Small Firm Dynamics: Evidence from Africa and Latin America

This paper investigates the determinants of survival and growth among small and very small enterprises in Africa and Latin America. Location is found to be an important factor. Firms located in urban and commercial areas are more likely to survive during a given year than those located in rural areas or those being operated out of home. Urban and commercial location is also associated with faster growth, as measured by the number of employees hired in a given year. Studies are also cited to show that human capital matters, especially when it is in the form of vocational training or prior business experience.     

Foreign Exchange Reserves and Import Demand: Evidence from Latin America

This paper investigates the impact of foreign reserves, domestic real income and relative import prices on import demand for seven Latin American countries. We differentiate empirically between the short‐run and long‐run impact of reserves, income and prices on imports. The paper has three main results. First, we show that there exists a unique long‐run relationship among real imports, real income, relative import prices and real foreign exchange reserves for all seven countries. Second, we find that increases in foreign exchange reserves exert a significant positive effect on import demand in both the long run and the short run in all countries. However, the economic impact of foreign exchange reserves is rather small. Finally, we find that the long‐ and short‐run impact of real domestic income on import demand is positive as well, while the effect of relative prices is negative.     

出口、对外投资与中国国家形象:来自拉丁美洲的证据

改革开放以来,中国对以开放促发展的道路进行了全面的探索,"走出去"战略的提出,加快了中国资本走出国门的步伐。国家形象作为"软实力"建设的重要一环,是否会受到越来越活跃的对外经济活动的影响,如何在不断扩大对外经济活动的同时塑造一个良好的国家形象?本文使用Latinobarómetro所提供的涵盖18个拉美国家的微观调查数据,尝试对这一问题做出回答。通过实证模型的检验,结果发现:中国出口的增加会降低东道国对于中国国家形象的评价,但影响程度较小,而对外投资则对中国国家形象有正向影响。通过加入表征个体特征变量与核心变量的交互项,文章发现受教育水平越高、经济条件越好以及具备学生身份的群体随着中国在东道国经济活动的增强,对于中国国家形象的评价会越高。分行业来看,初级产品部门的出口活动所引致的对于中国国家形象的负面评价最为显著;从具体的职业划分来看,无论是中国的出口总额、出口种类还是对外投资,对东道国个体经营者造成的影响相对于工薪阶层要更加显著。     

Internet-based corporate disclosure and market value: Evidence from Latin America

We examine the relationship between an Internet-based corporate disclosure index and firm value in the seven largest stock markets of Latin America. We find, after controlling for firms' characteristics, industry and country of origin, that an increase of 1% in the Internet-Based Corporate Disclosure Index causes an increase of 0.1592% in the Tobin's Q and an increase of 0.0119% in the firm's ROA. These findings are robust after considering the potential endogeneity of our regression variables. The evidence contributes to the literature suggesting that firms can differentiate themselves by self-adopting better financial and corporate disclosure measures using the Internet.     

The valuation of closely-held companies in Latin America

M&A activity has greatly increased in Latin America in the recent past. As a result, the improvement of valuation techniques has gained a prominent place in the agenda of investors and financial analysts dealing with the region. The task entails two substantial challenges, however. First, fundamental valuation requires the determination of an appropriate cost of capital, and the traditional CAPM-based models which are normally used to compute it are difficult to apply in such transitional, less efficient markets. Second, most companies and transactions in Latin America are closely-held operations, and hence bear components of unsystematic risk which classical appraisal techniques do not easily capture. In this paper, we develop a comprehensive fundamentals-based valuation model and provide supporting empirical data for valuing privately-held companies in Latin American emerging markets.     

Assessing the effects of corruption and crime on firm performance: evidence from Latin America

This paper uses a survey of private firms to assess the effects of corruption on the economic prospects of firms. The paper studies whether corruption and crime affect sales, investment and employment growth at the firm level, and whether bribes and illegal payments by firms reduce bureaucratic interference. The paper finds that corruption and crime substantially reduce sales growth and that the reported levels of corruption and bureaucratic interferences are positively correlated at the firm level. Overall, the results of the paper suggest that corruption and crime substantially reduce firm competitiveness and that corruption is unlikely to have any positive effects.     

