{"title":"Board Transparency, CEO Monitoring and Firms' Financial Performance","authors":"Aloy Soppe, Niels Van Zijl, Auke de Bos","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.1621557","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1621557","url":null,"abstract":"This international empirical study analyses the relation between board transparency, CEO monitoring policy and financial performance. A unique dataset of, on average, 1211 companies from 25 different countries, as provided by international SiRi analysts over the years 2003-2007, enables us to quantify relations between reported corporate governance attributes and financial performance. This paper applies the Fama and French (1993) and Carhart (1997) methodology to estimate the influence of ‘good governance’ on financial performance. Quintile top and bottom portfolios are selected and compared financially. Controlling for size, risk, book-to-market value and a momentum factor, it is concluded that the top transparent companies show significant better financial performance statistically (7.8% per year) than compared with less transparent companies. A second conclusion shows there is evidence that a more intense CEO monitoring policy by a company’s board does lead to a statistically higher financial performance in countries with the German legal origin but a negative return in those with the French legal origin. Despite the increasing influence of stewardship theory, these results indicate that the opposing agency theory still dominates the international capital markets.","PeriodicalId":340291,"journal":{"name":"ERN: Intertemporal Firm Choice & Growth","volume":"19 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2010-06-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"127754905","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Job Quality and Labour Market Performance","authors":"C. Erhel, Mathilde Guergoat-Larivière","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.1622244","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1622244","url":null,"abstract":"Job quality is a multidimensional concept, but the empirical analysis of job quality in Europe leads to three main types of result. First, it reveals important differences across countries, with four main regimes prevalent in Europe. Second, it supports the hypothesis that a higher level of job quality is associated with better labour market and economic performance. Finally, it emphasises the heterogeneity of quality across social groups, especially according to gender, age, and education.","PeriodicalId":340291,"journal":{"name":"ERN: Intertemporal Firm Choice & Growth","volume":"8 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2010-06-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"116889576","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Effect of Financing Frictions on Firm Cash Policy, Cash Flows and Risk Premium","authors":"Huidan Lin, Daniel Paravisini","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.1594121","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1594121","url":null,"abstract":"Consistent with precautionary savings models, we provide evidence that firms hoard cash in response to an exogenous credit shortage. For identification, we compare public U.S. firms in the same industry, location, and size quintile, but whose access to bank credit was differentially affected around WorldCom’s demise in 2002. The credit shortage induces a decrease in the level of cash flows, and an increase in their volatility and skewness. It also increases the covariance of stock returns with the market. The overall results suggest that financing frictions increase firms’ likelihood of financial distress and risk premium.","PeriodicalId":340291,"journal":{"name":"ERN: Intertemporal Firm Choice & Growth","volume":"70 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2010-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"134621670","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Managing Dissatisfied Customers in Retailing Businesses in Nigeria","authors":"S. Ewah, U. Ewa, A. Ekeng","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.1612290","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1612290","url":null,"abstract":"This study is a theoretical overview of retailing type of business in Nigeria and it encompasses characteristics and types of retail outlets, product-price decision variables, factors that favour their growth, legislative influences and the wheel of retailing. The other aspect is on how retailers or retail stores handle problems of customers’ compliant about dissatisfy products. Basically most retailers use explanations, in the form of excuses, apologies, justification, coupon or compensation and speed (urgency) in attending to such complaint to exonerate them. What is most pertinent is for the retailers to accept responsibility for the poor quality or handling of their products or the injury product must have caused to customers, despite the method use to suppress the dissatisfaction, in order to maintain a cordial relationship between the customers and the retail stores. This will enhance continuous purchases, and generate revenue for the retailers.","PeriodicalId":340291,"journal":{"name":"ERN: Intertemporal Firm Choice & Growth","volume":"66 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2010-05-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"124643449","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Optimal Investment Strategies under Stochastic Volatility - Estimation and Applications","authors":"C. Chiarella, Chih-ying Hsiao","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.1695301","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1695301","url":null,"abstract":"This paper studies the impact of stochastic volatility (SV) on optimal investment decisions. We consider three different SV models: an extended Stein/Stein model, the Heston Model and an extended Heston Model with a constant elasticity variance (CEV) process and derive the the long-term optimal investment strategies under each of these processes. Since volatility is not a directly observable quantity, extended Kalman filter techniques are adopted to deal with this partial information problem. Optimal investment strategies based on the CEV volatility model are obtained by adopting the Backward Markov Chain approximation method since analytical solutions are no longer available. We find in the empirical investigation that the Heston model is favored as a more parsimonious model compared with the other two models. All three investment strategies based on the three SV models contain a positive intertemporal hedging term in addition to the static mean-variance portfolio. However, in their details the three investment strategies differ from each other. We