What are the bank-specific and macroeconomic drivers of banks’ leverage? Evidence from Luxembourg

We investigate the leverage cycle in Luxembourg’s banking sector using individual bank-level data for the period 2003 Q1–2010 Q1. One of our findings is that Luxembourg’s banks have a procyclical leverage. This procyclicality is not due to marking-to-market but because Luxembourg’s banks are liquidity providers to the EU banking sector. We then empirically investigate the role of bank characteristics as well as real, financial and expectation variables that proxy for macroeconomic conditions in the pre-crisis and crisis period. We find that off-balance sheet exposures have different effects in the pre-crisis and crisis period, and that the share of liquid assets in the portfolio only affects security holdings. As for macroeconomic variables, we find that the Euribor-OIS spread is a significant driver of the build-up in leverage in the pre-crisis period. The reason is that most banks in Luxembourg are either branches or subsidiaries. This makes leverage a less relevant indicator of riskiness for investors. It also implies that in times of liquidity shortages, mother companies or groups demand further liquidity from their branch or subsidiary. The downturn in leverage during the crisis can be accredited to reductions in expectations, which we proxy by an economic sentiment indicator. It can also be explained by increasing bond prices which induce depositors to shift their funds from bank deposits into bonds. We find no important role for GDP growth.     

Pay level satisfaction and employee outcomes: the moderating effect of autonomy and support climates

The present study examined autonomy climate (AC) and support climate (SC) as moderators of the relationship between pay level satisfaction (PLS) and employee outcomes (i.e. job satisfaction, affective commitment and intention to stay). Survey data were collected from 5801 Belgian employees, representing 148 units. The hypotheses derived from distributive justice theory and from research on the meaning of money received partial support. Multilevel analyses revealed that AC buffered the negative effects of low PLS on all three outcomes, and that SC exacerbated the negative effects of low PLS on intention to stay. Theoretical and practical implications of this differential moderating effect are discussed.     

“All Business is Glocal”: The future of the automotive industry

Daimler AG is a globally leading producer of premium passenger cars and heavy- and medium-duty trucks. Dr. Dieter Zetsche, Chairman of Daimler AG and Head of Mercedes-Benz Cars, was interviewed by Dr. Christian Schmitz, Head of Business-to-Business Marketing at the University of St. Gallen.     

Gemeinsame Netznutzung: Ein Konzept für mehr Wettbewerb in der Wasserwirtschaft

Zusammenfassung  Die Wasserwirtschaft stellt eines der letzten noch verbliebenen Infrastrukturmonopole dar. Ist die monopolistische Angebotsstruktur in diesem Sektor alternativlos oder w?re auch hier mehr Wettbewerb m?glich? An welchen Stellen der Wertsch?pfungskette sind staatliche Regulierungen unverzichtbar und wie sind sie gegebenenfalls auszugestalten, um wettbewerbliches Anbieterverhalten zu erm?glichen? Prof. Dr. Dieter Cassel, 69, ist Emeritus für Wirtschaftspolitik an der Mercator School of Management der Universit?t Duisburg-Essen; Dr. Christian Rüttgers, 29, war dort wissenschaftlicher Mitarbeiter und ist seit 2008 als Referent bei der Niederrheinischen Industrie- und Handelskammer Duisburg-Wesel-Kleve zu Duisburg besch?ftigt.     

Optionen zur Stärkung des Pharmastandorts Deutschland

Deutschland hat seine vormals führende Stellung als „Apotheke der Welt“ l?ngst eingebü?t und verliert als Standort für die forschende Arzneimittelindustrie international immer weiter an Bedeutung. Woran l?sst sich dies erkennen? Ist das hierzulande besonders dicht geknüpfte Netz pharmarelevanter Regulierungen die Ursache? Und was l?sst sich industrie-, forschungs- und gesundheitspolitisch gegen die weitere Erosion des Pharmastandorts Deutschland tun? Prof. Dr. Dieter Cassel, 68, ist Emeritus für Wirtschaftspolitik im Fachbereich Betriebswirtschaft – Mercator School of Management – der Universit?t Duisburg-Essen, Campus Duisburg. Dieser Beitrag beruht in wesentlichen Teilen auf Ergebnissen des Gutachtens „Steuerung der Arzneimittelausgaben und St?rkung des Forschungsstandortes für die pharmazeutische Industrie“ von IGES Berlin (B. H?ussler, M. Albrecht), D. Cassel, E. Wille und WIdO Bonn (H. Schr?der, K. Nink, Chr. Lankers) vom 2. Juni 2006 im Auftrag des Bundesministeriums für Gesundheit (BMG). Siehe BMG (Hrsg.): Forschungsbericht 006 – Gesundheitsforschung, Berlin 2006.     

Relational retention

This paper uses a repeated-game model to study the retention of talented workers in the face of competition for talent. When the job benefits that workers value are non-contractible, retention cannot be achieved by a sequence of spot contracts, but must be based on self-enforcing long-term agreements, which we call relational retention contracts. Retention then is successful only if workers trust their employers' promises. We demonstrate that relational contracts are valuable even if there are no incentive problems inside firms and that firms with a relatively low valuation for talent may be able to retain talented workers.     

Affect versus cognition: Wishful thinking on election day: An analysis using exit poll data from Belgium

Citizens tend to overestimate the electoral success of their preferred party. We investigate the extent to which Belgian voters overestimate the result of the party that they vote for and the factors that explain which voters do so more than others. Our focus is on the impact of educational attainment and partisan attachment on the overestimation of one’s party’s result. Previous research in this field has relied on data gathered in the months before the elections, which introduces a substantial amount of uncertainty and variation over time into the measurements of citizens’ vote share estimations. As an alternative, we investigate voters’ estimations of their party’s electoral success by means of data gathered in an exit poll survey. Our results show partisan attachments to have a strong impact on overestimations, which suggests that a wishful thinking mechanism is in play. Furthermore, we find that the extent to which partisan attachments increase citizens’ overestimations depends on a voter’s level of education.