The Deaths of Manufacturing Plants

This paper examines the causes of manufacturing plant deaths within and across industries in the U.S. from 1977-1997. The effects of international competition from low wage countries, exporting, ownership structure, product diversity, productivity, geography, and plant characteristics are considered. The probability of shutdowns is higher in industries that face increased competition from low-income countries, especially for low-wage, labor-intensive plants within those industries. Conditional on industry and plant characteristics, closures occur more often at plants that are part of a multi-plant firm and at plants that have recently experienced a change in ownership. Plants owned by U.S. multinationals are more likely to close than similar plants at non-multinational firms. Exits occur less frequently at multi-product plants, at exporters, at plants that pay above average wages, and at large, older, more productive and more capital-intensive plants.

Firm Structure, Multinationals, and Manufacturing Plant Deaths

Plant shutdowns shape industry productivity, the dynamics of employment, and industrial restructuring. Plant closures account for more than half of gross job destruction in US manufacturing. This paper examines the effects of firm structure on US manufacturing plant closures. Plants belonging to multi-plant firms and those owned by US multinationals are less likely to exit. However, the superior survival chances are due to the characteristics of the plants rather than the nature of the firms. Controlling for plant and industry attributes, we find that plants owned by multi-unit firms and US multinationals are much more likely to close.Exit, shutdown, closure, multi-plant firms, multinational firms, takeovers, entry costs, agglomeration, specialization

Foreign stock holdings: the role of information

The household finance literature documents a large fraction of the population not participating in stock markets. It is also puzzling that a much greater share of households do not participate in foreign stock markets. Recent empirical evidence points towards the role of information in determining agents' portfolio choices. I test these results into a model that incorporates information on agents' portfolio allocation decision. In the model, consumers can invest in both domestic and foreign stocks and to update their information set, agents have to pay a cost implying that consumers update their portfolio only infrequently. In addition, to account for the initial costs of acquiring information about stock investments, a version of the model also features an entry-cost to be paid at the first period by agents that decide to enter stock market. Agents that invest in foreign stocks are more attentive, updating their portfolio more frequently. After calibrating the model to match returns and volatility for the U.S. economy and di¤erent foreign stock investments, I obtain that the minimum entry cost necessary to drive households completely out of stock markets is large (and in line with the equity premium puzzle literature). However, once agents already invest in domestic stock markets, the minimum cost that would drive investors out of foreign stocks market is much smaller. The size of the latter minimum entry cost depends on model parameters assumptions, and small variations on risk aversion and uncertaintly about foreign asset returns can bring this entry cost down enough to justify the substancial non-participation in foreign stock markets.Stockholders ; Stock market

U.S. banks, competition, and the Mexican banking system: how much will NAFTA matter?

Bank competition ; North American Free Trade Agreement ; Mexico

Electricity Sector Reform in Developing Countries: A Survey of Empirical Evidence on Determinants and Performance

This paper reviews the empirical evidence on electricity reform in developing countries. We find that country institutions and sector governance play an important role in success and failure of reform; reforms appear to have increased operating efficiency and expanded access to urban customers; they have to a lesser degree passed on efficiency gains to customers, tackled distributional effects, or improved rural access. Moreover, some of the literature is not methodologically robust or on a par with general development economics literature and findings on some issues are limited and inconclusive while some important areas are yet to be addressed. Until we know more, implementation of reforms will be more based on ideology and economic theory rather than solid economic evidence.The World Bank Electricity Research Programme and the CMI Electricity Project (IR-45

Foreign and Domestic Bank Participation in Emerging Markets: Lessons from Mexico and Argentina

The Asian Crisis has highlighted the importance of strong domestic financial systems in overall economic development and stabilization. Less agreement is evident on the role of foreign banks in achieving this goal. We explore this issue by studying bank-specific data on lending by domestically- and foreign-owned banks in Argentina and Mexico. We find that foreign banks generally have had higher loan growth rates than their domestically-owned counterparts, with lower volatility of lending, contributing to lower overall volatility of credit. Additionally, in both countries, foreign banks show notable credit growth during crisis periods. In Argentina, the loan portfolios of foreign and domestic privately-owned banks are similar, and lending rates analogously respond to aggregate demand fluctuations. In Mexico, foreign and domestic banks with lower levels of impaired assets have similar loan responsiveness and portfolios. State-owned banks (Argentina) and banks with high levels of impaired assets (Mexico) have more stagnant loan growth and weak responsiveness to market signals. Overall, these findings suggest that bank health, and not ownership per se, is the critical element in the growth, volatility, and cyclicality of bank credit. Diversity in ownership appears to contribute to greater stability of credit in times of crisis and domestic financial system weakness.

The Structure of Intra-Group Ties: Innovation in Taiwanese Business Groups

Business groups are a network form of multi-business firm that play central economic and technological roles in many emerging economies. We draw from the technology studies literature, complemented by concepts from studies of organizational networks, to investigate how equity, director, and operating ties between firms within groups shape their innovation opportunities. Technology studies suggest that such ties create both opportunities and constraints that influence innovative activity by affiliates and, in aggregate, by a group as a whole - opportunities that arise from access to information, people, money, and other resources, but also constraints that arise from entrenched relationships among different actors. The network literature, in turn, suggests that centrality and density of ties between firms within a group will shape the benefits and constraints. We find that the overall density and individual centrality of the three types of ties affects affiliate and group innovativeness among about 2,000 firms within 263 business groups in Taiwan between 1982 and 2000. Groups that offer affiliates focused access to financial resources and operating knowledge, coupled with autonomy from intra-group competition and strategic interference, often generate fertile opportunities for innovative activity by some of their members. The results also offer implications for multi-business firm innovativeness.

Foreign and domestic bank participation in emerging markets: lessons from Mexico and Argentina

It is generally agreed that strong domestic financial systems play an important role in attaining overall economic development and stabilization. The role played by foreign banks in achieving this goal, however, is still controversial. This article brings new evidence to the debate over foreign participation by examining the lending patterns of domestic and foreign banks in Argentina and Mexico during the 1990s. The authors conclude that foreign banks in both countries typically have stronger and less volatile loan growth than their domestic counterparts. The corollary to this finding, however, is that bank health—not ownership per se—is the critical element in the growth, volatility, and cyclicality of bank credit. Still, diversity of ownership is found to contribute to greater credit stability in times of financial system turmoil and weakness.Bank loans - Argentina ; Bank loans - Mexico ; Banks and banking, Foreign ; Argentina ; Mexico