Are there reliable determinant factors of capital structure decisions? Empirical study of SMEs in different regions of Portugal

On the basis of the empirical literature review about the capital structure decisions in Portuguese SMEs, this study analyses the relationships between the determinants – profitability, size, age, asset structure and growth, identified as reliable determinants in the empirical literature, and debt for SMEs located in different regions of Portugal (NUTS II). The global sample is made up of 11.016 SMEs and covers the period between 2007 and 2011. Overall, the results suggest that those determinants are reliable in explaining Portuguese SME capital structure decisions, suggesting that these decisions are closer to the predictions of Pecking Order Theory in comparison to the assumptions of Trade-off Theory. However, both financial theories are not enough to explain SME capital structure decisions.Furthermore, our results suggest that SMEs’ capital structure differs across regions and that, concerning the impact of profitability, size, age, asset structure and growth on firm debt, there are some differences across regions, which could be explained by regional heterogeneity. However, we do not find statistically significant differences in the kind (signs) of the relationships between those determinants and debt in Portuguese SMEs across the various regions.     

The effect of cost information on buyer–supplier negotiations in different power settings

We investigate the influence of total cost of ownership (TCO) information on buyer–supplier negotiations in different power settings. Based on social exchange theory and recent literature on information processing, we expect that buyers with detailed TCO information and less power than their negotiation partners may try to (re)gain control over their own outcomes by sharing information. The results of our experiment indicate that the performance disadvantage of less powerful buyers is less pronounced when the buyer has detailed TCO information, whereas more powerful buyers do not seem to be able to profit from TCO information. These somewhat counterintuitive findings are explained through detailed analysis of the buyer’s negotiation behavior, which shows that less powerful buyers who have access to TCO data use problem solving techniques more frequently than powerful buyers, who tend to rely on distributive bargaining techniques instead. We conclude that power can motivate a failure to share TCO information, resulting in less effective interfirm negotiation outcomes.     

Governance and takeovers: are public-to-private transactions different from traditional acquisitions of listed corporations?

Using a unique hand-collected dataset comprising 96 public-to-private (PTP) transactions and 258 acquisitions of listed corporations by existing corporate groups completed during the period 1998 to 2000, this paper investigates the extent to which PTPs have different internal and external governance and other characteristics from traditional acquisitions of listed corporations by existing corporate groups. The paper analyses acquisition activity during a period in which three new features were present: the decline in hostile takeovers, the increase in the adoption of governance Codes of Best Practice and the growth in PTP activity. PTPs are usually a response to takeover threat (Lehn and Poulsen, 1989) and so the paper analyses the acquisition decision from two perspectives: first, takeovers as a disciplinary mechanism which substitute for weak internal governance and second, as part of a non-disciplinary perspective where takeovers are complementary to internal governance mechanisms. We find support for the argument that improved internal governance and non-disciplinary takeovers, that is takeovers where the motive is not as a response to under-performing management, are complementary. PTPs are more likely to have higher board ownership and are likely to have duality of CEO and chairman. They are also more likely to have lower growth prospects and lower valuations. However, they do not have sub-optimal internal corporate governance structures in terms of lower proportions of outside directors. With respect to external governance, they are not more likely to experience pressure from the market for corporate control in the form of greater takeover speculation and are also not more likely to suffer hostile threats. We find that PTPs involving management buy-outs (MBIs) have fewer non-executive directors and a greater incidence of duality. MBO also have higher board shareholdings. We find no evidence that management buy-ins (MBIs) have different characteristics. Our results suggest that going private by MBO may result from management's knowledge of private information that leads them to believe that the market has an incorrect perspective of the company's prospects.     

Do different forms of government ownership matter for bank capital behavior? Evidence from China

This study attempts to reconcile the conflicting theoretical predictions regarding how government ownership affects bank capital behaviour. Using a unique Chinese bank dataset over 2006–2015 we find that government-owned banks have higher target capital ratios and adjust these ratios faster compared to private banks, supporting the ‘development/political’ view of the government’s role in banking. This effect is stronger for local government-owned and state enterprise-owned banks than for central government-owned banks. We also find that undercapitalized government-owned banks increase equity while undercapitalized foreign banks contract assets and liabilities as their respective main strategy to adjust their capital ratios.     

