Why firms avoid cutting wages: Survey evidence from European firms. National Bank of Belgium Working Paper No. 251, December 2013

The rarity with which firms reduce nominal wages has been frequently observed, even in the face of considerable negative economic shocks. This paper uses a unique survey of fourteen European countries to ask firms directly about the incidence of wage cuts and to assess the relevance of a range of potential reasons for why they avoid cutting wages. Concerns about the retention of productive staff and a lowering of morale and effort were reported as key reasons for downward wage rigidity across all countries and firm types. Restrictions created by collective bargaining were found to be an important consideration for firms in euro area countries but were one of the lowest ranked obstacles in non-euro area countries. The paper examines how firm characteristics and collective bargaining institutions affect the relevance of each of the common explanations put forward for the infrequency of wage cuts.

Micro-based evidence of EU competitiveness: The CompNet Database. National Bank of Belgium Working Paper No. 253, March 2014

Drawing from confidential firm-level balance sheets in 11 European countries, the paper presents a novel sectoral database of comparable productivity indicators built by members of the Competitiveness Research Network (CompNet) using a newly developed research infrastructure. Beyond aggregate information available from industry statistics of Eurostat or EU KLEMS, the paper provides information on the distribution of firms across several dimensions related to competitiveness, e.g. productivity and size. The database comprises so far 11 countries, with information for 58 sectors over the period 1995-2011. The paper documents the development of the new research infrastructure, the construction of the database, and shows some preliminary results. Among them, it shows that there is large heterogeneity in terms of firm productivity or size within narrowly defined industries in all countries. Productivity, and above all, size distribution are very skewed across countries, with a thick left-tail of low productive firms. Moreover, firms at both ends of the distribution show very different dynamics in terms of productivity and unit labour costs. Within-sector heterogeneity and productivity dispersion are positively correlated to aggregate productivity given the possibility of reallocating resources from less to more productive firms. To this extent, we show how allocative efficiency varies across countries, and more interestingly, over different periods of time. Finally, we apply the new database to illustrate the importance of productivity dispersion to explain aggregate trade results.

A macro-financial analysis of the euro area sovereign bond market. National Bank of Belgium Working Paper No. 259, June 2014

We estimate the 'fundamental' component of euro area sovereign bond yield spreads, i.e. the part of bond spreads that can be justified by country-specific economic factors, euro area economic fundamentals, and international influences. The yield spread decomposition is achieved using a multi-market, no-arbitrage affine term structure model with a unique pricing kernel. More specifically, we use the canonical representation proposed by Joslin, Singleton, and Zhu (2011) and introduce next to standard spanned factors a set of unspanned macro factors, as in Joslin, Priebsch, and Singleton (2013). The model is applied to yield curve data from Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, and Spain over the period 2005-2013. Overall, our results show that economic fundamentals are the dominant drivers behind sovereign bond spreads. Nevertheless, shocks unrelated to the fundamental component of the spread have played an important role in the dynamics of bond spreads since the intensification of the sovereign debt crisis in the summer of 2011

The whirlwind, an historical romance; being the story of the French revolution as it was seen by René De Massac, deputy to the National assembly and general of the republic,

Mode of access: Internet.

The Mercantile Trust Company, vs. the Portland & Ogdensburg R.R. Co. et als. in equity.

Copy of petition and decree of U.S. Circuit Court authorizing issue of $50,000 additional certificates by receiver.

The Milwaukee Street Railway Company to Central Trust Company of New York : mortgage or deed of trust.

Cover title.

Mercantile Trust Company, vs. the Portland & Ogdensburg R.R. Co. et als.

Final decree of foreclosure.

Annual statement exhibiting the condition of the state banks, savings banks, institutions for savings, and trust companies.

Includes also, 1902-1907 statements of building and loan associations, 1901-1906 (Domestic and foreign building and loan associations, 1901-1904; Domestic building and loan associations, 1905-1906)

Girard Trust Company; a century of financial activity, 1836-1936.

Written by one of the staff. Cf. Foreword.

Chase National Bank of the City of New York, 1877-1922.

Cover title.

Annual report of the Board of Commissioners of Savings Banks : part I, savings banks, institutions for savings, and safe deposit, loan and trust companies.

Mode of access: Internet.

The Corporation Trust Company's war tax service.

Kept up to date by inserts with title: War tax service report.

Outline of a plan for a national bank : with incidental remarks on the Bank of the United States.

Goldsmiths'-Kress no. 28073.40.

A national bank, or no bank; an appeal to the common sense of the people of the United States, especially of the laboring classes.

Microfilm. Ann Arbor, Mich., University Microfilms [n.d.] (American culture series, Reel 62.12)