CEO Hedging Opportunities and the Weighting of Performance Measures in Compensation Contracts

This study examines the rather controversial practice of managerial hedging, which allows CEOs to delink their compensation from stock price performance. We presume that boards are aware of these practices and adjust the weights placed on accounting‐based and stock‐based performance measures in executive compensation contracts to mitigate the problem. Empirically, we find that, in the presence of managerial hedging opportunities, accounting‐based performance measures receive more weight, whereas stock‐based performance measures receive less weight in determining executive compensation. Moreover, these results are more pronounced when managerial hedging needs are high. Regarding the effects of earnings management resulting from accounting‐based incentives, we find that good auditing and strong governance mechanisms strengthen the benefit of placing more weight on accounting‐based performance measures. Taken together, our findings suggest that corporate boards shift the relative weights of performance measures in compensation contracts in response to managerial hedging opportunities, which is consistent with optimal contracting.     

Productivity and technology in Nepal:: An analysis of foreign and domestic firms

This study uses plant level data from the census of manufacturing establishments to examine the production technology and labor productivity of foreign and domestic firms in Nepal. The results show that the capital intensity in foreign firms is higher than that in domestic firms. The statistical results also imply that foreign firms have higher labor productivity. A simultaneous equation model suggests that foreign firms are technically not more efficient than domestic firms. In fact, analysis indicates that foreign firms are technically less efficient. The foreign firms may have derived their competitiveness from capital intensive technology that is found to be one of the major factors to boost labor productivity.     

JIT Adoption: The Effects of LIFO Reserves and Financial Reporting and Tax Incentives*

Using matched samples of JIT adopters and nonadopters, we examine the association of JIT adoption with firms' financial reporting and tax incentives, earnings‐management histories, and LIFO reserve levels. We find evidence that adoption decisions are influenced by the interaction of firms' LIFO reserves with their income smoothing, debt covenant, and tax incentives. We also find that adoption is less likely for firms historically engaging in high degrees of earnings management, particularly when such firms have no substantial LIFO reserves. Our study extends earlier research demonstrating a relation between inventory valuation method and year‐end inventory transactions, and documents a relation between earnings‐management incentives and a fundamental supply‐chain design choice.     

Effects of Imported Intermediate Varieties on Plant Total Factor Productivity and Product Switching: Evidence from Korean Manufacturing

By utilizing previously unexplored plant–product data on Korean manufacturing, and detailed import data for 1991–1998, this paper empirically investigates whether greater access to imported intermediate varieties enhanced plant total factor productivity and product‐switching behavior. First, consistent with previous empirical studies, we find that a plant that belonged to industries with higher imported intermediate variety growth experienced higher productivity growth. Second, our empirical results suggest that increased imported intermediate varieties stimulated the product‐switching behavior of domestic plants. Because product‐switching behavior (i.e. simultaneously adding and dropping products) could be understood as a part of the continual process of ‘creative destruction’ within plants, our results imply that imported intermediate variety growth may be one of the channels through which resource reallocation within plants can be promoted.     

Productivity Gains from Offshore Outsourcing: Evidence from the Chinese Manufacturing Industry

Using the Cobb–Douglas production function and vertical specialization share, the present paper measures the productivity spillover effects of offshore outsourcing in the Chinese manufacturing industry. We examine different production factors and the degree of openness by dividing the Chinese manufacturing industry into five major categories: capital‐intensive business, technological‐intensive business, labor‐intensive business, open business and non‐open business. The results show that offshore outsourcing is positively associated with productivity in the Chinese manufacturing industry as a whole, but less so in labor‐intensive industries and more in capital‐intensive industries. Moreover, the positive impact of outsourcing on productivity is slightly higher in open industries than in non‐open industries. These results shed light on the differential spillover effects of offshore outsourcing on productivity. Our findings suggest that outsourcing structure is important to China's long‐run competitive advantage. China's policy‐makers should encourage further offshore capital‐intensive and technology‐intensive activities and focus more on outward‐oriented offshore businesses.     

