Does FDI in manufacturing cause FDI in business services? Evidence from French firm‐level data

Abstract .  This paper uses a large French firm-level data set to evaluate the determinants of location choices in services. In a first step, estimates for four broad services sectors are compared with the estimates for the manufacturing sector. Using a discrete choice model, we find that this framework does fairly well in explaining location choices in services and that the parameter estimates for services are close to the ones for manufacturing. We then investigate whether the similarity in estimated parameters is due to a complementarity between location choices in manufacturing and in services, in the sense that manufacturing location choices may cause the location of services. A particularly appropriate services sector, for this purpose is the business services sector, for which input-output linkages with the manufacturing sector are particularly strong. It is found that the downstream demand of French manufacturing firms has a positive effect on the location choice probabilities of French business services firms. This effect is robust.     

There is no place like home: Information asymmetries,local asset concentration,and portfolio returns

Using a unique setting with significant cross‐market information asymmetries and a large sample of individual commercial property holdings, we provide robust evidence showing that local information plays a significant role in the linkage between local asset concentrations and return outperformance. We further document a significant positive relation between local asset concentration and portfolio returns in markets where information asymmetry is most severe. Two novel identification strategies that exploit a local lender's ability to price the local investor's information advantage and exogenous variation in sales price disclosure laws across states confirm an information‐based effect that is distinct from risk‐based or behavioral explanations.     

Risikomanagement und Corporate Governance in Theorie und Praxis

Ohne Zusammenfassung     

Hyperbolic discounting and uniform savings floors

Previous research suggests that, in partial equilibrium, individuals whose decision-making exhibits a present-bias – such as hyperbolic discounters who tend to over-consume – will be in favor of having a floor imposed on their savings. In this paper, I show it is quite difficult for the introduction of a savings floor to be Pareto improving in general equilibrium. Indeed, a necessary condition for the floor to be Pareto improving is that it is high enough to be binding for all individuals. Even in that case, because the equilibrium interest rate adjusts with the level of the savings floor, some individuals may prefer to commit to a future time path of consumption by facing a high interest rate (and no floor) rather than a high floor. An essential insight for understanding this result is to note that even those with little self-control (in an absolute sense) will choose to save a lot when the interest rate is high enough.     

Labor Supply,Flexible Hours and Real Estate Agents

Real estate agents have flexibility in choosing hours and employers. These responses are tested with a five‐equation recursive model. Agents choose between full‐ and part‐time work. The conditional wage measures productivity adjusted for self‐selection to each status. Hours worked in each status depend on the fitted after‐tax wage and household income, yielding flexible supply elasticities. Using a 2005 survey of 8,450 U.S. real estate agents, a year of experience raises the full‐time hourly wage by 2.5%. Conditional hours worked decline by 0.6%, implying an earnings return of 1.9% per year of experience. The labor supply elasticity for full‐time agents is 0.21; it is almost zero for part timers.     

通往3G的长征

每次我们参加3G相关的研讨会时，发言人和参会人员都显得那么陶醉，似乎3G是解决一切潜在问题的终极答案。从运营商角度看，中国移动通信行业一切都很好，但是服务提供商、制造商、投资者，甚至部分手机用户，他们会问：3G来临时，自己是否也能分享这种移动快乐？     

Investing back homeReturn migration and business ownership in Albania1

This study uses data from the 2005 Albania Living Standards Measurement Study survey to assess the impact of past migration experience of Albanian households on non‐farm business ownership through instrumental variables regression techniques. Considering the differences in earning potentials and opportunities for skill acquisition in different destination countries, we differentiate the impact of past household migration experience by main migrant destinations. The study also explores the heterogeneity of impact based on the timing of migration. The empirical results indicate that past household migration experience exerts a positive impact on the probability of owning a non‐farm business. While one additional year in Greece increases the probability of household business ownership by roughly 6 percent, a similar experience in Italy or farther destinations raises the probability by over 25 percent. Although past household migration experience for the period of 1990–2000 is positively associated with the likelihood of owning a household enterprise, a similar association does not exist for the period of 2001–2004.     

Livestock Disease Indemnity Design When Moral Hazard Is Followed by Adverse Selection

Averting or limiting the outbreak of infectious disease in domestic livestock herds is an economic and potential human health issue that involves the government and individual livestock producers. Producers have private information about preventive biosecurity measures they adopt on their farms prior to outbreak ( ex ante moral hazard), and following outbreak they possess private information about whether or not their herd is infected ( ex post adverse selection). We investigate how indemnity payments can be designed to provide incentives to producers to invest in biosecurity and report infection to the government in the presence of asymmetric information. We compare the relative magnitude of the first- and second-best levels of biosecurity investment and indemnity payments to demonstrate the tradeoff between risk sharing and efficiency, and we discuss the implications for status quo U.S. policy.