High debt companies' leverage determinants in Spain: A quantile regression approach

With a severe debt overhang problem in Spain, either public or private, the analysis of the factors that influence companies' leverage in this country reveals essential, in particular for the high-indebted firms. This study benefits from the quantile regression approach advantages over the OLS method to analyze the leverage determinants for a large sample of companies for the 2001–2011 period depending on their level of indebtedness. This method reveals that for the highly-leveraged companies many factors are no longer significant and that cash flow variable is crucial if the companies would like to decrease their debt levels.     

How do neighboring peer companies influence SMEs’ financial behavior?

Recent research into corporate finances has found that the financial decisions of peer companies are related. Companies tend to “kept an eye” on the decisions of other peer companies, among other things, trying to overcome the limitations caused by the lack of information. This paper further examines these interactions including geographical proximity among companies. With this aim, we use a heterogeneous Partial Adjustment Model on a sample of 12,444 small and medium Spanish manufacturing industrial companies. We find strong nonlinearities in the adjustment processes of liquidity, indebtedness and profitability ratios associated with basic characteristics of the companies such as size, technology, age or financial imbalances. Our results indicate that the influence of the environment on the financial behavior of each company, and its responsiveness, vary in function of neighbor firms’ characteristics.     

Volatility transmission between oil prices and banks' stock prices as a new source of instability: Lessons from the United States experience

This paper examines whether American banks' exposure to the oil industry could lead to instability in both oil and financial markets. To address this issue, we investigate volatility spillovers between oil prices and the stock prices of the four major American banks involved in the oil industry by employing the vector autoregressive fractionally integrated moving average framework. We use high-frequency data from January 3, 2006, to June 30, 2016. Our results support the existence of such volatility spillovers, as evidenced by the significant volatility responses of oil price (banks' stock price) to a shock in banks' stock price (oil price). These responses, more pronounced following the banks' exposure to the shale industry, mainly reflect the financial fragility of shale companies and their high indebtedness levels. Thus, this paper emphasises how the shale oil industry could trigger turmoil in both oil and financial markets.     

The tax versus debt controversy in a multivariate cointegrating system

The empirical literature is replete with evidence that budget deficits and government debt affect (traditional view) or do not appreciably affect (Ricardian equivalence) private consumption. However, the validity of the relative empirical estimates can be questioned to the extent that they do not adequately distinguish among countries with varying levels of indebtedness. The present paper attempts to address this problem by using Johansen's cointegration technique and by sorting the sample countries into groups, according to the ratio of debt to GDP. The empirical evidence generated finds support for the debt-illusion hypothesis as a means of expounding variations in consumers' behaviour among countries with varying degrees of indebtedness.     

Yield management and perceptions of fairness in the hotel business

For the last two decades “yield management” (also called “revenue management”) has been increasingly employed in the hospitality sector in order to improve the yield from hotel structures. What’s more, the focus is progressively more centred on the customer instead of the room inventory. However, up to now, little research has investigated the effects of these practices on the relationships between hotels and their clients. This paper firstly examines the nature and the various aspects of customer perceptions regarding yield management practices, focusing especially on perceptions of fairness. Secondly, the paper analyses the variety of actions that hotel companies may design and implement in order to properly anticipate, face and manage customer conflicts resulting from perceived unfairness due to the use of the revenue management levers. Finally, these managerial techniques adopted by the hotel companies are considered in the framework of a business ethics approach. (JEL: M19, M31) This article is based on a paper presented at the 9th “Toulon-Verona” Conference - Excellence in services, University of Paisley, Scotland, 7^th-8^th September 2006.     

Household debt,macroprudential rules,and monetary policy

Today's Canadian economy features a historic high of household debt and persistently low growth rate. The average debt-to-GDP ratio has reached the level experienced in the U.S. just prior to the recent financial crisis. In this paper, we ask whether monetary policy should lean against the household indebtedness or macroprudential policies are better suited for the task. To provide a quantitative answer, we develop a small open economy dynamic stochastic general equilibrium model featuring a micro-founded banking sector. We estimate the model using Canadian data and conduct policy experiments. Our findings favor macroprudential approach to reining in indebtedness: using monetary policy that reacts to household debt increases inflation volatility and lowers borrowers' welfare, while using macroprudential policies such as lowering the loan-to-value ratio limit increases borrowers' welfare.     

