Profitability and accumulation in Greek manufacturing

This paper examines long-term trends in profitability and capital accumulation for the Greek manufacturing industry from 1955 to 1989, using the growth accounting framework introduced by Weisskopf (1979) and further developed by Glyn et al. (1990). The results show that the overall 7% annual decline in profit rate in Greek manufacturing is attributed primarily to falling profit share and secondarily to falling productivity of capital. The effect of capacity utilization was negligible. The analysis is carried out for different subperiods and the relative importance of each of the constituent components of profitability is evaluated.     

Misallocations and policy constraints on mergers in the modern manufacturing sector

Resource misallocation has resulted in differences in inter-economy total factor productivity (TFP). However, the factors driving different levels of resource misallocation still need to be investigated. This paper argues that firm exits through mergers can be an important source of change in the level of resource misallocation. Traditional policy regulations for the key manufacturing sectors are based on either the four-firm concentration ratio (CR4) or the Herfindahl–Hirschman Index (HHI), which measure the market concentration. This paper takes a different approach. It first deduces the optimal input allocation by measuring aggregate resource misallocation; this approach allows us to identify productivity-improving merger events and complements the market concentration indexes, which have traditionally been the focus of attention. We then construct a unique dataset in the TFT-LCD industry to analyze the change in productivity resulting from the merger between two major TFT-LCD producers, Chimei and Innolux, in the first quarter of 2010. The proposed and actual team of Chimei and Innolux record a remarkable efficiency jump by achieving optimal input allocation immediately after this merger. We further interpret this scenario as a firm that is smaller and more efficient pre-merger, acquiring a larger weaker producer in a prominent IT manufacturing sector.     

Upstream mergers,downstream mergers,and secret vertical contracts

In an industry characterized by secret vertical contracts, we consider a benchmark case where two vertical chains exist, with two upstream manufacturers selling to two downstream retailers, and show that the equilibrium prices are independent of whether upstream or downstream firms have all the bargaining power. We then analyse two alternative mergers, and show that a downstream merger (which gives the downstream monopolist all the bargaining power) is more welfare detrimental than an upstream merger (which gives the bargaining power to the upstream monopolist). We also show that downstream and upstream mergers have the same effects when contracts are observable.     

Innovation and productivity in the food vs. the high-tech manufacturing sector

ABSTRACT

The food sector is considered a mature industry characterized by low research and development (R&D) intensity. Nevertheless, food companies face numerous challenges and cannot do without innovation activity if they want to keep their competitiveness. In this study, we examine the impact of innovation on labor productivity in European food companies and compare it to results for firms operating in high-tech sectors. The central motivation of our study is that the low R&D intensity observed in the food sector should be mirrored in different productivity effects of innovation when compared to the high-tech sector. We use microdata from the European Union's ‘Community Innovation Survey’ (CIS) and apply an endogeneity-robust multi-stage model that has been applied by various recent studies. Our results point out major differences between the examined subsectors. While we find strong positive effects of innovation on labor productivity for food firms, we find insignificant effects in the high-tech sector. This might suggest that the returns to innovation might be best evaluated separately by sector rather than for the manufacturing sector as a whole.     

Cross-border mergers in a mixed oligopoly

This paper identifies the unique strategic issues of cross-border mergers in a mixed oligopoly showing that the presence of a welfare maximizing public firm increases the incentive for such mergers. The well-known merger paradox that two-firm mergers are rarely profitable is substantially relaxed in the cases of both linear and convex production costs. The ability to identify profitable two-firm mergers in this context takes on added importance as the recent cross-border merger wave often involved industries with public firms.     

A pre-emption model of mergers

This paper studies the paradox of the value destroying mergers in a sequential negotiation model in which the synergy accrued from the mergers is private information. This study shows that in a simultaneous competitive bidding process, the winner’s curse of overpaying rarely occurs but may arise in the target firm initiated sequential negotiations; and if the merger is successful then the outcome is never value destroying for the combined firm. Thus the acquirer’s overpayment cannot be considered as the ‘winner’s curse’ that results from the post-announcement competitive bidding but rather than the result of the target’s strengthened bargaining power in the sequential negotiations. The implications and intuition of such value-destroying mergers thus differ substantially from that of existing pre-emptive mergers and acquisitions models that use a simultaneous bidding mechanism. The results also imply that the ‘acquisition premium’ accrues to the target firms.     

