We explain the number of bank relationships a firm maintains by the number of industries it operates in, analyzing 13,570 listed firms in 18 Eastern European countries. We estimate a variety of stylized models including OLS, Tobit and negative binomial that directly accounts at once for the number of bank relationships. Controlling for many firm characteristics and accounting for all observed and unobserved time-invariant heterogeneity across firms, we find that the number of industries the firm operates in corresponds to a higher number of bank relationships, possibly because banks specialize in certain industries.
Does market power of banks affect firm performance? To answer this question we examine 25,236 syndicated loan facilities granted between 2000 and 2010 by 296 banks to 9,029 US non-financial firms. Accounting for both observed and unobserved bank and firm heterogeneity, we find that firms that were recently poorly performing obtain loans from banks with more market power. However, in the year after loan origination market power positively affects firm performance, but only if it is not too high. Our estimates thus suggest that bank market power can facilitate access to credit by poorly-performing firms, yet at the same time also boosts the performance of the firms that obtain credit.
Növeli-e az alacsony kamatláb a banki hitelkínálatot? Tanulmányunkban egy magyar, vállalati szintű hiteladatbázis panelstruktúrában történő elemzésével keressük a választ a kérdésre. Kashyap–Stein [2000] identifikációs módszerét vállalati és idő fix hatásokkal kiegészítve teszteljük a feltételezést, hogy a kamatok csökkenése különbözőképpen befolyásolja-e az alacsony és a magas sajáttőke-hányaddal rendelkező bankok hitelkínálatát. Azt találjuk, hogy a kamatláb csökkenését követően az alacsony tőkehányadú bankok nagyobb valószínűséggel nyújtanak hitelt új felvevőknek, és növelik kihelyezett hitelösszegeiket már meglévő adósaik számára, mint a magas tőkehányadú bankok. Robusztussági becsléseink azt tanúsítják, hogy valóban a bankok sajáttőke-hányada, nem pedig likviditási hányada, teljes eszközértéke vagy tulajdonosi szerkezete korrelál a hitelkínálati reakció erősségével. Megmutatjuk, hogy ezek az eredményeink fennálltak a válság előtti időszakban is, és függetlenek a mintánkban szereplő cégek méretétől. Elemzéseinkből arra következtetünk, hogy Magyarországon a vizsgált időszakban (2005–2011) a kamatláb befolyásolta a hitelkínálat mértékét. Journal of Economic Literature (JEL) Kód: E51, E52, G21.
Building on critical literature on corporate sustainability, we add a perspective thus far only scarcely addressed: The toxicity of financial products imposing systemic risk. We start with various illustrative cases from the financial sector which have also been discussed colorfully in the media. This sets the stage for toxic assets and practices as revealed after the onset of the financial crisis precipitated by the collapse of Lehman Brothers. To illustrate corporate toxicity we use the “Global 100 Index” from “Corporate Knights” to show which (financial) scandals or bailouts cases were detected at corporations awarded a position in the prestigious sustainability rating. Subsequently we develop the concept of ‘toxicity’ adopted from pharmacology as a meta-criterion, which, as we argue, should be added to the concept of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and the ESG (environment, society, governance) universe. We discuss implications for theory development and the overall credibility of corporate sustainability ratings.
The central role played by deforestation in the increase in global CO2 emissions has recently justified the development of new schemes which offer compensation in exchange for reductions in emissions from deforestation (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation, REDD). The design of REDD projects can be based on market prices to set how deforesters are compensated for avoiding deforestation. With limited experiments involving a true market integration of REDD, it remains however difficult to assess the potential impact market price uncertainties may have on the targets of the protective scheme. The goal of this article is to assess the optimal choices of a forest owner, in terms of his combined decision of choosing when to protect his forest, and the deforestation rate prior to it, given his option to enter an irreversible REDD scheme that provides him with uncertain cash flows under different risk aversion scenarios.
A large literature describes relationships between month of birth, birth weight, and gestation. These relationships are hypothesized to reflect the causal impact of seasonal environmental factors. However, recent work casts doubt on this interpretation by showing that mothers with lower socioeconomic status are more likely to give birth in months that are associated with poorer birth outcomes. Seasonality in the numbers of conceptions in different months can also induce a mechanical correlation between preterm birth and month of birth. This paper analyzes the seasonality of health at birth using a large sample of 647,050 groups of US siblings representing 1,435,213 children. By following the same mother over time, we eliminate differences in fixed maternal characteristics as an explanation for seasonal differences in health at birth. We find a sharp trough in gestation length among babies conceived in May, which corresponds to an increase in prematurity of more than 10%. Birth weight conditional on gestation length, however, is found to be strongly hump-shaped over the year, with 8–9 additional g for summer conceptions. We examine several potential mechanisms for explaining seasonality in birth outcomes that have generally been dismissed in the literature on seasonality in rich countries, notably disease prevalence and nutrition. The May trough in gestation length coincides with a higher influenza prevalence in January and February, when these babies are nearing full term, whereas the hump shape in birth weight is associated with a similar pattern in pregnancy weight gain.
Fliegende Roboter, künstliche Intelligenz, Big Data: Die Wirtschaftswissenschaftliche Fakultät ist mit diversen Kurzvorlesungen, Shows und Diskussionen an der diesjährigen Scientifica präsent. Vom Samstag, 2. September, bis am Sonntag, 3. September 2017, öffnen die Universität Zürich und die ETH ihre Tore für Familien, für wissenschaftlich Interessierte und solche, die es noch werden wollen.
Mortality is a crucial dimension of wellbeing and inequality in a population, and mortality trends have been at the core of public debates in many Western countries. In this paper, we provide the first analysis of mortality inequality in Canada and compare its development to trends in the U.S. We find strong reductions in mortality rates across both genders and at all ages, with the exception of middle ages which only experienced moderate improvements. Inequality in mortality, measured across Canadian Census Divisions, decreased for infants and small children, while it increased slightly at higher ages. In comparison to the U.S., mortality levels in Canada improved at a similar rate despite lower initial levels. Inequality at younger ges, however, fell more strongly in the U.S., implying converging mortality gradients between the two countries.
Many literatures investigate the causal impact of income on economic outcomes, for example in the context of intergenerational transmission or well-being and health. Some studies have proposed to use employer wage differentials and in particular industry affiliation as an instrument for income. We demonstrate that industry affiliation is correlated with fixed individual characteristics, specifically parents' education and own height, conditional on the covariates typically controlled for in these studies. These results suggest that there is selection into industries based on unobservables. As a result the exclusion restriction in many IV studies of this type is likely violated.