Misallocation and manufacturing TFP in Thailand

Using data from Thailand's 2007 Industrial Census, this research studied resource misallocation across manufacturing plants and its impact on manufacturing total factor productivity (TFP). It is found that there is more resource misallocation across plants in Thailand than in China, India, and the US, as well as in some other countries. When resource misallocation in Thailand is hypothetically reduced to the extent observed in the USA, manufacturing TFP increases by about seventy per cent. It is also found that manufacturing plants under government ownership or located in the northern region of Thailand have lower productivity, yet face lower input and output distortions than other plants. Also, medium‐sized plants face higher distortions than smaller and larger plants.     

Industrial Diversification and Its Impact on Productivity Growth in Taiwan's Electronics Industry*

The present study attempts to link plant‐level production diversification to productivity growth in Taiwan's electronics industry. An account of the role of the Taiwanese government over the last 2 decades leading to the take‐off of its electronics industry is briefly discussed. We reviewed production activities of more than 20 000 Taiwanese electronics plants during the period 1992–1999. In an inter‐industry comparison, we find that at the four‐digit and seven‐digit industry levels, Taiwanese electronics production plants exhibit a significantly higher degree of product diversification than plants in the manufacturing sector as a whole. Econometric results positively identify diversification as a source of significant productivity growth across all electronics plants classified in the related industry groups.     

Stock prices and the efficient market hypothesis: Evidence from a panel stationary test with structural breaks

This paper investigates whether the efficient market hypothesis holds in stock markets under different economic development levels over the period January 1999 to May 2007. We employ a state-of-the-art panel data stationarity test which incorporates multiple structural breaks. Evidence indicates that when accommodating general forms of cross-sectional dependence as well as controlling for finite-sample bias, the real stock price series appear to be stationary in 32 developed and 26 developing countries, respectively, which is in sharp contrast to the findings in the existing literature. Thus, real stock price indices are stationary processes that are inconsistent with the efficient market hypothesis. This shows the presence of profitable arbitrage opportunities among stock markets. According to these estimated structural breakpoints, we are also able to discover the reason for why there has been a huge impact from past stock prices.     

Foreign Manufacturing Investment in China： The Role of Industrial Agglomeration and Industrial Linkages

This paper investigates the forces that determine the industrial distribution of foreign manufacturing investment. It highlights the importance of industrial agglomeration and industrial linkage in attracting foreign investment to manufacturing industries. Using panel data for two-digit manufacturing industries in Beijing during the period of 1999-2004, this study finds that geographically agglomerated industries with strong intra-industrial linkages are indeed attractive to foreign investment. Previous foreign investment has led to the current industrial concentration or foreign investment. Investors also favor capital-intensive and technology-intensive industries, and they tend to be attracted to the most profitable and exporting industries, but avoid industries with high real labor costs and high entry barriers. Competitive local industries that possess comparative advantages are critical for attracting foreign investment. The existence of industrial clusters certainly enhances a city＇s attractiveness to foreign investment.     

THE LINKS BETWEEN TRADE POLICY AND TOTAL FACTOR PRODUCTIVITY IN SOUTH AFRICA'S MANUFACTURING SECTOR1

This paper reconfirms the important links that exist between manufacturing productivity, trade orientation, industry specific characteristics and some macroeconomic variables. The dynamic GMM estimator used in the analysis shows that apart from being affected by trade measures, total factor productivity is strongly persistent. In addition, the evolution of the real exchange rate and inflation exert important effects on manufacturing productivity. Most importantly, the dynamic error component specification appears to be more efficient in modelling the effects on manufacturing productivity of policy change than the static approach.     

Exporting and Productivity in the USA

Exporting is often touted as a way to increase economic growth.This paper examines the interaction between exporting and productivitygrowth in US manufacturing. While exporting plants have substantiallyhigher productivity levels, there is no evidence that exportingincreases plant productivity growth rates. The higher productivityof exporters largely predates their entry into exporting. However,within the same industry, exporters do grow faster than non-exportersin terms of both shipments and employment. Exporting is associatedwith the reallocation of resources from less efficient to moreefficient plants. In the aggregate, these reallocation effectsare quite large, making up over 40 per cent of total factorproductivity growth in the manufacturing sector. Half of thisreallocation to more productive plants occurs within industriesand the direction of the reallocation is towards exporting plants.     