The relationship between liquidity,corporate governance,and firm valuation: Evidence from Russia

This paper examines the hypotheses that liquidity improves corporate governance, and better governance enhances valuation of Russian firms. We find a positive causal relationship between measures of liquidity and corporate governance. Additionally, we document the strong positive impact of corporate governance on valuation. Our results are economically significant. For example, we document that a 10% decrease in the proportion of zero return days implies a 0.34% increase in transparency and disclosure, which in turn leads to a 9.6% increase in firm valuation. Our research findings shed light on the important role of liquidity in improving corporate governance and valuation.     

The effect of ownership concentration and composition on dividends: Evidence from Latin America

We analyze a unique data set of publicly traded firms based in six Latin American countries to study the joint effect of ownership concentration and composition on dividend policy. We find that when ownership concentration is high and the largest investor is identified as an individual, firms tend to pay fewer dividends consistent with individual investors extracting benefits from minority shareholders. However, if the largest shareholder is based in a common law country, the dividend paid is significantly higher. Finally, greater ownership by the second largest shareholder decreases firm dividends suggesting the monitoring role of a large shareholder.     

The impact of internationalization degree on cash levels: Evidence from Latin America

Although cash management has been extensively studied, the cash policies of multinational corporations (MNCs) outside of the U.S. market have been underexplored. We fill this gap in the literature by comparing the cash policies of MNCs to those of non-MNCs in a Latin American setting (Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Peru). Using different proxies for multinationality, we find evidence that the cash holdings of multilatinas are significantly higher than those of their domestic counterparts. Overall, given that foreign markets may offer the best investment opportunities for many MNCs, our results are consistent with the argument that multilatinas maintain higher cash levels to take advantage of the greater growth opportunities abroad. We contribute to the literature on cash management and international business by expanding knowledge regarding the efforts of MNCs in emerging markets. Our results hold following a series of robustness checks and endogeneity concerns.     

Tail systemic risk and contagion: Evidence from the Brazilian and Latin America banking network

In this study the tail systemic risk of the Brazilian banking system is examined, using the conditional quantile as the risk measure. Multivariate conditional dependence between Brazilian banks is modelled with a vine copula hierarchical structure. The results demonstrate that Brazilian financial systemic risk increased drastically during the global financial crisis period. Our empirical findings show that Bradesco and Itaú are the origin of the larger systemic shocks from the banking system to the financial system network, the real economy, and the region. The results have implications for the capital regulation of financial institutions and for risk managers' decisions.     

Globalisation and Poverty in Latin America: Some Channels and Some Evidence

This paper provides an overview of the main mechanisms through which globalisation can affect poverty and household welfare in Latin America and presents supporting evidence from different case studies in the region. One case study explores the impacts of agricultural trade liberalisation in world markets on poverty in Argentina, with an emphasis on labour income effects via real wages. The second case study examines the impacts of CAFTA on net producers and net consumers among the indigenous population in Guatemala. The analysis explores short‐run impacts as well as medium‐run impacts as households adjust farm decisions. Finally, a last exercise is set up to study the role of agricultural liberalisation on wages, employment and unemployment when there are frictions in labour markets. These case studies show that the impacts of trade on developing countries are heterogeneous. In Argentina, there are gains from liberalisation of world agriculture and higher food prices. In Guatemala, instead, the indigenous population would benefit from lower food prices. It is clear that household adjustments and complementary factors are fundamental ingredients of any reasonable evaluation of the welfare impacts of trade reforms.     

Humanistic leadership: Lessons from Latin America

We review the psychological, sociological and historical explanations underlying leadership styles in Latin America. A fundamentally paternalistic style relies on social bonds based on reciprocity and stresses workers’ expectations. Transformations in leadership styles in Latin America require consideration of alternative theoretical approaches such as stakeholder management and cultural hybridism, beyond cross-cultural frameworks. Viewing employees as key stakeholders implies a legitimate concern for workers beyond the employment relationship. From a hybridism perspective, diversity is a critical concept that applies to organizational ownership arrangements, management practices, cultural backgrounds, and socio economic contextual changes surrounding leadership styles.     

