Politics of the development of small and medium‐sized firms in Japan

Since the 1980s, small and medium sized firms in Japan have adjusted themselves remarkably to the market changes of the post‐Fordism industry, and have significantly contributed to the country's economy. This paper emphasizes the interaction of the state and local producers in building a social environment for nurturing the development of small and medium‐sized firms in Japan. An important role assumed by the state is the creation of local firm‐supporting institutions which have been the foundation of constructing regional industrial system. These local institutions were effectively utilized by the local producers of small and medium sized firms. In this process, central political power and local economic power fused in organizing ‘production’ in a new way of horizontal collaboration.     

Foreign Investment and the Global Geography of Production: Why the Mexican Consumer Electronics Industry Failed

Explanations of industrial development in late-developing countries have become narrowly focused on the capability of governments to promote, pressure, or punish nationally-owned firms. Often overlooked is the contribution of firms, both national and multinational, in propelling, coordinating, and determining the path and location of such development. This paper examines the conditions that led to the decline of Mexico's consumer electronics industry and presents new evidence to support a more complex account of the role of both industrial and state actors within this process.In contrast to the traditional market- or state-based theories, we argue that the decline of Mexico's consumer electronics industry largely resulted from its foreign investment regime, particularly the timing of investment and the geographical locations of local and foreign manufacturers, and the subsequent depth and quality of the relationships between these firms. The differences between Mexico's regime and that of Taiwan during the same period provide further evidence of the important role that foreign firms play in inserting local suppliers into the global production chain. We argue that Mexico's foreign investment regime and the resulting weak local-foreign ties, rather than inadequate state policy, sealed the fate of Mexico's once thriving domestic electronics industry.     

An Analysis of the Economic Consequences of the Proportionate Liability Rule*

Major accounting firms in the United States have singled out elimination of joint and several liability as one of the most needed legal reforms in the country. The recent legislation of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 replaced joint and several liability with proportionate liability. This paper develops a simple model to analyze the economic consequences of such a change in the legal environment facing public accountants. In particular, we examine the incentive effects induced by the proportionate liability rule on the auditor's effort and financial statement users' litigation decisions. Our analysis demonstrates that replacing joint and several liability with proportionate liability can decrease the equilibrium audit effort, lawsuit probability, market price of the firm, and audit fee. More important, even though the proportionate liability rule reduces the equilibrium audit effort, we show that it can actually increase social welfare.     

Can China's Diplomatic Partnership Strategy Benefit Outward Foreign Direct Investment?

In the context of global integration, whether a diplomatic partnership strategy can promote outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) and how it works are very important issues for China. Based on a dataset featuring China's partnerships collected from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs website, we establish an empirical framework to assess the role of China's diplomatic strategy in its OFDI arising from partnerships since 1993. The results show that the establishment or upgrade of partnerships has had a positive effect on Chinese firms’ decisions on OFDI for at least the short term, especially for firms with higher demand for policy guarantees from the government, such as non‐central firms and non‐Beijing firms. The results also show that the increase in OFDI is concentrated in host countries with higher political risks, such as developing countries, neighboring countries, and Belt and Road countries, which is consistent with China's diplomatic focus. Our research proves that China's diplomatic strategy can assist firms to invest abroad.     

Do political connections affect corporate poverty alleviation decisions? Evidence from China

Programs to alleviate poverty by corporations are increasingly popular as a new form of corporate social responsibility. This study examines how the political connections of a firm's chairperson are associated with decisions to alleviate poverty based on a sample of listed Chinese firms from 2016 to 2018. We find that the chairperson's political connections increase the probability of participation and the amount of investment in programs to alleviate poverty. This positive relationship is mainly manifested in firms with high agency costs and low regional economic conditions. In addition, the chairperson's political connections are not related to the efficiency of the poverty alleviation program. Politically connected firms receive less government recognition with an increase in investment in poverty alleviation. Our findings are consistent with the notion that firms participate in poverty alleviation programs for reciprocal favor exchanges, but they fail to manage these programs efficiently.     