The effects of patent-law changes on innovation: The case of India's pharmaceutical industry

Recent patent-law changes in India's pharmaceutical industry provide opportunities to study changes of institutional and regulatory environments on innovation and social welfare in low-income markets. From 1972 to 2004 under its process-patent regime, India's pharmaceutical industry grew to become the world's fourth largest. Indian companies were becoming globally competitive in generics and clinical testing, and moving into product R&D. Researchers have debated the effects of India's new product-patent laws' effects on these trends. The authors cover the domestic characteristics and global competitiveness of India's pharmaceutical industry. They contrast data (from 2001 to 2004) on patents in India's process-patent regime with preliminary data (from 2005 to 2008) on patents in the country's new product-patent regime. They argue that Indian pharmaceutical companies have changed their decision-making in response to changed patent laws by moving from process to product research. However, the preliminary results indicate that these changes may have hurt domestic innovation. They conclude with strategic implications for the Indian pharmaceutical industry and highlight the need for research and public policy to establish optimal social returns from product-patent regimes.     

我国省域酒店服务业规模化发展能力比较

从酒店服务业的整体规模、营业收入、营业利润等方面比较分析,了解我国不同区域间酒店服务业发展基础,探寻酒店服务业价值创新的着力点和模式。本文采用2006-2010年期间我国31个省区市酒店服务业数据,选取省域酒店数量、从业人数、客房收入、餐费收入、资产总额、固定资产、主营业务收入等指标,比较省域酒店服务业规模化发展能力,以分类指导酒店服务业的差异化发展。2010年全国国有企业、有限责任公司和私营企业酒店营业数据显示,其收入利润率低于外商投资企业、港澳台商投资企业,可见在内资企业的盈利模式处于劣势。而我国有限责任公司和私营企业酒店服务在税金缴纳比例方面又高于外商投资企业和港澳台商投资企业,甚至高于国有酒店企业。结论表明,我国有限责任公司和私营企业酒店服务创新难度和压力比国有企业更大。一方面国有企业在享有比较低的税率同时,强调稳健营业、规模经营,并没有充分发挥创新优势。另一方面外资企业和港澳台商酒店企业更强调和重视服务创新。研究还发现,国内广东省、北京市、浙江省、江苏省、山东省、上海市六省市酒店服务业规模化发展能力具有较强优势。     

The fourfold relation between the essence of money,inflation, bubbles and debt—A theoretical macrofounded analysis

The paper makes an unprecedented claim by identifying a significant relationship between money's (immaterial and intrinsic-worth-detached) essence and the measurement of inflation rates, on the one hand, and bubbles and private/public indebtedness, on the other hand. The inflationary potential of cryptocurrencies—among others: xenocurrencies and special drawing rights—is also analysed. Another added value is the consistently macroeconomic approach, which starts from the structural and interconnected mechanisms and then explains economic-financial crises and their increasingly common features.     

Determinants of International R&D Outsourcing: The Role of Trade

This paper investigates the determinants of international R&D outsourcing, in particular the role of trade. We sketch a monopolistic competition model with heterogeneous firms where outsourcing increases a firm's fixed transaction costs as well as its productivity. Financial constraints affect the decision to outsource R&D more to nonexporters than to exporters. In contrast, exporters are more sensitive to a lack of information because they have higher losses when there is technology leakage. We test these predictions using a panel database of Spanish companies. The results highlight the relevance of information in competitive markets, and the role of trade to induce companies to engage in other globalization strategies.     

PUBLIC CAPITAL, PRODUCTIVE EFFICIENCY AND CONVERGENCE IN THE SPANISH REGIONS (1964–93)

