What Determines Collection Rates of Debt Collection Agencies?

We contribute to the literature on debt collection agencies in two ways: First, we present an estimation of the collection rates. The distribution of collection rates exhibits a mean of about 65% and a strong bimodality with peaks at the very ends of the distribution. Second, we investigate potential determinants of the collection success. We find that collection rates are positively related to the exposure at default and to prior debtor‐specific collection rates. In contrast, the age of the account and—if applicable—prior experience with the debtor have a negative impact on collection rates.     

On comparing the accuracy of default predictions in the rating industry

We consider 1927 borrowers from 54 countries who had a credit rating by both Moody’s and S&P at the end of 1998, and their subsequent default history up to the end of 2002. Viewing bond ratings as predicted probabilities of default, we consider partial orderings among competing probability forecasters and show that Moody’s and S&P cannot be ordered according to any of these. Therefore, the relative performance of the agencies depends crucially on the way in which probability predictions are compared.     

A temporal analysis of how entrepreneurial goal intentions,positive fantasies,and action planning affect starting a new venture and when the effects wear off

The road from intentions to actions and new venture creation is long. So far, the literature has provided insights into action-regulatory factors that contribute to new venture creation. However, the literature has neglected to take into account the temporal dynamics underlying these relationships. We contribute to action-regulation theories in entrepreneurship by theorizing about and investigating how the effects of action-regulatory factors hold over time. We hypothesize that the action-regulatory factors of entrepreneurial goal intentions, positive fantasies, and action planning have combined effects on new venture creation. Furthermore, we hypothesize that these effects become weaker over time. To test our hypotheses, we studied 96 Ugandan entrepreneurs over 30 months. Our results supported our hypotheses. Action planning moderated the effects of entrepreneurial goal intentions and positive fantasies on new venture creation. Furthermore, the effects were significant in the beginning and wore off over time. Our study shows that including a time frame in theoretical models is important to derive valid conclusions from empirical results and to develop more precise theories.     

A super-replication theorem in Kabanov’s model of transaction costs

We prove a general version of the super-replication theorem, which applies to Kabanov’s model of foreign exchange markets under proportional transaction costs. The market is described by a matrix-valued càdlàg bid-ask process evolving in continuous time. We propose a new definition of admissible portfolio processes as predictable (not necessarily right- or left- continuous) processes of finite variation related to the bid-ask process by economically meaningful relations. Under the assumption of existence of a strictly consistent price system (SCPS), we prove a closedness property for the set of attainable vector-valued contingent claims. We then obtain the super-replication theorem as a consequence of that property, thus generalizing to possibly discontinuous bid-ask processes analogous results obtained by Kabanov (Financ. Stoch. 3, 237–248, 1999), Kabanov and Last (Math. Financ. 12, 63–70, 2002) and Kabanov and Stricker (Advances in Finance and Stochastics: Essays in Honour of Dieter Sondermann, pp 125–136, 2002). Rásonyi’s counter-example (Lecture Notes in Mathematics 1832, 394–398, 2003) served as an important motivation for our approach.     

Mortgage Prepayment and Default Decisions: A Poisson Regression Approach

This paper uses an extensive and geographically dispersed sample of single-family fixed rate mortgages to assess the prepayment and default behavior of individual homeowners. We make use of Poisson regression to efficiently estimate the parameters of a proportional hazards model for prepayment and default decisions. Poisson regression for grouped survival data has several advantages over partial likelihood methods. First, when dealing with time-dependent covar-iates, it is considerably more efficient in terms of computations. Second, it is possible to estimate full-hazard models which include, for example, functions of time as well as multiple time scales (i.e., age of the loan and calendar time), in a much more straightforward manner than partial likelihood methods for un-grouped data. Third, Poisson regression can be used to estimate non-proportional hazards models such as additive excess risk specifications. Taken together, our data and estimation methodology allow us to obtain a better understanding of the economic factors underlying prepayment and default decisions.     

Correction to: Socio-legal systems and implementation of the Nash solution in Debreu–Hurwicz equilibrium

Review of Economic Design -     

Trade and welfare effects of a potential free trade agreement between Japan and the United States

Review of World Economics - This paper addresses the trade and welfare implications of a bilateral trade agreement between the U.S. and Japan. In 2019, the two countries signed a “stage...     

Dividend imputation taxes and the curious case of a price premium between BHP and Billiton American depositary receipts

BHP Group was formed in 2001 when the Broken Hill Proprietary Company Limited in Australia merged with the Anglo–Dutch Billiton Plc in the UK to form a dual−listed company. The American Depositary Receipts (ADRs) for BHP and Billiton trade on the NYSE, and despite these two securities having exactly the same voting rights and US dollar denominated dividends, the BHP ADR generally sells at a premium to the Billiton ADR, though that premium has considerable time−series variation. We investigate whether differences in the imputation tax systems that apply to dividends in Australia and the UK help explain the time series variation in the premium of the ADR prices. Our results confirm that imputation tax differences are a significant determinant of the premium. Our paper hence provides direct evidence that imputation tax credits are capitalised into equity prices.