Cross-Border Bank Acquisitions: Is there a Performance Effect?

This paper uses a unique database that includes deal and bank balance sheet information for 220 cross-border acquisitions between 1996 and 2003 to analyze the characteristics and performance effects of international takeovers on target banks. A discrete choice estimation shows that banks are more likely to get acquired in a cross-border deal if they are large, bad performers, in a small country, and when the banking sector is concentrated. Post-acquisition performance for target banks does not improve in the first 2 years relative to domestically-owned financial institutions. This result is explained by a decrease in the banks’ net interest margin in developed countries and an increase in overhead costs in emerging economies.     

Do Individual Preferences Affect the Environmental Decision‐Making Process in Teams? The Role of Participation

Literature on organizations and the natural environment has focused on the importance of individual managers and leaders. However, this literature has scarcely ever focused on individuals in the team context, even when teams have been considered to be key for a firms’ environmental progress. Although teams’ environmental decisions can be enriched by the different contributions of team members, it is necessary that team members actually participate and contribute their preferences during the decision‐making process. We used an adaptation of the legislative dilemma task with 84 students to contribute to environmental management literature by analyzing members’ participation during the team decision‐making process. The results of this paper show how those members with environmentally proactive preferences have a higher participation during the decision‐making process, and as a consequence they have a greater influence on the team decision. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.     

Money Matters (Not Only,but Also)

Journal of Quantitative Economics -     

Mathematical models for decision-making in planning drug abuse control programs

In this paper, a framework for systematizing the different applications of decision-making models to the control of drug abuse is first presented. Next, the available literature on the topic is used to exemplify as many as possible of the elements of the framework presented. Finally, extensions of the current state of the field in the direction of disaggregated and of dynamic models are presented.     

Can evidence of pricing power help market power assessment? Broadband Internet in Ireland and the Netherlands

This article proposes a simple hedonic price test to assess whether firms may have pricing power. The test allows NRAs to compare prices of providers of differentiated products on a like-for-like basis. Testing for pricing power could be a useful complement to market share analysis. This is especially the case in market reviews periodically undertaken by European communications regulators. As an illustration the test was applied to broadband Internet access services in Ireland and the Netherlands. Results appear encouraging as they are broadly aligned to the decisions of the regulatory authorities in both countries that the incumbent DSL operators had market power at the time.