The value of local partners in Brazil: the effects of ownership clusters and business group membership on firm value in emerging markets

Este estudo analisa como a classe de acionistas afeta o valor das empresas brasileiras listadas na bolsa de valores no ponto de vista da governança corporativa. O trabalho examina a interação entre o valor das empresas e cinco tipos de concentrações acionárias comumente presente em mercados emergentes: famílias, agentes públicos, investidores estrangeiros, executivos e investidores financeiros nacionais. A análise empírica demonstra que o mix e a concentração de participação acionária afeta significativamente o valor das empresas. Utilizando uma compilação única de dados em painel de 2004 a 2008, a presente pesquisa também desenvolve hipóteses sobre o efeito da participação em grupos econômicos para o valor das empresas. A investigação encontra evidências de que, apesar de sua importância para o desenvolvimento de empresas brasileiras, o capital familiar, instituições públicas, e investidores estrangeiros estão cedendo lugar a monitores mais especializados e menos concentrados, como executivos e instituições financeiras nacionais. Estes resultados indicam que a governança corporativa no Brasil pode estar alcançando níveis de maturidade mais elevados. Adicionalmente, apesar de não haver indicação da existência de correlação entre a participação em grupos econômicos e o valor das empresas, os resultados indicam que a presença de um tipo específico de acionista em uma empresa do grupo facilita investimentos futuros desta classe de acionista em outras empresas do mesmo grupo, sinalizando que os interesses acionários são provavelmente perpetuados dentro de uma mesma rede de empresas. Finalmente, a pesquisa demonstra que enquanto o capital familiar prefere investir em empresas com ativa mobilidade do capital, investidores internacionais e instituições públicas procuram investimentos em equity com menor mobilidade de capital, o que lhes garante mais transparência com relação ao uso dos recursos e fundos das empresas.

The best are never normal : exploring the distribution of firm performance

Competitive Strategy literature predicts three different mechanisms of performance generation, thus distinguishing between firms that have competitive advantage, firms that have competitive disadvantage or firms that have neither. Nonetheless, previous works in the field have fitted a single normal distribution to model firm performance. Here, we develop a new approach that distinguishes among performance generating mechanisms and allows the identification of firms with competitive advantage or disadvantage. Theorizing on the positive feedback loops by which firms with competitive advantage have facilitated access to acquire new resources, we proposed a distribution we believe data on firm performance should follow. We illustrate our model by assessing its fit to data on firm performance, addressing its theoretical implications and comparing it to previous works.

The effects of small firm tax incentives on employment levels

This paper aims to evaluate the impact on employment growth of a tax incentive program targeting Brazilian manufacturing small businesses (SIMPLES). This evaluation is conducted for two distinct periods: for the year 1997, when the program was first implemented, and for the year 1999, when the eligibility rule was modified to allow the eligibility of a broader group of firms. The evaluation takes into account two distinct channels through which the charted effects operate. The first is the employment variation in the firms that became eligible for the incentives, and the second is the change in the survival probability experienced by the same group of firms. Moreover, each of these channels can be activated either by the tax reduction dimension of the program or by its dimension of red tape simplification. Our results identify positive effects on employment growth for the tax incentive program only in the dimension of red tape simplification and its effects on the 1997 sample.

The firm size wage premium : a quantile analysis

Empirical evidence shows that larger firms pay higher wages than smaller ones. This wage premium is called the firm size wage effect. The firm size effect on wages may be attributed to many factors, as differentials on productivity, efficiency wage, to prevent union formation, or rent sharing. The present study uses quantile regression to investigate the finn size wage effect. By offering insight into who benefits from the wage premi um, quantile regression helps eliminate and refine possible explanations. Estimated results are consistent with the hypothesis that the higher wages paid by large firms can be explained by the difference in monitoring costs that large firms face. Results also suggest that more highly skilled workers are more often found at larger firms .

