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What is the aggregate and distributional impact of microfinance? To answer this question, we develop a quantitative macroeconomic framework of entrepreneurship and financial frictions in which microfinance is modelled as guaranteed small-size loans. We discipline and validate our model using recent empirical evaluations of small-scale microfinance programs. We find that the long-run general equilibrium impact is substantially different from the short-run effect. In the short-run partial equilibrium, output and capital increase with microfinance but total factor productivity (TFP) falls. In the long run, when general equilibrium effects are considered, as should be for economy-wide microfinance interventions, scaling up microfinance has only a small impact on per-capita income, because an increase in TFP is offset by lower capital accumulation. However, the vast majority of the population benefits from microfinance directly and indirectly. The welfare gains are larger for the poor and the marginal entrepreneurs, although higher interest rates in general equilibrium tilt the gains toward the rich.

The paper proves the existence of equilibrium in nonrenewable resource markets when extraction costs are non-convex and resource storage is possible. Inventories flatten the consumption path and eliminate price jumps at the end of the extraction period. Market equilibrium becomes then possible, contradicting previous claims from Eswaran, Lewis and Heaps (1983). We distinguish between two types of solutions, one with immediate and one with delayed build-up of inventories. For both cases we do not only characterize potential optimal paths but also show that equilibria actually exist under fairly general conditions. It is found that optimum resource extraction involves increasing quantities over a period of time. What is generally interpreted as an indicator of increasing resource abundance is thus perfectly compatible with constant resource stocks., Economics Working Paper Series, 14/203

We use a panel of over 116,000 Chinese firms of different ownership types over the period 2000–2007 to analyze the linkages between investment in fixed and working capital and financing constraints. We find that those firms characterized by high working capital display high sensitivities of investment in working capital to cash flow ( WKS ) and low sensitivities of investment in fixed capital to cash flow ( FKS ). We then construct and analyze firm-level FKS and WKS measures and find that, despite severe external financing constraints, those firms with low FKS and high WKS exhibit the highest fixed investment rates. This suggests that an active management of working capital may help firms to alleviate the effects of financing constraints on fixed investment.

This paper analyzes the decision of firms to sell assets to fund investments (financing asset sales). For a sample of U.S. manufacturing firms during the 1971-2010 period, we document new stylized facts about financing asset sales that cannot be explained by traditional motives for selling assets, such as financial distress or financing constraints. Using a structural model of financing, investment, and acroeconomic risk, we show that financing asset sales attenuate the debt overhang problem, because asset sale financed investments imply lower wealth transfers from equity to debt than otherwise identical but equity financed investments. This novel motive to reduce the debt overhang problem can explain how financing asset sales relate to firm characteristics and business cycles. We also confirm with simulated panels of model firms that are structurally similar to their empirical counterpart that they indeed feature the dynamic patterns of financing asset sales we observe in the data for real firms.

Using a panel of 1122 UK firms listed on the London Stock Exchange over the period of 1981 to 2009, endogenous switching regression models (SRM) incorporating a predicted corporate efficiency index are estimated in this paper in an effort to clarify the role of cash flow in examining the impact of capital-market imperfections. It is revealed that a firm's constrained credit status changes with the improvement of its efficiency. The results further reveal that financially constrained firm's investment is comparatively more sensitive to cash flow, but this sensitivity is negatively and significantly related with corporate efficiency. These results point to the fact that high investment sensitivity to cash flow may not be solely driven by measurement error in investment opportunity, but may still be interpreted as a consequence of imperfect substitutability between internal and external financing arising from the capital market imperfections.

We study a stochastic dynamic game of process innovation in which firms can initiate and terminate R&D efforts and production at different times. We discern the impact of knowledge spillovers on the investments in existing markets, as well as on the likely structure of newly forming markets, for all possible asymmetries in production costs between firms. While an increase in spillovers may improve the likelihood of a competitive market, it may at the same time reduce the level to which a technology is developed. We show that the effects of spillovers on investments and surpluses crucially depend on the stage of technology development considered. In particular, we show that high spillovers are not necessarily pro-competitive as they can make it harder for the laggard to catch up with the technology leader.

