OWNERSHIP CONCENTRATION AND FIRM PERFORMANCE IN EMERGING MARKETS: A META‐ANALYSIS

The literature concerned with relations between ownership concentration and corporate performance in emerging markets presents conflicting theoretical predications and inconclusive empirical results. We use meta‐analytical techniques to integrate the diverse empirical findings and investigate factors contribute to the inconsistencies in the empirical evidence. Using 419 correlations collected from 42 primary studies of listed corporations in 18 emerging markets, heterogeneity tests show that only a small proportion of the variation in reported ownership concentration–performance relations can be attributed to sampling error. Our meta‐regressions reveal how population differences, researchers’ modeling choices, and inadequate treatment of endogeneity explain a large portion of the true heterogeneity. After adjusting for these effects, we find ownership concentration has negative relation with firm performance across countries. Our results emphasize the importance of model specification and methods of addressing endogeneity, and support further comparative study of the ownership concentration–corporate performance relation between countries with seemingly similar corporate governance environments.     

THE ECONOMICS OF NETWORKS: A SURVEY OF THE EMPIRICAL LITERATURE

Abstract.  Network effects, the increase in value of consuming a product if many other consumers use the same product, are a feature of many markets and in particular of many high-technology products. This paper surveys the burgeoning empirical literature that has developed especially during the last years. After theoretical work dominated the earlier years of research in this area, newer research has combined theoretical models with empirical studies and applied work with direct implications for public policy, marketing and company strategies. Furthermore, insights from the study of social networks have been applied to analyse how consumers interact with each other. The paper argues that a closer analysis of the network structure of consumer interaction promises fruitful future research avenues and advances in our understanding of how network effects operate.     

THE DECOUPLING OF EMERGING ECONOMIES: THEORETICAL AND EMPIRICAL PUZZLE

With the growing importance of the emerging economies (EEs) in the international scene, a lively debate has begun on whether the national economic cycles are converging or the cycles of EEs and advanced economies (AEs) are becoming disconnected, the so-called ‘hypothesis of decoupling of EEs from the AEs’. Given the important practical implications that decoupling could have, for example, on the definition of national and international economic policies and on business strategies aimed at investment diversification and risk management, the question kindles not only the interest of academics but also policymakers and practitioners are very interested in the issue. The decoupling question has been long debated in different circles and from different points of view. This survey aims to retrace the steps of this debate and to provide some suggestions for future empirical researches.     

THE ECONOMICS OF EXPLORATION FOR NON-RENEWABLE RESOURCES

Abstract. The literature on exploration for non-renewable resources is surveyed. Following a brief synopsis in section 2, section 3 focuses on issues related to the world market for resources. Section 4 considers more microeconomic supply-related issues linked to the exploration of the small region or play. Section 5 turns to the small but growing literature on exploration as a learning process related to R&D. The latter sections pay particular attention to empirical and policy aspects.     

LOCAL LABOR MARKETS AND NATURAL RESOURCES: A SYNTHESIS OF THE LITERATURE

A primary way that natural resources affect a locality is through the demand for labor, with greater extraction requiring more workers. Shifts in labor demand can be measured through changes in employment and earnings, the main labor market outcomes, or through changes in the population and income, more generally. These changes may spillover into the nonresource economy, leading to greater overall effects or possibly crowd out; be spread unequally across the population, thereby altering the distribution of income and the poverty rate; or influence educational attainment, as people choose between additional schooling and work. In this review, the literature linking natural resources to local labor markets is synthesized by organizing existing studies according to their resource measurement and the outcomes that they consider. This synthesis provides an accessible guide to a literature that has boomed in recent years. It also identifies promising avenues for future research and lays a foundation to further generalize the evidence through an eventual meta‐analysis.     

THE USE AND ABUSE OF MARKETS IN HOUSING POLICY

This paper argues that, despite its rhetoric in support of markets, government does not understand how markets work, but is rather trying to use certain aspects of markets to control social housing. The paper looks at three areas: first, the idea of private finance and how this is used by government as a form of public policy; second, the notion of risk and whether it actually occurs in social housing; and third, the contention that government is incapable of appreciating the manner in which markets operate because it only wishes to provide safe options and so cannot countenance real choice and competition.     

THE TERM STRUCTURE OF INTEREST RATES: EVIDENCE AND THEORY

Abstract. The term structure of interest rates is an old topic. Over the years, both the hypotheses debated and the research techniques used have changed considerably. Two fairly recent developments which distinguish current research are the widespread adoption of rational expectations and the integration of the term structure with the general theory of asset pricing. This survey reviews previous work from this perspective. The main objective is to catalogue available evidence about term premia and to interpret this evidence in light of alternative models of term premia determination.     

THE EFFECTS OF PENSION FUNDS ON MARKETS PERFORMANCE: A REVIEW

The worldwide reforming process of pension systems triggered by the demographic transition and globalization has led several countries to implement multi‐pillar pension systems and enhance pension funds. For this reason the studies on the effects that pension funds exert on markets performance have been flourishing in the last decades. In this paper, we provide an updated review of the empirical advances in this field of study, with particular focus on the effects that pension funds produce on labour markets, financial markets and economic growth.     

AN ALGORITHMIC INFORMATION THEORETIC APPROACH TO THE BEHAVIOUR OF FINANCIAL MARKETS

Using frequency distributions of daily closing price time series of several financial market indices, we investigate whether the bias away from an equiprobable sequence distribution found in the data, predicted by algorithmic information theory, may account for some of the deviation of financial markets from log‐normal, and if so for how much of said deviation and over what sequence lengths. We do so by comparing the distributions of binary sequences from actual time series of financial markets and series built up from purely algorithmic means. Our discussion is a starting point for a further investigation of the market as a rule‐based system with an algorithmic component, despite its apparent randomness, and the use of the theory of algorithmic probability with new tools that can be applied to the study of the market price phenomenon. The main discussion is cast in terms of assumptions common to areas of economics in agreement with an algorithmic view of the market.