中国股票市场行为与投资者情绪

The relationship among stock returns, market volatilities and individual investor sentiment is an important topic in behavioral economics and finance. This paper uses a unique data set—China’s newly opened stock trading accounts to test the relationships among stock returns, volatilities and individual investor sentiment in the Chinese stock market. It is found that there is a positive relationship between shifts in sentiment and stock returns, and that shifts in sentiment are negatively correlated with market volatility, that is to say, volatility increases (decreases) when investors become more bearish (bullish).      

Economic integration across Latin America: Evidence from labour markets, 1990–2013

Combining macroeconomic and microeconomic data and three indicators of international market integration, this paper assesses the degree to which Latin American labour markets are integrated. The results suggest that relative to East Asia, Latin American labour markets are somewhat more integrated, but considerable differences across countries persist. In addition, the evidence indicates that the degree of labour market integration across Latin American borders is significantly less than that of labour markets within the United States in two of the three indicators. These differences may suggest opportunities for efficiency gains from further labour market integration.     

Theory and practice of corporate finance: Evidence and distinctive features in Latin America

We survey 290 LATAM firms on capital budgeting, cost of capital and capital structure issues. We analyze the results and compare them to those of other studies. We interpret differences according to special features characterizing both emerging markets and SME. We observe that LATAM firms make use of standard capital budgeting techniques, but give special weight to liquidity and capital rationing considerations. They rely less on cost of capital formal estimations; rather, they use investors' requests as their primordial input. Finally, surveyed firms are less leveraged, and inclined toward stressing the role of internal financing and minimizing payment commitments.     

Corruption and firm behavior: Evidence from African ports

This paper investigates how corruption affects firm behavior. Using an original and unusually rich dataset on bribe payments at ports matched to firm-level data, we observe how firms adapt to different types of corruption by adjusting their transport strategies. Our results suggest that firms respond to the price effects of corruption, organizing production in a way that increases or decreases demand for the public service.     

Corruption and firm behavior: Evidence from African ports

This paper investigates how corruption affects firm behavior. Using an original and unusually rich dataset on bribe payments at ports matched to firm-level data, we observe how firms adapt to different types of corruption by adjusting their transport strategies. Our results suggest that firms respond to the price effects of corruption, organizing production in a way that increases or decreases demand for the public service.     

Unintended investor sentiment on bank financial products: Evidence from China

Investor sentiment on bank financial products (BFPs) is commonly overlooked. However, given the implementation of regulatory policies and the development of Internet financial market, investor sentiment on BFPs has become increasingly important in China since 2013. This paper constructs investor sentiment on BFPs, based on six proxies that reflect market liquidity, transaction status, market activity, and industry development. We contribute to the literature by finding the comovement of the investor sentiment on BFPs and the returns, and by demonstrating the spillover effects from bank financial markets to related markets from the perspective of the investor sentiment on BFPs.     

The entrepreneur's investor choice: The impact on later-stage firm development

This article analyzes how early-stage financing decisions may affect how entrepreneurial firms ultimately grow. This theoretical study considers an entrepreneur seeking early-stage financing from either a specialist or a generalist investor in the context of stage financing. It is assumed that an early-stage specialist is less efficient in assisting a venture beyond the early-stage round than a generalist. This leads to the following tradeoff: by initially selecting an early-stage specialist, the entrepreneur benefits from increased investor incentives in the first round. Such incentives generate additional value for the entrepreneurial venture, improving valuation in the interim round and thereby mitigating the risk of dilution against follow-up investors and potentially even of premature discontinuation of the project. However, early-stage specialists are more reluctant to finance later rounds. Conversely, using a generalist secures efficient follow-up funding but also leads to weaker investor incentives in the early stage. With this tradeoff, the presence of asymmetric information about the quality of entrepreneurial projects particularly affects generalists; entrepreneurs with strong projects more often choose specialists, while entrepreneurs with weak projects select generalists to secure efficient continuation. The use of convertible securities or adjustment warrants in contracts cannot always eliminate the effect of asymmetric information. Several empirical implications derived from this tradeoff are provided for optimal investor choice.