(Working Papers SES ; 428)
This paper examines how family and non-family ownership affects the performance of Swiss listed firms from 2003 to 2010. We distinguish between these two types of controlling shareholders since they have different objectives. We hypothesise that only family shareholders have a real incentive to reduce agency costs whereas non-family blockholders are similar to widely held companies. Our results...
|
(Working Papers SES ; 427)
We present a new method to measure the intraday relationship between movements of implied volatility smiles and stock returns. It is based on an enhanced smile regression model which captures patterns in the intraday data which have not yet been reported in the literature. Using transaction data for exchange-traded EuroStoxx 50 options from 2000 to 2011 and DAX options from 1995 to 2011, we show...
|
(Working Papers SES ; 423)
During the two decades preceding the 2007-8 financial crisis, both advanced and emerging market economies experienced larger credit growth and asset price fluctuations than in the more distant past. These phenomena were largely due to the establishment of credible inflation targeting regimes, whose excessive focus on medium-run price stability bred unsustainable credit and asset price dynamics,...
|
(Working Papers SES ; 418)
This paper formalizes the new schemes of fiscal equalization that has been decided in 2009 and will be introduced at the local level in the canton of Fribourg (Switzerland) in 2011. It develops the political economy of the proposal with the aim of understanding the participative democratic process that led to the acceptance of a radical change in the canton's equalization policy, the normative...
|
(Working Papers SES ; 417)
In the past thirty years, local governments in most European countries have been granted at least limited access to borrowing. The rules in force include limitations on the amount of borrowing and/or debt service, restrictions on the purpose of debt and on borrowing from foreign institutions and/or from the central bank. The description of these rules and sanctions constitute the thrust of...
|
(Working Papers SES ; 416)
This paper analyzes the interaction of international migration of high-skilled labor and relative wage income between source and destination economies of expatriates. We develop an overlapping-generations model with increasing returns which suggests that international integration of the market for skilled labor aggravates between-country inequality by harming those which are source economies to...
|
(Working Papers SES ; 415)
This paper argues that international migration of high-skilled workers triggers productivity effects at the macro level such that the wage rate of skilled workers may well rise in host countries and decline in source countries. We exploit a recent data set on international bilateral migration flows and provide evidence which is consistent with this hypothesis. In order to identify the causal...
|
(Working Papers SES ; 414)
The optimal mix of growth policies is determined within a comprehensive endogenous growth model. The analysis captures important elements of the tax-transfer system and accounts for transitional dynamics. Currently, for calculating corporate taxable income US firms are allowed to deduct approximately all oft heircapital and R&D costs from sales revenue. Our analysis suggests that this policy...
|
(Working Papers SES ; 413)
This paper analyzes the interaction between migration of high-skilled labor and publicly financed investment. We develop a theoretical model with multiple, ex ante identical jurisdictions where individuals decide on education and subsequent emigration. Migration decisions are based on differences in net income across jurisdictions which endogenously may occur. The interaction between income...
|
(FAME Research Paper ; 86)
Have the euro and accompanying measures of financial integration had a discernable impact on the degree of diversification of European investors? This is an empirical question that this paper tries to answer by exploring four alternative avenues. First we focus on the final outcome: If European investors are indeed better diversified, their consumption should be increasingly correlated. Second we...
|
