SAILING THROUGH THIS STORM? CAPITAL FLOWS IN ASIA DURING THE CRISIS

The 2007–2009 crisis has led to an unprecedented collapse in international capital flows. Asian economies were, however, relatively unaffected: the contraction in their capital flows was limited to the most acute phase of the crisis in late 2008, followed by a rapid rebound. We show that this reflects both Asia's structural characteristics, such as limited reliance on international banking, and Asian specificities in the form of a limited impact of international bank exposure on capital flows. We also find evidence of a connection between the use of reserves and variations in net private capital inflows.     

Uk Corporate Acquisitions In Latin America In The 1990s: Lost Opportunities In A New Economic Environment

During the 1990s, foreign direct investment flowed into Latin America at an unprecedented rate. Capital inflows associated with privatizations and private mergers and acquisitions (M&As) rose steeply. Drawing on original firm–level transactions data, this article examines the extent to which UK enterprises participated in the Latin American privatization and private M&A boom. The authors conclude that, relative to their counterparts in many other major industrial countries, UK enterprises adopted a cautious stance, largely eschewing privatization opportunities and concentrating M&A activities on relatively few operations, sectors and countries, in order to strengthen product and market positions. Moreover, the strategic logic guiding the most important corporate acquisitions centred on gaining access to domestic markets rather than attempting to create global export platforms.     

Taxes and labor supply: Portugal, Europe, and the United States

I relate hours worked with taxes on consumption and labor for Portugal, France, Spain, United Kingdom and United States. From 1986 to 2001, hours per worker in Portugal decreased from 35.1 to 32.6. With the parameters for Portugal, the model predicts hours worked in 2001 with an error of only 12 min from the actual hours. Across countries, most predictions differ from the data by 1 h or less. The model is not sensible to special assumptions on the parameters. I calculate the long run effects of taxes on consumption, hours, capital and welfare for Portugal. I extend the model to discuss implications for Social Security. I discuss the steady state and the transition from a pay-as-you-go to a fully funded system.

A theory of the (growth of the) transnational firm: a Penrosean perspective

In this paper I apply a Penrosean perspective to the theoryof the growth of the transnational corporation (TNC). I suggestthat TNCs are the result of a dynamic interaction between endogenousfactors to the firm and external opportunities and threats,as perceived by the firm's management. Trans-border geographicaldiversification is the result of limits to domestic expansion,failed or missing markets, perceived differential opportunitiesabroad, and oligopolistic interaction. The choice of institutionalmode (foreign direct investment over putting out, subcontracting,licensing or exporting) is also the result of missing or failingmarkets, perceived differential capabilities, and oligopolisticinteraction.     

International or national implementers—Who is better? Evidence from a framing experiment

Behavioral economics has shown that changing small features in framing a context or action may drastically change behavior. A key factor characterizing most development interventions is the salience of either a local or an international implementer. Using the setup of an intervention conducted in Indonesia, we show that the study population in the Acehnese context exhibits higher levels of support for the project if the participation of international actors is highlighted. We find that previous experience with the respective actor is pivotal. Qualitative evidence suggests that internationals' perceived skills drive results, highlighting the importance of strengthened local capacities for positive experiences with local implementers. Overall, the study underlines the benefits of linking framing experiments to the actual experiences of respondents to generate insights into the real world.     

Soft Strategic Information and IPO Underpricing

Using content analysis, we measure the impact of soft information, derived from words in initial public offering (IPO) registration documents, on IPO pricing efficiency. First, using 2,298 U.S. IPOs from 1996–2008, we find that an IPO document's strategic tone correlates positively with the stock's first-day return; more frequent usage of positive and/or less frequent usage of negative strategic words leads to more IPO underpricing. Second, we find that an IPO document's strategic tone is negatively correlated with the stock's long-run return. Together, these findings imply that investors initially misprice soft information in registration statements, which mispricing is eventually corrected. Additionally, we create new content-analysis libraries for strategic words and introduce a survey-based library creation method and word-weighting system.