Productivity or Endowments? Sectoral Evidence for Hong Kong's Aggregate Growth*

The present paper provides sectoral evidence that sheds new light on the current debate regarding the sources of growth of the East Asian miracle. We test both the productivity‐driven and endowment‐driven hypotheses using Hong Kong's sectoral data. The results show that most of the growth of the service sector is driven by rapidly‐accumulating capital endowments, and not by productivity growth. In addition, productivity growth in the manufacturing sector is unimpressive. The manufacturing sector is revealed to be more labor intensive than the service sector and its growth is hindered by the reallocation of resources into the service sector as a result of the growth of capital endowments and imports. Overall, sectoral evidence supports the endowment‐driven hypothesis.     

Financial Statement Comparability and the Efficiency of Acquisition Decisions

This study examines whether acquirers make better acquisition decisions when target firms’ financial statements exhibit greater comparability with industry peer firms. We predict and find that acquirers make more profitable acquisition decisions when target firms’ financial statements are more comparable—as evidenced by higher merger announcement returns, higher acquisition synergies, and better future operating performance. We also find that post‐acquisition goodwill impairments and post‐acquisition divestitures are less likely when target firms’ financial statements are more comparable. Finally, we find that acquirers benefit most from comparability when acquirers’ ex ante information asymmetry is higher, acquirers operate in volatile operating environments, and management knows relatively less about the target. In total, our evidence suggests targets’ financial statement comparability helps acquirers make better acquisition‐investment decisions and fosters more efficient capital allocation.     

Productivity spillovers from foreign multinationals and trade protection: firm‐level analysis of Vietnamese manufacturing

This paper examines how the presence of foreign multinational enterprises (MNEs) affects productivity in domestic private firms in Vietnamese manufacturing in 2005–10. The paper also examines how import protection has affected these productivity spillovers and how spillovers from wholly foreign MNEs and joint ventures differ. The most consistent result suggests wholly foreign MNEs impart negative spillovers while joint ventures tend to generate positive spillovers. Theory and random effects estimates also indicate that import protection reduces local firm productivity and weakens the effect of spillovers from all MNEs; but this result is not obtained when a fixed effects estimator is used. Results are similar in samples of labour‐intensive industries, which include close to three fourths of all sample firms, but differ markedly for more capital‐intensive groups.     

Firm Productivity and Foreign Direct Investment into Non‐core Activities*

As foreign direct investment (FDI) often originates from multinational enterprises (MNEs) with non‐core activities and not single‐product firms, as MNE theory typically suggests, we hypothesize that such firms are more productive than MNEs without non‐core activities as well as non‐MNE firms. We test this hypothesis using Kolmogorov–Smirnov stochastic dominance Tests and Japanese firm‐level productivity and FDI data for the period 1985–2001. We find that both manufacturing and service multinational firms with non‐core foreign investments stochastically dominate firms without non‐core activities. We also find cost‐complementarities between certain core and non‐core FDI activities that span both manufacturing and service affiliates.     

Market Consequences of Earnings Management in Response to Security Regulations in China*

Under the 1996‐98 security regulations in China, the accounting rate of return on equity (ROE) has to be greater than 10 percent for three "consecutive" years for a firm to qualify for stock rights offers. Despite declining economic conditions during this period, the percentage of firms reporting ROE between 10 and 11 percent is about "three" times that for 1994‐95. This unique regulatory environment provides a natural experimental setting for the empirical assessment of earnings‐management behavior and its consequences. This study examines whether listed Chinese firms manage earnings to meet regulatory benchmarks and whether regulators and investors consider the quality of earnings in their respective regulatory and investment decisions. On the basis of a sample of listed Chinese firms from 1996 to 1998, we observe that managers execute transactions involving below‐the‐line items and use income‐increasing accounting accruals to meet regulatory ROE targets for stock rights offerings. The firms that apply for, but fail to receive, regulatory approval manage earnings more significantly than do firms that receive approval and pair‐matched control firms. Our market study also suggests that investors differentiate the quality of earnings and put less value on earnings suspected of a greater degree of management. Overall, our results imply that the regulatory bodies and investors to some extent make rational adjustments for the quality of earnings.     

