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Unique Dataset (unique + dataset)
Selected AbstractsWhat Do Shareholders' Coalitions Really Want?CORPORATE GOVERNANCE, Issue 2 2007Evidence from Italian voting trusts This paper studies the effects of having multiple large shareholders who share the control of firms, by analysing a unique dataset of Italian shareholders' agreements (voting trusts). We investigate the separation between ownership and control granted by such agreements, showing that, on average, a voting trust owning 52 per cent of the total company's cash-flow rights is able to exercise up to 87 per cent of the total board rights; the wedge is particularly beneficial to the largest shareholder within the voting trust who is able to get the majority of board rights despite owning only a minority fraction of the company's cash-flow rights. Then, an event-study analysis of a sample of voting trusts' announcements is performed. The results support the "entrenchment effects" hypothesis (Stulz, 1988) linking the ownership structure and the firm value, and are consistent with the view that, in Italy, voting trust agreements are mainly aimed at both protecting controlling shareholders from hostile takeovers and entrenching incumbent management. [source] THE COMMON EXTERNAL TARIFF IN A CUSTOMS UNION: VOTING, LOGROLLING, AND NATIONAL GOVERNMENT INTERESTSECONOMICS & POLITICS, Issue 3 2007SAMIA COSTA TAVARES Missing from the analysis of customs unions has been a consideration of collective decision-making by countries regarding the union's common trade policy. In the case of the common European external tariff, how governments voted was not public information. This paper uses a unique dataset to derive member states' tariff preferences, which are then used to establish the decision rule before 1987, when individual governments had veto power. Results indicate a principle of unanimity, as well as the presence of logrolling. The political equilibrium for the common external tariff is also illustrated to have shifted as a result of union enlargements. [source] Secured Creditor Recovery Rates from Management Buy-outs in DistressEUROPEAN FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT, Issue 2 2003David Citron G33; G32 Buy-out literature suggests that secured creditors will recoup substantial proportions of the funds they extend to finance the initial buy-out. This paper uses a unique dataset of 42 failed MBOs to examine the extent of credit recovery by secured lenders under UK insolvency procedures and the factors that influence the extent of this recovery. On average, secured creditors recover 62 per cent of the amount owed. The percentage of secured credit recovered is increased where the distressed buy-out is sold as a going concern and where the principal reason for failure concerns managerial factors. The presence of a going concern qualification in the audit report and the size of the buy-out reduce the recovery rate by secured creditors. [source] Participation and study decisions in a public system of higher educationJOURNAL OF APPLIED ECONOMETRICS, Issue 3 2010Stijn Kelchtermans We analyze the decision whether to participate and where and what to study in a public system of higher education, based on a unique dataset of all eligible high school pupils in an essentially closed region (Flanders). We find that pupils perceive the available institutions and programs as close substitutes relative to the outside option. This implies an ambiguous role for travel costs: they hardly affect the participation decision, but have a strong impact on the decision where and what to study. To illustrate how our empirical results can inform the debate on reforming public systems, we assess the effects of tuition fee increases. Uniform cost-based tuition fee increases achieve most of the welfare gains; the additional gains from fee differentiation are relatively limited. These welfare gains are quite large under conservative assumptions on the social cost of public funds, and there is a substantial redistribution from students to outsiders. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Risk of catastrophic terrorism: an extreme value approachJOURNAL OF APPLIED ECONOMETRICS, Issue 4 2009Hamid Mohtadi This paper models the stochastic behavior of large-scale terrorism using extreme value methods. We utilize a unique dataset composed of roughly 26,000 observations. These data provide a rich description of domestic and international terrorism between 1968 and 2006. Currently, a credible worst-case scenario would involve losses of about 5000 to 10,000 lives. Also, the return time for events of such magnitude is shortening every year. Today, the primary threat is from conventional weapons, rather than from chemical, biological and/or radionuclear weapons. However, pronounced tails in the distribution of these incidents suggest that this threat cannot be dismissed. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Private Environmental Activism and the Selection and Response of Firm TargetsJOURNAL OF ECONOMICS & MANAGEMENT STRATEGY, Issue 1 2009Michael J. Lenox Environmental activists are increasingly resorting to private strategies such as boycotts and protests focused on changing individual firms' behavior. In this paper, we examine activists' use of such "private politics" to engender firm compliance with activist objectives. We begin by developing a simple theoretical model of an activist campaign from which we develop a set of empirical hypotheses based on a set of observable features of firms. We test our hypotheses using a unique dataset of environmental activist campaigns against firms in the United States from 1988 to 2003. This paper fills an important need in the literature as one of the first empirical attempts to examine the private political strategies of activists and has important implications for the burgeoning literatures on industry self-regulation and the nonmarket strategies of firms. [source] Industry Event Participation and Network Brokerage among Entrepreneurial VenturesJOURNAL OF MANAGEMENT STUDIES, Issue 4 2010Wouter Stam abstract Despite the recognition that network brokerage is beneficial for entrepreneurial ventures, little is known about its antecedents. This study examines how participation in industry events (e.g. conferences) relates to entrepreneurs' brokerage positions in informal industry networks and how these positions, in turn, impact new venture performance. Using a unique dataset of 45 events and