Currency mismatches and monetary policy: A tale of two equilibria

We develop a model of a small economy whose residents choose whether to borrow in domestic or foreign currency. The central bank, in turn, chooses fixed or flexible exchange rates, taking the currency denomination of debts as given. We characterize the simultaneous determination of portfolios and exchange rate regime. Both floating and fixed rates can occur as equilibrium outcomes. “Fear of floating” may emerge endogenously and in association with a currency mismatch in assets and liabilities. If equilibria with both fixed rates and floating rates coexist, the latter is Pareto superior. Lessons for current “de-dollarization” proposals are discussed.     

Determinants of Technical Efficiency in Small Firms

There is evidence that small firms are less productive than larger ones. This phenomenon could be explained by several factors. In this paper, using plant survey data and non-parametric deterministic frontier methodology, we explore what factors can explain the observed differences in technical efficiency. In the case of Chilean manufacturing firms, we found that efficiency is positively associated with the experience of workers, modernization of physical capital and innovation in products. In contrast, other variables such as outward orientation, owner education and participation in some public programs do not affect the efficiency of the firms.     

Ethical Attitudes in Small Businesses and Large Corporations: Theory and Empirical Findings from a Tracking Study Spanning Three Decades

This study offers a theoretical framework of ethical behavior and a comparative analysis of ethical perceptions of managers of large, mostly publicly traded corporations (those with 1,000 or more employees) and the owners and managers of smaller companies (those with fewer than 100 employees) across 17 years. The primary research provides basic data on the changing standards of ethics as perceived by leaders of large and small businesses where the cultures frequently fall into sharp contrast. Our findings reveal the extent to which the message of business integrity is gaining or losing ground within large and small companies. It does this by means of respondents’ judgments of acceptable responses to 16 scenarios profiling common business situations with questionable ethical dimensions. Based on responses from over 5,000 managers and employees (from firms of all sizes) to our scenarios at three points in time (1985, 1993, 2001), we tested two research questions. First, for firms of all sizes, have business ethics improved or declined between the years 1985 and 2001? Second, comparing responses of large and small firm executives across the 1985–2001 time frame, is there a discernible difference in their ethical standards? Our results suggest that business leaders are making somewhat more ethical decisions in recent years. We also found that small business owner–managers offered less ethical responses to scenarios in 1993 but that no significant differences existed with large firm managers in 1985 and 2001. Implications of our findings are discussed.     

Credit Risk in Interbank Networks

ABSTRACT

One of the most striking characteristics of modern financial systems is their complex interdependence, comprising a network of bilateral exposures in the interbank market, in which institutions with surplus liquidity can lend to those with a liquidity shortage. Empirical studies reveal that some interbank networks have features of scale-free networks. We explore the characteristics of financial contagion in networks whose distribution of links approaches a power law, using a model that defines banks’ balance sheets from information on network connectivity. By varying the parameters for the creation of the network, several interbank networks are built, in which the concentration of debt and credit comes from the distribution of links. The results suggest that networks that are more connected and have a high concentration of credit are more resilient to contagion than other types of networks analyzed.     

Only the smartest? Motivating job characteristics for all ability levels and their impact on job satisfaction

Using Program for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies data, we explore the relation between cognitive ability, proxied by an explicit test of individual numeracy level and the reported satisfaction of individuals with their job. The paper identifies a relation of individual cognitive ability on job satisfaction interacting with some characteristics of the job related to job complexity, namely job autonomy and learning opportunity in the workplace. We found that individuals with different levels of cognitive ability exhibit different levels of job satisfaction depending on how much learning and job autonomy allows their employment. Individuals with low level of cognitive ability enjoy more their job autonomy than individuals in the top of the ability distribution. The learning effect brings the most profits to the utility of workers from the middle quartiles. Finally, planning is most enjoyed at the top of the distribution. We discuss the implication of these findings from a practical perspective.     

Failure to Expand? Socio-Technical Practices and Moral Judgement in Markets for Biodiversity Offsets

Markets have become an important form of governance in the neoliberal era. The ideology of markets as the most efficient form of organising economic activity has led to the expansion of their usage, both in terms of what is governed by the market, but also in terms of the spaces in which the practices of a given market apply. However, there have been important challenges to market expansion, particularly on political and ethical grounds. This paper analyses how the socio-technical practices of market expansion can be affected by political contestation and individual moral judgements. This is analysed in the context of two markets for biodiversity offsets, in the United States and England. In both cases, regulators attempted to devise and standardise calculative mechanisms and socio-technical practices that promoted the use and expansion of the market. However, these socio-technical market practices have struggled to cross and negotiate uneven political and social spaces, being subject to moral judgements and political contestation. The paper demonstrates how the socio-technical practices of market expansion are affected by social entanglements, highlighting how this creates limits to the expansion of the market as a form of governance.     

Efectos de la contratación de exempleados de multinacionales en la capacidad de absorción en empresas locales

Attracting Foreign Direct Investment seeks, among other goals, increase productivity of local firms through knowledge spillovers. Nevertheless the empirical evidence is contradictory. One influential factor is the absorptive capacity of local firms. This article analyzes the effect of the presence of ex-employees of multinational companies, as employees of local firms in the absorption capacity of these firms. The study was conducted in Costa Rica, a country recognized for its successful strategy in this area. The data come from a survey of 1,167 companies conducted by the Costa Rican Observatory of Small and Mediums Enterprises in 2011. It was found that hiring former employees of multinational companies by local firms has a positive effect on the rate of absorption capacity. In short, this engagement of former employees of multinationals increases by nine percentage points the rate of absorption capacity, with differences for sectors and firms sizes.     

Do multinational banks create or destroy shareholder value? A cross‐country analysis

We question whether the international diversification of multinational banks creates or destroys shareholder value. Based on a sample of 384 listed banks from 56 countries we provide new and robust evidence that bank cross‐border activities create shareholder value, as shown by an economically and statistically significant premium for international diversification. Our results are confirmed controlling for bank fixed effects, time‐varying bank characteristics, reverse causality, functional diversification, and instrumenting for the choice to expand abroad. The increase in shareholder value is slightly larger for banks in the middle range of international diversification and in the case of expansion towards less developed countries.