First version: 28th May, 2014, This version: 28th August, 2014, This paper aims to extend the existing evidence on the investment value of green buildings to international markets, specifically the residential market in Japan. Using a unique transaction database of condominiums in the Tokyo metropolitan area and a hedonic analytical framework, we find that green buildings command a small but significant premium on both the asking and transaction prices. This finding is consistent with results from other countries. As far as we are aware, this is also the first study of green buildings’ economic value based on a hedonic model incorporating buyer characteristics. However, further analysis reveals that this premium is primarily driven by wealthy households that exhibit a higher willingness-to-pay for eco-labelled condominiums, both as a total amount and as a fraction of the total sales price. We therefore conclude that eco-labels are perceived as a luxury good in the Japanese housing market rather than a way to save money on lower utility bills., 基盤研究(S) = Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research (S)

This paper studies the event history of business foundation. Three theoretical concepts of human, financial and social capital are linked to investigate variations over time of people's decision processes to become self-employed. Data from a cohort of Dutch inhabitants born in 1939/1940 who have been interviewed three times during their lives in 1952, 1983, and 1993 allows for testing theoretical hypotheses that state clear differences between two different roads towards business ownership. Empirical results show that the baseline hazard decreases with time for transgenerational entrepreneurs with self-employed parents, but increases for self-made startups. Social capital in the form of strong ties is a better predictor of enterprise than human capital.

We test whether adverse changes to banks' market valuations during the financial and sovereign debt crises, and the associated increase in banks' cost of funding, affected firms' real decisions. Using new data linking over 3,000 non-financial Italian firms to their bank(s), we find that increases in banks' CDS spreads, and decreases in their equity valuations, resulted in lower investment, employment, and bank debt for younger and smaller firms. These effects dominate those of banks' balance-sheet variables. Moreover, CDS spreads matter more than equity valuations. Finally, higher CDS spreads led to lower aggregate investment and employment, and to a less efficient resource allocation.

In U.S. data 1981–2012, unsecured firm credit moves procyclically and tends to lead GDP, while secured firm credit is acyclical; similarly, shocks to unsecured firm credit explain a far larger fraction of output fluctuations than shocks to secured credit. In this article, we develop a tractable dynamic general equilibrium model in which unsecured firm credit arises from self-enforcing borrowing constraints, preventing an efficient capital allocation among heterogeneous firms. Unsecured credit rests on the value that borrowers attach to a good credit reputation which is a forward-looking variable. We argue that self-fulfilling beliefs over future credit conditions naturally generate endogenously persistent business-cycle dynamics. A dynamic complementarity between current and future borrowing limits permits uncorrelated sunspot shocks to unsecured debt to trigger persistent aggregate fluctuations in both secured and unsecured debt, factor productivity, and output. We show that these sunspot shocks are quantitatively important, accounting for around half of output volatility. published

Traditional capital structure theory predicts that reducing banks' leverage reduces the risk and cost of equity but does not change the weighted average cost of capital, and thus the rates for borrowers. We confirm that the equity of better-capitalized banks has lower beta and idiosyncratic risk. However, over the last 40 years, lower risk banks have not had lower costs of equity (lower stock returns), consistent with a stock market anomaly previously documented in other samples. A calibration suggests that a binding ten percentage point increase in Tier 1 capital to risk-weighted assets could double banks' risk premia over Treasury bills.

We consider a setting in which insiders have information about income that outside shareholders do not, but property rights ensure that outside shareholders can enforce a fair payout. To avoid intervention, insiders report income consistent with outsiders' expectations based on publicly available information rather than true income, resulting in an observed income and payout process that adjust partially and over time towards a target. Insiders under-invest in production and effort so as not to unduly raise outsiders' expectations about future income, a problem that is more severe the smaller is the inside ownership and results in an "outside equity Laffer curve". A disclosure environment with adequate quality of independent auditing mitigates the problem, implying that accounting quality can enhance investments, size of public stock markets and economic growth.

We study the effect of dynamic and investment externalities in a one-sector growth model. In our model, two agents interact strategically in the utilization of capital for consumption, savings, and investment in technical progress. We consider two types of investment choices: complements and substitutes. For each case, we derive the equilibrium and provide the corresponding stationary distribution. We then compare the equilibrium with the social planner’s solution.

