Financing small businesses in France

This paper explores empirically the effect of consolidation in the French banking industry and of Basel II on the availability of credit for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Consolidation has been associated with an increase in the number of banks the average firm borrows from and this has improved credit availability. Furthermore, the paper shows, for France, that the current Basel II proposal would result in lower capital charges on SME loans due to portfolio diversification effects and low default correlations of SMEs. It also argues that the current Basel II proposal is conservative: capital charges could be even lower if they were based on our estimates of SME loan portfolio risk. Overall, in France, credit rationing of SMEs does not seem to be a serious problem and Basel II is unlikely to hold back SME lending

New tendencies in the cooperation policy of the GDR

Until the early seventies the German Democratic Republic (GDR), in line with the CSSR and Bulgaria, was least disposed among CMEA countries to engage in cooperation activities with the West. One of the major reasons for the reserve shown by the GDR in this respect was probably that linkage through cooperation agreements of the GDR-owned production and distribution potential to Western partners was deemed to involve too great a political and economic risk. Since the political recognition in 1972 and 1973 however a reversal of views could be observed which is justified by GDR circles with a series of new trends in the world economy and in world politics

Geology of the Waterbury Dome

Guidebook for field trips in Connecticut and adjacent areas of New York and Rhode Island: New England Intercollegiate Geological Conference 77th annual meeting, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, October 4-6, 1985: Trip A

Common rules (not rates) should be the answer to tax competition in the EU

Tax avoidance is a key problem for European countries, with the EU taking several steps to try and limit the ability of businesses to shift their profits to low-tax jurisdictions. Peter Dietsch writes on the nature of the problem and what can be done to tackle it. He argues that whatever form of regulation is implemented, only a multilateral solution can address the problem. He suggests that the creation of an International Tax Organisation (ITO) with powers similar to those of the WTO would be an effective means to promote reform