Business cycle and level accounting: the case of Portugal

This paper studies what accounts for the recent business cycles phenomena in Portugal and why it is depressed relatively to the United States. The business accounting procedure applied here suggests that most of the changes in output per worker in Portugal over the period (mainly, from 1979 to 1991) can be attributed to changes in economic efficiency. For instance, the strong economic recovery in output per worker just after Portugal joined the European Union until the first years of the 1990s can be essentially attributed to improvements in economic efficiency. From 1979 to 2000, Portugal caught up with the industrial leader. Its output per worker is currently depressed by about 46% relative to the United States level (it was depressed by 57% in 1979). In the 1980s all of this depression in output per worker relative to the United States was due to the productivity factor. By 2000 Portugal depression relative to the United States was a mix of the French and Japanese depression. The labor factor accounted for roughly 24% of this depression, while the economic efficiency accounted by about 89%.      

Business cycles synchronization in East Asian economy: Evidences from time-varying coherence study

This paper analyzes the feasibility of a monetary union in East Asia focusing on business cycles synchronization. Considering the critical role of trade integration in the East Asian integration process, we study whether East Asian countries are characterized by business cycle synchronization. The related empirical literature dedicated to business cycles synchronization in East Asia does not lead to firm conclusion. In this paper, we suggest a different empirical approach allowing, contrary to the previous studies, to detect endogenously structural changes in the comovement process between outputs. We apply a new measure based on the time-varying coherence function. Such a measure not only detects comovement dynamics but it distinguishes also this dynamics between short- and long-term. We compute also cohesion statistics to test if countries tend to be more synchronized or not. The main finding of this paper is that the increase in bilateral trade inside the East Asian region significantly improves long-run business cycle synchronization. The short-run influence of bilateral trade shows mixed results. Indeed, short-run cycles remain significantly influenced both by shocks hitting each country and by economic policy responses. As a consequence, more bilateral trade and convergence in economic policy constitute two complementary processes to promote business cycle synchronization.     

Household investment decisions and offspring gender: parental accounting

Numerous behavioural factors have been identified as having an impact on household stockholding decisions. Given there is both theoretical and empirical evidence to support the premise that offspring gender can influence specific types of parental preferences, I test the theory that offspring gender has an effect on parental investment decision-making. I find that offspring gender does influence household stock market participation. Specifically, I find that having only female offspring can significantly increase the probability of stockholding. Given stockholding can have large effects on household wealth levels and that family wealth levels affect intergenerational transfers, this finding could have important implications for understanding distributional welfare issues.     

R&D investment and internal finance: the cash flow effect

This paper investigates the cash flow effect on R&D investments for firms in Denmark. Evidence is found that internal funds are important in explaining R&D investments, indicating that R&D investment decisions are affected by credit market imperfections. Cash flow sensitivities are larger both for smaller firms and for firms with low debt relative to assets. Furthermore, this effect is also present after controlling for cash flow’s potential role as a predictor of future profitability.     

Financing investment in environmentally sound technologies: Foreign direct investment versus foreign debt finance

This paper develops a screening model to examine the relationship between alternative sources of private capital and investment in environmentally sound technologies (ESTs). In the model, a polluter (agent) must secure investment funds from the international financial markets in order to upgrade its production and abatement technology. The requisite capital can be obtained via either market loans (debt finance) or foreign direct investment (FDI). Under debt finance, the foreign financier supplies only capital and the relationship between the two parties is more ‘arms-length’. By contrast, under FDI, the investor delivers both capital and managerial skills. We use the model to derive the implications of debt finance for optimal investment decisions and compare them to those obtained under FDI. Investment incentives are more pronounced under debt finance.     

论企业投资活动中的税收理财

本文围绕企业投资活动中的税收理财,介绍了新古典投资理论、税收对投资的作用机制及投资活动的具体税收分析.     

Business cycles and research investment

This paper examines the impact of uncertainty and the business cycle on US high-tech manufacturing firms’ research investment. Although the reliance on internal financing suggests firms will consider uncertainty and the business cycle when determining their research budget, little is known about how the business cycle and uncertainty influence research investment. Using firm-level data on sales, cash flow, and industry-level indicators of the business cycle, this paper finds that the firm's response to the business depends on the firm's industry and the industry's current location in the business cycle. The data also shows that the business cycle also depresses the firm's reaction to changes in sales and cash flow. Uncertainty clearly reduces research efforts, although non-linearly.     

东西合作：西部大开发的推进器

以开放促开发，对内开放与对外开放相结合，通过东西协力联动推进，是这次西部大开发的重要特点。参与西部大开发是东部地区创建可持续发展环境，加快自身发展与产业升级的内在需要。围绕互利双赢目标的实现，从体制与政策环境，协作方式直到合作项目的遴选，构建更宽广的平台，是保证东西合作持续发展，有力推进西部大开发的关键。     

Relation-based versus Rule-based Governance: an Explanation of the East Asian Miracle and Asian Crisis

The paper aims to establish a theory of relation‐based governance to explain both the “East Asian miracle” and the Asian crisis. The author first defines “relation” and “relation‐based governance” in terms of information and enforcement, and then analyzes the nature and dynamics of relation‐based governance, comparing its benefits and costs with that of “rule‐based governance” in terms of observability/verifiability, commitment, and transaction costs. The theory is applied to examine a particular relation‐based governance system—the Japanese model—to explain both the East Asian miracle and the Asian crisis. The framework provides foundations for studies of East Asian catching‐up and economic development in general.     