Cross-border mergers in vertically related industries

We construct a tractable model of an oligopolistic industry that allows us to capture the role of the vertical structure in the incentives for and implications of cross-border horizontal mergers. We show that vertical integration can increase the gains from cross-border mergers. We also demonstrate how market concentration interacts with costs in the decision of a relatively efficient foreign firm located in one country (source) to merge with a disintegrated or an integrated firm in another country (target) when the industry is vertically related. Absent any merger incentives in an autarkic equilibrium, we demonstrate that vertical integration can raise the incentives for diversification in production and add to the gains from cross-border horizontal mergers. Any additional gain from cross-border horizontal mergers, due to the existence of a vertically integrated production structure, is shown to be sensitive to the relative market concentration across countries. Cross-border mergers will be triggered by a relatively cost-efficient source taking over a disintegrated target when pre-merger competition among the disintegrated firms is relatively intense but, otherwise, the initial target will be a vertically integrated firm.     

Counterfactual analysis of bank mergers

We introduce a counterfactual analysis of banks mergers, combining the pre-merger equilibrium setting with post-merger environmental characteristics, while accounting for endogenously propagated changes in market structure. Using this procedure we are able to estimate the effects on loan flows and interest rates that would have been observed if the pre-merger equilibrium was not altered. Results are obtained for firms, households, and banks inside and outside the merging circles separately. We find that mergers increased firms’ access to credit, but had an opposite effect on households and led to a widespread decrease in interest rates.     

Merger Profitability and Trade Policy

We study the profitability incentives for merger and the endogenous industry structure in a strategic trade policy environment. Merger changes the strategic trade policy equlilibrium. We show that merger can be profitable and welfare enhancing, even though it would not be profitable in a laissez‐faire economy. A key element is a change in the governments’ incentives to give subsidies to their local firms. National merger induces more strategic trade policy, whereas international merger does not.     

Horizontal mergers and product quality

We study the effects of a horizontal merger when firms compete on price and quality. In a Salop framework with three symmetric firms, several striking results appear. First, the merging firms reduce quality but possibly also price, whereas the outside firm increases both price and quality. As a result, the average price in the market increases, but also the average quality. Second, the outside firm benefits more than the merging firms from the merger, and the merger can be unprofitable for the merger partners, i.e., the “merger paradox” may appear. Third, the merger always reduces total consumer utility (though some consumers may benefit), but total welfare can increase due to endogenous quality cost savings. In a generalized framework with n firms, we identify two key factors for the merger effects: (i) the magnitude of marginal variable quality costs, which determines the nature of strategic interaction and (ii) the cross‐quality and cross‐price demand effects, which determines the intensity of price relative to quality competition. These findings have implications for antitrust policy in industries where quality is a key strategic variable for the firms.     

资产的本质:一种创利能力--基于经济环境的理论分析

资产不仅是一种重要的会计概念，也是一种重要的经济学概念。关于资产本质的价值观和成本观都将会计理论与实务的发展产生深远影响。现代经济环境的变迁，特别是金融及资本市场的发展导致了资产要素内容的创新。资产要素也具有适应了经济环境变化的新的特征，资产是特定实体所控制的，具有创利能力的资源。     

Monopolization through endogenous vertical mergers

While endogenous merger analysis has been applied to horizontal mergers, the thrust of vertical merger analysis has been based on exogenous mergers. The goal of this paper is to analyze endogenous vertical mergers. I consider a market structure with a downstream monopolist and an oligopolistic upstream industry. The downstream monopolist chooses to buy a certain number of the upstream firms. Mergers are endogenous, in the sense that the bids made by the downstream firm must be accepted by each of the integrated upstream firms, and must not exceed the increase in the profits of the downstream firm. It is shown that the unique equilibrium is complete monopolization: the buyer buys all the firms in the upstream industry. This result is consistent with the result that vertical mergers are profitable. However, it is in contrast with horizontal endogenous mergers, where complete monopolization is generally not an equilibrium.     

