Search results for " MARKETS"
showing 10 items of 321 documents
Unemployment Transitions to Stable and Unstable Jobs Before and During the Crisis
2014
Using administrative records data from Spanish Social Security, we analyse the pattern and the determinants of individual unemployment benefit spell durations. We compare a period of expansion (2005-2007) and the recent recession (2009-2011), allowing us to determine the impact of the current crisis. In line with the duality that characterizes the Spanish labour market, we distinguish between exits to a stable job and exits to an unstable job. We estimate a Multivariate Mixed Proportional Hazard Model for each time period. We find similar effects of the crisis for stable and unstable jobs, which are particularly strong in the first year of the spell. Moreover, slight negative duration depen…
How local conditions affect global banking: the case of BBVA and Santander
2021
This paper explores why Spanish banks internationalize and why Latin America has been the main region for the international expansion of BBVA and Santander. It shows that prior to 1986 Spanish banks had a limited presence abroad, and analyses the main drivers of this initial expansion (remittances and trade connections). However, from 1986 on, there was a confluence of domestic and external factors (economic and regulatory changes in Latin America) that encouraged the international forays of BBVA and Santander. The fact that changes in the Spanish and Latin American financial sectors occurred just when other transnational banks were turning their attention to other regions created the optim…
Can Soft Models Describe Polymer Knots?
2020
Similar to macroscopic ropes and cables, long polymers create knots. We address the fundamental question whether and under which conditions it is possible to describe these intriguing objects with crude models that capture only mesoscale polymer properties. We focus on melts of long polymers which we describe by a model typical for mesoscopic simulations. A worm-like chain model defines the polymer architecture. To describe nonbonded interactions, we deliberately choose a generic "soft" repulsive potential that leads to strongly overlapping monomers and coarse local liquid structure. The soft model is parametrized to accurately reproduce mesoscopic structure and conformations of reference p…
FinTech in Latvia: Status Quo, Current Developments, and Challenges Ahead
2021
FinTech has been in the focus of discussion for quite some time. However, the market share of FinTech companies is still relatively small compared to that of more traditional financial services. The purpose of this paper is to analyse the status quo, current developments, and challenges ahead for the Latvian FinTech sector. We combine three analyses: a political and legal, economic, social, and technological environment (PEST) analysis
Home Country Institutions and Outward FDI: An Exploratory Analysis in Emerging Economies
2020
Although the internationalization of economies is driven by specific industry conditions or business-specific differences, the institutions that exist as background conditions directly determine firms&rsquo
MEDIUM-TERM DETERMINANTS OF INTERNATIONAL INVESTMENT POSITIONS: THE ROLE OF STRUCTURAL POLICIES
2012
This paper provides an empirical investigation of the medium-term determinants of international investment positions for a large sample of advanced and emerging economies. In addition to the usually considered drivers of foreign assets and liabilities, the analysis focuses on the role of structural policy indicators. Using cross-section and panel regression techniques the results suggest that structural policy settings are important medium-term drivers of capital flows, having a relatively large impact on gross and net foreign capital positions and on their composition. In particular, the results suggest that certain kinds of structural policy reform could help to narrow global imbalances,…
Testing for Financial Contagion Between Developed and Emerging Markets During the 1997 East Asian Crisis
2003
In this paper we examine whether during the 1997 East Asian crisis there was any contagion from the four largest economies in the region (Thailand, Indonesia, Korea and Malaysia) to a number of developed countries (Japan, UK, Germany and France). Following Forbes and Rigobon (2002), we test for contagion as a significant positive shift in the correlation between asset returns, taking into account heteroscedasticity and endogeneity bias. Furthermore, we improve on earlier empirical studies by carrying out a full sample test of the stability of the system that relies on more plausible (over)identifying restrictions. The estimation results provide some evidence of contagion, in particular from…
Product and process innovation and total factor productivity: Evidence for manufacturing in four Latin American countries
2017
The literature on firm productivity recognizes the important role played by firm innovation activities on firm productivity in developed countries. However, the literature for developing and emerging economies is scarce and far from conclusive. The aim of this paper is to study the innovation–productivity link (distinguishing between process and product innovations) for manufacturing at the firm level for four Latin American countries (two classified as upper-middle income countries by the World Bank—Argentina and Mexico—and two as lower-middle income—Colombia and Peru). We aim testing whether the level of development is a mediating factor in the innovation–productivity link. The data used …
Can an unglamorous non-event affect prices? The role of newspapers
2016
AbstractOur paper offers evidence that the print media can affect stock prices by covering public information. After price-to-book value figures of Italian listed shares were first published on the major national financial newspaper, the prices of value stocks did, on average, show a positive reaction. The price reaction was limited to small caps stocks and disappeared within three weeks. Over the period of analysis, we could not find any abnormal behaviour of the returns of small and value stocks on other European markets. These findings support the view that newspapers play a role in disseminating information to small investors and grabbing their attention, even if news are continuously r…
Bubbles in China
2010
This study examines rational bubbles in Chinese stock markets and China-related share indices in Hong Kong. A duration dependence test is employed for both monthly and weekly abnormal market returns of the Shanghai and Shenzhen A- and B-markets, as well as for the Hong Kong China Enterprises and China Affiliated Corporations indices. The test results are mixed, as weekly data demonstrate bubbles for all of the Mainland Chinese stock markets, but monthly data do not show bubbles for any of the examined markets. Neither of the datasets indicates bubbles in the Hong Kong markets. Results indicate that, in terms of bubbles, segmentation does not play a significant role in bubble existence and t…