Entrepreneurs' Access to Private Equity in China: The Role of Social Capital

Drawing on Social network theory, this article argues for enhancing effects of social capital of entrepreneurs on investment selection decisions of venture capitalists (to invest versus not to invest), and main effects of social capital on investment process decisions such as venture valuation, investment delivery speed and contractual warrants/provisions. The core idea of enhancing effects is that the presence of particularistic ties between venture capitalists and entrepreneurs will affect positively investment selection decisions of venture capitalists if only other main factors for investment making such as management team, industry, market attractiveness, proprietary technologies and products are perceived as strong by investors. The context of the study is People's Republic of China. The empirical data is composed of 158 venture capital investment decisions in Beijing and Shanghai. The main finding is that social capital is supplementary and additive to other investment determining factors such as project and team qualities at selection stage, and social capital is a main factor for investment process decisions once a venture has been selected for funding. The main theoretical implication is that social capital may affect outcome variables in interaction with other factors. The main practical implication for entrepreneurs is that social capital is probably necessary but insufficient for raising venture capital successfully.http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/39837/3/wp453.pd

Investment effects of capital gains taxation under simultaneous investment and abandonment flexibility

The influence of capital gains taxes on investment decisions is a central issue of accounting and public finance research. However, the implications of capital gains taxes on investors' willingness to invest in irreversible projects with entry and exit flexibility have not yet been a focal issue. As a result, the effects of taxing capital gains on the interdependencies of investment and divestment decisions have to be identified, especially under timing flexibility. This paper closes this gap by simultaneously analyzing investment timing and abandonment decisions for risky irreversible investment projects with uncertain cash flows under differential tax rates for ordinary income and capital gains. We investigate whether capital gains taxes affect immediate and delayed investment asymmetrically. Furthermore, we investigate the impact of capital gains taxation on the optimal abandonment decision. Performing extensive numerical simulations we find that varying the liquidation proceeds affects the decision whether or not to postpone the investment decision. Higher cash flow volatility favors delayed investment. We find that the introduction of capital gains taxation tends to be harmful for immediate investment. Moreover, we show that taxing capital gains may induce a tax paradox for delayed investment. Depending on the pre-tax parameter setting the future value of delayed investment may even increase in absolute terms for increasing capital gains tax rates. For sufficiently high liquidation proceeds capital gains taxation tends to favor continuation of a project. We find taxing capital gains mainly induces other, but not necessarily less arbitrary distortions than exempting capital gains. --

The Long-Run Keynesian Multiplier

We study the impact of investment on employment. In the short−run an increase in investment stimulates employment (this is the standard Keynesian multiplier). However increases of investment translate into increases in the capital stock. If labor and capital are substitutes (resp. complements), an increase in investment today decreases (resp. increases) employment tomorrow. We provide a formula to measure the overall effect of an increase in investment on emplyment, assuming that certain regularities hold.Publicad

Aggregate investment dynamics when firms face fixed investment cost and capital market imperfections

This paper analyzes a model of investment with fixed investment costs and capital market imperfections. In this model finance influences the level of capital firms hold, as well as the frequency at which they invest. In consequence investment reacts nonlinearly with respect to shocks to productivity and liquidity. Liquidity and productivity shocks are complements and the influence of finance is strongest if a firm wishes to significantly adjust capital for fundamental reasons. This theoretical model is confronted with UK company data in a two-step estimation that first identifies the long-run relationship of productivity, capital and liquidity. Here we find no significant influence of finance on the capital decision of a firm. However, when the short-run investment function is estimated, liquidity has a significant impact, which is also strongest for strong fundamental investment incentives. Moreover, the investment function is strongly convex in the fundamentals themselves, indicating fixed costs of capital adjustment.Investment, non-convex adjustment cost, imperfect capital markets, nonlinear error-correction, panel data