Industry co-movement and cross-listing: Do home country factors matter?

This paper investigates the co-movement of American depositary receipts (ADRs) and the industry returns of home and U.S. markets with a focus on industry co-movement by applying time-varying and constant copulas model specifications. We also examine the impacts of country-specific factors on the industry co-movement in cross-listing issue. Co-movements are found in relation to the industry returns and economic asymmetry. The industry co-movement of ADR is higher with home country than that with the U.S., supporting the fundamental view. The results pertaining to the ADR-home pairs are as follows: (1) during economic recessions, the factors of influencing industry co-movement include import and the number of listed companies; (2) in contrast, during economic booms, industry co-movement is significantly influenced by energy import, export, import, the number of listed companies, and high-tech export. The factors that impact the industry co-movement of ADR-US contain foreign direct investment, reserve, cash surplus, energy import, and the number of listed companies.     

Further evidence on the international business cycle and the ERM: is there a European business cycle?

Successful exchange rate regimes impose policy disciplines thatare likely to lead to conformity in the business cycles of theparticipating countries. This conjecture is borne out in thepaper by the evidence in it that the business cycle affiliationof ERM member countries has shifted from the United States toGermany since the formation of the ERM. This effect is bolsteredby the growing links in trade between the EU countries. TheUnited Kingdom is conspicuous among the latter in that its businesscycle affiliation did not change in the period covered by thestudy.     

Exports,imports and growth: New evidence on Italy: 1863–2004

The nexus between trade and economic growth in Italy has been widely debated by historiography. However, there are no long run analyses on this topic that cover the whole span from Unification to present days. This paper contributes to fill this gap by investigating the relationship between real exports, imports and GDP in Italy from 1863 to 2004 by using cointegration analysis and causality tests. The outcome suggests that these variables comove in the long run but the direction of causality varies across time. In the period prior to the First World War import growth led GDP growth that in turn led export growth. Conversely, in the post-Second World War period we have a strong bidirectionality between imports and exports consequent on the increase in intra-industry trade. We also find a weak support for export-led growth and growth-led imports. This suggests that exports were not the only or the main driver of economic growth. There was probably a multiplicity of factors at work, among which high rates of capital formation and the expansion of internal demand probably stood out.     

The relationship between revenue diversification and bank performance: Do financial structures and financial reforms matter?

This paper contributes to the existing literature by investigating the impact of revenue diversification on bank performance through a broad array of financial reforms, including credit controls, interest rate controls, entry barriers, banking supervision, privatization, and financial account restrictions. This analysis is the first to investigate whether financial structures (bank- or market-based systems) change the effect of diversification on individual bank performance. We use a panel dataset sample from 29 Asia-Pacific countries covering the period between 1995 and 2009, for a total of 2372 banks. Unlike the results of previous studies based on data from the U.S. and Europe, this study confirms the hypothesis of the portfolio diversification effect for the Asia-Pacific banking industry. For bank-based groups, bank performance can be improved through diversification, supporting the “bank-based view” hypothesis. Finally, under different financial systems, the relationships among revenue diversity, financial reforms, and bank performances are multidimensional.     

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.     

The nexus of finance and GDP growth in Japan: Do real interest rates matter?

This study empirically investigates whether real interest rates are associated with a stronger or weaker finance–growth relationship in the Japanese economy, where the relationships between banks and firms are characterized by main bank relationships and keirestu as well as a government implemented low interest rate policies since the early 1990s. Several econometric models are used to obtain empirical robustness. This study confirms the substantial effects of real interest rates on finance–growth relationships in Japan. In the regime with higher (lower) real interest rates, the banking system has significantly positive (adverse) effects on output growth. Empirical evidence exists that a low interest rate policy is an important hindrance to the ability of the banking system to impact economic growth in Japan.     

Effects of financial reform on business entry in sub‐Saharan African countries: Do resource dependence and institutional quality matter?

