Search results for "Monetary"
showing 10 items of 502 documents
Democratic Principles and the Economic Branch of the European Monetary Union
2017
L'articolo si propone di indagare sul valore che i vari principi democratici enunciati nel TUE hanno nello specifico settore dell'UEM, in particolare nel pilastro della politica economica, dopo l'entrata in vigore delle riforme contenute nel Six pack e nel successivo Two Pack. Il lavoro intende in particolare rispondere a tre domande: A) le regole contenute nel six pack e nel two pack in tema di controllo democratico sono espressione di un preciso modello di controllo democratico sulle scelte di politica economica nell'ambito dell'UEM? B) E' un simile modello compatibile con i principi democratici del TUE? C) I principi democratici non rappresentativi possono compensare il minor peso che vi…
Another "French paradox": explaining why interest rates to microenterprises dit not increase with the change in French usury legislation
2015
Conventional wisdom indicates that the growth of credit may not materialize if credit rates remain capped by usury laws, as had long been the case in France. France therefore abolished usury ceilings on loans to microenterprise in an effort to increase financing for microentrepreneurs. This should have led to an increase in interest rates and increase in microcredit. However, we do not find any increase in interest rates and this is therefore a paradox. The paper provides a brief literature review and the salient features of the legislative changes in France. It follows this up with a presentation of interest rate movements. The discussion of possible explanations of the paradox includes cl…
Do Cross-Country Differences in Accounting Conservatism Explain Variations in the Degree of Investor Diversification?
2009
We show that the level of conditional accounting conservatism of foreign markets is significantly and positively associated with decisions to diversify portfolios internationally. This positive association could be either because conditional conservatism per se is attractive to international investors, or because the un-modelled factors that attract foreign investors to a country also cause these countries to adopt conditionally conservative accounting practices. However, if conditional conservatism serves to alleviate foreign investors’ concerns related to insiders having asymmetric access to information then one would also expect the chosen mode of entry into a foreign market (as foreign …
Shareholder Wealth Creation in Response to Announcements of Acquisitions of Unlisted Firms: Evidence from Spain
2011
We investigate shareholder value creation of Spanish listed firms in response to announcements of acquisitions of unlisted companies and compare this experience to the purchase of listed firms over the period 1991–2006. Similar to foreign markets, acquirers of listed targets earn insignificant average abnormal returns, whereas acquirers of unlisted targets gain significant positive average abnormal returns. When we relate these results to company and transaction characteristics our findings diverge from those reported in the literature for other foreign markets, as our evidence suggests that the listing status effect is mainly associated with the fact that unlisted firms tend to be smaller …
The Separating Role of Collateral Requirements in Credit Markets with Asymmetric Information
2001
In this paper we test Bester's (1985, 1987) prediction about the separating role of contracts that involve both interest rates and collateral requirements in credit markets. To test this prediction we use data from natural credit markets and controlled experiments. Using a sample of credits to small and medium size firms in Valencia, Spain, we relate two different types of contracts with the ex post risk type of the borrower and other relevant variables. We then design two incentive compatible contracts and analyze decisions under two different experimental treatments, one with moral hazard. Our empirical results confirm that borrowers of ex post lower risk choose contracts with higher coll…
Estimating the size of the loan sharking market in Italy
2014
In the current economic crisis, the risk is so high that entrepreneurs, commercial activities and even families may turn to the illegal market to obtain liquidity. This article proposes an estimate of the size of the usury credit market in Italy. The estimate is based on the assumption, provided by Guiso1, that before coming to a moneylender the borrower seeks to obtain credit through official channels. The results of our estimates confirm the seriousness of the problem, but provide much lower data than those reported periodically by the media. It is estimated that 372,000 economic activities may have been potentially involved in the usury market in 2012. The volume of loans disbursed in th…
Unveiling the Antecedents of International Diversification: An Agency Theory Approach
2014
While various studies have developed hypotheses about the antecedents of international diversification drawing mainly on the resource-based view, the behavioral theory of the firm, and the transaction costs literature, we advance our understanding by investigating the explanatory power of agency costs of free cash flow arguments. Using a sample panel of 167 Italian firms longitudinally evaluated during the 1980-2010 period, this study tests whether the firm’s choice to spread operations in multiple foreign countries is conditioned by excess of free cash flow and debt, especially in firm-contexts where agency problems are exacerbated by managers or large shareholders’ opportunism. We find th…
On the Macroeconomic Effect of Extortion: An Agent-Based Approach
2021
This work proposes an agent-based approach to study the effect of extortion on macroeconomic aggregates, despite the fact that there is little data on this criminal activity given its hidden nature. We develop a Bottom-up Adaptive Macroeconomics (BAM) model that simulates a healthy economy, including a moderate inflation and a reasonable unemployment rate, and test the impact of extortion on various macroeconomic signals. The BAM model defines the usual interactions among workers, firms and banks in labour, goods and credit markets. Subsequently, crime is introduced by defining the propensity of the poorest workers to become extortionists, as well as the efficiency of the police in terms of…
Assessing the impact of agri-environmental schemes on the eco-efficiency of rain-fed agriculture
2012
This paper analyses the impact of the Agri-environmental Extensification Scheme for the Protection of Flora and Fauna (F&F Scheme) on the eco-efficiency of a sample of dryland farms in the Spanish region of Castile and Leon. Using Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) and the so-called program decomposition approach to efficiency measurement, we explore whether or not the production technology of the farms included in the F&F Scheme is more eco-efficient than the technology used by farms that are not included in the Scheme. The re-sults obtained confirm the foregoing hypothesis, providing evidence that environmental pres-sures could be reduced if all farms adopted the F&F Scheme technology. Furth…
Finances and credit: problems, conceptions, management
2001
Economic situation in the Baltic States is investigated, in particular the development of economics in transition is analysed in Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia and Poland. There are studied the following details: Monetary and exchange rate policy; Crediting and bank management; Development of securities market; Management of taxes and finance; Development of accounting policy; Pension reform perspective etc.