Corporate Hedging Policy and Equity Mispricing

We show that firms’ use of derivatives is negatively associated with stock mispricing. This result is consistent with the notion that hedging improves the transparency and predictability of firms’ cash flows resulting in less misvaluation. Furthermore, we show that the negative relationship between mispricing and hedging is particularly strong when market value is below fundamental value, which is consistent with prior evidence that hedging has a positive impact on firm valuation. Finally, we provide evidence that a “spread‐out” hedging policy that entails the use of a variety of derivative contracts can be more effective in reducing mispricing.     

Evaluating the state of competition of the Greek banking industry

The present paper uses three different New Empirical Industrial Organization (NEIO) approaches (Panzar–Rosse, Bresnahan–Lau and Hall–Roeger models) to investigate competitive conditions in the Greek banking sector over the period 1995–2004. One important event which has taken place in the Greek banking industry, especially after 1998, is a wave of mergers and acquisitions. This study also measures and compares the degree of banking competition in two sub-periods, 1995–1998 and 1999–2004, in order to investigate the effect of mergers and acquisitions on the competitive structure of Greek banking. The empirical results of the three models indicate a shift from competitive to non-competitive conditions when moving from the first to the second sub-period. This finding suggests that mergers and acquisitions have affected the level of completion of Greek banking, rendering the industry less competitive. Furthermore, taking into consideration the negative effects of mergers and acquisitions on technical efficiency and the total factor productivity of Greek banking (Rezitis, 2008), the empirical findings of the present study provide some indications that one of the outcomes of the Greek banks’ merging activities, at least in the short run, might be to attain market power and thus higher profits, rather than higher efficiency and lower costs.     

Long-run relations among equity indices under different market conditions: Implications on the implementation of statistical arbitrage strategies

Compared with previous research, the present work extends existing literature by considering long-run relations among major international stock market indices, under different market conditions, and the implications of these relations on the implementation of statistical arbitrage strategies. The examined data contain two bust phases interrupted by a mild bullish period. Employing cointegration analysis, reported results initially indicate that changes in market performance affect the stability of long-run relations, therefore suggesting that arbitrageurs should perform rebalancing among the examined indices when a change in a market trend is evident. Furthermore, extreme market performance harms the mean-reverting properties of a potential long-run relation while moderate market performance points to cointegration between a pair of indices. However, the absence of a stationary spread does not suggest the potential of abnormal returns realization, in the short-run, through exploitation of deviations from its mean value. The applicability of our results may be of importance to market participants since the cointegration approach has recently received considerable attention by hedge funds adopting statistical arbitrage strategies.     

Examining bank SEOs: Are offers made by undercapitalized banks different?

Despite extensive monitoring, banking operations are often considered opaque, and despite explicit capital adequacy regulation, banks may have substantial discretion in their financing. Both monitoring and capital regulation have changed substantially over time, with the adoption of FDICIA being one important breakpoint. This article empirically studies seasoned equity offerings (SEOs) by banks to understand how opacity and capital regulation interact to determine the timing of bank SEOs and their market valuation. SEOs both by banks that are undercapitalized relative to regulatory standards and also well-capitalized banks are fully discretionary when it comes to SEOs, even before FDICIA. Both undercapitalized and well-capitalized banks experience similar and significantly negative stock price reactions to SEO announcements, and also have similar prior patterns of insider trading and similar economic drivers of the issuance decision. Moreover, post-SEO abnormal stock returns are similar to benchmark returns for both types of issuers in the long run, suggesting that, contrary to the well-documented evidence for industrial SEOs, investors understand the value implications of bank SEOs upon announcement. The evidence implies that undercapitalized banks' SEOs are more discretionary and that all bank SEOs are less opaque than implied by earlier studies.     

Hot and cold merger markets

We study mergers and acquisition during the period from 1988 to 2005 and examine the impact of merger market intensity, i.e., merger waves, on the means of payment and the returns to target and acquirer shareholders. We use two proxies to measure the intensity of the merger market—the number of mergers in the trailing 12-month period prior to a merger and the total dollar volume of mergers in the trailing 12-month period prior to a merger—and use these measures to define hot and cold merger markets. We find that stock financing is more common after a stock price run-up for the acquiring firm and in hot merger markets. We also find that the acquisition premium is larger in hot merger markets. Returns to acquiring company shareholders are lower for stock financed mergers and are lower when merger markets are intense. Our results are consistent with the predictions of the behavioral theory for merger waves.     

Vacaciones y licencias en países desarrollados: los Estados Unidos a la zaga en cuanto a equilibrio entre vida profesional y vida familiar

Los autores comparan las normativas sobre vacaciones y licencias susceptibles de facilitar el equilibrio entre vida profesional y familiar de Australia, Canadá, República de Corea, Estados Unidos, Europa occidental y Japón utilizando un índice compuesto para clasificarlas. Los Estados Unidos figuran en último lugar: la concesión de vacaciones anuales al trabajador no es obligatoria y las licencias por motivos familiares se limitan a 12 semanas al año. Este bajo nivel de reglamentación podría deberse, según los autores, a una concepción mercantilista del empleo sumada a la creencia de que empleador y trabajadores tienen idéntica capacidad de negociación, visión no compartida por las demás democracias industrializadas.     

Regional integration: an empirical assessment of Russia

Using a statistical model of commodity trade, we quantify the evolution of regional economic integration within Russia during 1995–1999, and explore potential determinants of this evolution. Our integration measure exhibits rich regional variation that, when aggregated to the national level, fluctuates substantially over time. In accounting for this behavior, we draw in part on theoretical models that emphasize the potential role of openness to international trade and regional disparities in income in threatening economic integration. Controlling for a host of additional regional- and national-level variables, we find a strong negative correspondence between openness to international trade and internal economic integration.     

Employee experience –the missing link for engaging employees: Insights from an MNE's AI-based HR ecosystem

Analyzing multiple data sources from a global information technology (IT) consulting multinational enterprise (MNE), this research unpacks the configuration of a digitalized HR ecosystem of artificial intelligence(AI)-assisted human resource management (HRM) applications and HR platforms. This study develops a novel theoretical framework mapping the nature and purpose of a digitalized AI-assisted HR ecosystem for delivering exceptional employee experience (EX), an antecedent to employee engagement (EE). Employing the theoretical lenses of EX, EE, AI-mediated social exchange, and engagement platforms, this study's overarching aim of this article is to establish how AI-assisted HRM fits into an organization's ecosystem and, second, how it impacts EX and EE. Our findings show that AI-assisted applications for HRM enhance EX and, thus, EE. We also see increases in employee productivity and HR function's effectiveness. Implications for research and practice are also discussed.     

Do employment subsidies work? Evidence from regionally targeted subsidies in Turkey

This paper studies the effects on registered employment and number of registered establishments of two employment subsidy schemes in Turkey. We implement a difference-in-differences methodology to construct appropriate counterfactuals for the covered provinces. Our findings suggest that both subsidy programs did lead to significant net increases in registered jobs in eligible provinces (5%–13% for the first program and 11%–15% for the second). However, the cost of the actual job creation was high because of substantial deadweight losses, particularly for the first program (47% and 78%). Because of better design features, the second subsidy program had lower, though still significant, deadweight losses (27%–46%). Although constrained by data availability, the evidence suggests that the dominant effect of subsidies was to increase social security registration of firms and workers rather than boosting total employment and economic activity. This supports the theory that in countries with weak enforcement institutions, high labor taxes on low-wage workers may lead to substantial incentives for firms and workers to operate informally.