Accounting and slavery: the accounts of the English South Sea Company, 1713-22

The Asiento was an agreement between the Crowns of England and Spain of tremendous economic and political consequences. In spite of its importance, very little is known about the accounting practices of the Asiento. This paper demonstrates that the developments of the Asiento were very much linked to the lack of accountability of the South Sea Company (SSC) before the Spanish Crown and describes the characteristics of the accounting system used by the SSC to provide information on its developed economic activity. It also discusses the role of accounting in the resolution of conflicts between the tenants of the Asiento, the SSC and its Spanish counterparts.     

To lead or to wait? An application to internationalization strategies under demand uncertainty

We examine the exports versus foreign direct investment (FDI) decision under demand uncertainty for an asymmetric cost duopoly. One of the firms can lead entry before demand realization or retain flexibility enjoying an informational advantage. When the time value of information is small and for sufficiently low investment costs, follow‐the‐leader behavior in FDI arises. Relatively high investment (fixed) costs result in follow‐the‐leader exporting behavior. When the time value of information becomes significant, the potential leader will opt for a wait‐and‐see strategy. For intermediate values of investment costs, the efficient firm invests, while the rival chooses to export.     

Modeling Violence Among and Against University Students in a Mexican Medium-Sized City

Violence against university students and among them is analyzed on campus and the household as well as the relationships of violence between these two social sp...     

Do Institutions Cause Growth?

We revisit the debate over whether political institutions cause economic growth, or whether, alternatively, growth and human capital accumulation lead to institutional improvement. We find that most indicators of institutional quality used to establish the proposition that institutions cause growth are constructed to be conceptually unsuitable for that purpose. We also find that some of the instrumental variable techniques used in the literature are flawed. Basic OLS results, as well as a variety of additional evidence, suggest that (a) human capital is a more basic source of growth than are the institutions, (b) poor countries get out of poverty through good policies, often pursued by dictators, and (c) subsequently improve their political institutions.     

Le partenariat public-OSBL dans les services sociaux. Le cas espagnol

The article considers the social services supply in the Spanish area of Valencia. The objective is double. First the authors analyse what describes the partnership between public sector and NPO in this area, by using a systemic conception of the social services sector where three main functions can be identified (financing, production and distribution, and regulation). Secondly they search for theoretical arguments explaining this partnership principle. This second section is mainly based on the NPO approach.     

The effect of US holidays on the European markets: when the cat’s away…

This paper presents evidence of the existence of a return effect on European stock markets coinciding with New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) holidays, which is particularly marked after positive closing returns on the NYSE the previous day. The effect is large enough to be exploited by trading index futures. This anomaly cannot be explained by seasonal effects, such as the day of the week effect, the January effect or the pre‐holiday effect, nor is it consistent with behavioural finance models that predict positive correlation between trading volume and returns. However, examination of factors such as information volume or investor mix provides a reasonable explanation.     

Balanced portfolio via signed graphs and spectral clustering in the Brazilian stock market

Quality & Quantity - A portfolio associated with a balanced signed graph that contains both positive and negative edges is more predictable and risk-averse, and is therefore likely to require...     

An empirical approach to the organisational determinants of spin-off creation in European universities

Given the importance in recent years of the phenomenon of academic entrepreneurship in European universities, knowledge about determinants and performance of this technology transfer mechanism may have important managerial and policy implications. Applying the resource-based view at universities, we have tested the influence of five bundles of resources and capabilities on spin-off activity rates as well as on the performance of new spin-offs in a sample of seven European universities. These five bundles are: technology transfer policies and strategies; human capital; stock of technology; resources and capabilities of technology transfer offices; and support measures for academic entrepreneurship. Our results show that excellence of human capital and the presence of university-based financial support measures are strongly associated with both spin-off activity and performance. Another interesting finding is related to the availability of university-based non-economic support measures (training, counselling, etc.), which have no influence on spin-off activity but are significantly associated with performance of new spin-offs. We also discuss some interesting relationships between explanatory variables.