Cross-border leisure mobility styles in the Basque Eurocity

The constitution of Europe has fostered greater human and other mobilities across European borders, however it is not clear whether the border is still actually present in some places or inhibits cross-border mobilities. In this context, a leisure mobilities approach has been used to identify the mobility styles in the Basque Eurocity corridor – a cross-border area between Spain and France. The analysis focuses on leisure mobilities and identifies four different mobility styles based upon leisure orientation variables in terms of values, attitudes and lifestyles; nationality; and socio-demographic characteristics: (1) time-conscious workers, (2) French shoppers, (3) mobile youth and (4) older and less mobile. The results indicate that different leisure orientations and participation levels are highly significant in the constitution of mobility styles, which are usually correlated only with national demographic data. Furthermore, it was identified that a higher identification of mobility constraints was not related to lower levels of participation. Instead, the groups with higher mobility and participation rates raised more awareness of the constraints related to transport and information. Finally, intrapersonal constraints such as age and lack of health showed a greater impact on cross-border mobility, while, unexpectedly, a higher identification of cultural and linguistic constraints was not perceived by participants.     

On the ‘Review of Structure and Effectiveness of the IFRS Foundation’: the EAA’s Financial Reporting Standards Committee’s View

In July 2015 the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) Foundation launched its third five year review of its structure and effectiveness of the organisation. In a public call, the Trustees solicited stakeholders’ input on the relevance of IFRS Standards with respect to broadening the IFRS scope and to the impact of new technology, on the consistent application of IFRS and on the governance and funding of the International Accounting Standards Board and the IFRS Foundation. The European Accounting Association (EAA)’s Financial Reporting Standards Committee responded to this request for views by submitting a comment letter based on research-informed opinions. This article provides an overview of this Review of Structure and Effectiveness of the IFRS Foundation and the EAA’s opinions in response to this Review.     

Executive flight simulator as a learning tool in new companies’ resource planning based on the balanced scorecard

In many cases, a deficient strategic planning in new companies has led entrepreneurs to take inadequate initial decisions that, in the long term, reflect consequences in the failure of many new businesses. The objective of this article is to propose an executive flight simulator, which will help to identify and evaluate the different development strategies for resources of a new manufacturing company, under the four perspectives of the balanced scorecard, educating the user on the impact that these would have in the main performance indicators. The simulator is designed utilizing the focus of system dynamics to be used didactically in master's degree programs in administration, by entrepreneurs or in executive development programs.     

Yield curves from different bond data sets

Review of Derivatives Research - It is well known that zero coupon rates are not observable variables. Their estimation process may be cumbersome and time consuming. We explore the extent to which...     

Does good governance prevent bad strategy? A study of corporate governance,financial diversification,and value creation by French corporations, 2000–2006

Building on and extending prior research, we propose a comprehensive framework which posits that free cash flow moderates the impact of corporate governance on financial diversification. We argue that because it increases CEO perceived risk, alignment devices increase rather than decrease financial diversification. In a sample of 59 publicly traded French corporations during 2000–2006, we show that financial diversification negatively impacts shareholder return and firm value. We obtain support for several of our hypotheses: at high levels of free cash flow, CEO variable compensation increases financial diversification, whereas chairman/CEO non‐duality reduces it. In contrast, independent directors increase financial diversification at low values of free cash flow (although weakly). We also find that ownership concentration only reduces financial diversification when free cash flow is low.Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Portfolio choice with indivisible and illiquid housing assets: the case of Spain

This paper studies the investment decisions of Spanish households using a unique data-set, the Spanish Survey of Household Finance (EFF). We propose a theoretical model in which households, given a fixed investment in housing, allocate their net wealth across bank time deposits, stocks and mortgage. Besides considering housing as an indivisible and illiquid asset that restricts the portfolio choice decision, we take into account the financial constraints that households face when they apply for external funding. For every representative household in the EFF, we solve this theoretical problem and obtain the theoretically optimal portfolio that is then compared with households’ actual choices. We find that households significantly under-invest in stocks and deposits while the optimal and actual mortgage investments agree. Considering the three types of financial assets at once, we find that the households headed by highly financially sophisticated, older, retired, richer, and unconstrained persons are the ones investing more efficiently.     

On the Efficiency of Bankruptcy Law: Empirical Evidence in Spain

The current economic crisis is showing one of the main problems that many companies in financial distress have to face, namely, the impact of bankruptcy law in relation to companies and firms. This paper aims to analyze the bankruptcy law ex‐ante efficiency when companies are in financial distress. To test it out, two research questions are submitted: (i) Is solvency, the criterion used in the Spanish law, the best one to assess the relative significance of the main indicators, which determine bankrupt firms? (ii) Is the Spanish bankruptcy law efficient according to solvency or are there better criteria? To answer them, a logistic regression model is conducted. The sample embraces 1,387 firms in Spain, the data being obtained from 12 Commercial Justice Courts complemented with financial information. The main conclusion is that the solvency criterion is adequate to classify bankrupt companies although currently Spanish Bankruptcy law is not as efficient as it could be. Additionally, the relevant companies' indicators, which explain the financial distress procedure, are presented. Copyright © 2013 INSOL International and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd     

Women,men and organic food: differences in their attitudes and willingness to pay. A Spanish case study

The main purpose of this work consists of displaying the different attitudes of men and women towards organic food, and their willingness to pay for it, in three different consumer intensities: usual, occasional and potential consumers. Several surveys have been carried out to obtain a representative sample of regular food purchasers living in Castilla‐La Mancha (Spain). Statistic analysis previously detecting significant differences with regard to gender and type of consumer has been conducted by univariate analysis to describe attitudes, and multivariate analysis, through ‘logit’ models, to calculate maximum willingness to pay. Results show that women have a more favourable attitude (directly related to their lifestyle) to the purchase and consumption of organic food than men, whereas men are inclined to pay a higher price for organic food than women. In general, men are disposed to pay a higher increase in price than women.     

Market efficiency in the Spanish derivatives markets: An empirical analysis

This paper analyzes Granger caUSAlity between daily prices of the Spanish stock index (Ibex 35) and its futures contract using Johansen cointegration methodology. The study differentiates between short-run and long-run caUSAlity. The empirical results prove that, in the short run, the futures price causes the spot price. However, the opposite is not true. On the other hand, long-run caUSAlity is embodied in the response of futures prices after deviations from the long-run equilibrium. These results say that during the period of study, the Spanish futures market behaved as an efficient market.     

Fees for Reefs: Economic Instruments to Protect Mexico’s Marine Natural Areas

Stated preference methods can be used to estimate the demand function where no price variation has been observed before. This is the situation of the Mexican coral reef natural protected areas, where after the 2002 approval of a $20 pesos fee (US$1.80) the Ministry of the Environment is now considering increasing the amount of the fee, not only to raise more revenue for the park, but also to curb the number of visitors in the cases where there is excess demand. There are concerns that the very success of the reefs is bringing associated environmental damage that threatens its sustainable use. To estimate the reaction of visitors to different fee levels, we carried out a contingent valuation survey, and constructed with its results an aggregate demand for each park. This demand was then divided by seasons and nationalities, to explore the benefits and costs of differentiating fees, looking at both the revenue maximising and the welfare maximising fees. Finally we discuss how these fees would change when environmental damage functions are taken into account. The recommendation is that increasing fees up to the point where they cover both private and environmental costs would bring the highest amount of economic benefit compatible with the sustainable use of these complex and wondrous marine ecosystems.