东道国金融发展对中国企业对外直接投资的影响:二元边际与生产率门槛

文章基于中国上市企业2008-2015年对外直接投资数据，分析东道国金融发展在扩展边际和集约边际上对企业对外直接投资决策以及投资所需生产率水平的影响。研究发现，在不同生产率的企业中东道国金融发展的影响是异质性的。较高的金融发展水平会系统性地降低投资所需的生产率水平，进而促进中国企业对外直接投资的概率、次数和规模。进一步的研究还发现，在经济发展水平比中国高的东道国金融发展的生产率效应更显著，投资所需生产率下降得更多。尽管如此，高经济发展水平东道国的最低生产率门槛仍然高于低经济发展水平的东道国。控制了金融发展指标和企业全要素生产率的内生性后，结果依然稳健。     

Global value chains and servicification of manufacturing: Evidence from firm-level data

Recent literature on global value chains (GVCs) has mainly focused on manufacturing firms’ global sourcing and investment strategies. Our question here is that, if the manufacturing firms established foreign manufacturing plants and engaged in sourcing inputs and exporting outputs, have they changed their domestic employment composition toward service workers? This is what we call servicification of manufacturing firms in this paper. To answer this question, using Korean firm-establishments matched data, we examine changes in the shares of service employment in manufacturing firms from 2008 to 2013, when those firms are participating in both import-and-export and foreign direct investment (i.e., GVC firms). We find that the two-way trading firms that own manufacturing plants in foreign countries—and particularly in nearby foreign countries—have changed their domestic employment structures to increase the number of service workers they employ. Moreover, the relatively greater increase in the share of R&D workers than of wholesale-and-retail workers serves as further evidence of the servicification of domestic manufacturing. Overall, our findings suggest that Korean firms who engage in GVCs through both trade and foreign direct investment have reorganized domestic labor structure to be able to provide high value-added headquarter services for their manufacturing plants that are closely located in foreign countries.     

The sources of long-term economic growth in Indonesia, 1880-2008

This paper presents new time series estimates of GDP, capital stock and education-adjusted employment, and uses a growth accounting approach to analyze GDP growth during 1880-2008. The growth of capital stock, employment and educational attainment explained almost all of GDP growth. During key growth periods 1900-29 and 1975-97, Total Factor Productivity (TFP) growth was on balance negative. TFP growth was substantial during some sub-periods, particularly 1933-41, 1951-61, 1967-74 and 2000-08. Each followed a major economic downturn that slowed capital stock growth and required a more efficient use of productive resources, supported by changes in economic policy that enhanced productivity and efficiency.     

Trade, FDI, and productivity convergence: A dynamic panel data approach in 25 countries

The investigation, described in the paper, included developing and implementing a dynamic panel framework to study and compare the role of trade and foreign direct investment (FDI) in long-run productivity convergence. Specifically, it employed the technique of a recently developed panel unit-root approach to examine and compare time-series behaviors of manufacturing productivity and services productivity of 25 countries from 1975 to 2004. Results indicated that long-run productivity convergence in manufacturing was trade-related as well as FDI-related. The results have also shown that grouping countries according to their trade partners tends to produce more significant evidence for productivity convergence than their FDI partners do. Furthermore, especially services sector shows no or little convergence, while the manufacturing sector shows strong evidence in favor of convergence. The findings suggest that trade and FDI matter for convergence particularly in the manufacturing productivity movement across countries but more specifically that trade proves more important in explaining long-run manufacturing productivity convergence.