Market Performance Implications of the Transfer Price Rule

The “transfer price rule” (TPR) defines a vertical price squeeze as an input price, output price combination set by a vertically‐integrated firm monopoly producer of an essential input that would not allow the firm's downstream unit to earn at least a normal rate of return on investment in the “as‐if” case that it had to purchase the input at the price charged independent firms. In its 2009 linkLine decision, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected the TPR for the purpose of enforcing the anti‐monopolization prohibition of Section 2 of the Sherman Act. In contrast, a vertical price squeeze, defined by a TPR‐like standard, is an abuse of a dominant position under Article 102 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union. In this article, we model the impact of the TPR on market performance. We find that the TPR increases consumer surplus and net social welfare if all firms remain active in the downstream market. It sometimes induces the upstream firm to refuse to supply the downstream firm, and in such cases, consumer surplus and net social welfare are reduced. The impact of the TPR on market performance thus depends on whether or not an upstream firm can refuse to supply downstream firms on terms that would offer it at least a normal rate of return on investment.     

Capital or knowhow: The role of foreign multinationals in Sino-foreign joint ventures

China's success in attracting foreign direct investment has been cast in doubt as mainly a transfer of capital, not knowhow, because its financial system is incapable of allocating domestic savings and hard-earned foreign reserves to domestic enterprises. To shed light on this debate, we examine the determinants of equity sharing in Sino-foreign joint ventures with the premise that the roles of foreign direct investment (in transferring capital or knowhow) should be reflected in equity sharing between multinational firms and local firms. Our empirical analysis offers strong evidence for foreign direct investment as a transfer of knowhow, but limited support for foreign direct investment as a transfer of capital, which points to the need for further reform in China's financial system.     

Foreign direct investment and innovation in China's e-commerce sector

By comparing the business practices and performance of foreign-invested and local Internet companies in China, this article outlines the important factors that multinational corporations must address to gain competitive advantages in China's e-commerce sector. Specifically, this research compares EachNet (eBay) with Taobao in the consumer-to-consumer market; eLong (Expedia) with Ctrip and Joyo (Amazon) with Dangdang in the business-to-consumer market; and the online search engines Google China and Baidu. The author underscores the importance of local knowledge for firm performance and success. Foreign firms must improve their understanding of and ability to adapt to local cultural, social, economic, and political environments.     

Picking ‘winners' in China: Do subsidies matter for indigenous innovation and firm productivity?

This paper examines the effects of public subsidies across several dimensions of the innovation process and the implications for productivity. As an identification strategy, panel data is used to estimate a structural innovation model that controls for unobserved heterogeneity combined with matching techniques that help ensure comparability between subsidized and non-subsidized firms. The findings reveal that public subsidies reduce firms' economic performance in lower and higher technology industries despite promoting indigenous innovation in the higher technology industries. Policymakers may tolerate lower average efficiency if they expect that some of the state-backed firms will eventually become successful innovators that go on to generate significantly large social welfare payoffs. Although the findings do not support such an expectation, thus bringing into question whether the social payoff from China's so-called picking ‘winners' strategy justifies the cost.     

What explains Chinese private entrepreneurs' charitable behaviors?—A story of dynamic reciprocal relationship between firms and the government

This paper studies Chinese private entrepreneurs' charitable behaviors by exploring the dynamic reciprocal relationship between private firms and local governments. By using three waves of a nationwide survey of private firms in 2002, 2004 and 2006 from China, we provide robust evidence that Chinese private entrepreneurs with access to preferential loans from state-owned banks when their businesses first started are more likely to participate in donation and anti-poverty programs organized by the government, and the effects of such loans are more pronounced for small firms and firms in regulated industries. Furthermore, we find that this reciprocal relationship between local governments and private entrepreneurs is a personal relationship rather than an institutional relationship, which declines in importance in areas with better legal institutions and in regions with change of local leadership. Finally, there is evidence that Chinese private entrepreneurs' charitable behaviors are also motivated by political returns and other individual characteristics.     