This paper estimates the impact of competition and exogenous demand decline on the exit process of movie theaters in the US from 1950-1965. I modify Fudenberg and Tirole (1986)'s model of exit in a duopoly with incomplete information to an oligopoly. I estimate this model with panel data, using variations in TV diusion across house- holds and other market characteristics to identify the parameters in the theater's payo¤ function and the distribution of unobservable exit values. Using the estimated model, I show that theaters who are making negative pro…ts may choose to remain in the market if they expect to outlast their competitors, because at that point their pro…ts would increase. This creates a signi…cant delay in the exit process. In addition, by decompos- ing the across-market variation in the exit process, I …nd that TV diusion explains a substantial proportion of the variation in the exit process.

This paper shows that asymmetric information about the timing of earnings can affect corporate capital structure. It sheds some new light on two following questions: why may profitable firms be interested in issuing equity, and why does debt not necessarily signal a firm quality. These issues seem to be puzzling from the classical pecking-order theory or signalling theory point of view. The paper also contributes to the analysis of the link between debt-equity choice and subsequent performance after issue (short-term versus long-term) which has been widely discussed in empirical literature but did not get enough attention in theoretical research.

This paper will analyse the operation of the British common law of riparian rights in the Riverina District of New South Wales (NSW), Australia between 1850 and 1870.* Theorists argue that the predisposition of people to fight over or cooperate to exploit valuable resources depends on how well property rights are defined and enforced.†The operation of the riparian doctrine in the Riverina provides an empirical, historical example of why inefficient property rights promote violence. Violence in this instance was based on collective action directed at the destruction of water supply infrastructure, specifically dams, constructed on various rivers within the Riverina. This paper considers why collective action in violence did not spill over into infrastructure construction. It is argued that the failure of collective action was due to its high costs stemming from several factors: failure to meet optimal group size; problems of free riders; hold-up concerns; and the introduction of a much disputed land policy in 1861 referred to as selection.

Corruption in the public sector erodes tax compliance and leads to higher tax evasion. Moreover, corrupt public officials abuse their public power to extort bribes from the private agents. In both types of interaction with the public sector, the private agents are bound to face uncertainty with respect to their disposable incomes. To analyse effects of this uncertainty, a stochastic dynamic growth model with the public sector is examined. It is shown that deterministic excessive red tape and corruption deteriorate the growth potential through income redistribution and public sector inefficiencies. Most importantly, it is demonstrated that the increase in corruption via higher uncertainty exerts adverse effects on capital accumulation, thus leading to lower growth rates.

This paper aims to analyze the effects of financial constraints and the financial crisis on the financing and investment policies of newly founded firms. Thereby, the analysis adds important new insights on a crucial segment of the economy. We make use of a large and comprehensive data set of French firms founded in the years 2004-2006, i.e. well before the financial crisis. Our panel data analysis shows that the global financial crisis imposed a shock (mostly demand-driven) on the financing as well as on the investments of these firms. Moreover, we find that financially constrained firms use less external debt financing and invest smaller amounts. They also rely on less trade credit. With regard to bank financing, newly founded firms which are more financially constrained accumulate less bank debt and repay initial bank debt slower than their non-financially constraint counterparts. Finally, we find that financially constrained firms are affected to a smaller degree by the financial crisis than their less financially constrained counterparts.

A structural model is developed and estimated by a maximum likelihood routine to investigate interrelated factor demand subject to nonconvex adjustment costs. The dataset concerns Norwegian plants operating in manufacturing industries and it covers the period 1993-2005. The estimates indicate that it is advantageous to adjust the stock of labour and capital simultaneously. The cost advantage of simultaneous changes is small for capital but is large for labour. The empirical results suggest that when estimating separate factor demand models the bias of parameter estimates is most severe in case of labour demand.

