A pricing‐error rule on share distribution in equity joint ventures: The Bayesian approach

Equity joint ventures (EJVs) are a popular governance mode of inter‐firm cooperation that has attracted substantial research attention. The literature, however, still lacks a precise rule for the parents to follow in splitting the equity shares of an EJV, although share distribution is critical to almost all aspects of the co‐ownership relationship. In this study, we fill this literature gap by taking the Bayesian approach to draw a pricing‐error rule on share distribution in EJVs. More specifically, we contend that equity participation by two firms in an EJV allows profit sharing to correct for the errors that they might commit in pricing their inputs to the EJV. For profit sharing to fully nullify such pricing errors, the shares of an EJV must be split between the parent firms in a percentage combination that matches the relative sizes of their pricing errors. Because pricing errors are observable only afterward, share distribution in EJVs resembles a Bayesian process, in which the partners keep updating their estimates on pricing errors to adjust share distribution to a percentage combination that could best nullify their pricing errors. Thus, the eventual outcome of share adjustment is EJV buyout, in that the partner whose pricing errors remain substantial buys out the shares of the other whose pricing errors have become tolerable.     

Fund Manager Allocation

We show that fund families allocate their most skilled managers to market segments in which manager skill is rewarded best. In efficient markets, even skilled managers cannot generate excess returns. In less efficient markets, skilled managers can exploit inefficiencies and generate higher performance than unskilled managers. Fund families seem to be aware of the relation between skill, efficiency, and performance, and allocate more skilled managers to inefficient markets. They pursue this strategy when hiring new fund managers and when reassigning managers to funds within the family. Overall, we conclude that fund families allocate fund managers in an efficient way.     

Active risk management and loan contract terms: Evidence from rated microfinance institutions

The aim of this article is to test the relationship among organizational architecture, joint liabilities contracts, and loan conditions. Based on a sample of 135 MFIs rated between 2003 and 2008, the study shows that solidarity lending and a decentralized credit decision have no significant influence on loan conditions. Being a village bank lender is significantly associated with higher interest rates charged, higher outreach, lower depth of outreach, and higher transaction costs. Results seem to highlight the existence of a trade-off between outreach and the average loan size per borrower when MFIs decentralize credit decisions or establish joint liability contracts.     

ÉTUDE COMPARATIVE DES PERFORMANCES DES INSTITUTIONS DE MICROFINANCE D’AFRIQUE SUB‐SAHARIENNE SELON LEUR STATUT LÉGAL

RESUME 1 : Cet article vérifie l’existence d’une différence de performance selon le statut juridique des institutions de microfinance d’Afrique Sub‐saharienne. Une analyse multi‐variée de la variance (MANOVA) permet d’étudier un échantillon de 94 IMF entre 2001 et 2005. Les résultats suggèrent que les coopératives sont plus efficientes et financièrement plus efficaces que les Organisations Non Gouvernementales (ONG) et les sociétés privées. Aucune différence significative de qualité de portefeuille selon le statut juridique n’est trouvée. Par ailleurs, nous ne trouvons pas de différence significative de rentabilité et de viabilité entre les sociétés privées et les ONG. Cependant, alors que les transactions effectuées sont plus intenses dans les coopératives, la portée (nombre d’emprunteurs actifs) semble plus importante dans les sociétés privées.     

Predictability of Financial Crises: Lessons from Sweden for Other Countries

The predictability of financial crises is widely regarded as low. However, skills linked to market psychology (behavioral finance) and the understanding of history and macrofinancial aggregates have been insufficiently integrated in the forecasting and risk management of financial institutions. Traditional financial modeling can no longer be applied as nicely as in the past. In Sweden, the financial crises of the early 1990s and in the latter part of the past decade were caused by overconfidence, control illusion, and herd mentality—but also by shortcomings in management and corporate governance. There is no evidence that these two serious Swedish banking crises were not foreseeable. The general question is when and under which circumstances financial decision-makers and authorities should listen to the usual minority of warning voices. One conclusion is that economists should be more “in house-oriented,” and top managers should heed their professional opinions. Conclusions from this paper can also be drawn for China, India, and other emerging markets both when it comes to financial deregulation policy and government debt risks in deregulated financial markets.     

Testing Mundell's Intuition of Endogenous OCA Theory*

This paper presents an empirical assessment of the endogenous optimum currency area theory. Frankel and Rose (1998 ) study the endogeneity of a currency union through the lens of international trade flows. Our study extends Frankel and Rose's model by using FDI flows to test the original theory developed by Mundell in 1973. A gravity model is used to empirically assess the effectiveness of the convergence criteria by examining location‐specific advantages that guide multinational investment within the European Union. A fixed effects model based on a panel data of foreign direct investment (FDI) flows within the EU‐15 shows that horizontal investment promotes the diffusion of the production process across the national border. Specifically, our results suggest that economic convergence ensured by belonging to the common currency area helps double FDI flows.     

The value of tradeability

This paper determines the value of asset tradeability in an option pricing framework. In our model, tradeability is valuable since it allows investors to exploit temporary mispricings of stocks. The model delivers several novel insights on the value of tradeability: The value of tradeability is the larger, the higher the pricing efficiency of the market is. Uncertainty increases the value of tradeability, no matter whether the uncertainty results from noise trading or from new information about the fundamental value of the stock. The value of tradeability is the larger, the longer the illiquid stock cannot be traded and the more trading dates the liquid stock offers.     

On the Continuity Correction

A simple, and fairly general, analytical derivation of the "one-half" continuity correction is presented.     

Technological change and worker participation in Europe

This article analyses the extent, evaluation and strategies for the future of employees, representatives and management regarding participation in technological change. The results from interviews in the UK, France, Germany, Italy and Denmark show a low level of involvement, particularly in strategic decision making, a positive evaluation of participation by practitioners and the intention to increase levels of involvement on both sides of industry.