CAN INDONESIA DECENTRALISE SUCCESSFULLY? PLANS,PROBLEMS AND PROSPECTS

Indonesia is engaged in an unprecedented social and economic experiment. Responsibility for much government expenditure is being decentralised, largely to local (district) rather than to provincial governments. If this process is successful, the world's most centralised large country could become one of its most decentralised. This paper considers the issues arising as preparations for decentralisation are finalised, and as the socialisation of its plans and practices is considered by the central government, the People's Representative Council, the decentralised units of government, and the public. These issues were identified partly through interviews with local government officials. They include policy and administrative matters yet to be resolved, such as local budgeting, financial management and auditing practices, personnel decentralisation, local taxation, borrowing by local governments, and the match between revenues and expenditures. A major theme is the importance of a continuing national and local discussion on the goals and processes of decentralisation.     

The Effect of Limited Liability on the Informativeness of Earnings: Evidence from the Stock and Bond Markets*

Previous empirical research on the informativeness of earnings has focused on stockholders, and has not examined differences in earnings' informativeness for stockholders and bondholders. Because stockholders are residual claimants and bondholders are fixed claimants, the informativeness of earnings should differ for these two types of investors. When a firm's default risk is low, changes in its financial condition should be of limited relevance to bondholders, but should be relevant to stockholders. In contrast, as the likelihood of financial distress increases, stockholders' limited liability allows them to abandon the firm to the bondholders (Fischer and Verrecchia 1997). Accordingly, as a firm's default risk increases, changes in its financial condition should be increasingly important to bondholders and less important to shareholders. Because earnings provide information on firm value, the stock return-earnings association should decrease as the firm's financial strength declines, while the bond return-earnings association should increase. We use two measures of a firm's financial strength: the firm's bond rating and its reporting of a loss. Consistent with our hypotheses, we find that the association between stock returns and changes in annual earnings decreases as bond ratings decline, while the association between bond returns and changes in annual earnings increases. These results suggest that as the company's financial condition deteriorates, earnings become less relevant for stock valuation and more relevant for bond valuation. When we partition firms based on their loss status, we find a stronger association between stock returns and annual earnings changes for firms with positive earnings (profit firms) than for firms with losses, consistent with earlier studies. In contrast, we find that the association between bond returns and earnings changes is greater for loss firms than for profit firms. These results suggest that losses reduce the informativeness of earnings for stockholders but increase informativeness for bondholders, suggesting that investors view losses as indicating increased credit risk.     

Does global value chain participation improve firm productivity? A study of selected ASEAN developing countries

This paper examines the impact of local firms’ participation in global value chains (GVCs) on productivity by considering three different patterns of GVC participation. We conducted a DID-PSM estimation involving three countries, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Vietnam, and 17 manufacturing sectors in 2009 and 2015 in a panel framework. We found an endogenous relationship between firm productivity and GVC participation: firms that enter GVCs have high productivity before participating in the GVCs (selection effect), and only Indonesian firms that entered GVCs had high productivity growth after joining GVCs (learning effect). These two effects were only found for firms that both import intermediate goods and export output and not for firms that only either import or export. We also found that indirect exporting does not improve a local firm's productivity. Several recommendations are made to help firms and governments facilitate the participation of firms in GVCs.     

Green policy and corporate social responsibility: Empirical analysis of the Green Credit Guidelines in China

In the past four decades, several countries have imposed environmental regulations to enforce green policy and corporate reduction of industrial emissions and waste. Unlike other environmental regulations, China's Green Credit Guidelines internalize firms' environmental risks into a loan channel; firms with high environmental credit risks encounter high barriers to obtaining loans. To investigate whether, and to what extent, this approach promotes corporate social responsibility, we introduce a Modified Environmental, Social, Governance (MESG) index that uses disaggregated firm-level data to measure the level of engagement in corporate social responsibility. We find that, after the promulgation of the Green Credit Guidelines, there was a significant increase in social responsibility in firms restricted by the Guidelines relative to firms not restricted by the Guidelines.     

Does Foreign Direct Investment Affect the Growth of Local Firms？ The Case of China＇s Electrical and Electronics Industry

Does foreign direct investment(FDI) into developing countries affect the growth of local firms in host countries? Using a dataset of 38 sectors in China’s electrical and electronics industry,in this paper,we analyze whether FDI has a positive effect on local firms,with technology spillovers,added value and increasing total factor productivity,or a negative, market stealing,effect.Estimating the relationship between growth of local firms and investment of foreign firms,our results show that FDI is likely to have a negative impact on the growth of local firms in sectors with large disparities in technology and less experience in business.Therefore,local firms lacking in technology need to find markets with no competition from foreign firms or determine strategies to compensate technology disparities.     