Profitability in business cycle theory and forecasting

Given the Important connections among profitability, investment, and economic activity, a profitability indicator can be used to assess where the economy is in the business cycle. Rising profitability suggests that the economy is on a secular growth path, while a peak or fall in profitability suggests that growth is slowing and the economy is headed for recession. One measure of profitability is to divide total business sector profit by total wages paid to labor. Let this variable be called the PW ratio.This paper's research shows that the PW ratio leads recessions, and that it takes two to six quarters of decline in PW before the onset of recession. PW clearly peaks in stage three of the business cycle. The evidence demonstrates that the PW ratio compares favorably with other indicators used by forecasters. The paper concludes that wages are not responsible for squeezing profits until stage seven on average, and fluctuations in profit over the cycle exceed that of wages and the gap grows in late expansion.     

Profitability of corporate social responsibility in network industries

The present paper shows that, when firms compete in a non-cooperative way on the level of corporate social responsibility (CSR) in network industries, the conventional result of the prisoner’s dilemma structure of the game in standard industries—i.e. to have social concerns is the Nash equilibrium, but it is harmful for firms’ profits—vanishes and, for sufficiently intense network externalities, the equilibrium in which both firms have social concerns is more profitable than simple profit-seeking. Moreover, we show that—when firms cooperate in choosing the profit-maximising level of social concerns—a profit-maximising CSR level does exist, provided that network effects are sufficiently strong. Therefore, in network industries, firms may obtain higher profits engaging in—cooperatively as well as non-cooperatively—CSR activities, showing that firms’ social concerns may be motivated by the owners’ selfish behaviour. Finally, a counter-intuitive result as regards consumer’s surplus and social welfare is obtained: those are always higher under competitive than cooperative choice of CSR because the level of CSR activities is higher in the former case. However, given that firms gain their largest profits with the cooperative choice of CSR, a Pareto-superior outcome is not reached.     

The Determinants of Firm Profitability in Australian Manufacturing

This study provides new evidence on the determinants of the profitability of Australian manufacturing firms by analyzing a unique firm-level data set of firm performance over the period 1984-93. The panel nature of the data permits the estimation of dynamic profitability models over the business cycle, to test both the persistence and cyclicality of firm profitability. Econometric results suggest that lagged profitability is a significant determinant of current profit margins, and that industry concentration is positively related to firm profit margins. Also, profit margins are found to be procyciical in concentrated industries but counter-cyclical in less concentrated industries.     

Common pool problems in voluntary municipal mergers

We analyze free-riding behavior of Finnish municipalities prior to voluntary municipal mergers. The merger process creates a temporary common pool problem, because of a delay from the initial decision to the actual merger during which municipalities stay autonomous. Using a difference-in-differences strategy, we find that the stronger free-riding incentive a municipality faced the more it increased its debt and spent its cash reserves. These funds were spent mostly on investments and current expenditures.     

Endogenous mergers and cost heterogeneity

This study analyses early retirement pathways for Norwegian male and female workers, applying a multinomial logit model to a data set covering more than 10500 employees, ages 56-61, in 1989. The aim is to analyse the transition to different destinations, i.e. disability pension, unemployment benefits, and out of the labour force, in the period 1989-1995. Both family characteristics, expected income in different end-states, and push factors, such as industry attachment and local unemployment, are important for the early retirement process. Findings also indicate that there are several gender differences. The explanatory variables have different effects on the different exit routes for males as well as for females. The hypothesis that disability and unemployment are exchangeable pathways into early retirement is rejected.     

进口自由化与企业利润率

本文研究了最终品进口自由化对本国纯内销企业利润率的影响。短期均衡时,最终品进口自由化使得更多外国企业向本国市场出口,加剧了本国产品市场的竞争,降低了本国纯内销企业的利润率。而在长期,由于企业能够充分进入和退出市场,一部分本国企业会退出市场,均衡时留下来的企业利润率升高。本文首先通过理论模型解释了上述现象,随后利用我国2000—2007年规模以上制造业企业层面的面板数据进行了实证检验,验证了进口自由化对企业利润率影响的渠道。实证结果发现,中间品关税下降会对本国纯内销企业的利润率产生正向影响。最后,理论模型和实证结果还证明了,其他条件相同时,企业的生产率越高,其利润率越高。