Financial Structure: Theories and Stylized Facts for Six Eu Countries

The article provides a survey of one of the most important elements of financial structure, namely credit to firms and households, by means of five distinguished theoretical issues. It is complemented by a survey of relevant stylized facts for six European countries. A cross-country comparison across Europe shows that indirect credit markets with banks as the main players are far more important than direct credit markets, and that the most striking difference in financial structure among the countries considered relates to debt maturity.     

Inherited agglomeration effects in hedge fund spawns

This paper studies inherited agglomeration effects, which we define as human capital that managers acquire while working in an industry hub that may be transferred to a spinoff. We test for inherited agglomeration effects in the hedge fund industry and find that hedge fund managers who previously worked in New York and London outperform their peers by about one percent per year. The results are driven by managers who worked in investment management positions previously, and are at least as large as traditional agglomeration effects that arise from being located in an industry hub contemporaneously. The evidence suggests that inherited agglomeration effects are an important, but as yet overlooked, factor influencing the performance of new firms. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

REVERSE DISCRIMINATION AND EFFICIENCY IN EDUCATION*

This article shows that reverse discrimination policies can find a justification purely on efficiency grounds. We study the optimal provision of education when households belong to different groups, differing in the distribution of the potential to benefit from education among individuals, which is private information. The main result is that high‐potential individuals from groups with relatively few high‐potential individuals should receive more education than otherwise identical individuals from groups with a more favorable distribution of these benefits.     

Keynes, Lucas and involuntary unemployment: a reply to Hayes

In this response to Mark Hayes's criticism of his article, ‘Lucason involuntary unemployment’, the author insists on theneed to draw a distinction between labour rationing (a marketoutcome) and unemployment (the activity of job seeking). Economictheory is mainly concerned with the former. Yet the issue ofthe voluntarity versus the involuntarity of unemployment pertainsto unemployment as an activity. Failing to make this distinctioncannot but lead to semantic confusion.     

Computerized electronic temperature control system for thermal efficiency during baking in food research

A more sophisticated temperature control system than the capillary thermostat in conventional electric ovens is necessary for laboratory research on foods. The aim of the study was to develop a computerized temperature control system (CTCS) for conventional electric ovens and to determine whether the CTCS could effect comparable and consistent results in two ovens with regard to oven and product characteristics of baked products. No significant differences were found between the two ovens with regard to average oven temperature, texture and height of products. In most instances there were also no significant differences between the ovens with regard to instrumental colour measurement and moisture loss. The regression results also illustrated the effectiveness of the CTCS, i.e. that an increase in set oven temperature of 1°C has a significant effect on specific oven and product characteristics. The CTCS therefore significantly improved the reproducibility of quality characteristics of baked products. Thus, more consistent and repeatable results can be obtained to improve the reliability of consumer‐driven food research.     

Do universal banks create value? Universal bank affiliation and company performance in Belgium, 1905-1909

We investigate the impact of universal bank relations on the performance and the risk of listed companies in Belgium in the period 1905-1909. Our results are consistent with the view that universal banks are efficient institutions which overcome problems of asymmetric association inevitably associated with external finance. We find that universal bank affiliation was positively linked with market-to-book ratio and return-on-assets. Performance was also positively related to the degree of bank involvement. Universal bank relations were significant and negatively correlated with volatility of return-on-assets. Finally, stock return performance, measured by the Sharpe ratio, was also significantly better for affiliated corporations.     

会计专业毕业生面向有色金属行业就业的探索和实践

有色金属行业是我国国民经济的重要组成部分，直接影响到国家经济的发展和社会的稳定。根据有色金属行业的特点，鼓励和引导优秀毕业生到基层，到祖国需要的地方去，满足有色金属行业对人才的迫切需求，探索一条会计专业毕业生面向有色金属行业就业新途径。     

Estimating a frequency unseen: an application to ornithology

The second author is involved in a capture–mark–recapture study of some wader species. Part of his program deals with resight observations. On a particular day he visually inspects a fairly stable population to identify the ringed birds by reading their ring-number. Some ringed birds will be missed, so observations are repeated on other days. The issue of main interest is whether, after some repetitions, we can be sufficiently sure that all the ringed birds in the population have been identified or, equivalently, that the frequency of unseen birds is zero.
Most current theory is concerned with an asymptotic setting. In our 'exact' context the emphasis is on the determination of the 'probability' that the frequency of unseen birds is zero. This issue is settled by considering the more general problem of 'estimating' the frequency of the unseen birds by providing a predictive inference in the form of a probability distribution. We develop methods of inference based on the assumption of a bird-independent probability p _i of identifying a ringed bird on day i , as well as without this assumption. In Section 5 we critically examine these approaches.     

Measuring Productivity from Vertically Integrated Sectors

There are many ways to measure productivity. The choice will depend on the suitability of each index to the main purpose the researcher has in mind. Whenever we are interested in 'competitiveness', the proper measure will be the inverse of the total labour embodied in one unit of final product; or, what amounts to the same, the labour employed in the vertically integrated sector corresponding to each final good. A weighted mean of these yields an index of aggregate productivity suitable for measuring social welfare. Another index of aggregate productivity (this one related to the profit rate and potential growth) coincides with the inverse of the maximum eigenvalue of the 'socio-technical matrix'. These indices are computed for the Spanish economy and compared with more conventional ones.     

Growth and employment effects of fiscal regimes

This paper presents an endogenous growth model with firms exhibitingexternal or internal increasing returns. Firms are either perfectlyor monopolistically competitive. The paper extends fiscal policyresults, to cases where innovations are intentionally generatedby firms. To provide quantitative information, the model iscalibrated to replicate EU7 aggregate data. The theoreticalresults indicate that distortionary taxes have strong negativeeffects on growth and employment and they tend to increase withthe degree of private returns. However, the quantitative resultsturn out to be fairly robust with respect to alternative assumptionson the degree of internal increasing returns made in the processof calibrating the model.