The determinants of sovereign credit spread changes in the Euro-zone

Using a database of Euro-denominated government bonds covering the period from January 2000 to December 2010, this paper provides an empirical analysis of the determinants of government credit spreads in the Euro-area. The analysis is divided into two sub-periods delimited by the global financial crisis that started in August 2007. We find evidence of a clear shift in the behavior of market participants from a convergence-trade expectation, based on market related factors, before August 2007, to one mainly driven by macroeconomic country-specific variables and an international common risk factor. There is no evidence of a significant role for the liquidity risk before or during the financial crisis period. Overall, our results give support to the Merton-type structural credit risk models and confirm that there are considerable similarities between the factors explaining the dynamics of the credit risk spreads and the factors driving the prices on the government bond markets.     

The Origins of the Pioneer Cotton Mills in Minas Gerais, Brazil, 1868-1879: A Reassessment

The Brazilian economy before the First World War has been generallycharacterized as an economy specializing in the production ofprimary goods for the international market—chiefly coffeefor export. The emergence of the first industrial factorieshas been seen as closely connected to the performance of theexport sector. The first cotton mills established in one provinceof Brazil, Minas Gerais, were not connected to the export sector,however. Minas Gerais was different in key respects from otherregions. This article describes the peculiarities of the Mineiroeconomy during the 1870s and investigates the establishmentof the first cotton mills there. It considers the location,size, and financing of the mills, as well as the structure ofownership and relations between partners. The results show thatthe emergence of the textile industry in Minas Gerais was independentfrom the performance of the foreign sector of the Brazilianeconomy.     

Fixprice analysis in productive economies

The paper compares the definitions of Fixprice Equilibrium for productive convex economies due to Drèze, Benassy, and Malinvaud-Younès. It turns out that Drèze's (resp., Malinvaud-Younès') notion is the strictest (resp. least strict) one. The three notions are, however, equivalent under smoothness and absence of intermediate goods. They are, in particular, equivalent for the familiar fixprice model with three goods (money, labor, and output) studied among others by Barro-Grossman, Benassy and Malinvaud.     

Clustering of Angolan entrepreneurs: an analysis of their entrepreneurial posture

This paper aims to contribute to the debate concerning whether entrepreneurial posture (consisting of innovativeness, risk taking, proactiveness, competitive aggressiveness, and internal locus of control) is a unidimensional or multidimensional construct. Furthermore, it identifies the profile of Angolan entrepreneurs in terms of their entrepreneurial attitude, and investigates how this profile enhances business performance. The findings suggest that entrepreneurial posture is a multidimensional construct. However, they also suggest that the three entrepreneurial clusters behave differently. Implications for Government and decision-makers, and suggestions for future research are given in the concluding section.     

GEL statistics under weak identification

The central concern of this paper is the provision in a time series moment condition framework of practical recommendations of confidence regions for parameters whose coverage probabilities are robust to the strength or weakness of identification. To this end we develop Pearson-type test statistics based on GEL implied probabilities formed from general kernel smoothed versions of the moment indicators. We also modify the statistics suggested in Guggenberger and Smith (2008) for a general kernel smoothing function. Importantly for our conclusions, we provide GEL time series counterparts to GMM and GEL conditional likelihood ratio statistics given in Kleibergen (2005) and Smith (2007). Our analysis not only demonstrates that these statistics are asymptotically (conditionally) pivotal under both classical asymptotic theory and weak instrument asymptotics of Stock and Wright (2000) but also provides asymptotic power results in the weakly identified time series context. Consequently, the empirical null rejection probabilities of the associated tests and, thereby, the coverage probabilities of the corresponding confidence regions, should not be affected greatly by the strength or otherwise of identification. A comprehensive Monte Carlo study indicates that a number of the tests proposed here represent very competitive choices in comparison with those suggested elsewhere in the literature.     

An International Comparison of Banking Sectors: A DEA Approach

Abstract

This paper presents a novel approach to measure and compare the efficiency of the banking system in several countries and stages of development using the non-parametric?mathematic methodology Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA). Thus, we expect to broaden the range of studies about banking efficiency. Differently from most studies that use accounting data for measuring efficiency we employed market data, measuring returns and risk (calculated in different ways) in order to build a new measure of efficiency. This approach allows the comparison of different countries, which have different accounting rules and are not comparable using standard models. The main results suggest a downward trend in the average efficiency level of developed countries and a slight upward trend in the efficiency level of emerging market countries during the period. According to this study, efficiency tends to level off emerging and developed countries. It may be partially explained by the increasing globalization and integration processes that markets have been going through in the last years.     

Employing the business model concept to support the adoption of product–service systems (PSS)

Although the existing literature indicates that the business model concept can be useful to implement product–service systems (PSS), there is still a paucity of guidelines to assist companies in this respect. Therefore, this paper proposes a framework to support the adoption of PSS employing the business model concept. This framework was developed based on literature review and intends to guide the company on the analysis of their business context, on the choice of the appropriate type of PSS and on the definition of their PSS characteristics. A single case study was then performed to illustrate an application of the framework in a machine tool manufacturer and provide research insights. Overall, results indicate that the framework can provide companies with a useful reference to PSS implementation, helping on the investigation of different PSS scenarios as well as the main barriers and challenges to be overcome.