Investment in physical capital at the micro level is infrequent and large, or lumpy. The most common explanation for this is that firms face non-convex physical adjustment costs. The model developed in this paper shows that information costs make investment lumpy at the micro level, even in the absence of non-convex adjustment costs. When collecting and processing information is costly, the firm optimally chooses to do it sporadically and to be inactive most of the time. This behavior results in infrequent and possibly large capital adjustments. The model fits plant-level investment rate moments well, and it also matches some higher order moments of aggregate investment rates. Keywords: investment dynamics, information costs, inattentiveness, lumpy investment JEL classification: D21, D83, D92, E22

This paper estimates the response of investment to changes in uncertainty using data on oil drilling in Texas and the expected volatility of the future price of oil. Using a dynamic model of firms’ investment problem, I find that: (i) the response of drilling activity to changes in price volatility has a magnitude consistent with the optimal response prescribed by theory, (ii) the cost of failing to respond to volatility shocks is economically significant, and (iii) implied volatility data derived from futures options prices yields a better fit to firms’ investment behavior than backward-looking volatility measures such as GARCH. (JEL C58, D92, G13, G31, L71, Q31) The real options literature, beginning with Marschak (1949) and Arrow (1968) and developed in Bernanke (1983), Pindyck (1991), and Dixit and Pindyck (1994), explains how firms should make decisions about investments that involve sunk costs. Real options theory views such investments as options in that, at any point in time, a firm may choose to either invest immediately or delay and observe the evolution of the investment’s payoff. A key insight is that the option to delay has value when future states of the world with positive returns to investing and states with negative returns are both possible, even holding the expected future return constant at its present level. Thus, in the presence of irreversibility and uncertainty, a naive investment timing rule—proceed with an investment if its expected benefit even slightly exceeds its cost—is suboptimal because it does not account for the value of continuing to hold the option. Instead, firms should delay irreversible investments until a significant gap develops between the investments’ expected benefits and costs. Moreover, as uncertainty increases, real options theory tells us that the incentive to delay should grow stronger and the gap between the expected benefit and cost necessary to trigger investment should widen. While real options theory therefore prescribes how firms should carry out irreversible investments in uncertain environments, it is not empirically well-known

Intangible capital is an important factor of production in modern economies that is generally neglected in business cycle analyses. We demonstrate that intangible capital can have a substantial impact on business cycle dynamics, especially if the intangible is complementary with production capacity. We focus on customer capital: the capital embodied in the relationships a firm has with its customers. Introducing customer capital into a standard real business cycle model generates a volatile and countercyclical labor wedge, due to a mismeasured marginal product of labor. We also provide new evidence on cyclical variation in selling effort to discipline the exercise.

When individual petroleum-producing firms make their exploration and development investment timing decisions, positive information externalities and negative extraction externalities may lead them to interact strategically with their neighbors. This paper examines whether these inefficient strategic interactions take place by estimating a structural econometric model of the firms' multi-stage investment timing game. Results show that firms interact strategically on small tracts but not on large tracts. For small tracts, having a neighboring tract explored reduces real profits by about $26 million, while having a neighboring tract developed raises real profits by about $3.5 million. © 2013 The President and Fellows of Harvard College and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Empirical estimations of the New Keynesian Phillips curve support hybrid versions with a positive weight on lagged inflation and a weight less than one on expected inflation. We argue that myopic price setting of some agents explains the low weight on expected inflation. The lagged term can be explained by trend extrapolation if information about the future is costly. In a laboratory experiment we implement the Calvo (1983) microfoundations of the Phillips curve. Our hypotheses are supported by the experimental data. About half of the subjects set optimal Calvo prices while about a third is myopic.

In this paper we consider the entry and exit of firms in a Ramsey model with capital and an endogenous labour supply. At the firm level, there is a fixed cost combined with increasing marginal cost, which gives a standard U-shaped cost curve with optimal firm size. The costs of entry (exit) are quadratic in the flow of new firms. The number of firms becomes a second state variable and the entry dynamics gives rise to a richer set of dynamics than in the standard case: in particular, there is likely to be a hump shaped response of output to a fiscal shock with maximum impact after impact and before steady-state is reached. Output and capital per firm are also likely to be hump shaped.

Using internal data of a leasing company in Germany, we examine the determinants of the probability and use of leasing by small firms. We find that small and young firms are likely to be constrained on the leasing market but use leasing to increase their debt capacity. Beyond contract- and firm-specific characteristics, demographic and socio-economic characteristics of the entrepreneur matter. Older and higher qualified entrepreneurs have easier access to leasing than those who are younger or non-educated, but the latter lease more than highly educated entrepreneurs. Female and non-married entrepreneurs of young firms use leasing to increase their debt capacity. These results are important for aging populations where the financing of entrepreneurial activities by highly qualified, older and female persons are important to sustain growth.