Institutions and participation in global value chains: Evidence from belt and road initiative

The “One Belt and One Road” (OBOR) initiative proposed by China aims to promote highly efficient resource allocation, deep regional integration, and extension of global value chains (GVCs). The main challenges faced by OBOR include large variations in regional institutions and a high degree of political instability among OBOR countries. This paper examines the linkage between regional institutions and GVC participation. First, we show that OBOR countries have much weaker institutions and less GVC participation than non-OBOR countries. Second, we find that institutions play important roles in GVC participation in both OBOR and non-OBOR countries. Improved regulatory quality, political stability, government effectiveness, and rule of law can significantly promote GVC participation in institutionally sensitive industries. Finally, a firm-level analysis that is based on the World Bank's Enterprise Survey Data indicates that better quality local institutions encourage firms to participate in GVCs.     

Investment incentives and the relative demand for skilled labor: Evidence from accelerated depreciation policies in China

This study evaluates the effects of China's 2014 and 2015 accelerated depreciation policies on the relative demand of firms for skilled labor. We develop a simple model to explore how the policies affect the relative demand of firms for skilled labor and illustrate the roles of financing constraints and tax compliance in mediating the policy effects. We then employ a firm-level dataset from China's A-share listed companies and use a quasi-experimental design to examine the model predictions. We find that the policies significantly increase the relative demand of firms for skilled labor. The channels underlying the policy effects are that the policies generate additional cash flow for firms, stimulate investment and, thus, raise the demand of firms for skilled labor with the presence of capital–skill complementarity. We also find that the positive effects of the policies on the relative demand for skilled labor are primarily significant for firms with strong financing constraints and high tax compliance. Moreover, we document the positive effects of the policies on R&D investment, firm value added, productivity, workers' benefits, and corporate social responsibility performance, which further corroborate our main results.     

Local economies and business networks re-visited. A case study of business and professional services in London

This article describes networks among business and professional services (BPS) firms in London, and deals with the relationship between the businesses interviewed and their locality. The article is based on empirical material derived from a large number of interviews with BPS firms in central London. It is noted that lateral links between firms are poor, relationships are better characterised as competitive rather than co-operative, and businesses tend to take little interest in the various support agencies. Although all the businesses interviewed placed great emphasis on the development of close, co-operative relationships with clients, markets are geographically diffuse. However, despite the weakness of localised, inter-firm links, businesses were able to identify a number of valuable and distinctive assets attached to their current location, which implies that the “local economy” continues to be important. The article finishes briefly with some implications for local economies and appropriate methods of business support.     

Bertrand Price Competition in a Social Environment

We analyze the dynamic behaviour of firms that locally interact through price competition in a social environment in an evolutionary game-theoretic model. These firms update their prices according to the behavioural rule Win Cooperate, Lose Defect (WCLD), which is often observed in experimental economics. It can be regarded as a generalized Tit-for-Tat strategy. The model can explain the simultaneous emergence of collusive behaviour, price dispersion and occasional local price wars. Price wars only last for a short period of time after which the firms start to collude again.     

Local political corruption and M&As

We examine the relation between local political corruption and firms' cross-province M&As using provincial-level data on corruption in China. The results show that firms in more corrupt regions are less likely to engage in cross-province M&As. Further analyses reveal that the effects of local corruption on the probability of cross-province M&As are stronger when corrupt officers have greater impeding benefits or lower impeding costs. Meanwhile, Both ex-ante intervention and ex-post punishment are important channels through which corrupt officers hinder firms' cross-province M&As. Moreover, informal institutions, such as social capital and informal networks can help to alleviate the negative impact of political corruption on firms' cross-province M&As.Our findings show that in the context of highly government intervention, cross-province M&As not only cannot be an effective channel to shield from expropriation, but are themselves highly distorted and lead to significant economic efficiency losses.