Ranking accounting authors and departments in accounting education: different methodologies – significantly different results

This research tests whether Holderness Jr., D. K., Myers, N., Summers, S. L., & Wood, D. A. [(2014). Accounting education research: Ranking institutions and individual scholars. Issues in Accounting Education, 29(1), 87–115] accounting-education rankings are sensitive to a change in the set of journals used. It provides updated rankings for accounting-education authors from Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the Republic of Ireland, the United Kingdom, and the United States using a sample that included the publications in 13 accounting-education journals. Our analysis indicated that Holderness et al.’s rankings of authors and departments were significantly different from our rankings. This research provides rankings of the top 50 authors and departments for three periods: from 2010 to 2015, from 2004 to 2015, and from 1992 to 2015. We provide data indicating the distribution of authors for these periods to assist authors not listed in the most prolific lists in determining their relative ranking. Finally, we provide data on the distribution of journal choices for accounting-education publications for the authors from each country.     

Are Chinese trade flows different?

We find that Chinese trade flows respond to economic activity and relative prices – as represented by a trade weighted exchange rate – but the relationships are not always precisely or robustly estimated. Chinese exports are generally well-behaved, rising with foreign GDP and decreasing as the Chinese renminbi (RMB) appreciates. However, the estimated income elasticity is sensitive to the treatment of time trends. Estimates of aggregate imports are more problematic. In many cases, Chinese aggregate imports actually rise in response to an RMB depreciation and decline with Chinese GDP. This is true even after accounting for the fact a substantial share of imports are subsequently incorporated into Chinese exports. We find that some of these counter-intuitive results are mitigated when we disaggregate the trade flows by customs type, commodity type, and the type of firm undertaking the transactions. However, for imports, we only obtain more reasonable estimates of elasticities when we allow for different import intensities for different components of aggregate demand (specifically, consumption vs. investment) or when we include a relative productivity variable.     

Trade and domestic tax reforms in the presence of a public good and different neutrality conditions

This paper develops a perfectly competitive general-equilibrium model of a small open economy with production of private traded goods and of a public good which is financed by revenues from trade and domestic taxes. Within this framework we consider the effects on public good provision and on welfare of the following tax reforms: (i) a producer-price-neutral reduction in export taxes and a corresponding increase in production taxes, (ii) a consumer-price-neutral reduction in tariffs and a corresponding increase in consumption taxes, and (iii) a partial tax-revenue-neutral reform in trade and domestic taxes.     

Stock market liquidity and trading activity: Is China different?

We study market-wide liquidity and trading activity in China. Trading activity increases in up markets more than in down markets, which is consistent with the disposition effect and the large number of unsophisticated retail investors in China. Whereas, on average, liquidity and trading activity are lower around holidays, more recently, trading activity has been significantly lower before holidays and higher afterward. Aggregate short selling and margin trading activity boost trading activity, but short selling also increases spreads, indicating lower liquidity. We also document the positive effects of other recent regulatory changes and the increased influence of global factors in China.     

Investing at home and abroad: Different costs,different people?

We investigate US households’ direct investment in stocks, bonds and liquid accounts and their foreign counterparts, in order to identify the different participation hurdles affecting asset investment domestically and overseas. To this end, we estimate a trivariate probit model with three further selection equations that allows correlations among unobservables of all possible asset choices. Our results point to the existence of a second hurdle that stock owners need to overcome in order to invest in foreign stocks. On the other hand, we find little evidence for additional pecuniary or informational costs associated with investment in foreign bonds and liquid accounts.     

What do friends and the media tell us? How different information channels affect women’s risk perceptions of age‐related female infertility

This paper investigates through which channels women receive information about the general risk levels of age‐related female infertility and how the different channels affect women’s perceptions of the risk. We find that the media reaches women of all ages, while only about one woman in four has received information from the health care system. We also find that friends and relatives are an important source of information that affects women’s risk perceptions. However, the information from friends and relatives seems to generally make female recipients more likely to overestimate the risks. We conclude that the information sources have different, sometimes even opposite, impacts on the risk perceptions, possibly making it harder for a woman to be aware of the true general risks of age‐related infertility.     

Do changes in the SG&A ratio provide different information about changes in future earnings,analyst forecast revisions,and stock returns under different circumstances?