This article provides evidence for a particular channel through which sustained terrorism in rural areas may affect growth in developing countries. Using micro-level data from agricultural surveys during the period of insurgency in Punjab (India), I find significant negative effects of terrorism on the level of investment in long-term agricultural technology, but effects are small and insignificant for short-term investment. The presence of a major terrorist incident in a district in a year reduces long-term fixed investment by around 17 percent after controlling for district fixed-effects, time trends, district trends, and other farm-level controls. These negative effects are greater for richer farmers and those living in bordering districts. This results in a farmer losing close to 4 percent of his income annually because of the insurgency.

Research on climate change suggests that small improvements in the "sustainability" of buildings can have large effects on greenhouse gas emissions and on energy efficiency in the economy. This paper analyzes the economics of "green" building. First, we analyze a panel of office buildings "certified" by independent rating agencies, finding that large recent increases in the supply of green buildings and the unprecedented volatility in property markets have not significantly affected the relative returns to green buildings. Second, we analyze a large cross section of office buildings, demonstrating that economic premiums in rent and asset values are substantial. Third, we relate the economic premiums for green buildings to their sustainability, confirming that the attributes rated for both thermal efficiency and sustainability contribute to premiums in rents and asset values. Even among green buildings, increased energy efficiency is fully capitalized into rents and asset values.

The role of fi nancial managers and financial management in making investment decisions is increasing. The role of finance is incorporated into all business processes and financial decision in the long term affects the total businesses enterprise. This paper investigates and analyzes the way in which small enterprises that manufacture furniture in Croatia prepare themselves for financial decision-making and how they prepare themselves for financing investment projects. An empirical research was conducted among small enterprises that manufacture furniture in Croatia on the extent of their use of financial pre-accession funds of the European Union and preparations for project funding from the Structural and Cohesion Funds of the European Union. In this context, the contribution of financial resources from these funds on the market competitiveness is described.

Today, enterprises operate under the fierce competition. So, there is a need of quick reaction on changes in external environment, and improvement of the performance. Constant development is the key to success for any organization. However, this process requires investment - the growth engine for the company. The only way to attract the capital and strengthen market positions is raising the level of the investment appeal. Approaches determination of the investment attractiveness evaluation, gives a deeper understanding of this economic category, and as a consequence the possibility of effective investment attractiveness management - one of the main tasks for any enterprise

Using solar energy in Romania, not only in Prahova County, presents great development perspectives. Solar energy is considered a primary energy source, free and safe, an investment recoverable in record time and satisfactory to the investor and has countless technological applications, such as the production of electricity and heat, irrigation etc. Also, use of solar energy contributes to: saving conventional energy resources; reduction of environmental pollution; helps to reduce the costs of obtaining electricity; provides partially in most cases or completely energy independence of the user etc. Following investigations was confirmed that it we receive from the Sun in about one hour – the energy consumption for a year of the whole planet, so solar radiation that reaches the Earth's surface is higher than global energy needs.

In the context of the knowledge economy, the investment is a goal of all entities, because they help to increase their competitiveness, which leads to achieving high performance. The existing research in this field shows the importance of the national investment climate in order to attract the foreign investment, without mentioning the organizational investment climate. This paper proposes a microeconomic approach to the investment climate and competitiveness, and the relationship between the two concepts. Obviously, the organizational perspective approach of the investment climate and competitiveness brings up the concept of the organizational culture and the individual competitiveness. This is because the performance of an entity (natural or legal) is assured by the existence competitiveness as a result of a strong corporate culture based on innovation, creativity, effective investment (especially human resources).

