Internal labour markets in the Australian banking industry: their nature prior to the Second World War and their recent decline

This paper uses evidence from late nineteenth-and early twentieth-century personnel records of two Australian banks to examine the nature of internal labour markets prior to the Second World War. It is argued that the industry possessed all the classic features of internal labour markets: limited ports of entry, internal promotion, long careers, and assignment of wages by well-defined rules. The paper then examines the reasons why banks adopted internal labour markets. Finally, the paper examines the recent decline of internal labour markets and examines the role of technological and social changes in this decline.     

Permanent productivity shocks,migration and the labour wedge: business cycles in South Africa

The findings of this study are as follows. First, permanent productivity shocks play a dominant role in South African business cycles. Second, the migration outflow has a negative effect on permanent productivity shocks. Third, a labour wedge that represents labour market inefficiency is significant in South Africa. Fourth, the labour wedge has a positive effect on the migration outflow. These findings are consistent with the hypothesis that labour market inefficiency in South Africa pushes workers out of the country and permanently influences the country’s labour effectiveness, thereby driving South African business cycles.     

Business groups in China

We investigate whether business groups in China act as internal capital markets, in an environment that is characterized by a high level of government intervention, a weak legal system, and an underdeveloped financial market. We study how institutional factors, such as the ultimate owner and level of market development, shape the role of these business groups. We find that business groups help member firms overcome constraints in raising external capital, and that the internal capital market within a business group is more likely to be an alternative financing channel among state-owned firms than among private firms. We also find that the internal capital market is more likely to help those affiliated firms which are private, local government owned relative to those owned by central government, or located in regions with a well-developed institutional environment. We present evidence of the role of business groups in risk sharing among affiliated firms, but find that business group affiliation has no impact on firm accounting performance. This study sheds new light on the theory of the firm and its boundaries, and provides a better understanding of China's rapidly growing economy.     

Global financial services and a global single currency

The purpose of this paper is to highlight the evolution of financial institutions in the context of increasingly volatile foreign exchange markets. The paper discusses the importance of the formation of a single currency in the US in the 19th century and the formation of the Euro in the 20th century for reducing volatility in foreign exchange markets that have assisted financial institutions’ international business expansion. The paper also considers some of the key assumptions of an optimal currency theorem such as labour mobility and argues that in the 21st century, more comprehensive financial market integration and a single global currency could emerge, provided that capital mobility and hence foreign capital flows continue meeting labour in the host countries for production rather than the other way round.     

Office Capitalization Rates: Real Estate and Capital Market Influences

Focusing on the office capitalization rate, the central objective of this article is to shed light on two sets of issues that have not yet been fully researched. The first involves the importance of local-fixed and time-variant components of the office capitalization rate, and the significance of persistence in its time trends. The second centers on the relative importance of local office markets and the national capital market in shaping the various components of the office capitalization rate. Extensive econometric analysis of capitalization-rate series employed to address these issues highlights the existence of both local fixed and time-variant effects, while indicating differential persistence of time trends across markets. Moreover, such analysis uncovers the pivotal role of specific local office-market traits and the lesser role of national capital-market features in determining office capitalization-rate variations. Such findings on the role of local influences may provide a richer foundation for asset valuation and investment practices.     

The deep-pocket effect of internal capital markets

We provide evidence that incumbent and entrant firms' access to business group deep pockets affects the entry patterns in product markets. Relying on a unique French data set on business groups, our paper shows that entry into manufacturing industries is negatively related to the cash hoarded by incumbent affiliated groups and positively related to entrant groups' cash. In line with theoretical predictions, we find that the impact of group cash holdingson entry is more important in environments where financial constraints are pronounced. The cash holdings of incumbent and entrant groups also affect the survival rate of entrants in the three- to five-year post-entry window. Overall, our findings suggest that internal capital markets operate within corporate groups and affect the product market behavior of affiliated firms by mitigating financial constraints.     

Tax Reform and Employment in Europe

The purpose of this paper is to investigate to what extent modifications of tax systems between 1985 and 1992 within major parts of the European Union contributed to changes in the labour market. The principal countries under investigation are Germany, Italy, France and the United Kingdom, and the method of investigation is the numerical simulation of a multi-country general equilibrium model. Changes in VAT rates and in the personal income tax schedule are investigated. We conclude that a non-trivial part of the labour market changes may be due to reactions of the market to changes in these tax rates.     