In fundamental analysis, increases (decreases) in the ratio of selling, general and administrative (SG&A) costs to sales (SG&A ratio) are perceived as negative (positive) signals regarding future firm performance. However, this interpretation focuses on the overall change in the SG&A ratio and ignores the underlying changes in the components of the ratio (sales and SG&A costs). Although prior research examines the changes in the SG&A ratio under some different circumstances, there is no study that examines all the ways that managers adjust costs in reaction to changes in sales. Therefore, I create six subsamples representing all possible combinations of changes in sales, SG&A costs, and the SG&A ratio and test whether changes in the SG&A ratio are informative about future earnings, analyst forecast revisions, and stock returns under these different circumstances. I find that changes in the SG&A ratio in four of my six subsamples provide information about changes in future earnings. I also find that analysts do not impound all of the information contained in the signals into their forecast revisions and in some cases investors appear to understand this fact.     

Equity financing and innovation: Is Europe different from the United States?

During the mid and late 1990s young, high-tech firms in the US experienced a supply shift in both internal and external equity fueling a finance-driven boom in corporate R&D. This paper examines whether R&D spending in Europe in a similar way was sensitive to fluctuations in the supply of internal and external equity during the late 1990s and early 2000s. I conjecture that UK and Continental Europe, due to their different financial systems, differ in terms of equity supply. I estimate dynamic R&D regression models for UK and Continental European high-tech firms separately and find significant joint cash-flow effects for newly listed firms in both samples. However, only new firms in the UK experienced a joint external equity effect as well. The findings of this paper suggest a channel through which market-based financial systems outperform the bank-based economies of Continental Europe.     

Stock offerings in a different institutional setting: The Swiss case, 1973–1983

This paper analyzes the stock price effect of equity issues in Switzerland. There, insiders are not legally prevented from using their information for personal trades, and security offerings are with almost no exception rights issues. Unlike what we find for a comprehensive sample of U.S. rights issues and a sample of U.S. general cash offerings, a significant majority of firms experiences a positive monthly announcement effect. The average abnormal return itself, however, is not significant. Also, we find evidence inconsistent with infinitely price-elastic demand functions for common stock, as well as some evidence that offer prices convey new information.     

Cross-border M&As in the financial sector: Is banking different from insurance?

This paper investigates what factors might help explain the internationalization strategy of banks and insurance companies, by comparing the determinants of cross-border M&As in the two sectors in a unified framework. The empirical analysis shows that between 1990 and 2003 the internationalization of banks and insurance companies followed similar patterns. Distance and economic and cultural integration are important determinants for both the banks’ and the insurance companies’ expansion abroad. Comparative advantage also has a prominent role, the more so for banks. The evidence is less supportive of the view that cross-border M&As are more frequent between similar countries, as predicted by the new trade theory. Finally, and most interestingly, we find indirect evidence consistent with the hypothesis that implicit barriers to foreign entry are more important in explaining the behavior of banks than that of insurance companies.     

Does it pay to be different? Relative CSR and its impact on firm value

Conventional aggregation of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) raw scores and its interpreted impact on firm value have provided mixed evidence in the literature. We show that the value impact of CSR activities relies heavily on the industry-specific relative position of the firm. Only firms that distinguish themselves over their peers are associated with increased firm value. This finding is robust and holds for both responsible and irresponsible behaviors. Information concerns and portfolio construction can allude to a possible CSR clientele, suggesting the existence of an optimal CSR level. Our peer-effect results are robust to unobserved heterogeneity along the lines of Gormley and Matsa (2013).     

Is M&A different during a crisis? Evidence from the European banking sector

The financial crisis has affected the landscape of the banking sector around the world. We use a sample of transactions carried out by European acquirers in 2007–2010 to study the acquirer’s stock price market reaction to both announcements and completions of acquisitions. At the aggregate level, we find that there are no significant abnormal returns around the announcement of an acquisition while there are positive abnormal returns at completions. We study the cross-sectional determinants of abnormal returns and find that announcement returns are mainly explained by the acquirer bank characteristics, while completion returns mainly depend on opacity of the target and on the drop in idiosyncratic volatility associated with a reduction of uncertainty.     

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