The effects of credit risk transfer on bank monitoring and firm financing

This paper examines the efects of the transfer of credit risk associated with bank loans. We are interested in (a) whether the transfer of credit risk has any impact on the intensity with which banks monitor their borrowers and (b) whether credit risk transfer infuences the amount of financing that is provided to firms in an economy. Our model first develops conditions under which bank finance is available to firrms, mainly in the spirit of Holmstrom/Tirole (1997). We then introduce projects with uncorrelated pay-offs and argue that one possible economic rationale for credit risk transfer is diversi¯cation. We analyze whether and how within this scenario the transfer of the credit risk of loans changes a bank's incentives to monitor its debtors. Finally we investigate whether and what kind of impact this may have on the amount of ¯nancing available to firms in an economy. Our results indicate that the monitoring incentives are being eroded indeed and that credit risk transfer can increase the overall amount of obtainable funds in an economy.

Firm financial constraints and the impact of monetary policy: evidence from financial conglomerates

Building on recent evidence on the functioning of internal capital markets in financial conglomerates, this paper conducts a novel test of the balance sheet channel of monetary policy. It does so by comparing monetary policy responses of small banks that are affiliated with the same bank holding company, and this arguably face similar constraints in accessing internal/external sources of funds, but that operate in different geographical regions, and thus face different pools of borrowers. Because these subsidiaries typically concentrate their lending with small local businesses, we can use cross-sectional differences in state-level economic indicators at the time of changes of monetary policy to study whether or not the strength of borrowers' balance sheets influences the response of bank lending. We find evidence that the negative response of bank loan growth to a monetary contraction is significantly stronger when borrowers have 'weak balance sheets. Our evidence suggests that the monetary authority should consider the amplification effects that financial constraints play following changes in basic interest rates and the role of financial conglomerates in the transmission of monetary policy.

Innovation districts: an investigation of the replication of the 22@ Barcelona’s Model in Boston

In 2000, the city of Barcelona launched 22@ Barcelona, dubbed the innovation district. The city sees the project as a means to accelerate Barcelona’s transition toward the knowledge economy. Other cities around the world have since followed the example of Barcelona, building or planning to build their own innovation districts. Boston began to establish its innovation district in 2010. Cities’ ultimate goal for these initiatives is to become more innovative and thus more competitive. Innovative districts are different from technology parks in that they aim to respond to a new economic paradigm in which economic production flows back to cities. The 22@ Barcelona model involves theoretical designs regarding five layers of innovation: economics, urban planning, productive, innovative, and creative. The comparative approach between 22@ Barcelona and Boston’s Innovation District intends to highlight the similarities and differences between those two innovation districts as well as providing a framework to define innovation districts.

Main obstacles in the business environment affecting firm growth: a comparative analysis between Chinese and Brazilian SMEs

Usando dados do Banco Mundial, esta dissertação analisa as semelhanças e diferenças entre os obstáculos enfrentados pelas micro, pequenas e médias empresas (MSME) no Brasil e na China. Realizamos tanto uma análise comparativa entre os dos países como uma análise de clusters para confrontar os dados subjetivos e objetivos recolhidos, de modo a identificar o desempenho das empresas, levando em consideração as características dos países e o ambiente de negócios.

Not delivering as one: asymmetric outcomes in firm-university collaborations

Extant literature examined the benefits of relational embeddedness in facilitating collaboration between organizations, as well as the necessity of firms to balance their knowledge generation into exploration and exploitation activities. However, the effects of relational embeddedness in the specific outputs of firm-university collaborations, as well as the elements that affect the exploratory nature of such outcomes remain underexplored. By examining fine grained data of more than 4.000 collaborative research and development projects by a firm and universities, 5.000 patents, and 300.000 scientific publications, it was proposed that relational embeddedness would have a positive effect on resource commitment and on joint scientific publications, but a negative effect on joint patents and exploratory outcomes resulting of such collaborations. Additionally, it was proposed that knowledge similarity would have a negative impact in exploratory endeavors made in such projects. Although some of the propositions were not supported by the data, this study revealed that relational embeddedness increases resource commitment and the production of joint scientific publications in such partnerships. At last, this study presents interesting opportunities for future research.

