Higher education and firms: on the interaction between research and regional policies

In the European Union, a series of competencies are shared between a central agency called the European Commission, and the governments of the Member States. This paper focuses on two of those policies: research and regional development. Here, we model and discuss how the level of commitment of a central authority toward poor regions affects the design of the best decision-making process. We explore cases of full centralization and full decentralization, and situations where the two levels of government are allowed to take decisions, either simultaneously or sequentially. In the latter case, we make a distinction between a situation where the central agency decides first as in most federations, and one in which it decides second, then being an agent of national governments. This setting is especially relevant for the European Union. We show, in particular, that when the degree of commitment of the center is high, assignment of redistributive competencies to both levels of power is a proxy for centralization. Additionally, the poorer region may find its best interest in an institutional design where the regions decide first.     

Voting with their feet or activism? Institutional investors’ impact on CEO turnover

We examine the relation between institutional investors and management discipline over the last several decades to better understand how CEO turnover has increased. Using a sample of forced and voluntary turnovers, we investigate the changing roles of activism and exit among institutional investors between 1982-1994 and 1995-2006. We find evidence of activist investors throughout the sample period and their impact is consistently significant in multivariate analysis. In contrast, voting with their feet has declined to the point where it no longer affects turnover outcomes. Nonetheless, activism is fairly uncommon and does not explain the higher turnover observed over time. Block holdings of known activists have increased and are linked to improving target firms. However, other blocks merely reflect the increasing size of institutional money managers. Going forward, the increasing size of institutional investors seems likely to inhibit voting with their feet while activism remains an important vehicle for change.     

Hostages, free lunches and institutional gaps: the case of the European Currency Union

This paper argues that the strong member states of the European Currency Union are hostages of a financially distressed member state so that they are compelled to provide financial support. Moreover, due to the dynamics of the interaction game, a debt relief is a free lunch for the distressed country. This fosters moral hazard of distressed countries. In the absence of capital market control, European politics do not effectively monitor fiscal politics of member states. The lack of a long-term strategy of the European Currency Union to deal with distressed states has undermined the credibility of politics. This lack is also explained by a lack of a European Insolvency Charter. A viable Union requires such a charter with rules for handling distress. Moreover, politics should determine a mechanism to coordinate politics and capital markets in their monitoring of fiscal and economic policy of member states.     

Don't Believe the Hype: Local Media Slant,Local Advertising,and Firm Value

When local media report news about local companies, they use fewer negative words compared to the same media reporting about nonlocal companies. We document that one reason for this positive slant is the firms' local media advertising expenditures. Abnormal positive local media slant strongly relates to firm equity values. The effect is stronger for small firms; firms held predominantly by individual investors; and firms with illiquid or highly volatile stock, low analyst following, or high dispersion of analyst forecasts. These findings show that news content varies systematically with the characteristics and conflicts of interest of the source.     

Technological Growth and Asset Pricing

We study the asset‐pricing implications of technological growth in a model with “small,” disembodied productivity shocks and “large,” infrequent technological innovations, which are embodied into new capital vintages. The technological‐adoption process leads to endogenous cycles in output and asset valuations. This process can help explain stylized asset‐valuation patterns around major technological innovations. More importantly, it can help provide a unified, investment‐based theory for numerous well‐documented facts related to excess‐return predictability. To illustrate the distinguishing features of our theory, we highlight novel implications pertaining to the joint time‐series properties of consumption and excess returns.     

Corporate Multinationality and Acquirer Returns

This paper provides evidence on how corporate multinationality from the perspective of acquiring firms relates to M&A returns. Using multivariate regressions and a large dataset of over 6,000 M&As (both cross-border and domestic) by UK firms during 1987 to 2014, the paper finds multinationality to be associated with significantly higher short-run announcement returns and long-run operating performance. While the multinationality premium (higher M&A returns for multinationals) persists over time, it seems to be restricted to firms with superior resource/managerial capabilities and minimal agency problems. Finally, the multinationality premium appears to be driven by foreign acquisitions into advanced economies. The results are robust to correcting for sample selection bias and controlling for several firm and deal characteristics, as well as accounting for firm-, industry-, and year-fixed effects. Collectively, the findings imply that multinationality could be a source of value creation for acquiring firms, particularly in foreign acquisitions, which tend to be complex, and, thereby, require superior managerial capabilities to succeed.     

Does uncertainty matter for loan charge-offs?

Using a stylized real options model, we show that discretion over the timing of charging off a non-performing loan could be economically justified when collateral values are uncertain and there is a chance of loan recovery. The implied hypothesis of an “uncertainty dependence” aspect in loan charge-offs is empirically tested and validated using a panel of European banks. A welfare-maximizing regulator might want to let banks pursue such discretionary loan charge-off behavior, with the problem of distinguishing it from alternative capital management and income smoothing objectives, while transparency-seeking accounting standards setters would presumably not.     

The Corporate Governance Premium,Returns, and Mutual Funds

Mutual funds with a preference for strong corporate governance (CG) have performance similar to mutual funds with a preference for weak CG. We find a direct relation between overall mutual fund CG preference and the corporate governance premium (CGP). Furthermore, the investment preferences of mutual funds forecast the change in the CGP. We provide evidence that the investment activities of institutional investors can affect stock performance, and that shifts by institutional investors in CG preference impact the appearance of the CGP.     

Disability Risk Management and Postinjury Employment of Workers With Back Pain

We analyze the outcomes of occupational back pain among four large employers that use one or more of the following disability management practices: aggressive return to work, claims management, medical management, or time‐limited job accommodations. Outcomes measured at 6 and 12 months postonset include: duration of initial work absence and the probability of returning to stable employment. Employment outcomes are better in firms with more proactive return‐to‐work policies than in firms with more restrictive policies. We devise a statistical test for attrition bias and conclude that sample attrition does not significantly alter our results.     

A Proposal to Improve U.S. Housing Market Incentives: A Response to the Federal Reserve White Paper of January 2012

The U.S. housing finance market has not yet recovered from the housing price bubble that peaked in late 2006. Even though prices have fallen significantly, there are still problems in clearing the market. For the last few years, a group of financial economists and practitioners who are part of the Financial Management Association's Practitioner Demand Driven Academic Research Initiative (PDDARI) have been studying the collapse of the housing market and have concluded that many market participants still have insufficient (and in some cases the wrong) incentives to take actions that would help restore the market's health. In January 2012, Ben Bernanke, Chairman of the Federal Reserve Board, released a white paper that reviewed current housing market conditions and created a framework for policy analysis designed to help reestablish the health of the U.S. housing market as part of the broader effort to foster economic recovery. Using this framework as its starting point, the PDDARI group has come up with a set of proposals whose centerpiece is an “incentive‐compatible” mortgage that encourages homeowners to rebuild their home equity as an essential step to a housing recovery. By incorporating “price appreciation rights” that would provide stronger inducements for lenders or mortgage owners to make loan modifications (particularly, forgiveness of principal), the PDDARI mortgage structure could allow more homeowners to remain in their homes and avoid foreclosures and the large associated deadweight costs (as much as 40% of a home's assessed value). Additionally, the government‐sponsored enterprises, including Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, are also in need of radical reform, and a transition toward greater private market participation would promote the long‐term health of the mortgage market.