I study a dynamic economy featuring adverse selection in asset markets. Borrowing constrained entrepreneurs sell past projects to finance new investment, but asymmetric information creates a lemons problem. I show that this friction is equivalent to a tax on financial transactions. The implicit tax rate responds to aggregate shocks, generating amplification in the response of investment and cyclical variation in liquidity. (JEL D82, D92, E32, E44, G31, L15)

What do foreign companies take into account when they invest in Russian food industry enterprises? The sample of about 5000 enterprises of the food industry from different Russian regions is analyzed to give the answer to this question. The most interesting points for the investigation are formulated as two hypotheses. The first one is connected with the level of economic development of a region where the particular company is situated, the other one is about the foreign direct investment during previous periods in this region and the neighboring ones. To test the hypotheses on the base of the idea of spatial effects of analyzed factors several special variables are constructed. The estimation of a multilevel binary model gives the idea for the possible explanation of the problem discovered above.

Financial crisis led to a sovereign debt crisis due to high deficits accumulated before the crisis and also due to large bail out programs for commercial banks. Besides the reform of EU economic governance, austerity policies were imposed at national level under Troika control, especially for the most affected peripheral countries, like Greece, Ireland and Portugal. A large number of Member States (23) entered into the excessive deficit procedure established under European Semester, adopting austerity and structural economic reforms programs. Fiscal consolidation had a very negative social and economic impact, affecting the demand and economic growth. EU and national governance must be quickly improved in many aspects in order to stimulate economic growth and increase the living standard in all Member States.

Although globalization can, and certainly will benefit the world, though these benefits may be overshadowed by the risks incumbent on society. The power of political authorities will become increasingly limited as actors, legitimate or illegitimate, an emerging global market. Along with these changes in society are met and a proliferation of gangs and developed unprecedented organized crime groups operating principles both national and international, using different forms of crimes.

Little evidence exists on the financing decisions of newly founded firms or on the financing dynamics of these firms over their life cycle. We aim to help filling this gap by investigating the financing dynamics of 2,456 French manufacturing firms founded between 2004 and 2006 through their legally required and reported financial statements. Because we observe significant heterogeneity in the financing decision in the firms' founding year, we focus on analyzing whether these differences widen, persist, or converge by using different convergence concepts. We identify a persistence-cum-convergence pattern. We find the existence of ß-convergence (implying that e.g. firms with lower initial levels of debt accumulate more debt over time) but not of ß-convergence (i.e. we observe an increase in the cross-sectional dispersion of the financing structure). We also show that the dynamics of financing matter for the growth path of the firms.

We derive robust predictions on the effects of uncertainty on short-run investment dynamics in a broad class of models with (partial) irreversibility. When their environments becomes more uncertain, firms become more cautious and less responsive to demand shocks. This result contrasts with the long-run analysis, in which the effect of real options on the level of the capital stock is ambiguous. An investment model is estimated to test these theoretical predications using a panel of UK firms and a stock returns-based measure of uncertainty. As predicted we find that uncertainty reduces firms' responsiveness to demand shocks.

To understand why some firms export while others do not, it is necessary to understand major determinants which lead some firms to engage in exporting. A large base of empirical literature provides evidence that firms which trade are systematically different from those which do not trade in size, productivity, and the involvement of multinational corporations. In this paper, we introduce a financial dimension as an additional source of firm heterogeneity to understand export market participation, and examine how the impact of leverage on firms' exporting decisions varies depending on financial constraints, using a panel of 3,353 Korean manufacturing firms over the period of 1994-2011. First, we find that leverage for financially-constrained firms is negatively associated with the probability of exporting while leverage for financially-unconstrained is not. Also, we find that in the sample of financially-constrained firms, future exporters have higher leverage before they begin to export, while in the sample of financially-unconstrained firms, firms with ex-ante lower leverage self-select to export. Finally, it is found that export market participation decreases leverage for both financially-constrained and financially-unconstrained firms, but the magnitudes of decreases in leverage are larger for financially-constrained firms.

Natural gas plays an important role in the future development of electricity markets, as it is the least emission-intensive fossil generation option and additionally provides the needed plant operating flexibility to deal with intermittent renewable generation. As both the electricity and the natural gas market rely on networks, congestion in one market may lead to changes in the other. In addition, investment in one market impacts investment in the other market to the extent that these investments may even become substitutes for each another. The objective of this paper is to develop a dynamic model representation of coupled natural gas and electricity network markets to test the potential interaction with respect to investments. The model is tested under simplified conditions as well as for a stylized European network setting. The results indicate that there is sufficient potential for investment substitution and market interactions that warrant the application of coupled models, especially with regard to simulations of long-term system developments.

