Modelling profits and industrial investment in postwar Greece

This article examines the two contrasting phases of the industrial capital accumulation in postwar Greece. It is argued that the phase of rapid accumulation can be explained by the emergence and consolidation of institutionalized power relations that comprised the Greek social structure of accumulation (SSA). The deindustrialization process that followed can be explained as the result of the demise of the very same institutional setting. A recursive system of two equations models the SSA-profitability-accumulation nexus. The profit rate is found to be highly sensitive to changes in the (quantified) dimensions of the power relations. The capital accumulation rate, in turn, is found to be sensitive to expected profitability, capital cost, and volatility of international trade.     

EU involvement in TEN development: network effects and European value added

The recent White Paper emphasises once more that the Trans-European transport network (TEN) is a key element in European Union (EU) policy, yet that its realisation is jeopardised by the lack of an integrated approach during evaluation and funding of cross-border infrastructure. Despite the intervention of the EU in conceptualising the TEN, subsidiarity and continued use of conventional evaluation procedures mean that most assessment of individual TEN components is still undertaken in relatively narrow, national terms. The primary objective of this paper is to explore how the international character of the TEN may be recognised and incorporated in still predominantly national evaluation processes, and which evaluation horizons may be broadened based on the concepts of network effects and European value added (EVA). We present some examples of EVA and discuss EU involvement in projects with potentially high EVA, either by co-ordinating bilateral negotiations for compensation between Member States or by co-financing projects that support the achievement of strategic EU transport policy objectives.     

Financial Expert CEOs and Earnings Management Around Initial Public Offerings

This study examines the association between financial expert CEOs and earnings management (EM) around initial public offerings. We identify financial expert CEOs as those having past experience in either banking or investment firms, large auditing firms, or finance-related roles. We find strong evidence that newly listed firms with financial expert CEOs are less likely to engage in either accrual-based or real EM in the offering year than those with non-financial expert CEOs. In particular, our results are robust after controlling for the potential selection issue that occurs due to non-random matching of CEOs to firms. In addition, we employ alternative measures of financial expertise, including past experience in a CFO position, financial experience variety, and professional qualifications. We document that CEOs who used to work as CFOs and those who gained varied financial experience are less likely to manage earnings through both accruals and real activities. Moreover, CEOs who have a professional qualification in finance and/or accounting are also associated with lower accrual-based EM.     

Unemployment by Gender: Evidence from EU Countries

This paper applies panel unit-root tests that allow for structural breaks and cross-sectional dependence to examine the validity of hysteresis in gender unemployment rates and gender unemployment gap for a panel of 15 European countries. Addressing breaks, there is evidence to reject the null hypothesis of hysteresis for the unemployment rates and unemployment gap series. Allowing for both cross-sectional dependence and heterogeneous structural breaks, this result is reverted, and we fail to reject the null hypothesis of unit root.     

Is sustainability rating material to the market?

This study examines whether information about a firm's engagement in environmental, social, and governance (ESG) practices is material to market participants. Evidence from a sample of 1856 initial public offerings (IPOs) by U.S. companies for the 2007–2018 period robustly documents that firms for which there is available ESG performance information prior to going public exhibit higher underpricing due to a positive market response. Such a reaction is validated by agency cost-reducing practices that ESG-rated firms follow prior to the IPO, the superior post-IPO market performance they exhibit in terms of equity financing, and the higher share of financially sophisticated investors they attract compared to their ESG-unrated peers. Overall, our results highlight that it pays off to do good and to have the right investors; however, firms’ good ESG practices need to be visible to the market, through rating practices, to reap the benefits.     

Identifying the effects of bullying victimization on schooling

I estimate whether bullying leads to worse academic outcomes for bullied students, exploiting state-year differences in anti-bullying laws, and within-law heterogeneity that provide variation in the probability of bullying victimization. Using data from the Education Longitudinal Study of 2002, I show that bullying increases the probability of skipping classes and dropping out of high school, and it decreases grade point average by up to 5%. Heterogeneity analysis shows that physical bullying imposes a greater burden on males, though females are relatively more sensitive to nonphysical bullying. These negative effects persist into adulthood as high school bullying decreases college performance and college graduation.