Rate of Return Regulation: The Case of Spanish Ports

An original model is put forward in this article to explain and consider the behavior of some of the most important public services in Spain. The cost function approach and the input distance function approach are used to estimate the existence of overcapitalization as a result of rate of return regulation. The results show that overcapitalization generated by this regulation is too significant not to be taken into account.     

The economic rate of return of infrastructures and regional policy in the European Union

This paper examines the results of cost–benefit analysis (CBA) of 200 major investment projects co-financed in 1988–93 by the European Commission. The project database we have built is probably one of the few existing sets of comparable micro-data on the expected rates of return of public infrastructure and on the quality of CBA leading to its calculation. The database reveals a striking dispersion of expected rates of return around the average. Part of the large sample variance is probably a consequence more of inconsistencies in the actual implementation of CBA than of structural differences among the European Union's more economically backward regions. We offer a measurement of the quality of CBA and compare EU ex-ante data with World Bank ex-post data.     

青藏铁路开通与西藏大发展——青藏铁路：西藏发展的助推器

2005年我国历史上最重要的一条铁路——青藏铁路全线贯通，2006年7月正式试运营。对于这样一条全世界都关注的铁路的建成和运营，将对西藏的经济社会发展产生什么影响？我们应该选择什么样的应对策略，是值得认真研究的大课题。为此，本期封面文章全力推出专题：青藏铁路开通与西藏大发展。本刊特邀《西藏人口发展战略研究》课题组专家学者，力图从西藏的社会、文化、经济各个方面作一深入探讨，为各级政府决策提供科学建议，为西藏的发展建言献策。[编者按]     

组建社区银行应对基层信贷服务缺失的思考

本文介绍了社区银行的概念、经营特点及其在社区金融服务领域的比较优势,提出应该组建社区银行来应对目前存在的基层信贷服务缺失,并探讨了社区银行的组建方式以及在组建和发展过程中应该注意的问题。     

中国银行业资本补充工具的创新及其应用

本文基于巴塞尔III中资本的重新定义和要求,围绕着中国银行业目前资本工具缺乏的现状,在总结归纳了国际资本创新工具的经验基础上,从中国银行业面临的实际监管环境和市场环境出发,分别从监管者和商业银行自身的角度分析阐述了拓展资本补充工具的路径和要点。     

How does working capital management affect the profitability of Spanish SMEs?

This paper analyzes the relation between working capital management and profitability for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) by controlling for unobservable heterogeneity and possible endogeneity. Unlike previous studies, we examine a non-linear relation between these two variables. Our results show that there is a non-monotonic (concave) relationship between working capital level and firm profitability, which indicates that SMEs have an optimal working capital level that maximizes their profitability. In addition, a robustness check of our results confirms that firms?? profitability decreases as they move away from their optimal level.     

The role of institutional investors in propagating the crisis of 2007–2008

Using novel data on investors' bond portfolios, we study the contagion of the crisis from securitized bonds to corporate bonds. When securitized bonds became “toxic” in August 2007, mutual funds retained the now illiquid securitized bonds and sold corporate bonds. Funds with negative flows or high liquidity needs liquidated more than others. Yield spreads increased more for corporate bonds whose pre-crisis bondholders were more heavily exposed to securitized bonds, compared to same-issuer bonds held by unexposed investors. The findings suggest that liquidity-constrained investors with exposure to securitized bonds played a role in propagating the crisis from securitized to corporate bonds.     

Information flows within financial conglomerates: Evidence from the banks–mutual funds relation

We study how information flows within financial conglomerates by analyzing the relations between mutual funds and banks that belong to the same financial group. We investigate the effect that the lending behavior of affiliated banks has on the portfolio choice of the mutual funds that are part of the same group. We show that funds (fund families) increase their stakes in the firms that borrow from their affiliated banks in the period following the deal by far greater amounts than other unaffiliated funds (fund families). We provide evidence that this strategy is information-driven. The performance of the positions of affiliated funds in the stocks of borrowing firms exceeds that of their other positions in nonborrowing stocks located in the same industry as well as that of other stocks having similar characteristics by up to 1.6% per month. Funds increase (decrease) their stock holdings in those borrowing stocks that subsequently provide positive (negative) abnormal returns, suggesting that they exploit privileged inside information not available to other market participants. This behavior is prevalent largely in funds located in close geographic proximity to their lending banks. Furthermore, it is exhibited mostly by young, small, and poorly performing fund families. Our evidence points to information flows within conglomerates through informal channels such as personal acquaintances.