This paper analyses the behaviour of productive efficiency in the Spanish regions for the period 1964–93. From a growth accounting approach, it describes the regional evolution of total factor productivity (TFP'), based on a private inputs production function. A stricter measure of efficiency is then quantified, which is not equivalent to Solow's residual, since public capital is included in the production function and constant returns to scale are not imposed. Finally, on the basis of the measures of total factor productivity and efficiency, the study discusses the existence of technological convergence among Spanish regions and the role played in it by public capital. The renewed interest in the analysis of the process of growth reflected in economic literature in recent years has also occurred in the case of the Spanish economy, with some peculiarities which are worth mentioning. In the 1980s, two important institutional changes took place: a profound political and administrative decentralization, the regions now being autonomous in many decisions on public expenditure, and the incorporation of Spain into the European Community, which as it is well known has a powerful regional policy. Both changes have meant that the analysis of regional economies, and especially their growth paths, have received much more attention from politicians and economists, and even from the population in general. In particular, intense discussion has taken place regarding the effects of development policies and on criteria for geographical distribution of infrastructures. In both cases, much attention has been paid to discussing their capacity to contribute to convergence among the different regions. As a consequence of this greater interest in the analysis of growth from a regional perspective, efforts have also been made to improve the relevant statistical information. In particular, statistical series have been drawn up for investment and accumulated capital stock in each region, both private and public.' This information, only recently available and the first of its kind, as far as we know, in the European regions, substantially broadens the possibilities of research into the Spanish case in this field, where before not even the simplest exercises in growth accounting could be attempted. Further-more, since the series now available allow the time dimension of growth analysis to be combined with the regional dimension, it is possible to work with a panel of data and apply the corresponding techniques. This article analyses the growth of the Spanish economy over the period 1964–93, during which it can be observed that the per capita income levels of the Spanish regions converged. The objective of the study is to evaluate this process of convergence in income from the perspective of the productive efficiency of the regions, in three different ways. First, Section I considers the importance of the contributions of the private factors of production and of improvements in total factor productivity to the growth of output. Secondly, section II studies the existing relationship between the standard measure of efficiency (Solow's residual or TFP') and a stricter measure when the endowments of public capital are considered. Section III analyses whether or not the convergence in per capita income     

Which factors improve the performance of the internationalization process? Focus on family firms

This study aimed to analyse the impact that the financial features and characteristics of the ownership structures of international companies exert on the performance of their internationalization process, as perceived by managers, and attempted to detect differences between family firms (FF) and nonfamily firms (non-FF). In addition, the impact of these characteristics and others related to FF, such as family ownership and generation, on the perceived performance of their internationalization is analysed. Based on a sample of Spanish companies with direct investment in China, the results indicated that, from the managers’ perspective, being an FF and having lower financial leverage exerted a positive effect on the performance of the internationalization process. Moreover, the study proved that this performance was strongly and positively related to the financial results of the company, and this positive effect was even stronger in the case of FF. Finally, the findings also showed that FF with a higher involvement of the family in their ownership recognized a better performance of their internationalization process. These results will be useful for companies that are considering the value of internationalization as a strategy to improve or maintain their financial results, and they also highlight certain differences between FF and non-FF.     

The added worker effect in the Spanish case

This study estimates several equations of labour participation for married women to check if the ‘added worker hypothesis’ is fulfilled in the Spanish case. To test this hypothesis a subsample of married women are used, obtained from the Survey of Structure, Conscience and Biography of Class of the year 1991 (SCBC-91). The main outcome is that women's labour participation in Spain is still conditioned by their husbands' labour status. Specifically, women's labour participation is stimulated when their husbands are unemployed.     

Gender Roles and the Division of Unpaid Work in Spanish Households

Abstract

This paper examines the role of the doing-gender hypothesis versus traditional models of the household in explaining how the woman's share of home labor varies with relative earnings. The findings, using the 2002–3 Spanish Time Use Survey (STUS; Spanish Statistical Office 2003), support the doing-gender hypothesis in the case of housework: a woman's relative share of housework fails to decrease with her relative earnings beyond the point where her earnings are the same as her husband's. In contrast, a woman's share of childcare time displays a flat pattern over the distribution of her spouse's relative earnings. This last result is neither consistent with traditional theories of the household, nor with the doing-gender hypothesis. It can, however, still be interpreted in light of social norms, whereby women specialize in this type of caring activity regardless of their relative productivity or bargaining power.     

产业政策对光伏企业创新绩效的影响研究——基于区域创新体系的调节作用

我国宏观产业政策的持续投入与微观光伏企业难以突破自身核心技术创新瓶颈的矛盾迫切需要理论研究解答。本文选取沪深A股中的41家光伏上市企业作为研究对象,并在梳理了我国政府部门发布的285项光伏产业政策的基础上,以2009—2020年为时间跨度建立面板数据模型实证研究了我国光伏产业政策对企业创新绩效的作用机制,并引入区域创新体系这一异质性因素检验其在影响路径中的调节作用。实证研究表明：我国光伏产业政策对企业的创新绩效有显著的正向影响;同时区域创新体系中的企业创新指标和创新环境指标在上述传导过程中分别具有显著的正向和负向调节效应。     

What keeps long-term U.S. interest rates so low?