Bank networks and firm credit: an agent based model approach

Starting from the idea that economic systems fall into complexity theory, where its many agents interact with each other without a central control and that these interactions are able to change the future behavior of the agents and the entire system, similar to a chaotic system we increase the model of Russo et al. (2014) to carry out three experiments focusing on the interaction between Banks and Firms in an artificial economy. The first experiment is relative to Relationship Banking where, according to the literature, the interaction over time between Banks and Firms are able to produce mutual benefits, mainly due to reduction of the information asymmetry between them. The following experiment is related to information heterogeneity in the credit market, where the larger the bank, the higher their visibility in the credit market, increasing the number of consult for new loans. Finally, the third experiment is about the effects on the credit market of the heterogeneity of prices that Firms faces in the goods market.

Boundary decisions of the firm: make, buy, cooperate

Firms are not atomistic hierarchies only linked with one another at arm’s-length distance in markets. Instead, a myriad of long-lived, highly cooperative relationships between suppliers and customers are pervasively found in the B2B world. And it is within those enmeshed relationships and networks that the co-evolution of capabilities and business specialisms is brought about and developed. If that is the actual ‘topography’ of the business landscape, then the coordination of economic activities in general, and the boundary decisions of each and every firm in particular, are unlikely to be reduced to a (dual) choice between ‘making’ or ‘buying’. Inter-firm cooperation is in itself a third governance structure, in alternative to the hierarchical and the market modes of coordination. And, what is also equally important to note, it is through the make-or-buy-or-cooperate decisions that the (embedded) firm is able to change its nature and scope, redefine its (fuzzy) boundaries, and thus adapt to an ever-changing business setting.

A industrialização das editoras e dos livros didáticos nos Estados Unidos (do século XIX ao começo do século XX)

Cet article examine la création de l'industrie du livre didactique aux États-Unis à partir des années 30 du XIXe siècle. Dès les années 20 de ce siècle, des maisons d'éditions sises dans les villes de New York et Boston étaient déjà capables de publier différents types de livres didactiques et de petits livres pour enfants et de les vendre aux quatre coins du pays, où elles avaient détaché des fonctionnaires pour ce faire. À la fin de cette décennie, le processus de production s'est sophistiqué avec l'organisation et l'entraînement d'équipes spécialisées dans l'écriture de schoolbooks. Dans le sillage de ces premières maisons d'éditions, d'autres se sont affirmées et sont devenues des puissances nationales et internationales jouant un rôle décisif aussi bien dans l'américanisation des énormes vagues d'immigrants qui sont arrivées dans ce pays, dès la moitié du XIXe siècle, que dans celle des peuples soumis à la domination militaire ou économique des EUA.

Gradually truncated log-normal in USA publicly traded firm size distribution

We study the statistical distribution of firm size for USA and Brazilian publicly traded firms through the Zipf plot technique. Sale size is used to measure firm size. The Brazilian firm size distribution is given by a log-normal distribution without any adjustable parameter. However, we also need to consider different parameters of log-normal distribution for the largest firms in the distribution, which are mostly foreign firms. The log-normal distribution has to be gradually truncated after a certain critical value for USA firms. Therefore, the original hypothesis of proportional effect proposed by Gibrat is valid with some modification for very large firms. We also consider the possible mechanisms behind this distribution. (c) 2006 Published by Elsevier B.V.

Assessment and statistics of Brazilian hydroelectric power plants: Dam areas versus installed and firm power

The Brazilian relief, predominantly composed by small mountains and plateaus, contributed to formation of rivers with high amount of falls. With exception to North-eastern Brazil, the climate of this country are rainy, which contributes to maintain water flows high. These elements are essential to a high hydroelectric potential, contributing to the choice of hydroelectric power plants as the main technology of electricity generation in Brazil. Though this is a renewable source, whose utilized resource is free, dams must to be established which generates a high environmental and social impact. The objective of this study is to evaluate the impact caused by these dams through the use of environmental indexes. These indexes are ratio formed by installed power with dam area of a hydro power plant, and ratio formed by firm power with this dam area. In this study, the greatest media values were found in South, Southeast, and Northeast regions respectively, and the smallest media values were found in North and Mid-West regions, respectively. The greatest encountered media indexes were also found in dams established in the 1950s. In the last six decades, the smallest indexes were registered by darns established in the 1980s. These indexes could be utilized as important instruments for environmental impact assessments, and could enable a dam to be established that depletes an ecosystem as less as possible.