Productivity and Trade Orientation in UK Manufacturing Within a structural model we explicitly allow for the trade orientation of companies to estimate productivity dynamics within 4-digit UK manufacturing industries. We use the FAME data on UK companies over the period 1994-2003. Following Ackerberg et al. (2005) we adjust the algorithm in Olley and Pakes (1996) by augmenting investment and ex...

One of the most important methods employed to measure the market risk is value at risk calculation method. In this study, the value at risk of banks listed on the Tehran Stock Exchange and Over-the-counter (OTC) are calculated using parametric model, Monte Carlo simulation, historical simulation and Two-Sided Power (TSP) Distribution. The sample includes all listed banks in Iran. The results sh...

Can Active Labor Market Policy Be Counter-Productive? We study active labor market policies (ALMP) in a matching model. ALMPs are modelled as a subsidy to job search. Workers differ in their productivity, and search takes place along an extensive margin. An additional job seeker affects the quality of unemployed workers. As a result, the Hosios conditions are no longer valid. To replicate the o...

This paper considers the Greenspan/Summers/IMF (GSI) argument that the Asian way of doing business was the deep cause of the Asian crisis. The IMF reform programme for the crisis-affected Asian countries suggested they should abandon the Asian business model and adopt the US corporate model. The main findings are: a) contrary to GSI doctrine, poor corporate governance and lack of competition ar...

This paper investigates whether market competition enhances firms’ incentives to hide profits. We develop a theoretical model of firms’ profit hiding behavior in competitive environments and derive several testable hypotheses. We then test the model using a database that covers more than 20,000 large-and-medium-sized industrial firms in China during the period 1995-2002. Our findings show that ...

This paper examines how control and ownership structure affect share repurchases in an emerging market where controlling families derive large private benefits. Whereas firms with concentrated ownership often pay cash dividends, firms with weak control rights often repurchase shares. The magnitude of repurchase increases with weak control rights, but decreases with strong foreign ownership. The...

We introduce a money demand motive in a life-cycle portfolio choice model and estimate the structural parameters that can generate limited stock market participation and plausible holdings of money, bonds and stocks. The model predicts an increase in bond holdings over the life cycle, and a declining share of money in portfolios as wealth increases. Both predictions are consistent with the data...

We examine the relationship between CEO ownership and stock market performance. Firms in which the CEO voluntarily holds a considerable share of outstanding stocks outperform the market by more than 10 percent p.a. after controlling for traditional risk factors. The effect is most pronounced in firms that are characterized by large managerial discretion of the CEO. The abnormal returns we docum...

A country with a surplus river basin cooperates with a country with a deficit river basin in a joint investment project to build a water canal. The benefits from the existence of the canal are realized when cooperation halts and countries will have the opportunity to engage in a non-cooperative water market game. We define an imputation distribution procedure to share the “burden” from cooperat...

Labor Market Effects of Immigration: Evidence from Neighborhood Data This paper combines individual-level data from the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP) with economic and demographic postcode-level data from administrative records to analyze the effects of immigration on wages and unemployment probabilities of highand low-skilled natives. Employing an instrumental variable strategy and utiliz...