The ownership of ratings

We identify the optimal contract between a rating agency and a firm and the circumstances under which simple ownership contracts implement this optimal solution. We assume that the decision to obtain a rating is endogenous and the price of a rating is a strategic variable. Clients hiding their ratings can be an equilibrium only if they are ex ante uncertain of their quality and if the hiring decision is not observable. For some distribution functions, a competitive rating market is necessary for this result to obtain. In this context, competition between rating intermediaries will lead to less information in equilibrium.     

Access to financing,rents, and organization of the firm

This paper provides a theory for the choice of an organizational structure by the headquarters of a unitary structure concerned about overload. The headquarters can avoid overload by delegating operational decisions to divisions, i.e., moving the firm to a multidivisional structure. We show that, under moral hazard, these divisions receive rents for incentive purposes, and that the multidivisional structure is able to invest more. Thus, there is a trade-off between increasing investment and paying rents. We also show that this trade-off applies to situations where firms consider engaging in acquisitions and joint ventures, or where entrepreneurs consider resorting to venture capitalists.     

融入全球经济的亚洲与非洲

在二十世纪六、七十年代 ,东南亚和非洲同属于世界上的不发达地区。然而 ,在此后的三十年里 ,情况却发生了变化。东南亚经济逐渐兴起 ,并成为世界经济中举足轻重的一部分。而非洲经济不仅没有进步 ,反而每况愈下。究竟是那些原因导致了东南亚和非洲出现如此的差别 ?本文通过四个方面的比较 ,对这一问题做了简要的回答。     

Everything All Right at the Internal EU Borders? The Ambivalent Effects of Cross-Border Integration and the Rise of Euroscepticism

ABSTRACT

The policy of the European Union, which promotes a vision of Europe without borders and has fostered the development of cooperation across borders over 25 years, has led, in some parts of Europe, to the emergence of so-called integrated cross-border regions. Thus far, the increase of cross-border flows and interactions has always been a normative and almost unquestioned policy paradigm. However, tendencies of re-bordering and signs of growing Euroscepticism can also be observed nowadays in these border regions, which show the importance of investigating the negative externalities that can be generated by cross-border integration. This article attempts to do this by focusing on three case studies usually considered as among the most integrated ones in Europe because of cross-border flows related to work: the cross-border metropolitan regions of Basel, Geneva and Luxembourg. Our findings show that if several decades of cross-border integration have led to the reinforcement of the functional linkages between the border regions, some effects of the cross-border integration process have also created a functional specialisation of space that relies on social and economic inequalities. Such a situation contradicts the ideal of cross-border territorial cohesion and helps to better understand the rise of Euroscepticism in some of the border areas.     

What Drives the International Transfer of Climate Change Mitigation Technologies? Empirical Evidence from Patent Data

Technology transfer plays a key role in global efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. In this paper, we characterize the factors that promote or hinder the international diffusion of climate-friendly technologies using detailed patent data from 96 countries for the period 1995–2007. The data provide strong evidence that lax Intellectual Property regimes have a strong and negative impact on the international diffusion of patented knowledge. Restrictions on international trade and foreign direct investment also hinder the diffusion of climate-friendly technologies. Surprisingly, local technological capabilities tend to discourage transfers. While broad indicators of technology capabilities are expected to facilitate transfers, this latter result stems from our technology-specific definition of local capabilities, which makes it possible to capture a substitution effect between local and foreign inventions.     

Relaciones laborales y medidas de ajuste frente a la crisis. Análisis microestadístico comparativo de Francia y Gran Bretaña

En este estudio comparativo, los autores analizan los vínculos entre las relaciones laborales y los ajustes salariales o de plantilla tras la crisis de 2007–2008, a partir de dos encuestas comparables sobre empresas de Gran Bretaña (WERS) y de Francia (REPONSE) en 2010–2012. Pese a las diferencias contextuales (composición del tejido productivo, circunstancias temporales e intensidad de la crisis), los vínculos entre las relaciones laborales y las estrategias de ajuste son parecidos (la presencia sindical no logra evitar los ajustes). Por lo tanto, la diferenciación de los sistemas de relaciones laborales no permite explicar las divergencias entre las modalidades de ajuste a nivel macroeconómico.     

Novel versus familiar brands: An analysis of neurophysiology, response latency, and choice

Two experiments were conducted to analyze neurophysiological activation, response latency, and actual brand choice concerning novel and familiar brands. The results show that (1) the choice of novel brands (compared to the choice of familiar brands) is preceded by increased activation of both the cingulate gyrus and the ventromedial prefrontal cortex, as measured by a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study; (2) novel brands are associated with longer choice response latency than familiar brands; and (3) positive mood enhances response latency of choosing novel brands compared to familiar brands.     

Pathwise moderate deviations for option pricing

We provide a unifying treatment of pathwise moderate deviations for models commonly used in financial applications, and for related integrated functionals. Suitable scaling enables us to transfer these results into small‐time, large‐time, and tail asymptotics for diffusions, as well as for option prices and realized variances. In passing, we highlight some intuitive relationships between moderate deviations rate functions and their large deviations counterparts; these turn out to be useful for numerical purposes, as large deviations rate functions are often difficult to compute.     

Do Investments in Specialized Knowledge Lead to Composite Good Industries?

We try to understand why firms producing goods by means of complementary components do not merge, especially in industries in which investments in component-based knowledge matters. As Audretsch, we state that these activities are developed by “individuals” who do their best to appropriate the return from their knowledge and whose effort is non-contractible. The organization of the industry into firms is identified to a partition of the set of individuals. In this context, we prove that an organization in which each individual hold his own firms is both stable with respect to unilateral deviation and optimal in the line of the property right approach. If the returns are high enough, this structure is even the only one which shares both properties.