Dynamic Spillovers in the United States: Stock Market,Housing, Uncertainty,and the Macroeconomy

In this study, we examine dynamic spillovers among the housing market, stock market, and economic policy uncertainty (EPU) in the United States in a unified empirical framework. Applying the Diebold and Yilmaz (2012) methodology on monthly data over the period 1987M1–2014M11, our findings reveal the following features. First, the transmission of various types of shocks contributes significantly to economic fluctuations in the United States. Second, spillovers show large variations over time. Third, in the wake of the global financial crisis, spillovers have been exceptionally high in historical perspective. In particular, we find large spillovers from EPU, as well as stock market and housing returns to other variables, in particular inflation, industrial production and the federal funds rate. These results illustrate the contagion from the housing and financial crisis to the real economy and the strong policy reaction to stabilize the economy.     

Asymmetric behavior of inflation differentials in the euro area: Evidence from a threshold unit root test

This paper tests the existence of persistent inflation rate differentials in the euro area by employing linear as well nonlinear unit root tests. Besides linear unit root tests, a two-regime threshold unit root test examines the conjecture that inflation rate differentials follow a nonlinear two-regime process towards a threshold, switching from the persistent regime to the transitory one and vice versa. The results imply that threshold nonlinearity is confirmed in 10 out of the 16 cases. However, we have found unit root regime-switching behavior only in six out of the 16 cases under investigation. This finding implies that these inflation rate differentials were persistent when they were low (regime 1), but transitory when they were high (regime 2). This asymmetric behavior can possibly be explained by the different degree of pressure exercised on governments, which is accompanied with different inflation rate differentials. On the contrary, despite the evidence of nonlinearity, the majority of the inflation rate differentials are found to be monotonically persistent. Our results have strong implications for policy makers. In particular, the documented persistency in the inflation rate differentials might have long-run costs in terms of price and macroeconomic stability.     

Financial development and economic growth in Greece: an empirical investigation with Granger causality analysis

This paper empirically examines the causal relationship between the degree of openness of the economy, financial development and economic growth by using a multivariate autoregressive VAR model in Greece for the examined period 1960:I-2000:IV. The results of cointegration analysis suggest that there is one cointegrated vector among GDP, financial development and the degree of openness of the economy. Granger causality tests based on error correction models show that there is a causal relationship between financial development and economic growth, but also between the degree of openness of the economy and economic growth.     

(How) Do research and administrative duties affect university professors’ teaching?

We analyse the interaction between university professors’ teaching quality and their research and administrative activities. Our sample is a high-quality individual panel data set from a medium-size public Spanish university that allows us to avoid several types of biases frequently encountered in the literature. Although researchers teach roughly 20% more than nonresearchers, their teaching quality is also 20% higher. Instructors with no research are 5 times more likely than the rest to be among the worst teachers. Over much of the relevant range, we find a nonlinear and positive relationship between research output and teaching quantity on teaching quality. Our conclusions may be useful for decision-makers in universities and governments.     

Adoption and benefits of management accounting practices: Evidence from Greece and Finland

This study investigates the extent to which large-size Greek manufacturing firms have implemented various traditional and currently developed management accounting practices (MAP), the benefits received from those practices and the intentions to focus on specific practices in the future. The findings indicate, that, implementation rates for many currently-developed practices were of a high level and similar than those presented in other countries, in total, traditionally MAP were found to be marginally higher implemented than the currently developed ones. However, there is an increasing trend for firms to place greater emphasis in the future on currently developed techniques instead the traditional ones, particularly on performance evaluation techniques. The results of this survey are compared to the findings of a similar study in Finland.     

Is the European Capital Market Ready for the Single Currency?

This paper defines, and investigates the extent of, capital market integration in the European Ecu government bond market sector utilising Johansen's (1992) multivariate analysis. Evidence suggests the yield system is driven by a unique common trend, although we reject the zero-sum restriction on the cointegrating vector. The former finding is consistent with our definition of full Ecu capital market integration, the latter is not, although it is explainable by failure of the expectations hypothesis. Our results support market utilisation of the extant Ecu yield curve as the initial benchmark for pricing euro-denominated debt securities following stage III EMU.     

Measurement of the intensity of the reforms in professions and economic activities in Greece via a composite regulation index

The institutional framework regulating professions/ economic activities of the service sector in Greece has been recently liberalised extensively, to promote competition, conform to European Community regulations and fulfil commitments under the Memoranda of Economic and Financial Policies. This paper aims to capture quantitatively this major structural reform, by measuring for the first time the degree of regulation in 90 professions/ activities affected by the relevant reform laws. The degree of regulation is measured both for the regime before and for that after the laws, and the methodology employed is that of composite regulation indices. The index values obtained are used for evaluating the extent of the reforms and estimating correlations and regressions. The results of the analysis point to the existence of significant barriers to competition before the reforms and extensive liberalisation of the regulatory framework after the adoption of the relevant laws. Moreover, the results suggest that professions/activities characterised by more stringent restrictions before the reforms tend to be characterised by a comparatively higher intensity of regulations after the reforms.     

Twitter investor sentiment and corporate earnings announcements

We examine the impact of firm-specific investor sentiment (FSIS) on stock returns for negative and positive earnings surprises. Using a measure constructed from firm-specific tweets, we find that FSIS has a greater impact on stock returns for negative relative to positive earnings surprises. We further show that the impact of FSIS is greater for firms whose valuation is uncertain and difficult to arbitrage. Moreover, we provide evidence of return reversals over post-announcement periods. Our results highlight the importance of FSIS around earnings announcements.     

An Analysis of Product Deletion Scenarios

Despite a flurry of attention during the early 1980s and the occasional article thereafter, product deletion continues to suffer from neglect, which is surprising given its role in aiding processes of innovation and change that are central to competitive survival. The aim of this article is to rejuvenate research interest in this field. In doing so, we review and organize the relevant literature in three key sets of factors and postulate that their interplay delineates the product deletion scenarios followed by a company. On the basis of this argument, we develop a typology of product deletions and outline how it increases our knowledge of this critical issue and leads to useful research directions.