is carried out. By duality a complete characterization of the transformation function representing the two banking systems studied is obtained. Cobb-Douglas and quadratic profit functions are estimated. The mathematical properties of the functions allow a derivation of systems of supply functions for bank services, bank demand functions for resources, and measures of long-term profitability of banking. The regulatory environment's impact on bank efficiency may also be assessed.     

Optimal exercise of American put options near maturity: A new economic perspective

Review of Derivatives Research - The critical price $$S^{*}\left( t\right) $$ of an American put option is the underlying stock price level that triggers its immediate optimal exercise. We provide...     

Optimal warranty arrangements for the design of accounting information systems

This paper investigates optimal price/warranty arrangements for the design of accounting information systems (AISs) when the user of the system has alternative sources of information. A mathematical model is developed that focuses on two systems design scenarios commonly encountered in practice: (1) enhancement and (2) replacement. In an enhancement scenario the AIS user hires the AIS designer to enhance the value of the current AIS by incorporating additional features into the original system. Systems replacement, on the other hand, implies that the designer produces a new system that makes the original system obsolete. Under a replacement system, a simple limited warranty implements the user's optimal decision rule so that no losses occur due to unobservability of the user's decision. For the enhanced AIS design however, the user's action may depend upon the signal from the user's preexisting AIS. Therefore, when the user's decision is not observable, the designer does not know if the user's decision is a result of the systems enhancement or a result of the original system. Due to incomplete contracts, a more complex and costly warranty arrangement is required. Hence, losses occur under enhancement AIS although quality can be maintained with a limited warranty. Since it is difficult to assess the quality of the information system prior to purchase, the potential for a market failure exists where high-quality systems are driven from the market by low quality systems. These findings show that a market failure can be prevented in the design of information systems through contractual warranty arrangements. These warranty arrangements, however, must be tailored to the specific design task.     

Investigating the effect of board independence on performance across different strategies

This study investigates the effect of board independence on performance across different strategies. Using moderated regression analyses, the results confirm our hypothesis that board independence has a significantly more positive effect on performance for firms pursuing a strategy of cost efficiency than for those pursuing a strategy of innovation. The results of this study indicate that consideration of firms' competitive strategy can provide a better understanding of the relationship between board independence and firm performance.     

Changes in economic management systems in Hungary and other east European countries

Taking Hungary as an example, this article examines changes taking place in economic management systems in Eastern Europe. Developments in the political, institutional and economic sectors of Hungarian society are analysed, and current trends and problems are presented. Countries of Eastern Europe are classified into three categories in order to show how a need for change emerges under different constraints.     

Beyond Sharpe ratio: Optimal asset allocation using different performance ratios

As the assumption of normality in return distributions is relaxed, classic Sharpe ratio and its descendants become questionable tools for constructing optimal portfolios. In order to overcome the problem, asymmetrical parameter-dependent performance ratios have been recently proposed in the literature. The aim of this note is to develop an integrated decision aid system for asset allocation based on a toolkit of eleven performance ratios. A multi-period portfolio optimization up covering a fixed horizon is set up: at first, bootstrapping of asset return distributions is assessed to recover all ratios calculations; at second, optimal rebalanced-weights are achieved; at third, optimal final wealth is simulated for each ratios. Eventually, we make a robustness test on the best performance ratios. Empirical simulations confirm the weakness in forecasting of Sharpe ratio, whereas asymmetrical parameter-dependent ratios, such as the Generalized Rachev, Sortino–Satchell and Farinelli–Tibiletti ratios show satisfactorily robustness.     

Eco-control: The influence of management control systems on environmental and economic performance

Eco-control is the application of financial and strategic control methods to environmental management. In this study, we investigate to what extent eco-control influences environmental and economic performance. Using survey-data from a sample of Canadian manufacturing firms, the results suggest that eco-control has no direct effect on economic performance. A mediating effect of environmental performance on the link between eco-control and economic performance is observed in different contexts. More specifically, eco-control indirectly influences economic performance in the context of (i) higher environmental exposure, (ii) higher public visibility, (iii) higher environmental concern, and (iv) larger size. This study contributes to the management accounting literature by providing insight into the roles and contributions of management accounting in the context of sustainable development.     

Stability of international stock market relationships across month of the year and different holding intervals

Potential benefits from international diversification depend upon the stability in stock market relationships. Using monthly data of 11 international stock markets, this paper examines the stability in stock market relationships across month of the year and across different holding intervals. Empirical results show that the correlation structure is more stable than the covariance structure. While empirical evidence supports the hypothesis that the correlation structure is very stable across different holding intervals, the empirical support for the stability in correlation structure across month of the year is much weaker.     

The impact of economic factors and acquisition reforms on the cost of defense weapon systems

This paper evaluates how defense budget instability, consolidation of the defense industry, acquisition reform, war, and cost estimating error are related to cost overruns in major Department of Defense Acquisition projects from 1979 to 2002. Employing a panel model of service specific cost overruns, with fixed effects, we find that funding instability in O&M and R&D budgets had large impacts on procurement costs overruns. We further found that unexpected inflation and armed conflict led to higher levels of Procurement cost overruns. Finally we found that the acquisition reforms of the Nunn-McCurdy Act of 1982, the Packard Commission Recommendations of 1986 and the Federal Acquisition Streamlining Act (FASA) of 1994 resulted in significant reductions in procurement cost overruns.     

Sources of time varying return comovements during different economic regimes: evidence from the emerging Indian equity market

We study the economic and non-economic sources of stock return comovements of the emerging Indian equity market and the developed equity markets of the US, UK, Germany, France, Canada and Japan. Our findings show that the probability of extreme comovements in the economic contraction regime is relatively higher than in the economic expansion regime. We show that international interest rates, inflation uncertainty and dividend yields are the main drivers of the asymmetric return comovements. Findings reported in the paper imply that the impact of interest rates and inflation on return comovements could be used for anticipating financial contagion and/or spillover effects. This is particularly critical since during extreme market conditions, the tail return comovements can potentially reveal critical information for active portfolio management.     

Performance of the different RAROC models and their relation with the creation of economic value. A study of the largest banks operating in Brazil

This article approaches several different methodologies for calculation of the RAROC (Risk Adjusted Return on Capital) for Brazilian banks. Two questions gave reason to the study: whether the application of different methods for calculation of the RAROC would generate significantly different results?, and checking what is the connection between the RAROC and the generation of economic value, measured by the EVA (Economic Value Added), for the largest banks with operations in Brazil? The following methodologies for verification of the RAROC were applied: Buch’s Method (2011); Prokopczuk’s Method (2006); Prokopczuk’s Method (2006) with application of the VaR technique; Saunders’s Method (2007); Chapelle’s Method (2008); and the Smithon & Hayt Method (2001), by applying these parametric and non-parametric statistics in order to check the sensibility of the differences between models. This study has evidenced that, when we compare the methodology based on minimum capital with other methodologies, there are no significant differences, except in the few cases indicated. It is important to notice it only occurred in the case of the Bank of Brazil and it was concentrated in the comparison of the Creditmetrics models and in the methodology in which there is equivalence by the reference equity.