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Relationship lending is a common lending technology that is assumed to bring several benefits to small-medium enterprises (SMEs) and to financial institutions that adopt it. Notably, it could reduce information asymmetries, permitting banks to offer better credit terms to the borrower. However, it also entails some costs for both sides. The empirical evidence so far has not been conclusive in determining under what conditions relationship lending can be beneficial or harmful. Most of the studies suggest that SMEs that engage in relationship lending benefit from more credit availability (especially during a financial crisis), and lower interest rates. This occurs when they are served by small banks, are geographically close to the lender, when the bank is adequately decentralized and when it is the dominant creditor of the firm. However, under certain circumstances, banks can extract rents from the borrower or be captured by him. In addition, the consequences and the future of relationship lending will be remarkably affected by the level of competition among banks, their ownership structure, the regulatory framework and the business model that banks will have to adopt accordingly.

In questa sezione della ricerca si analizzano le performance economiche, finanziarie e patrimoniali delle imprese manifatturiere reggiane nel triennio 2007- 09, così come emergono dai bilanci d’esercizio o consolidati. Un primo livello d’analisi prende in considerazione le statistiche descrittive, sia delle principali voci di stato patrimoniale e di conto economico, sia di alcuni indicatori di bilancio per il campione nel suo complesso, per le diverse classi dimensionali e per i diversi sotto-settori manifatturieri. Un secondo livello cerca di identificare, tramite analisi multivariata, le determinanti della performance economica (dimensione, settore, leva finanziaria,…).

Il settore italiano del leasing, analizzato mediante metodologie contabili tradizionali e attraverso moderne tecniche statistiche volte alla misurazione dell'efficienza, evidenzia un andamento discontinuo del livello di produttività nel periodo 2002-2006, determinato principalmente dall'evoluzione del fattore tecnologico. le metriche di natura contabile indicano un sostanziale miglioramento dell'efficienza di costo (costi operativi/totale attivo), dell'efficienza economica (cost/income) e della produttività (fondi intermediati per addetto), ponendo in luce una superiore efficienza da parte delle società focalizzate sull'attività di leasing rispetto a quelle che ricorrono a forme alternative d'intermediazione quali il factoring e il credito al consumo. Le misure statistiche di efficienza (modello multistage dea e regressione ols) mostrano un settore dotato di un livello di efficienza tecnica consistente, ma contraddistinto al contempo da inefficienze nella gestione e nell'allocazione delle risorse, laddove le performance migliori vengono raggiunte dalle società che riescono a contenere i propri costi operativi mediante un impiego efficiente delle risorse produttive.

I cambiamenti della disciplina fiscale intercorsi negli ultimi quattro anni hanno reso particolarmente complessa la valutazione comparata tra il leasing finanziario e il mutuo ipotecario. Il prolungamento della durata minima di un contratto di leasing, l’indeducibilità del valore del terreno, il trattamento fiscale degli oneri finanziari, la normativa delle imposte ipocatastali sono solo alcune delle più rilevanti innovazioni tributarie che hanno spostato la convenienza complessiva dei due strumenti finanziari. Con delle esemplificazioni numeriche viene illustrato come il costo al netto delle imposte del leasing finanziario sia sensibilmente peggiorato nel corso del tempo, seppure lo stesso continui a rilevarsi, nella maggior parte dei casi, più conveniente rispetto ad un mutuo ipotecario equivalente.

This study aims to verify whether there are any macroeconomic variables that have significant power in predicting the dynamics of financial markets. In particular, we want to identify an econometric model that can guide the strategies of operators in building their investment portfolios. The analysis considers the US market during a period of rapid economic change and high volatility of stock prices.The authors evidence that a number of variables have systematically influenced the evolution of the stock market during the period under review. These variables are the macroeconomic indicators that relate to the sentiment of consumers and companies, the term structure, the premium for the risk of default, the rate of growth of the monetary base, the oil price and sea freight rates.