L’epargnant navigue aujourd’hui sur une mer houleuse : crise financiere et economique rendant l’environnement plus incertain, risque macroeconomique lie au devenir du systeme de protection sociale, reformes fiscales, politiques « d’activation de l’individu » cherchant a le rendre davantage responsable de son avenir... Consequence, l’epargnant privilegie aujourd’hui plus que jamais les actifs surs et de court terme, ce qui inquiete certains acteurs qui veulent a l’inverse privilegier une epargne productive de long terme. En utilisant des donnees individuelles, nous montrons que ce constat ne concerne pas l’ensemble de la population : les couches aisees et plutot âgees detiennent des produits risques et de long terme de facon plutot frequente et importante. Par ailleurs, la prudence accrue des epargnants pendant la crise s’explique plus par des anticipations a la baisse (revenus, prix d’actifs boursiers, marche du travail) que par un accroissement de l’aversion au risque durant la crise. Pour aider les individus a sortir de la frilosite financiere que certains leur reprochent, une des solutions consisterait alors a ce que l’Etat (providence) continue a assurer un minimum ces memes individus contre les nouveaux risques macroeconomiques… Classification JEL : D92, E21, E24, E61.

This paper broadly addresses the financing problems of the innovation process, by analysing the extent to which financial constraints hinder firms' investment in R&D and innovation, as well as investigating the role of public financial support in alleviating such constraints. In order to overcome the problems associated with measuring financial constraints, we make use of both indirect and direct measures of constraints. Our findings suggest that while financial constraints have a perverse effect upon R&D investment and innovation, there is no evidence that subsidies mitigate such constraints. Accordingly, we raise a number of questions regarding the efficiency and effectiveness of subsidies in alleviating firms' financial constraints.

A cikk a tartós eszközök gazdasági értékcsökkenésének elméleti hátterét, valamint empirikus megragadásának egy lehetséges módját mutatja be a használt személygépkocsik piacának információi alapján. A tartós eszközök értékcsökkenésére a szerző a bennük megtestesülő tőkeszolgálat felemésztődéseként tekint, amelyet az eszközök kimerülése, elhasználódása és avulása határoz meg. E jelenségek kirajzolják az eszközre és annak használati módjára jellemző értékcsökkenési mintát. Az értékcsökkenés megragadásának mikéntje hatással van a vállalkozások termék- és tőkepiaci versenyképességére, mert az értékcsökkenés meghatározza a vállalkozások jövedelmét és kibocsátásuk egységköltségét. A cikk a használt személygépkocsik értékcsökkenését a tőkeévjárat-modell elméleti bázisán Box-Cox-transzformációval vizsgálja. Az eredmények azt mutatják, hogy a személygépkocsik értékcsökkenése mértani mintát követ, amelyben a személyautók korának erősebb a magyarázó ereje, mint a - kor változójában megjelenő avulás hatása miatt - futásteljesítménynek., The paper introduces the theoretical background of economic depreciation and provides an empirical analysis applied to used-car market data. Depreciation is examined from the point of view of embodied services consumption affected by asset exhaustion, deterioration, and obsolescence. These phenomena draw up the depreciation pattern of assets and the various uses of them. The approach taken to capturing depreciation affects the competitiveness of companies in terms of their products as well as their competitiveness in capital markets, because depreciation determines income and product-unit cost. The paper examines the depreciation function of used cars based on the vintage-asset model, using Box-Cox power transformation. The results show that the depreciation function of cars follows a geometrical pattern, in which age has stronger explanatory power than mileage, which is explicable by the obsolescence effect of age.

