Entry Mode Choice of Multinational Banks

When expanding abroad, a multinational bank faces a trade-off between accessing a foreign country via cross border lending or a financial foreign direct investment, i.e. greenfield or acquisition entry. We analyze the entry mode choice of multinational banks and explicitly derive the entry mode pattern in the banking industry. Moreover, we show that in less developed banking markets, a trend towards cross border lending and acquisition entry exists. Greenfield entry prevails in more developed markets. Furthermore, we identify a tendency towards acquisition entry in small and towards greenfield entry in larger host countries

An Analysis of Cambodia’s Trade Flows: A Gravity Model

This paper aims at investigating the important factors affecting Cambodia’s trade flows to major 20 trading countries from 1994 to 2004. The analysis employs a gravity model with some modifications. Assuming that other factors are constant, the results indicate that the trade flows significantly depend on the economic sizes of both the exporting and importing countries and Cambodia appears to trade more with neighboring countries. In addition, the tests also detect the significant negative impact of exchange rate volatility on the trade flows as well as aggregate exports; however, there is little evidence that the depreciation of Cambodia’s currency, the riel, affects its exports. Nonetheless, the tests using sub-period samples suggest that the positive impacts of bilateral exchange rate depreciation are found significant in sub-period I (1994-1998), but not in sub-period II (1999-2004). Finally, the paper also shows consistent findings that ASEAN membership play little role in boosting trade flows in the region; however, the results in sub-period II suggest that ASEAN membership helps improve border trade which suffered from Asian financial crisis.Trade flows, gravity model, exchange rate volatility, aggregate exports, bilateral exchange rate depreciation, ASEAN, Asian financial crisis

Learning by Lending, Competition, and Screening Incentives in the Banking Industry

This paper shows that banks may have an incentive to reduce screening when the proportion of untested borrowers on the market increases, leading to a deterioration of their portfolios and a contraction of their profits. The paper addresses the issue in the context of a simple model where banks compete solely on screening and in a more complex model where banks compete by offering borrowers a menu of contracts. The results have policy implications with regard to financial liberalization, lending booms, and banking crises, as those occurred at different times in many emerging markets.

Foreign entry and bank competition

Foreign entry and bank competition are modeled as the interaction between asymmetrically informed principals: the entrant uses collateral as a screening device to contest the incumbent's informational advantage. Both better information ex ante and stronger legal protection ex post are shown to facilitate the entry of low-cost outside competitors into credit markets. The entrant's success in gaining borrowers of higher quality by offering cheaper loans increases with its efficiency (cost) advantage. This paper accounts for evidence suggesting that foreign banks tend to lend more to large firms thereby neglecting small and medium enterprises. The results also explain why this observed "bias" is stronger in emerging markets.Bank competition ; Credit control

An update on an imperial building complex at the 16th mile of the Via Appia: sources and materials

The paper focuses on an area of the Ager Aricinus at the 16th mile of the Via Appia in the urban area of Ariccia between the Via Appia and the inhabited center, delimited to the west and north by the cell of the so-called temple of Diana. Inside the aforementioned area, now almost entirely urbanized, are still preserved some structures from the mid-2nd century AD for which extensive documentation can be found in the 18th century antiquarian sources and in the cartographic reproductions between the 19th and the 20th centuries. So far, their interpretation has gone through a plurality of hypotheses (amphitheatre, thermal building, statio) for which there is a need to undertake an analytical study in order to understand its function in antiquity and its impact in the landscape context of modern age. The study will take place in two phases: examination of the historical cartography to identify the ownership of the fund on which the structures insisted through the consultation of the Collections of drawings and maps at the State Archive of Rome and the realization of a graphic restitution of the plan, integrating what has been preserved and what has been handed down from past documentation and proposing a vector reconstruction (CAD) of the building.L’intervento prende come focus un’area dell’Ager Aricinus al XVI miglio della Via Appia nell’area urbana di Ariccia compresa tra la Via Appia e il centro abitato, delimitata a ovest e a nord dalla cella del cosiddetto tempio di Diana. All’interno della suddetta area, ora quasi interamente urbanizzata, sono ancora conservate alcune strutture della metà del II secolo d.C. per le quali si rintraccia un’ampia documentazione nelle fonti antiquarie del XVIII secolo e nelle riproduzioni cartografiche tra il XIX e il XX secolo. Finora la loro interpretazione è passata attraverso una pluralità d’ipotesi (anfiteatro, edificio termale, statio) per le quali si avverte l’esigenza di intraprendere uno studio analitico al fine di comprenderne la funzione nell’antichità e l’impatto nel contesto paesaggistico di età moderna. Lo studio si svolgerà in due fasi: esame della cartografia storica per identificare la proprietà del fondo su cui insistono le strutture tramite la consultazione della Collezione I e II dei Catasti e delle Collezioni di disegni e mappe presso l’Archivio di Stato di Roma e la realizzazione di una restituzione grafica dei resti, integrando quanto conservato e quanto tramandato dalla documentazione del passato e proponendo una ricostruzione vettoriale (CAD) dell’edificio

Entry Mode Choice of Multinational Banks

When expanding abroad, a multinational bank faces a trade-off between accessing a foreign country via cross border lending or a financial foreign direct investment, i.e. greenfield or acquisition entry. We analyze the entry mode choice of multinational banks and explicitly derive the entry mode pattern in the banking industry. Moreover, we show that in less developed banking markets, a trend towards cross border lending and acquisition entry exists. Greenfield entry prevails in more developed markets. Furthermore, we identify a tendency towards acquisition entry in small and towards greenfield entry in larger host countries.foreign bank entry; multinational bank; cross border lending; greenfield entry; acquisition entry

Thermographic and reflectographic imaging investigations on Baroque paintings preserved at the Chigi Palace in Ariccia

In this work, two different mid-infrared imaging techniques operating in the 3-5 μm spectral range are applied to the study of three paintings on canvas, dating back to the XVII century, preserved at the Chigi Palace in Ariccia (Italy). A combined approach based on the use of pulsed thermography and mid-infrared reflectography is proposed for the analysis of the 'Primavera' by Filippo Lauri and Mario Nuzzi, the 'Ritratto di Mario Nuzzi che dipinge un vaso di fiori' by Giovanni Maria Morandi and Mario Nuzzi and the 'Ebbrezza di Noee' by Andrea Sacchi. The aim is to show how the integrated use of these techniques enables a depth-resolved investigation of the entire layered structure of the paintings, from the surface up to the canvas support. The complementarity of the presented results allows an evaluation of the conservative status of the support and the detection of graphical and pictorial features hidden beneath the surface layer, such as pentimenti, as these features are important for the historical and artistic characterisation of the artefact