U.S. government indebtedness and fiscal deficits increased notably following the Global Financial Crisis. Yet long-term interest rates and U.S. Treasury yields have remained remarkably low. What keeps long-term interest rates so low? This paper relies on a simple model, based on John Maynard Keynes’ view that the central bank's actions are the key drivers of long-term interest rates, to explain the behavior of long-term interest rates in the U.S. The empirical findings confirm that short-term interest rates are the most important determinants of long-term interest rates in the U.S. Contrary to conventional wisdom, higher government indebtedness has a negative effect on long-term interest rates, particularly on a long run basis. However, in the short run, higher government indebtedness has a positive effect on long-term interest rates. These are relevant for contemporary policy debates and macroeconomic theory.     

Formation of the non‐state sector and privatisation in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan

In this paper, we take a detailed look at one Polish bank's experiences with financial sector reforms focusing on a bank-led enterprise-restructuring plan that linked directly bank privatization and recapitalization to bad-debt workouts. Based on personal interviews and original statistical data, we evaluate the performance of Bank Depozytowo-Kredytowy (BDK) in promoting financial and operational restructuring of its clients. We found that BDK continued to provide soft lending to keep four old military‐industrial companies afloat and actually increased its exposure to these companies during the program. The five success stories among BDK's clients were companies that had external agents other than the bank promoting and monitoring their operational restructuring. From our case study of BDK, we conclude that, while banks may play a role in financial restructuring of their clients, their ability to affect operational restructuring is quite limited. Moreover, stateowned banks are particularly vulnerable to incentive problems when dealing with large state-owned enterprises that may be too big or too political to fail.     

Political aspects of household finance: debt,wage bargaining,and macroeconomic (in)stability

The recent literature has shown that income inequality is one of the main causes of borrowing and debt accumulation by working households. This article explores the possibility that household indebtedness is an important cause of rising income inequality. If workers experience rising debt burdens, their cost of job loss may rise if they need labor-market income to continue borrowing and servicing existing debt. This, in turn, will reduce their bargaining power and increase income inequality, inducing workers to borrow more to maintain consumption standards, and so creating a vicious circle of rising inequality, job insecurity, and indebtedness. We believe that these dynamics may have contributed to observed simultaneous increases in income inequality and household debt prior to the recent financial crisis. To explore the two-way interaction between inequality and debt, we develop an employment rent framework that explicitly considers the impact of workers’ indebtedness on their perceived cost of job loss. This is embedded in a neo-Kaleckian macro model in which inequality spurs debt accumulation that contributes to household consumption spending and hence demand formation. Our analysis suggests that (a) workers’ borrowing behavior plays a crucial role in understanding the character of demand and growth regimes; (b) debt and workers’ borrowing behavior play an important role in the labor market by influencing workers’ bargaining power; and (c) through such channels, workers’ borrowing behavior can be a decisive factor in the determination of macroeconomic (in)stability.     

Strategic planning of optimal resource allocation in response to global financial crisis – a study of international tourist hotels

This study is principally designed to examine the changes in the efficiency, effective resource allocation and future operation strategies of Taiwan's international tourist hotel in global economic downturn. At first, we set up critical input and output factors and construct an assessment model using Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) for analysis of relative efficiency. Further, we apply an allocative efficiency model for additional considerations of each input cost and analyse proper and effective resource allocation. Finally, there are significant changes in overall efficiency of international tourist hotels under global financial crisis. We can also reach an effective allocation of the overall resources. In such cases, lowering cost has become a key issue for sustainable operation of international tourist hotel. Finally, the greatest contribution of this study is to further classify the competitiveness and optimal cost allocation of Taiwan's international tourist hotels into seven categories based on the study results and propose strategic planning of future operations for hotel administrators’ reference in making improvements in the future.     

An analysis of innovation in textile companies: An efficiency approach

The elimination of trade contingency measures in 2005 triggered a process of renewal in the textile sector, requiring major investments. The divide between efficiency and innovation has become an issue of major importance for decision-making in the Spanish textile sector. This study provides quantitative data on the efficiency levels of innovative Spanish textile companies. The aim is to identify their distinguishing features and establish a possible pattern to follow. In addition, truncated regression is used to estimate the determinants of efficiency, in order to check the significance of innovation processes for firms.