The role of market devices in addressing labour exploitation: An analysis of the Australian cleaning industry

This study examines how the risk of labour standards noncompliance can be rendered calculable and commensurable through a market device. We present a case study of the Cleaning Accountability Framework (CAF), an industry certification scheme, which seeks to address labour exploitation in the Australian contract cleaning industry. We pay particular attention to the central device of the certification scheme – the pricing schedule. We examine how the pricing schedule shaped the calculative space informing contracting parties during the procurement process. In doing so, the pricing schedule increased transparency around the potential risk of labour standards noncompliance. The nature of this transparency and the perceived objectivity of the pricing schedule acted to reshape the market for contract cleaning, resulting in a redistribution of accountability for labour exploitation. We also examine how the pricing schedule formed part of a wider framework of accountability, and how these mechanisms enabled strategic co-enforcement of labour standards compliance by supply chain stakeholders. Overall, our study indicates the potential for accounting practices to play a more active role in shaping how markets address modern slavery risks.     

Aspekte internationaler Durchdringung des Seeversicherungsgeschäftes im 20. Jahrhundert

The business of marine insurance is characteristically international in scope, with many transactions across national borders, and it is only lightly regulated in a free market. Apparently there is no need to cast doubt on the general importance of foreign business, neither for single competitors in this branch nor for the world-wide market of marine insurance as a whole. Keeping a closer focus on recent history of individual marine insurance markets reveals that selected countries will show an individual character referring to international competition: host market characteristics affect the international marine insurers participation in foreign markets in different ways.     

Medical Labour Supply and the Production of Healthcare

Medical labour markets are important because of their size and the importance of medical labour in the production of healthcare and in subsequent patient outcomes. We present a summary of important trends in the UK medical labour market, and we review the latest research on factors that determine medical labour supply and the impact of labour on patient outcomes. The topics examined include: the responsiveness of labour supply to changes in wages, regulation and other incentives; factors that determine the wide variation in physician practice and style; and the effect of teams and management quality on patient outcomes. This literature reveals that while labour supply is relatively unresponsive to changes in wages, medical personnel do react strongly to other incentives, even in the short run. This is likely to have consequences for the quality of care provided to patients. We set out a series of unanswered questions in the UK setting, including: the importance of non‐financial incentives in recruiting and retaining medical staff; how individuals can be incentivised to work in particular specialties and regions; and how medical teams can be best organised to improve care.     

The determination and international transmission of stock market volatility

This paper extends the literature on low-frequency analysis of the causes and transmission of stock market volatility. It uses end-monthly data on stock market returns, interest rates, exchange rates, inflation, and industrial production for five countries (Britain, France, Germany, Japan, and the US) from July 1973 to December 1994. Efficient portfolios of world, European, and Japanese/US equity are first constructed, the existence of multivariate cointegrating relationships between them is demonstrated, and the transmission of conditional volatility between them is described. The transmission of conditional volatility from world equity markets and national business cycle variables to national stock markets is then modeled. Among the main findings are: first, world equity market volatility is caused mostly by volatility in Japanese/US markets and transmitted to European markets, and second, changes in the volatility of inflation are associated with changes of the opposite sign in stock market volatility in all markets where a significant effect is found to exist. To the extent that the volatility of inflation is positively related to its level, this implies that low inflation tends to be associated with high stock market volatility.     

International harmonization of reporting required by stock markets

The 1980s witnessed a significant expansion of financial markets and, more specifically, of stock markets, at a world level. The differences which exist in the economic-accounting environment in which companies operate (legal structure, market development, national policy objectives, cultural factors) result in different procedures when shares are offered to the market, different reporting requirements required by the stock markets, etc. These differences reduce the efficiency of stock markets within an international environment. The importance of this fact has motivated the preparation of this paper, the aim of which is to analyze and quantify, where appropriate, the divergences which exist between the reporting requirements demanded by the stock markets of different countries and the home companies which wish to be quoted on them.     

The Impact of Business Groups on Investment Efficiency: Does Capital Allocation Matter?

Using data on internal capital markets in China, this paper examines the influence of internal capital markets on investment efficiency in business groups. The empirical results show that using internal capital markets can alleviate over invests within business groups. In addition, it can alleviate deficiencies in R&D investment in business groups effectively. The impact of internal capital markets on investment efficiency varies between state-owned enterprises and private enterprises. At private enterprises, internal capital market operations significantly alleviate overinvestment and promote R&D investment. However, at state-owned enterprises, internal capital market operations increase overinvestment and reduce investment in R&D.     

