Publications des institutions partenaires
Does preschool boost the development of minority children? The case of young Romas in Eastern and Central Europe
Does universal preschool constitute an effective policy tool to promote the development and integration of children from minority groups? In the light of rising cross border migration and increasing ethnic variation in many developed countries, we address this question for the children of the Roma - the largest and most disadvantaged minority in Europe. To tackle the issue of non-...
Institution partenaire
English / 01/01/2014
Direct and indirect treatment effects: Causal chains and mediation analysis with instrumental variables
This paper discusses the nonparametric identification of causal direct and indirect effects of a binary treatment based on instrumental variables. We identify the indirect effect, which operates through a mediator (i.e. intermediate variable) that is situated on the causal path between the treatment and the outcome, as well as the unmediated direct effect of the treatment using...
Institution partenaire
English / 01/01/2014
Should Welfare Administration be Centralized or Decentralized? Evidence from a Policy Experiment
The 2005 reform of the German welfare system introduced two competing organizational models for welfare administration. In most districts, a centralized organization was established where local welfare agencies are bound to central directives. At the same time, 69 districts were allowed to opt for a decentralized organization. We evaluate the relative success of both types in terms...
Institution partenaire
English / 01/01/2014
Sharp bounds on causal effects under sample selection
In many empirical problems, the evaluation of treatment effects is complicated by sample selection so that the outcome is only observed for a non-random subpopulation. In the absence of instruments and/or tight parametric assumptions, treatment effects are not point identified, but can be bounded under mild restrictions. Previous work on partial identification has primarily focused...
Institution partenaire
English / 01/01/2014
Financialization in Commodity Markets: A Passing Trend or the New Normal?
In this paper, we show that large inflows into commodity investments, a recent phenomenon known as financialization, has changed the behavior and dependence structure between commodities and the general stock market. The common perception is that the increase in comovements is the result of distressed investors selling both assets during the 2007-2009 financial crisis. We show that...
Institution partenaire
English / 01/01/2014
Credit Booms and Busts in Emerging Markets: The Role of Bank Governance and Risk Management
This paper investigates to what extent risk management and corporate governance mitigate the involvement of banks in credit boom and bust cycles. Using a unique, hand-collected dataset on 156 banks from Central and Eastern Europe during 2005-2012, we assess whether banks with stronger risk management and corporate governance display more moderate credit growth in the pre-crisis...
Institution partenaire
English / 01/01/2014
Deposit Withdrawals from Distressed Commercial Banks: The Importance of Switching Costs
We study retail deposit withdrawals from large European commercial banks which incurred substantial investment losses in the wake of the U.S. subprime crisis. We first show that the propensity of households to withdraw deposits increases with the magnitude of bank distress. This withdrawal risk is, however, substantially mitigated by client-level switching costs that arise from tight...
Institution partenaire
English / 01/01/2014
Do Mutual Funds Ourtperform During Recessions? International (Counter-) Evidence
Glode (2011) shows, both theoretically and empirically, that U.S. equity mutual funds have a systematically better performance during periods of economic downturn and that investors are willing to pay higher fund fees for this recession insurance. In this paper, we test these hypotheses out-of-sample using international mutual fund data from 16 different countries. Surprisingly, we...
Institution partenaire
English / 01/01/2014
The Real costs of Industry Contagion
In this paper I analyze whether the higher financing costs following the distress or bankruptcy of one firm affect the real investment decisions of non-distressed industry competitors. To achieve identification of the causal effect of contagion on investment, I use a difference-in-differences approach that compares within-firm changes in investment around the industry distress for...
Institution partenaire
English / 01/01/2014
Trade credit use as firms approach default
Using a sample of firms matched with their suppliers, we study the use of trade credit as firms approach a default event. We show that, in the extensive margin, around one third of suppliers exit the relationship well ahead of default, but the rest continue the relationship. Relationships are more likely to continue when suppliers sell differentiated goods, are located close to their...
Institution partenaire
English / 01/01/2014
Shareholder Voting and Merger Returns
Using a sample of 384 shareholder meetings, we investigate whether shareholder votes on mergers and acquisitions in both target and acquirer firms relate to the announcement day abnormal returns and whether the voting outcome has implications for the short- and long-run merger performance. We find that shareholder voting dissent is negatively related to both abnormal returns upon...
Institution partenaire
English / 01/01/2014
Real Effects of Investement Banking Relationships: Evidence from the Financial Crisis
We investigate the damage to real-sector investment spending and corporate financing activities triggered by the failure of three major investment banks during the 2007-09 financial crisis. We find that corporations characterized by pre-crisis corporate investment banking relationships with troubled investment banks exhibit significantly lower post-crisis investment spending activity...
Institution partenaire
English / 01/01/2014
Firm Structure in Banking and Finance: Is Broader Better?
Economies of scope in financial intermediation continue as a focal point in strategic and regulatory debates. In this paper, we summarize the theoretical research on the value of diversification in financial services firms, and survey the empirical research so far on the conglomerate discount in US and international financial services businesses. We also review research on the...
Institution partenaire
English / 01/01/2014
Ambiguity and Reality
Model builders face ambiguity about the true data generating process. Consequently, they need to deal with ambiguity attitudes (inside uncertainty) and ambiguous financial reality (outside uncertainty) when developing and estimating financial models. We introduce a novel approach for systematically dealing with outside uncertainty in addition to inside uncertainty in a tractable way...
Institution partenaire
English / 01/01/2014
Careers in Transition : Continuity, Complexity and Conflicting Desires in the Discursive Identity Construction of Ex-Consultants
Volltext unter: http://www1.unisg.ch/www/edis.nsf/SysLkpByIdentifier/4282/$FILE/dis4282.pdf
This dissertation investigates notions of continuity, complexity and conflicting desires in the identity construction of ex-consultants, especially as they make sense of a past career transition: away from the...
Institution partenaire
English / 01/01/2014
Studying talk-at-work: An analysis of the discursive processes of management coaching conversations
This chapter analyzes the discursive unfolding of interactions between a professional coach and a middle manager during a management coaching conversation, a specific form of talk-at-work. The theoretical framework aims to advance discursive theorizing by differentiating between discourses and discursive practices as well as between relational and temporal processes. We argue that...
Institution partenaire
English / 01/01/2014
Going all the way: the creativity of entrepreneuring in 'The Full Monty'
Institution partenaire
English / 01/01/2014
Does Compulsory Voting Increase Support for Redistributive Policy?
Institution partenaire
English / 01/01/2014
Trade Liberalization and Credit Constraints: Reallocations at the Firm Level
Following the idea of heterogeneous firms we examine responses to trade liberalization at the firm level in the presence of capital market imperfections. In our model, entrepreneurs differ in their wealth endowment, causing them to rely differently on external funds. With an imperfect capital market, we show that poor entrepreneurs run smaller firms, are less likely to invest in R...
Institution partenaire
English / 01/01/2014
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