"Grüne" Investitionen können in einem europäischen Wachstumspaket eine zentrale Rolle einnehmen, da sie kurzfristig spürbare Beschäftigungsimpulse und mittel- bis langfristig positive fiskalische Effekte auslösen können. Die Summe der zusätzlichen "grünen" Investitionen könnte die Größenordnung der Konjunkturpakete der Jahre 2008/2009 übersteigen. Obwohl viele Projekte für Energieeffizienz und erneuerbare Energien - insbesondere vor dem Hintergrund langfristig steigender Preise für fossile Brennstoffe - gesamtwirtschaftlich positiv zu bewerten sind, schreitet ihre Umsetzung nur zögerlich voran. Deswegen gilt es, für verlässliche regulatorische Rahmenbedingungen zu sorgen und Finanzierungshemmnisse zu beseitigen. In europäischer Zusammenarbeit können europäische und nationale Förderbanken mit Eigenkapital, Darlehen und Garantien gestärkt werden, so dass sie gezielt die Finanzierung von Projekten unterstützen können. Diskutiert werden gegenwärtig eine zusätzliche Kapitalisierung, zum Beispiel über das EU-Budget, oder staatliche Garantien von EU-Ländern mit guter Bonität. Die angestoßenen Projekte rentieren sich mittel- und langfristig über zukünftige Energieeinsparungen - und stehen somit nicht im Widerspruch zu den Zielen der Haushaltskonsolidierung. Europa setzt so Wachstumsimpulse, kommt weiter bei der Umsetzung seiner energie- und klimapolitischen Ziele und verringert seine Abhängigkeit von Energieimporten.

The purpose of this paper is to present a procedure to include the implicit assumptions of Net Present Value (npv ) in the Internal Rate of Return (irr ), and the profitability index (benefit–cost ratio b/cr). The resulting indicators are the weighted irr (wirr ) and the expanded b/cr (eb/cr). These two desirability measures are designed for variable and constant discount rates. They have the property to coincide with the npv ranking for investment analysis and hence, will maximize value. Examples are presented.

The paper studies the incentive for providers to invest in new health care technologies under alternative payment systems, when the patients' benefits are uncertain. If the reimbursement by the purchaser includes both a variable (per patient) and a lump-sum component, efficiency can be ensured both in the timing of adoption (dynamic) and the intensity of use of the technology (static). If the second instrument is unavailable, a trade-off may emerge between static and dynamic efficiency. In this context, we also discuss how the regulator could use control of the level of uncertainty faced by the provider as an instrument to mitigate the trade-off between static and dynamic efficiency. Finally, we calibrate the model to study a specific technology and estimate the cost of a regulatory failure.

This article looks at the empirical consequences of introducing endogenous capital depreciation in the standard neoclassical model with quadratic adjustment costs. To this end, we formulate an empirical specification that accommodates capital maintenance and utilization in the Euler equations for aggregate investment. The empirical estimates with data from the Canadian Survey on Capital and Repair Expenditures show that, in contrast to the existing literature, the performance of the Euler equations is improved when we account for the impact of variable capital depreciation.

This paper proposes an analysis of the creative accounting connection with the managing factor which administers informational resources in a company activity. Creative accounting, as it is defined in scientific literature, takes different shapes, “existential complexity” which makes it become the suitable environment of strategic and tactical steps, initiated and performed from the major objective point of view represented by the performance of the company. The manager is the one who connects the internal information, upon which he has control, with external information, in order to manage properly economic circumstances, the way of reporting financial results with influences on the perceptive of the company. An efficient management will follow the increase of financial indicators of the company and implicit of its performance, through financial insurance turnover necessary to the continuity and development of the activity of the company.

In the economies of many countries, free competition is protected by antitrust laws and regulations in terms of unfair competition, whose recipients are entrepreneurs. On one hand FDI facilitates an access to technologies, know-how and management skills, accelerating the integration of national economies with international markets, production and distribution networks, and strengthening the international competition of companies but on the other hand governments interfere to with competitions supporting FDI actions. The state aid impact the country internal Foreign Direct Investment as well as support of external FDI of national corporations. The papers presents the government impact in those situations in Poland

This paper examines whether debt financing can undermine a supermarket firm's incentive to provide product quality. In the supermarket industry, product availability is an important measure of a retailer's quality. Using US consumer price index microdata to track inventory shortfalls, I find that taking on high financial leverage increases shortfalls. Highly leveraged firms appear to be degrading their products' quality in order to preserve current cash flow for debt service. Although reducing quality can erode both current sales and customer loyalty, firms appear to be willing to risk these outcomes in order to achieve benefits associated with debt finance. (JEL D92, G31, G32, L15, L81)