Organizational change and accounting: the gunpowder monopoly in New Spain, 1757-87

The Viceroyalty of New Spain was the main source of income for the Spanish Crown and the largest producer of silver in the world throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Carlos III, a member of the Bourbon dynasty, initiated a great tax reform in the viceroyalty during the last third of the eighteenth century, and transferred public activities and leased monopolies were brought under direct state control. This paper focuses on the study of the specific change in the system of administering the gunpowder monopoly in 1766. Institutional sociology provides the theoretical framework for analysing the effects of institutionalized environments on the organizational structure and its expression through a process of bureaucratization as a mean of establishing organizational rationality. The role of accounting in the process of organizational change is analysed from a multidimensional perspective: on the one hand, as an aspect of the organizational structure which enables the improvement of the economic performance of the monopoly and to generate organizational visibility; and, on the other hand, as an element under the control of the creator of environmental rationality.     

The Euro and Other Major Currencies Floating Against the U.S. Dollar

This paper discusses the interdependent effects of conditional volatilities in returns of the Euro and other major currencies against U.S. dollar exchange rates (spot rates) since the launch of the Euro, using, for this purpose, the daily data and dynamic conditional correlation (DCC)–GARCH model with country-specific effects. The following conclusions are drawn: there are volatility spillovers (contemporaneous and lagged) in the Euro, Yen, and British pound, the degree of the correlation is high between the Euro and British pound against the U.S. dollar, there is a very strong association between the ECB Euro reference rate (fixing rates) and U.S.-traded spot rates, and finally, the impulse-response of volatility (after the accession of new Member States to the European Union) rapidly diminishes in the spot markets, indicating a short-run dynamic effect.     

Market Power in European Banking Sectors

We analyze the evolution of market power in the main banking sectors of the European Union. The evolution of the relative margins does not show an increase in the degree of competition within the EU. The explanatory factors of the relative margins most directly related to market power are not significant, and even have a negative influence (concentration in the deposits market). The size and efficiency of banks, default risk, and the economic cycle have a notable capacity to explain the behavior of the market power. The results show the inadequacy of using concentration measures as proxy for the competition environment in banking markets.     

Can Fundamentals Explain Cross-Country Correlations of Asset Returns?

Previous studies show that existing correlations between national returns are higher than correlations between the national growth rates of fundamental variables. This paper examines the ability of intertemporal asset pricing models to explain cross-country correlations of national returns. We find that when capital markets are assumed to be fully integrated, a simple intertemporal general equilibrium model is able to explain the observed co-variability of domestic asset returns but generates too little variability in those returns. Results improve considerably if a less restrictive version is employed. In that setting, both domestic variability and cross-country co-variability of returns are consistent with capital market integration. JEL no. G12, G15, E44     

Impact of introducing eco-innovation measures on productivity in transport sector companies

This paper analyses the impact of factors related to innovation and the environment, among others, on labour productivity in the Spanish transport sector. The methodological approach used in this study was based on the CDM structural model. The main advantage of this model is its capacity to integrate investment in R&D and the generation of knowledge and production innovation. The data used in the estimations were obtained from the Technological Innovation Panel (PITEC) database. PITEC is a panel-type database jointly prepared by the Spanish National Institute of Statistics (INE) and the Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology (FECYT). The econometric results show that reducing the environmental impact has a statistically significant and positive effect at all stages of the innovative process and above all on labour productivity of transport firms, where the improvement of labour productivity can reach 8.35% compared to non-ecoinnovative companies. This finding could alert firms in the transport sector to the need to improve their activities by adopting environmentally proactive attitudes.     

The effects of globalization and technology on the elasticity of substitution

The elasticity of substitution between capital and labor (\(\sigma\)) is usually considered a “deep parameter”. This paper shows, in contrast, that \(\sigma\) is affected by both globalization and technology, and that different intensities in these drivers have different consequences for the OECD and the non-OECD economies. In the OECD, we find that the elasticity of substitution between capital and labor is below unity; that it increases along with the degree of globalization; but it decreases with the level of technology. Although results for the non-OECD area are more heterogeneous, we find that technology enhances the substitutability between capital and labor. We also find evidence of a non-significant impact of the capital-output ratio on the labor share irrespective of the degree of globalization (which would be consistent with an average aggregate Cobb–Douglas technology). Given the relevance of \(\sigma\) for economic growth and the functional distribution of income, the intertwined linkage among globalization, technology and the elasticity of substitution should be taken into account in any policy makers’ objective function.     

An Exploration of Asset Returns in a Production Economy with Relative Habits

This paper explores asset returns in a production economy with habit forming households. We show that a model with capital adjustment costs and relative habits is consistent with salient financial facts, such as the equity premium, the market price of risk, and the riskfree interest rate. These predictions are not at odds with good business cycle predictions. In the model, economy investment is strongly procyclical and more volatile than output, which in turn is more volatile than consumption. Moreover, consumption growth is positively autocorrelated and negatively (positively) correlated with future (past) stock returns.

Liquidity Constraints,Competition, and Markup Cyclicality

This article provides evidence on the relation among financial constraints, competition, and the cyclicality of markups. Based on a long series of industry data from a large number of countries, we find that markups increase in conjunction with the business cycle in environments with higher short‐term financial constraints (liquidity constraints) and more competition. The evidence also suggests that these two elements complement each other: the procyclicality of markups in firms facing both high competition and high liquidity constraints is higher than that explained by each determinant independently.