Ratings based capital adequacy for securitizations

This paper develops a framework to measure the exposure to systematic risk for pools of asset securitizations and measures empirically whether current ratings-based rules for regulatory capital of securitizations under Basel II and Basel III reflect this exposure. The analysis is based on a comprehensive US dataset on asset securitizations for the time period between 2000 and 2008. We find that the shortfall of regulatory capital during the Global Financial Crisis is strongly related to ratings. In particular, we empirically show that insufficient capital is allocated to tranches with the highest rating. These tranches account for the greatest part of the total issuance volumes. Furthermore, this paper is the first to calibrate risk weights which account for systematic risk and provide sufficient capital buffers to cover the exposure during similar economic downturns. These policy-relevant findings suggest a re-calibration of RBA risk weights and may contribute to the current efforts by the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision and others to re-establish sustainable securitization markets and to improve the stability of the financial system.     

Does Regulation Trade Off Quality against Inequality? The Case of German Architects and Construction Engineers

We exploit an exogenous price increase of 10 per cent for architectural services to answer the question how price regulation affects income inequality and service quality. Using individual‐level data from the German microcensus for the years 2006–2012, we find a significant reform effect of 8 per cent on personal net income for self‐employed architects and construction engineers. This group moved from the second lowest to the highest quintile of the net income distribution. This increase in inequality is associated with a deterioration of service quality. The reform reduced average scores of a peer ranking for architects by 18 per cent.     

Visualizing Efficiency and Reference Relations in Data Envelopment Analysis with an Application to the Branches of a German Bank

The interest in Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) as a method for analyzing the productivity of homogeneous Decision Making Units (DMUs) has significantly increased in recent years. One of the main goals of DEA is to measure for each DMU its production efficiency relative to the other DMUs under analysis. Apart from a relative efficiency score, DEA also provides reference DMUs for inefficient DMUs. An inefficient DMU has, in general, more than one reference DMU, and an efficient DMU may be a reference unit for a large number of inefficient DMUs. These reference and efficiency relations describe a net which connects efficient and inefficient DMUs. We visualize this net by applying Sammons mapping. Such a visualization provides a very compact representation of the respective reference and efficiency relations and it helps to identify for an inefficient DMU efficient DMUs respectively DMUs with a high efficiency score which have a similar structure and can therefore be used as models. Furthermore, it can also be applied to visualize potential outliers in a very efficient way.JEL Classification: C14, C61, D24, M2     

Knowledge,profitability and exit of German car manufacturing firms

In this paper, the profitability of German car manufacturing firms is related to different indicators for the knowledge incorporated in the firms since the birth of the industry in 1886. The analysis is performed with an ordered probit model, where information about the mode of exit of the firms is exploited to construct a latent variable for profitability. Knowledge is represented by the number of patents, learning-by-doing and entrepreneurial experience before entry. The results show that knowledge is significantly positively related to firm profitability and that each of the three knowledge forms exerts an independent effect.     

Short Selling Pressure,Reporting Transparency,and the Use of Real and Accruals Earnings Management to Meet Benchmarks

Abstract

Prior literature finds that short selling is beneficial to the market because it increases liquidity and helps to discipline optimistic market prices. The authors use 2 controlled experiments to examine the potential for an unintended consequence of allowing short selling or easing short selling restrictions. Because prior research identifies short sellers as sophisticated market participants who have the ability to see through accrual earnings management choices, we predict and find that, when reporting is transparent, managers are more likely to use real earnings management relative to accrual earnings management when short selling restrictions are relaxed. This is consistent with the idea that real earnings management activities are more defensible as the result of legitimate operating decisions and are therefore more likely to hold up to scrutiny from short sellers. Overall, the results suggest that regulations that are unrelated to financial reporting can affect how managers respond to the transparency that arises from financial reporting regulations.     

Stage‐to‐Stage Information Dependency in the NPD Process: Effective Learning or a Potential Entrapment of NPD Gates?

The new product development (NPD) process is a sequence of stages and gates. Each stage consists of NPD activities that provide NPD managers with information input about the new product project progression. Information input is used for review decisions at gates. Over the course of an NPD process, managers learn about a new product project as to ensure successful launch. The view is that a new product project is shaped by the path of NPD activities it has traveled. Because learning is assumed to take place over the course of the NPD process, stage‐to‐stage information dependency is an assumption of NPD research. A concern raised is that development activities for each NPD stage are rigorously followed by NPD managers. In other words, stage‐to‐stage information dependency may potentially trap NPD managers rather than create effective learning from end to end of the development process. The purpose of this paper is to explore the assumption of stage‐to‐stage information dependency in NPD. The investigated research questions are whether the selection of NPD activities is linked between stages and whether these information dependencies strengthen NPD gate decisions. For the information dependencies identified in the study, the innovation experience characteristics of NPD managers pursuing them and the influence of information dependencies on NPD gate decisions are analyzed so as to provide insights for a discussion of information dependency versus information independency in the NPD process. The applied research method is an experiential simulation of NPD gate decision‐making—NPDGATES. One hundred thirty‐one NPD managers from international product development strategic business units (SBUs) situated in Denmark participated in the study. Logistic regressions were conducted as the basis for the calculation of stage‐to‐stage information dependency probabilities. Based on the study findings, the assumption about information dependency in the NPD process held by NPD research is found to be flawed. End‐to‐end information paths in the NPD process are rare. Further, market condition changes are found to significantly influence the stage‐to‐stage information dependencies demonstrated by NPD managers. It seems that competition becomes a reassurance of NPD efforts. Also, the results show that NPD experience creates inflexibility in relation to the selection of NPD activities. The need for strict process management is strong among experienced NPD managers. In relation to NPD gates, the results show that information dependencies increase priority given to financial decision criteria at gates and lower priority given to customer and market decision criteria. Overall, stage‐to‐stage information dependency seems to create inflexibility that hinders successful NPD process implementation.     

Feasibility of conservation agriculture in the Amu Darya River Lowlands,Central Asia

Human-driven land degradation threatens economic and environmental sustainability of irrigated agricultural production such as in Central Asia. Many current challenges can be eased by implementing Conservation Agriculture (CA), with however unknown financial consequences under the predominating irrigated conditions. We applied the linear programming to compare costs and benefits of four CA production systems, which are cotton-based rotation systems including (i) cotton-cotton and (ii) cotton-wheat-maize rotations under conventional tillage (CT), as well as (iii) cotton-cover crop-cotton, and (iv) cotton-wheat-maize rotations with mulch cover (crop residue retaining) and both rotations under permanent-bed planting (PB) with minimum tillage. All systems were subjected to six levels of land quality and a series of crop pricing schemes. Data were extracted from empirical research on CA in Uzbekistan, complemented with data on input and output prices from surveys. The findings underpinned the financial advantages of more diversified cropping systems (cotton-wheat-maize) over the crop monoculture (cotton-cotton-based system). Crop cultivation on marginal land was unprofitable under CT. In contrast, crop production under PB could generate profits even on croplands with a lower productivity level considered. It is argued that PB with crop residue retaining and applied in cotton-wheat-maize rotation shows most promise for improving crop yields and income.