Profitability in Banks Affiliated to a Business Group: Evidence from Mexico

In certain institutional contexts, where there are business groups, banks affiliated to these business networks are faced by incentives that might condition their profitability. The objective of this article is to test whether there is a difference between the performance of affiliated banks and that of banks not affiliated to groups, in the context of an emerging market. In particular, a study is made of the case of Mexico in the period 2007–11. Findings suggest that banks affiliated to business groups show less profitability than non-affiliated banks, which may be a consequence of the provision of loans in an internal capital market.     

Debt Financing and Earnings Management: An Internal Capital Market Perspective

This paper investigates the role internal capital markets play in mitigating earnings management of group firms. We predict that the funding advantages of internal capital markets from business affiliates obscure solvency problems resulting from higher leverage for individual firms within a group, which in turn mitigates their incentives for earnings management. Using Taiwanese firms as a sample, we provide evidence that is consistent with such a prediction. In particular, we show that higher group profitability reduces its member firms’ sensitivity of earnings management to debt levels. Among business groups, earnings management in pyramidal groups is less sensitive to debt levels. We also find that the debt‐abnormal accrual curve becomes smoother as group profitability increases when considering the non‐monotonic relationship between firm leverage and earnings management.     

Intra- and inter-regional spillovers between emerging capital markets around the world

In this paper, returns and volatility spillovers between emerging capital markets of Central and Eastern Europe, Latin America, and South-East Asia are investigated. We distinguish between spillovers from countries located in one region (intra-regional) and in different regions (inter-regional) after controlling for shocks originating at home and on the global market. Both intra- and inter-regional spillovers are significant, with the former being more pronounced than the latter. Our findings indicate that linkages between emerging markets are not solely due to their common dependence on the global capital market and highlight the importance of common factors in intra-regional interdependencies.     

Home equity,mobility, and macroeconomic fluctuations

How does a fall in house prices affect real activity? This paper presents a tractable business cycle model in which a decline in house prices reduces geographical mobility, creating distortions in the labor market. This happens because homeowners face declines in their home equity levels, which makes it more difficult to provide the downpayment required for a new mortgage loan. Therefore, unemployed homeowners more often turn down job offers that would require them to move. The model can account for joint cyclical patterns in housing and labor market aggregates, and predicts a breakdown of the Beveridge curve in 2009. Counterfactual experiments are used to quantify the macroeconomic importance of the mobility channel during the Great Recession.     

The Housing Market in the United Kingdom: Effects of House Price Volatility on Households

This paper describes the economics of the housing market and explains why house prices are likely to be more volatile than prices in other markets. It illustrates the volatility of house prices relative to some other key economic variables in the UK. The paper then considers the implications of variability in house prices for household behaviour, surveying a number of studies for the UK and elsewhere on the effects of house price volatility on consumption spending, indebtedness, labour supply, and entry to and exit from the homeownership market.     

Competitiveness and the convergence of international business practice: North American evidence after NAFTA

One of the economic implications of globalization is increased competition. As competition in product markets increases, inefficient strategies are eliminated and successful practices are imitated by competitors. A source of globalization pressure is the reduction of trade barriers that previously protected some domestic sectors. In addition, globalization has also coincided with investors becoming more aware of foreign investment opportunities that directly compete with domestic demands for capital used in production. The increased global competition in both product and financial markets thus has the effect of defining “good” business practices as those that survive and prosper in the global economy. In this study, the hypothesis of a trend toward commonality of business practices is tested. As international competition in both product and financial markets increases, business practices should converge in the sense that acceptable deviations from the (unobservable) optimum decrease. Empirically, operating ratios, such as total asset turnover and inventory turnover, profitability ratios, such as return on equity (ROE), and growth to 1995 period, evidence of convergence in real asset management, is presented. In addition, there is no difference in profitability by country that supports capital market integration. This result suggests that (1) the North American Free Trade Agreement has economic substance and (2) gains to corporate international diversification within North America are decreasing.     

Returns,Volatilities, and Correlations Across Mature,Regional, and Frontier Markets: Evidence from South Asia

We investigate returns, volatilities, and correlations across mature, dominant regional, and frontier equity markets. Standard & Poor's 500 is chosen as a mature equity market; India is chosen as a dominant regional market; and Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka are chosen as frontier markets. Our empirical tests show that the frontier markets remain fundamentally decoupled from the mature markets during normal market periods. During turbulent times, the contagion effects from the mature to the frontier markets become more pronounced. The results suggest that the dominant regional market plays a key role in disseminating shocks across the frontier markets during normal periods; during the turbulent recent financial crisis period, a similar contagion is not observed.