This paper examined the effects of the financial liberalization strategy adopted on the African continent over 25 years ago in promoting new business entry using data from 22 sub‐Saharan African (SSA) countries in 2006–2017. Results from the dynamic generalized method of moments models show that: financial development via a policy of financial liberalization does not have a uniform effect on entrepreneurship; the interest rate gap significantly undermines the entrance of new firms; the ratio of broad money/gross domestic product (GDP) was positive and statistically significant while real interest rate had mixed findings; interactive effects of interest rate spread and real interest rate with regulatory quality was negative; the interaction of interest rate spread and real interest rate with natural resources confirms its destabilizing effect, although there was evidence suggesting that natural resources do not directly undermine entrepreneurship growth. Other results show real GDP and private credit have a significantly positive effect, and the cost of getting electricity significantly undermines entrepreneurship. The study calls for the need to deepen the financial sector though targeted reforms across SSA countries to reap its growth‐inducing effects on economic outcomes, while promoting institutional quality and efficient use of natural resources to achieve a non‐declining infusion of SMEs on the continent.     

The impact of tariff reductions on firm dynamics and productivity in China: Does market-oriented transition matter?

This paper investigates the impact of trade liberalization on firm dynamics and productivity in the context of dramatic tariff reductions after China's accession to the WTO, and how this impact varies across regions with different marketization levels. Our results show that (a) on average, output tariff reductions tend to reduce firm entry rate and increase firm exit rate, while input tariff reductions help to increase both firm entry rate and exit rate, furthermore, regional marketization strengthens the impact of trade liberalization on firm dynamics; (b) trade liberalization exerts greater impact on the likelihood of exit for the least productive firms while it tends to reduce the probability of exit for the more productive firms, with regional marketization strengthening such a reallocation process of trade liberalization; (c) firm dynamics effect contributes approximately 43% of the growth of productivity, and it (especially the firm exit effect) is an important channel through which trade liberalization fosters productivity growth, and domestic market reform is found to strengthen such an impact.     

R&D subsidy,intellectual property rights protection,and North–South trade: How good is the TRIPS agreement?

This paper investigates the competition in technology and production between a firm in the North (developed country) and a firm in the South (developing country), and how such competition may be affected by the North’s subsidy on technology improvement and the South’s intellectual property rights (IPR) protection level. It is argued that allowing the North to choose the policy first could bring Pareto improvement. This paper also shows that requiring only the South to tighten its IPR protection (as required by the TRIPS agreement) without putting similar pressure on the North to provide more R&D hurts the South. A more rewarding outcome exists if both the IPR protection level and the technology subsidy rate are chosen optimally. We point out that maximizing world welfare does not consequently hurt the South, or require a tightening of IPR protection in the South.     

A Note on the Labor Market Effects of Remittances in Latin American and Caribbean Countries: Do Thresholds Exist?

The labor market effects of remittances have long been examined in the empirical literature. To date, the results have been mixed: some authors observe a negative association between remittances and unemployment while others report that remittances increase unemployment. This study empirically examines the impact of remittances on unemployment using macroeconomic data for a sample of 18 Latin American and Caribbean countries. Specifically, the study tests whether there is a nonlinear relationship between the variables. Results suggest that when the remittance‐to‐GDP ratio is low, remittances have a positive and significant impact on unemployment. However, as they increase, remittances are negatively associated with unemployment. This suggests the possibility that estimations based on the assumption of a linear relationship between remittances and labor may mask the true relationship between the variables.     

Do the Chinese “Keep up with the Jones”?: Implications of peer effects,growing economic disparities and relative deprivation on health outcomes among older adults in China

What are the health effects of unequal economic growth? What are the health consequences of ‘keeping up with the Jones’? Many developed countries (e.g., US and Japan) have experienced significant income growth between 1950s and 2000s but population survey shows that on average the population is not growing more satisfied with life. Theories that attempt to respond to these findings hypothesize that as income grows, people may spend more on conspicuous consumption because they compare themselves with others in their peer groups and care about their position in socio-economic distributions relative to others. Indeed, public health studies have found a relationship between income inequality and adult health outcomes in developed countries. Specifically, there seems to be a correlation between social hierarchy and mortality, as well as a correlation between social hierarchy and morbidity.China is a prime study site due to its growing spatial inequalities in the past decade. Though China has been committed to economic reform, different regions and cities have encountered very disparate rates of development and growth. In this paper, we utilize a set of panel data collected in China (China Health and Nutrition Survey 1989–2004) to examine the effects of peer groups, relative deprivation, and income disparities on individual health outcomes such as the probability of high waist circumference, body mass index categories, probability of hypertension, nutritional intake as well as health behavior such as smoking. We use a combination of multi-level mixed effects modeling as well as factor analysis to examine these effects and find significant and differential effects of income quartiles, peer groups, relative deprivation, and Gini coefficient on health.