The Impact of Corporate Governance and Audit Quality on the Cost of Private Loans*

The objective of this paper is to examine whether banks discriminate between firms on the basis of their financial condition when assessing the credit default risk, and to what extent corporate governance and auditor quality mitigate such risks in the pricing of new bank loans. The results indicate that, depending on the probability of bankruptcy, banks rely on different monitoring devices. For firms with a low probability of bankruptcy, banks do not rely on the quality of corporate governance or the auditor's industry specialization. However, auditor tenure and a change in auditor affect the spread. For firms with a high probability of bankruptcy, the spread is adjusted for the quality of corporate governance and the auditor's specialization. These results are robust to alternative specifications and measures.     

MODEL UNCERTAINTY AND SCENARIO AGGREGATION

This paper provides a coherent method for scenario aggregation addressing model uncertainty. It is based on divergence minimization from a reference probability measure subject to scenario constraints. An example from regulatory practice motivates the definition of five fundamental criteria that serve as a basis for our method. Standard risk measures, such as value‐at‐risk and expected shortfall, are shown to be robust with respect to minimum divergence scenario aggregation. Various examples illustrate the tractability of our method.     

Teamwork in factories within the French automobile industry

This article analyses teamwork in French car manufacturing plants and those of their suppliers. During the 1990s, the introduction of 'autonomous production units' was aimed at reducing costs, increasing quality and shortening delivery deadlines. Teamwork in a unit involved delegating responsibilities to workers and led to an increased workload.     

Revealing different understandings of soil held by scientists and farmers in the context of soil protection and management

This paper aims to analyse and draw together results from similar studies in England, Switzerland and France which investigated farmers’ understanding of soil and compared it with that of scientists, researchers and advisors (collectively called scientists in this analysis). A range of methods were used across the three studies and different theoretical approaches, looking at forms of knowledge, local practice of knowledge production and conceptions of reality, were employed to explain the results. Despite the different contexts, methodologies and theoretical approaches in the three studies, the results reveal similar patterns of difference in farmer and scientist understanding of soil. In the English study, farmers demonstrate a ‘know-how’ form or intuitive working knowledge of soil while advisors rely on scientifically established forms of ‘know-why’ and seek to understand and explain soil processes. Similarly in the Swiss study farmers’ and scientists’ differing perceptions are directed and shaped by their respective aims, methods and context of work. In the French study, farmers and researchers are shown to have different conceptions of soil, they attribute different meaning to the same activities, and use different words and language to describe the same features. In all three studies understanding is shown to be cultural and contextual, as such an integrative theoretical framework is proposed.     

Optimal make–take fees for market making regulation

We address the mechanism design problem of an exchange setting suitable make– take fees to attract liquidity on its platform. Using a principal–agent approach, we provide the optimal compensation scheme of a market maker in quasi‐explicit form. This contract depends essentially on the market maker inventory trajectory and on the volatility of the asset. We also provide the optimal quotes that should be displayed by the market maker. The simplicity of our formulas allows us to analyze in details the effects of optimal contracting with an exchange, compared to a situation without contract. We show in particular that it improves liquidity and reduces trading costs for investors. We extend our study to an oligopoly of symmetric exchanges and we study the impact of such common agency policy on the system.     

Towards New Fiscal Rules in the Euro Area?

Intereconomics - Faced with the impossibility of reaching a political agreement to review the fiscal treaties, the Commission could limit itself to applying the current rules with flexibility,...     

On a risk model with dependence between interclaim arrivals and claim sizes

We consider an extension to the classical compound Poisson risk model for which the increments of the aggregate claim amount process are independent. In Albrecher and Teugels (2006 Albrecher, H. and Teugels, J. 2006. Exponential behavior in the presence of dependence in risk theory. Journal of Applied Probability, 43(1): 257–273. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]), an arbitrary dependence structure among the interclaim time and the subsequent claim size expressed through a copula is considered and they derived asymptotic results for both the finite and infinite-time ruin probabilities. In this paper, we consider a particular dependence structure among the interclaim time and the subsequent claim size and we derive the defective renewal equation satisfied by the expected discounted penalty function. Based on the compound geometric tail representation of the Laplace transform of the time to ruin, we also obtain an explicit expression for this Laplace transform for a large class of claim size distributions. The ruin probability being a special case of the Laplace transform of the time to ruin, explicit expressions are therefore obtained for this particular ruin related quantity. Finally, we measure the impact of the various dependence structures in the risk model on the ruin probability via the comparison of their Lundberg coefficients.     

Impact of FDICIA internal controls on bank risk taking

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation Improvement Act (FDICIA) of 1991 was designed, among other things, to introduce risk-based deposit insurance, increase capital requirements, and improve banks’ internal controls. Of particular interest in this study are the requirements for annual audit and reporting of management’s and auditor’s assessment of the effectiveness of internal control for banks with $500 million or more in total assets (raised to $1 billion in 2005). We study the impact of these requirements on banks’ risk-taking behavior prior to the recent financial crisis and the consequent implications for bank failure and financial trouble during the crisis period. Using a sample of 1138 banks, we provide evidence that banks required to comply with the FDICIA internal control requirements have lower risk taking in the pre-crisis period. Specifically, the volatility of net interest margin, the volatility of earnings, and Z score show less risk-taking behavior. Furthermore, these banks are less likely to experience failure and financial trouble during the crisis period.     

The determinants of intra-industry trade: The case of the automobile industry

Zusammenfassung Die Bestimmungsgründe für den intra-industriellen Handel. Der Fall der Automobilindustrie. - In ihrem Artikel versuchen die Verfasser, die Entstehung und die jüngste Entwicklung des intra-industriellen Handels (IIH) unter Verwendung strengerer Definitionen für den europ?ischen Automobilsektor aufzuzeigen. Zus?tzlich zu früheren Erkl?rungen des IIH aus dem Blickwinkel der komparativen Vorteile oder der intra-industriellen Spezialisierung liefert der Aufsatz erstmalig einen deutlichen empirischen Befund für die m?gliche Beziehung zwischen firmeninternem und intra-industriellem Handel. Au?erdem halten die Verfasser eine umfassende Theorie für notwendig, um den IIH in Abh?ngigkeit von verschiedenen bilateralen Zusammenh?ngen zu erkl?ren.

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Résumé Les déterminants du commerce intra-branche: le cas du secteur de l’automobile. - Dans cette étude, nous nous sommes attachés à montrer l’existence et l’évolution récente du commerce intra-branche dans le secteur de l’automobile. Expliquer cette évolution en terme de pertes d’avantages comparatifs ou de spécialisation intra-branche a constitué notre objectif. Dans un contexte de commerce bilatéral, nous avons pu constater de multiples facteurs explicatifs, en particulier, nous avons mis en évidence, pour la première fois sur le plan empirique, la possibilité que des flux d’échanges intra-firme génèrent des échanges intra-branche. Cette étude atteste, également, la nécessité d’une théorie composite du commerce intra-branche.

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Resumen Las déterminantes del comercio intraindustrial: el caso de la industria automotriz. - En este trabajo se intenta mostrar el surgimiento y la evolución reciente del comercio intraindustrial (CII), particularmente de la industria automotriz en Europa. Además de dar las explicaciones tradicionales del CII desde el punto de vista de las ventajas comparativas o de la especialización intraindustrial, en este trabajo se présenta por primera vez una fuerte evidencia empirica en favor de la relación posible entre el comercio intraempresa y el CII. En este estudio también se postula la necesidad de una teoria amplia para explicar el CII en dependencia de varios contextes bilaterales.