also ?nd that the investment strategies are sensitive to the CEV parameter.","PeriodicalId":340291,"journal":{"name":"ERN: Intertemporal Firm Choice & Growth","volume":"33 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2010-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"126758399","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Creditworthiness of the Poor: A Model of the Grameen Bank","authors":"M. Kowalik, David Martínez-Miera","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.1598453","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1598453","url":null,"abstract":"This paper analyzes the role of expected income in entrepreneurial borrowing. We claim that poorer individuals are safer borrowers because they place more value on the relationship with the bank. We study the dynamics of a monopolistic bank granting loans and taking deposits from overlapping generations of entrepreneurs with different levels of expected income. Matching the evidence of the Grameen Bank we show that a bank will focus on individuals with lower expected income, and will not disburse dividends until it reaches all the potential borrowers. We find empirical support for our theoretical results using data from a household survey from Bangladesh. We show that various measures of expected income are positively and signficantly correlated with default probabilities.","PeriodicalId":340291,"journal":{"name":"ERN: Intertemporal Firm Choice & Growth","volume":"58 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2010-04-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"129124616","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Excess Cash Holdings and Shareholder Value","authors":"Edward Lee, R. Powell","doi":"10.1111/j.1467-629X.2010.00359.x","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-629X.2010.00359.x","url":null,"abstract":"We examine the determinants of corporate cash holdings in Australia and the impact on shareholder wealth of holding excess cash. Our results show that a trade-off model best explains the level of a firm’s cash holdings in Australia. We find that ‘transitory’ excess cash firms earn significantly higher risk-adjusted returns compared to ‘persistent’ excess cash firms, suggesting that the market penalises firms who hoard cash. The marginal value of cash also declines with larger cash balances, and the longer firms hold on to excess cash. The results are consistent with agency costs associated with persistence in excess cash holdings.","PeriodicalId":340291,"journal":{"name":"ERN: Intertemporal Firm Choice & Growth","volume":"245 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2010-04-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"123881582","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Liquidity Constraints and Firm's Export Activity","authors":"Emanuele Forlani","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.1646950","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1646950","url":null,"abstract":"This paper will assess the importance of internal firm resources in overcoming sunk entry costs associated with export. When firms are not able to raise additional external funds for investments, they are credit-constrained, and in such a case, new exporters have to rely on their internal liquidity to pay sunk costs. Using a data set of small and medium size Italian enterprises (SMEs), we find that entry probability in the export market is affected by the level of cash stock for constrained firms. We propose a methodology used to identify a priori constrained firms, employing index analysis as used in business economics. The estimation of the Euler equation for investments confirms the fitness of our classification. In addition we find that exporters show higher liquidity if they raise the number of destinations. Finally, we do not find evidence that entry in the export market improves firm's financial health, while ex-ante new entrants are found to be relatively more leveraged.","PeriodicalId":340291,"journal":{"name":"ERN: Intertemporal Firm Choice & Growth","volume":"43 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2010-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"123277838","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Evaluating Vietnamese Commercial Banks Using Data Envelopment Analysis Approach (Vietnamese)","authors":"Thanh Ngo","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.1584030","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1584030","url":null,"abstract":"This paper focus on evaluating the efficiency of some Vietnamese commercial banks in using inputs such as wage (w), interest fee and similar (i) and other cost (c). The results show that efficiency of 22 banks is average high, however, there is still an opportunity to improve this indicator.","PeriodicalId":340291,"journal":{"name":"ERN: Intertemporal Firm Choice & Growth","volume":"165 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2010-03-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"131015244","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Michele Benvenuti, Silvia Del Prete, L. Casolaro, Paolo Emilio Mistrulli
{"title":"Loan Officer Authority and Small Business Lending: Evidence from a Survey","authors":"Michele Benvenuti, Silvia Del Prete, L. Casolaro, Paolo Emilio Mistrulli","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.1657856","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1657856","url":null,"abstract":"A vast literature has emphasized that small banks are at a comparative advantage in small business lending. In this paper, we show that apart from size, which is negatively correlated with bank specialization in small business lending, organizational characteristics affect bank loan portfolio choices. By using a unique dataset based on a recent survey of Italian banks, we find that after having controlled for bank size, a branch loan officer’s authority has a key role in explaining bank specialization in small business lending. In particular, banks which delegate more decision-making power to their branch loan officers are more willing to lend to small firms than other banks. We approximate loan officers’ authority by controlling for several factors which shape their incentives: loan officer turnover, the amount of money up to which they are allowed to lend autonomously, their role in loan approval and in setting loan interest rates, the kind of information (soft versus hard information) used for screening and monitoring borrowers, and the structure of their compensation schemes.","PeriodicalId":340291,"journal":{"name":"ERN: Intertemporal Firm Choice & Growth","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2010-03-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"130230413","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}