SMEs’ growth under financing constraints and banking markets integration in the euro area

We explore the impact of financing constraints and the role of banking markets integration on SMEs’ growth. The data are drawn from the ECB/SAFE survey on SMEs’ access to finance aggregated at country level for the largest 11 euro-area countries over 2009-2015. Our findings suggest that financing constraints hamper SMEs’ growth and that the effect is stronger for perceived, rather than actual, financing constraints. On the other hand, increased banking market integration in the euro area appears to foster SMEs’ growth. Furthermore, we find that the reduction in financing constraints is crucial in the transmission channel from banking markets integration to growth. This effect appears significantly stronger when integration is measured by the intensity of cross-border lending than through convergence in interest rates to loans to non-financial corporations

Vertical Field-Effect Transistor Based on Wavefunction Extension

We demonstrate a mechanism for a dual layer, vertical field-effect transistor, in which nearly-depleting one layer will extend its wavefunction to overlap the other layer and increase tunnel current. We characterize this effect in a specially designed GaAs/AlGaAs device, observing a tunnel current increase of two orders of magnitude at cryogenic temperatures, and we suggest extrapolations of the design to other material systems such as graphene

Executive Pay: What Worked?

CEO pay is a controversial issue in America but there was a time, often overlooked today, when chief executives were not paid nearly as much as they are now. From 1940 to the mid-1970s executive pay was modest by today’s standards even though U.S. business was generally thriving. What worked to keep executive pay in check? Economist Thomas Piketty and others credit high marginal income tax rates, leading to calls for a return to a similar tax regime. This paper casts doubt on the impact tax had and also shows that neither the configuration of boards nor shareholder activism played a significant role in constraining executive pay. It emphasizes instead the roles played by strong unions, a different and more circumscribed market for managerial talent, and social norms, explanations that do not easily lend themselves to generating modern policy prescriptions.This is the author accepted manuscript. It is currently under an indefinite embargo pending publication by the University of Iowa

Capital structure and its determinants in the United Kingdom – a decompositional analysis

Prior research on capital structure by Rajan and Zingales (1995) suggests that the level of gearing in UK companies is positively related to size and tangibility, and negatively correlated with profitability and the level of growth opportunities. However, as argued by Harris and Raviv (1991), 'The interpretation of results must be tempered by an awareness of the difficulties involved in measuring both leverage and the explanatory variables of interest'. In this study the focus is on the difficulties of measuring gearing, and the sensitivity of Rajan and Zingales' results to variations in gearing measures are tested. Based on an analysis of the capital structure of 822 UK companies, Rajan and Zingales' results are found to be highly definitional-dependent. The determinants of gearing appear to vary significantly, depending upon which component of debt is being analysed. In particular, significant differences are found in the determinants of long- and short-term forms of debt. Given that trade credit and equivalent, on average, accounts for more than 62% of total debt, the results are particularly sensitive to whether such debt is included in the gearing measure. It is argued, therefore, that analysis of capital structure is incomplete without a detailed examination of all forms of corporate debt

Stability analysis of static solutions in a Josephson junction

We present all the possible solutions of a Josephson junction with bias current and magnetic field with both inline and overlap geometry, and examine their stability. We follow the bifurcation of new solutions as we increase the junction length. The analytical results, in terms of elliptic functions in the case of inline geometry, are in agreement with the numerical calculations and explain the strong hysteretic phenomena typically seen in the calculation of the maximum tunneling current. This suggests a different experimental approach based on the use, instead of the external magnetic field the modulus of the elliptic function or the related quantity the total magnetic flux to avoid hysteretic behavior and unfold the overlapping $I_{max}(H)$ curves.Comment: 36 pages with 17 figure

Circulating T cell subsets are altered in individuals with chronic spinal cord injury

Traumatic spinal cord injury (SCI) induces changes in the immune system, both acutely and chronically. To better understand changes in the chronic phase of SCI, we performed a prospective, observational study in a research institute and Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation of an academic medical center to examine immune system parameters, including peripheral immune cell populations, in individuals with chronic SCI as compared to uninjured individuals. Here, we describe the relative frequencies of T cell populations in individuals with chronic SCI as compared to uninjured individuals. We show that the frequency of CD3+ and CD3+ CD4+ T cells are decreased in individuals with chronic SCI, although activated (HLA-DR+) CD4+ T cells are elevated in chronic SCI. We also examined regulatory T cells (Tregs), defined as CD3+ CD4+ CD25+ CD127lo and CCR4+, HLA-DR+ or CCR4+ HLA-DR+. To our knowledge, we provide the first evidence that CCR4+, HLA-DR+ or CCR4+ HLA-DR+ Tregs are expanded in individuals with SCI. These data support additional functional studies of T cells isolated from individuals with chronic SCI, where alterations in T cell homeostasis may contribute to immune dysfunction, such as immunity against infections or the persistence of chronic inflammation

Job Growth in Early Transition: Comparing Two Paths

Small start-up firms are the engine of job creation in early transition and yet little is known about the characteristics of this new sector. We seek to identify patterns of job growth in this sector in terms of niches left from central planning and ask about differences in job creation across two different transition economies: Estonia, which experienced rapid destruction of the pre-existing firms, and the Czech Republic, which reduced the old sector gradually. We find job growth within industries to be quantitatively more important than job growth due to across-industry reallocation. Furthermore, the industrial composition of startups is strikingly similar in the two countries. We offer convergence to "western" industry firm-size distributions as an explanation. We also find regularities in wage evolution across new and old firms, including small differences in job quality across the two transition paths.http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/39888/3/wp503.pd

An Extremely Bright Echo Associated With SN 2002hh

We present new, very late-time optical photometry and spectroscopy of the interesting Type II-P supernova, SN 2002hh, in NGC 6946. Gemini/GMOS-N has been used to acquire visible spectra at six epochs between 2004 August and 2006 July, following the evolution of the SN from age 661 to 1358 days. Few optical spectra of Type II supernovae with ages greater than one year exist. In addition, g'r'i' images were acquired at all six epochs. The spectral and photometric evolution of SN 2002hh has been very unusual. Measures of the brightness of this SN, both in the R and I bands as well as in the H-alpha emission flux, show no significant fading over an interval of nearly two years. The most straightforward explanation for this behavior is that the light being measured comes not only from the SN itself but also from an echo off of nearby dust. Echoes have been detected previously around several SNe but these echoes, at their brightest, were ~8 mag below the maximum brightness of the SN. At V~21 mag, the putative echo dominates the light of SN 2002hh and is only ~4 mag below the outburst's peak brightness. There is an estimated 6 magnitudes of total extinction in V towards SN 2002hh. The proposed explanation of a differential echo/SN absorption is inconsistent with the observed BVRI colors.Comment: 24 pages, 6 figures. Accepted for publication in the Ap