Housing affordability has become a key theme of housing policy against the background of the subprime mortgage crisis and the need to reduce fiscal subsidies. The aim of this research was to develop an approach of banking credit participation during the realization of method able to assess housing affordability. The method was developed in order to deal with the real purchasing capacity of households, taking into account existing bank structures and the procurement of housing loans, as well as to assess the potential demand for mortgage lending as a promising area of banking. Assessment can be made by considering the conditions of housing loans from the largest banks and statistical information on the income of the population, together with information from real estate agencies about the current level of prices in the housing market. The approach proposed could be useful for the authorities, when determining the content of housing policy, as it provides an opportunity to identify more effective ways of solving the housing problem through a comprehensive assessment of housing needs and opportunities for the banking system to engage in lending.

We study nascent project-based enterprises (PBEs) through the lens of upper echelons and institutional theory. We analyse the interplay between the different role-congruent reputations of their project entrepreneurs and the institutional endorsement of their project idea, theorizing how these affect PBEs’ ability to attract private investments. In the context of the Italian film industry, we find that the commercial reputation of the project entrepreneur in the producer role is crucial for attracting investors, while the artistic reputation of the project entrepreneur in the creative director role is crucial for attaining institutional endorsement of the project idea. Finally, we find that the effect of the commercial reputation of the project entrepreneur in the producer role on attracting investments is mediated by the institutional endorsement. We contribute to the literature on PBEs by demonstrating how specific combinations of project entrepreneurs’ roles and (role-congruent) reputations can directly and indirectly attract investments.

We are the first to examine the impact of gender diversity on banks' boards on the probability and size of public bailouts. Our findings, based on a sample of listed European banks over the period 2005–2017, suggest that banks with more gender-diverse boards are less likely to receive a public bailout and receive a lower amount of bailout funds as a percentage of total assets than banks with less gender-diverse boards. Specifically, an increase by one standard deviation in gender diversity decreases the probability of a bailout by at least 2.44%, a significant reduction considering that the unconditional probability is 18.7%. Gender diversity is also positively related to bank performance, as proxied by ROA and Tobin's Q and with dividend payout ratios, consistent with the hypothesis that female directors are better monitors than male directors. These results are robust to a variety of econometric approaches and provide support for recent reforms in several EU countries regarding gender quotas.

This article aims at comparing two major equity index construction methodologies, the capitalization-weighted and the equally weighted approaches. Focusing on the constituents of the DJ Euro Stoxx index from January 2002 to December 2011, it provides further evidence to add to the established literature on this topic, of the higher risk-adjusted returns achieved by equally weighted portfolios in comparison with cap-weighted indexes. The novelty of our study is that we test these findings on the Euro stock market by using four reweighting frequencies (monthly, quarterly, semiannually and annually) with the aim of identifying that which is most able to maximize the benefits of the contrarian strategy implicit in the equally weighted approach. Moreover, it is demonstrated that the excess returns are not driven solely by a ‘size effect’ that usually explains the difference in performance of the two methodologies. Finally, we confirm our results by performing a Fama- French (1992) three-factor regression analysis and also by using a portfolio approach based on the market capitalization of the index constituents. To evaluate the implementation of the EW strategy, from an operational perspective, we estimate the related transaction costs and show that trading costs are not able to affect the main results.

This paper highlights the main profiles of SME���s (small and medium enterprises) financial structures, focusing particularly on hospitality and tourism. A sample of European hotels and restaurants is empirically investigated. Financial and accounting statements are analysed through comparisons between several European countries. Tourism is known to experience two different management issues: real estate and industry-specific management. Although they are very similar, tourism property management is strongly related to seasonality. The business cycle impact on financial structure is significant, and so does the effect on risk. Therefore, this research also investigates both short and long-term financing. The former needs specific control of cash inflows and outflows. It is necessary to deal with specific financial needs to set up specialized financing facilities. Seasonality also impacts on the financing cycle. Operation management is smoothed during overloaded periods by using various strategies. Additionally, cash flow management benefits from better financial forecasts., tourismos, Vol. 7 No. 2 (2012)

Relying on self-similarities and scale invariances, scientists have started to think about financial markets as complex dynamical systems, and to use techniques imported from physics. The purpose of this essay is to present an overview and an application of this approach. A simple dynamical system, similar in principle to Tartaglia’s triangle, is found to produce a self-similar structure. The scaling-invariant properties of power law and Lévy-stable distributions are then exposed. Eight data sets of historical prices are analyzed to provide evidence of the superiority of Lévy-stable distributions over Gaussian ones in describing price fluctuations statistically