Business cycle and corruption

In studying the Great Depression, Galbraith asserts that the higher the transitory income the higher the corruption. For a panel of 39 countries over 13 years, 1995-2007, Galbraith's claim holds. Regression analyses also confirm that the higher the permanent income, the lower the corruption.     

Why the Tigers Roared: Capital Accumulation and the East Asian Miracle

Recent growth accounting studies of Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan and South Korea have found that the Solow residuals in these economies were relatively small. Given the high capital contributions, these results are often interpreted as evidence that factor accumulation, savings and investment were the principal cause of the East Asian miracle. This paper develops an alternative method of analysing these data, combining growth accounting methods with the linearized neoclassical growth model of Mankiw et al. (1992). The method explicitly quantifies the extent to which increases in productivity, as measured by the Solow residual, induced capital accumulation in these economies. It shows that in Hong Kong, Taiwan and South Korea, productivity growth contributed between half and two-thirds of the growth in GDP per worker over a 20-year period.     

Land tenure and investment incentives: Evidence from West Africa

The existing literature on the relationship between property rights in land and agricultural investment in Africa has given results that are often confusing and contradictory. I make two clarifying contributions to this literature. First, I pull together existing studies and investigate whether the results they find have been affected by research methods or local contexts. Studies with small sample sizes, those that use binary investment measures, and those that control for household fixed effects are less likely to find a statistically significant link between land tenure and investment. Self-reported tenure security has been a poor predictor of investment outcomes. Second, I test for a relationship between land tenure and agricultural investment in nine data sets from West Africa. While the link between tenure and investment is significant for fallow and tree planting, it is less robust for labor use and other inputs, such as manure or chemical fertilizer.     

Entrepreneurial ignition of the business cycle: The corporate finance of malinvestment

This paper provides an extension of the Austrian Business Cycle Theory (ABCT) framework by integrating corporate capital structure, the monetary policy transmission channel, and capital budgeting analyses. In this manner, the paper presents the business cycle as being exogenously set up by central bank authorities, but endogenously set off by commercial banks and enterprises making use of central bank-distorted market signals. The cyclical boom is modeled as a gradual process where both latitudinal and longitudinal investment expansions are possible with either internal or external finance. Bank credit creation, although a necessary condition for igniting the boom, is diversely transmitted to the economy because of heterogeneity in entrepreneurial misjudgment, corporate capital structure strategies, and the class of projects available to the enterprises.     

Labor Mobility and East Asian Integration

East Asian economic integration is commonly analyzed in the context of trade in goods and services and capital flows, while labor flows have been very much neglected. Yet labor flows in the region are rapidly growing, given the diversity in levels of economic development, employment opportunities and wage levels, and the existence of labor surplus and deficit countries. Labor migration poses more benefits than costs for both sending and receiving countries, but there are more sensitivities toward labor flows than trade and capital flows. The characteristics and government policies are different for the unskilled and semiskilled foreign workers and for the professionals and highly skilled. Regional cooperation among countries is needed to manage the flows, reduce the incidence of illegal and undocumented workers, reduce the transaction costs of migration, and protect the rights of these workers.     

Corporate finance side of the Q theory of investment

This paper presents a model of a firm under uncertainty in which the financial and investment decisions are simultaneously determined. If profits are small relative to investment, the firm finances a constant fraction of incremental investment by debt and the rest by retentions. If profits are large relative to investment, a constant fraction of marginal finance comes from debt and the rest from new shares. In these two financing regimes a one-to-one relationship between optimal investment and Q can be derived. No such relation exists in the third and intermediate regime in which incremental investment is entirely debt-financed.     

Business cycle synchronization and the Euro: A wavelet analysis

We use wavelet analysis to study business cycle synchronization across the EU-15 and the Euro-12 countries. Based on the wavelet transform, we propose a metric to measure and test for business cycles synchronization. Several conclusions emerge. France and Germany form the core of the Euro land, being the most synchronized countries with the rest of Europe. Portugal, Greece, Ireland and Finland do not show statistically relevant degrees of synchronization with Europe. We also show that some countries (like Spain) have a French accent, while others have a German accent (e.g., Austria). Perhaps surprisingly, we find that the French business cycle has been leading the German business cycle as well as the rest of Europe. Among the countries that may, in the future, join the Euro, the Czech Republic seems the most promising candidate.     

Trends in management accounting in the Asian pacific region

Summary and conclusions The results of this study indicate that the manufacturing firms in Asia responding to this questionnaire are adopting some of the changes in advocated in the "new" managerial accounting. Respondents see increasingly important roles in their organizations for activity based costing, evaluation of value added activities, quality control, and production and inventory control systems, while retaining some of the traditional techniques appropriate for their more labor oriented manufacturing environment. The integration of accounting controls with strategic measures and the use of non-financial performance measures will become more important in the future. Respondents also considered their cost/managerial information to be useful in a wide variety of management decisions. Managerial accounting techniques and practices have changed in response to the challenges of global competition, international markets, technological advances, and complexity of business. Adoption of these innovations by Asian manufacturers suggest a changing role for the managerial/cost accountant. The future management accountant will need to be knowledgeable of production, quality control, marketing, and management strategy. The results also indicate a broadening of management accounting and a trend toward the integration of management accounting information with strategic planning, suggesting the emergence of the integrative area of cost management. This evidence of changes in the practice of management accounting in Asia will also have significant implications for American universities and manufactures regarding the common body of knowledge required for domestic and international management accounting and the future direction of management accounting education.