nep-cfn New Economics Papers
on Corporate Finance
Issue of 2007‒06‒02
five papers chosen by
Zelia Serrasqueiro
University of the Beira Interior

  1. Das (Wasted) Kapital: Firm Ownership and Investment Efficiency in China By David Dollar; Shang-Jin Wei
  2. Debt Maturity: Is Long-Term Debt Optimal? By Laura Alfaro; Fabio Kanczuk
  3. The Small World of Investing: Board Connections and Mutual Fund Returns By Lauren Cohen; Andrea Frazzini; Christopher Malloy
  4. When do Thick Venture Capital Markets Foster Innovation? An Evolutionary Analysis By Luca Colombo; Herbert Dawid; Kordian Kabus
  5. Interdependence and Contagion: an Analysis of Information Transmission in Latin America's Stock Markets By Angelo Marsiglia Fasolo

  1. By: David Dollar; Shang-Jin Wei
    Abstract: Based on a survey that we designed and that covers a stratified random sample of 12,400 firms in 120 cities in China with firm-level accounting information for 2002-2004, this paper examines the presence of systematic distortions in capital allocation that result in uneven marginal returns to capital across firm ownership, regions, and sectors. It provides a systematic comparison of investment efficiency among wholly and partially state-owned, wholly and partially foreignowned, and domestic privately owned firms, conditioning on their sector, location, and size characteristics. It finds that even after a quarter-of-century of reforms, state-owned firms still have significantly lower returns to capital, on average, than domestic private or foreign-owned firms. Similarly, certain regions and sectors have consistently lower returns to capital than other regions and sectors. By our calculation, if China succeeds in allocating its capital more efficiently, it could reduce its investment intensity by 5 percent of GDP without sacrificing its economic growth (and hence deliver a greater improvement to its citizens' living standard).
    Keywords: Capital , China , Financial systems , Investment , Industry , Resource allocation , Economic reforms ,
    Date: 2007–01–18
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:imf:imfwpa:07/9&r=cfn
  2. By: Laura Alfaro; Fabio Kanczuk
    Abstract: We model and calibrate the arguments in favor and against short-term and long-term debt. These arguments broadly include: maturity premium, sustainability, and service smoothing. We use a dynamic equilibrium model with tax distortions and government outlays uncertainty, and model maturity as the fraction of debt that needs to be rolled over every period. In the model, the benefits of defaulting are tempered by higher future interest rates. We then calibrate our artificial economy and solve for the optimal debt maturity for Brazil as an example of a developing country and the U.S. as an example of a mature economy. We obtain that the calibrated costs from defaulting on long-term debt more than offset costs associated with short-term debt. Therefore, short-term debt implies higher welfare levels.
    JEL: E62 F34 H63
    Date: 2007–05
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:13119&r=cfn
  3. By: Lauren Cohen; Andrea Frazzini; Christopher Malloy
    Abstract: This paper uses social networks to identify information transfer in security markets. We focus on connections between mutual fund managers and corporate board members via shared education networks. We find that portfolio managers place larger bets on firms they are connected to through their network, and perform significantly better on these holdings relative to their non-connected holdings. A replicating portfolio of connected stocks outperforms a replicating portfolio of non-connected stocks by up to 8.4% per year. Returns are concentrated around corporate news announcements, consistent with mutual fund managers gaining an informational advantage through the education networks. Our results suggest that social networks may be an important mechanism for information flow into asset prices.
    JEL: G10 G11 G14
    Date: 2007–05
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:13121&r=cfn
  4. By: Luca Colombo (DISCE, Università Cattolica); Herbert Dawid (Bielefeld University); Kordian Kabus (Bielefeld University)
    Abstract: In this paper we examine the trade off between different effects of the availability of venture capital on the speed of technological progress in an industry. We consider an evolutionary industry simulation model based on Nelson and Winter (1982) where R&D efforts of an incumbent firm generate technological know-how embodied in key R&D employees, who might use this know-how to found a spinoff of the incumbent. Venture capital is needed to finance a spinoff, and therefore the expected profits from founding a spinoff depend on how easily venture capital can be acquired. Accordingly, thick venture capital markets might have two opposing effects. First, incentives of firms to invest in R&D might be reduced and, second, if spinoff formation results in technological spillovers between the parent firm and the spinoffs, the generation of spinoff firms might positively influence the future efficiency of the incumbent's innovation efforts. We study how this tradeoff influences the effect of venture capital on the innovation expenditures, speed of technological change and the evolution of industry concentration in several scenarios with different industry characteristics.
    Keywords: Venture Capital, Technological Progress, R&D Effort, Spinoff, Industry Evolution
    JEL: O30 J30 L20
    Date: 2007–03
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ctc:serie3:ief0074&r=cfn
  5. By: Angelo Marsiglia Fasolo
    Abstract: This paper brings evidences about the hypotheses of financial crisis contagion over Latin American stock markets in the 90's using a multivariate GARCH model. Beside the traditional volatility structure, we added a leverage term like GJR framework in order to avoid problems due to the use of conditional correlation as a measure of relationship between stock markets. The results show the existence of contagion only during the Asian (1997) and the Russian (1998) crises. The consequences of the Brazilian crisis (1999) can be identified as a result of interdependence among Latin American markets, while the crises of Mexico (1994) and Argentina (2001) show a specific mechanism of propagation. This result raises questions about the "contagion" and "interdependence" concepts' adequacy for the analysis of information transmission among stock markets.
    Date: 2006–07
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bcb:wpaper:112&r=cfn

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