There are few comparative studies for Continental European countries such as Germany, France, Italy or Sweden, as a result of the opacity of information, the less developed financial markets and the limited number of listed firms. The theory of efficient financial markets, investors should correctly value tangible and intangible firm assets and these valuations should therefore be reflected in the market value of any company. This relation is of particular importance to researchers and has been studied using different approaches since the 80’s. Unfortunately, the contributions are strongly focused on US and UK firms due to the relevance and liquidity of the financial markets of these countries. The study, using two econometric specifications, examines different characteristics of companies such as operative income, market share, debt to equity ratio, firm size and sales. To control for the way firms account their R&D expenditure, the IAS accounting standard variable is used, namely, the total expensing of these costs in the year they were incurred instead of capitalizing them. We also control for specific country and industry effects. The results confirm the strong positive and significant influence of R&D expenditure on firm market value. We find the same effect when considering residual income. Nevertheless, the relevance of this effect differs among different countries. In addition, the evidence shows that younger and smaller firms that operate in hi-tech markets are able to spend more efficiently in research and development: the effect of R&D investment on firm market value in these types of companies is stronger compared to older and low-tech industry sectors. The robustness check, which considers different definitions of the dependent variable, reinforces the evidence that R&D expenditure has a significant and positive impact on the stock prices of European companies

This study examines the relationship between the market value of the firm and part of its intangible capital. Two types of intangible capital are investigated: the flow of R&D expenditures and a measure of R&D stock. The paper analyses the empirical results in each national context which is characterized by sharp structural differences. We also investigate how and to what extent the different legal and corporate governance regimes, and thus the different degrees of investor protection, affect a firm’s corporate value and the market valuation of R&D investments. The analysis is performed in a panel dataset of European listed companies from 2000 to 2009. The results indicate that information relating to research and development plays a key role in determining the market value of companies. The market evaluates not only the present but also the past investment in R&D. Overall, our evidence suggests that significant differences between countries emerge in the market valuation of research and development. These differences reflect the distinct features of the financial systems herein considered.

Almost all studies on research and development (R&D) activity are based on US and British companies, and most of them show that this activity positively influences both stock returns and corporate value. This empirical study evaluates the effects of R&D on stock returns for a sample of listed companies from thirteen European countries: Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Spain, Sweden and United Kingdom. We find that this effect is positive, and also significant, in predicting future returns. Other variables appear to be important too, such as book-to-market ratio and firm size. We also test a different set of hypotheses that aim to capture the many differences and peculiarities between these countries such as the development of the national equity and credit markets, the grade of disclosure for listed firms and the protection of minority shareholders. Generally, financial markets value R&D investment better in investor friendly environments and those with a high level of legal protection.

The aim of this study is to confirm the presence of a relationship between the territory and the bank, verifying empirically the effect of the functional distance (headquarters-branches distance) on bank performance. To support this hypothesis we also test the effects that the bank size, the intensity of labour factor, the bank type (and its lending features) have on bank performance. We aim to shed light on the impact of bank size on the link between distance and performance. The analysis is based on a sample of almost 3,000 Italian banks over the period 2005-2008, and demonstrates the existence of a positive relationship between functional distance, foreign control, institutional type of intermediary and bank performance. In the model the control variables used take into account local market competition, relationship lending features and banking business structure. The robustness checks, conducted excluding the outlier observations and using other variables, confirm the negative effect of the functional distance on bank performance and, consequently, the importance of relationship lending to SMEs. Finally, on the basis of these outcomes, some managerial implications are proposed related to the intermediary size.

Il contributo analizza in ottica comparata e diacronica il fenomeno del multiaffidamento.

The aim of this article is to ascertain whether and to what extent the Hurst exponent can be used to forecast future crises. The first and second sections focus on the Hurst exponent, giving theoretical insights and a summary of its uses in finance. The analysis of a dataset of 35 indices and stocks representing various geographical areas and economic sectors is presented in Section 3, while in the last section the conclusion is drawn that in fact the Hurst exponent has, after all, no usefulness in predicting future crises