subsequent network relations among entrepreneurs from 90 firms in the open source software industry, results indicate that: (1) entrepreneurs who participated in heterogeneous events or who bridged between events with few common participants were more likely to be brokers; (2) the relationship between event bridging and brokerage was stronger for entrepreneurs with broader prior career experiences; and (3) network brokerage mediated the event participation,performance link. It appears that events may limit structural opportunities for brokerage and that individual differences matter for exploiting these opportunities. Overall, this study increases understanding of how and when particular networking behaviours are beneficial for entrepreneurs. [source] DETERMINANTS OF SCHOOL ATTENDANCE AMONG MIGRANT CHILDREN: SURVEY EVIDENCE FROM CHINA'S JIANGSU PROVINCE*PACIFIC ECONOMIC REVIEW, Issue 4 2006Ingrid Nielsen This paper employs a household production function framework to examine the determinants of school attendance among migrant children using a unique dataset collected in China's Jiangsu province. The study finds that the main predictors of school attendance among migrant children in the sample were household income, mother's education, the length of residence of the child's mother in the city and whether both parents were working in the same city. [source] The Origins of Institutional Crises in Latin AmericaAMERICAN JOURNAL OF POLITICAL SCIENCE, Issue 3 2010Gretchen Helmke Institutional instability and interbranch crises pose a fundamental challenge to democracies in Latin America and the developing world more generally. Combining a standard game theoretic model of crisis bargaining with a unique dataset on courts, executives, and legislatures for 18 Latin American countries between 1985 and 2008, the article develops a strategic account of how interbranch crises emerge and evolve. In addition to providing the first systematic picture of the frequency, type, and location of interbranch crises for the region, the article demonstrates that the decision to initiate an interbranch crisis is influenced by the allocation of institutional powers, public support for the targeted branch, and the expectations of success based on recent experiences. Building on these results, the article identifies several novel directions for future research on institutional instability. [source] Price Discovery in Initial Public Offerings and the Role of the Lead UnderwriterTHE JOURNAL OF FINANCE, Issue 6 2000Reena Aggarwal We examine the price discovery process of initial public offerings (IPOs) using a unique dataset. The first quote entered by the lead underwriter in the five-minute preopening window explains a large proportion of initial returns even for hot IPOs. Significant learning and price discovery continues to take place during these five minutes with hundreds of quotes being entered. The lead underwriter observes the quoting behavior of other market makers, particularly the wholesalers, and accordingly revises his own quotes. There is a strong positive relationship between initial returns and the time of day when trading starts in an IPO. [source] Strategic order splitting, order choice, and aggressiveness: Evidence from the Taiwan futures exchangeTHE JOURNAL OF FUTURES MARKETS, Issue 12 2009Robin K. Chou We investigate the strategic order-splitting behavior and order aggressiveness of different types of traders using a unique dataset on the Taiwan Futures Exchange. By examining the trades and orders for each and every account, we find that, as compared with domestic institutional traders and individual traders, foreign institutional traders and futures proprietary firms are more likely to split their orders and it appears that the price adjustments after their trades are permanent. Foreign institutional traders and futures proprietary firms seem to be better informed, with their orders apparently being split so as to reveal their information on a gradual basis. Furthermore, we find that foreign institutional traders and futures proprietary firms use fewer market orders, choosing instead to submit aggressive limit orders, possibly due to their desire to make the most of their information advantage. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Jrl Fut Mark 29:1102,1129, 2009 [source] Corporate Diversification, Relatedness, and Firm Value: Evidence from Korean Firms,ASIA-PACIFIC JOURNAL OF FINANCIAL STUDIES, Issue 6 2008Sung C. Bae Abstract We examine the valuation effects of diversification activities for Korean firms by diversification type and the occasion of the Korean financial crisis. Employing a unique dataset of 2,894 firm-years for the entire manufacturing industries, we find that diversification by Korean firms on average decreases firm value but its effect varies by the type of diversification. While unrelated diversification erodes firm value, related diversification is associated with a non-negative effect on firm value. These valuation effects are more pronounced before the crisis than after the crisis. Our results also show an important role of a firm's affiliation to a large business group, known as chaebols, that related diversification by chaebol-affiliated firms comes with a significant value gain. We further find that the different valuation effects of unrelated and related diversification are closely related to a firm's ownership concentration and financial leverage. Our results are robust to different samples and regression model specifications. [source] Swift observations of CSS081007:030559+054715ASTRONOMISCHE NACHRICHTEN, Issue 2 2010A.P. Beardmore Abstract CSS081007:030559+054715 was discovered by the Catalina Real-time Transient Survey. Optical spectroscopy revealed a multi-peaked H, emission line profile with radial velocities exceeding 1500 km/s, as well as strong Ne emission, suggestive of a neon nova. We monitored the source extensively with the Swift satellite, obtaining a unique dataset spanning 270 days in the soft X-ray and UV bands. The data reveal a soft, blackbody-like spectrum with a temperature around 55 eV (though dependent on the modelling), variable X-ray and UV light curves with a 1.77 day period in both the X-ray and UV bands, a longer timescale modulation of , 50 days, followed by a slowly declining trend in the soft X-ray and UV flux. We highlight the Swift observations and their implications for the SSS nature of this object (© 2010 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim) [source] | ||||||||||