THE DETERMINANTS OF THE GOING PUBLIC DECISION: EVIDENCE FROM THE U.K.

Several theoretical papers have addressed the question of why firms raise public equity. However, direct empirical evidence on the characteristics of firms going public is scarce and limited to non-Anglo-Saxon contexts. Our research combines the analysis of ex ante and ex post characteristics of Initial Public Offering (IPO) companies to cast more light on the determinants of the going public decision in the UK. Some of our findings are consistent with prior empirical studies in other contexts: IPO probability depends positively on firm size and stock price levels. Results also suggest that a firm?s need to finance investments is not the main motive to go public, although this reason underlies the going public decision in a number of UK firms. Besides, contrary to the evidence shown by Pagano et al. (1998) for Italian IPOs, we find that UK firms do not go public to reduce debt since leverage is negatively related to the probability of going public. Finally, the relationship between profitability and the likelihood of an IPO for our whole IPO sample is negative and significant. Whether firms that go public have higher investment rates than other firms, as is the case of our survivor IPOs, the negative effect of profitability on the probability of going public may reflect the fact that these firms cannot yield sufficient internal funds to finance large investments. In fact, the relationship between profitability and the likelihood of an IPO becomes significantly positive for our acquired IPO group, where investment opportunities variables have no significant effect on the going public decision. This result is consistent with the portfolio rebalancing motive to go public.Initial Public Offerings, the Going Public Decision.

The Golden Hello and Political Transitions

We analyze the influence of IMF and World Bank programs on political regime transitions. We develop an extended version of Acemoglu and Robinson's [American Economic Review 91, 2001] model of political transitions to show how the anticipation of new loans from international financial institutions can trigger political transitions which would not otherwise have taken place. We test this unexplored implication of the theory empirically. We find in a world sample from 1970 to 2002 that the anticipation of receiving new programs immediately after a political regime transition increases the probability of a transition from autocracy to democracy and reduces the probability of democratic survival

The golden hello and political transitions

© 2017. We analyze the influence of IMF and World Bank programs on political regime transitions. We develop an extended version of Acemoglu and Robinson's [American Economic Review 91, 2001] model of political transitions to show how the anticipation of new loans from international financial institutions can trigger political transitions which would not otherwise have taken place. We test this unexplored implication of the theory empirically. We find that the anticipation of receiving new loan programs immediately af ter a political regime transition increases the probability of a transition from autocracy to democracy and reduces the probability of democratic survival

Foreign influence and domestic policy

In an interconnected world, economic and political interests inevitably reach beyond national borders. Since policy choices generate external economic and political costs, foreign state and non-state actors have an interest in influencing policy actions in other sovereign countries to their advantage. Foreign influence is a strategic choice aimed at internalizing these externalities and takes three principal forms: (i) voluntary agreements, (ii) policy interventions based on rewarding or sanctioning the target country to obtain a specific change in policy, and (iii) institution interventions aimed at influencing the political institutions in the target country. We propose a unifying theoretical framework to study when foreign influence is chosen and in which form, and use it to organize and evaluate the new political economics literature on foreign influence along with work in cognate disciplines (JEL D72, D74, F51, F53, P26, P33).</jats:p

Three-dimensional track reconstruction for directional Dark Matter detection

Directional detection of Dark Matter is a promising search strategy. However, to perform such detection, a given set of parameters has to be retrieved from the recoiling tracks : direction, sense and position in the detector volume. In order to optimize the track reconstruction and to fully exploit the data of forthcoming directional detectors, we present a likelihood method dedicated to 3D track reconstruction. This new analysis method is applied to the MIMAC detector. It requires a full simulation of track measurements in order to compare real tracks to simulated ones. We conclude that a good spatial resolution can be achieved, i.e. sub-mm in the anode plane and cm along the drift axis. This opens the possibility to perform a fiducialization of directional detectors. The angular resolution is shown to range between 20$^\circ$ to 80$^\circ$, depending on the recoil energy, which is however enough to achieve a high significance discovery of Dark Matter. On the contrary, we show that sense recognition capability of directional detectors depends strongly on the recoil energy and the drift distance, with small efficiency values (50%-70%). We suggest not to consider this information either for exclusion or discovery of Dark Matter for recoils below 100 keV and then to focus on axial directional data.Comment: 27 pages, 20 figure

Probing neutralino dark matter in the MSSM & the NMSSM with directional detection

We investigate the capability of directional detectors to probe neutralino dark matter in the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model and the Next-to-Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model with parameters defined at the weak scale. We show that directional detectors such as the future MIMAC detector will probe spin dependent dark matter scattering on nucleons that are beyond the reach of current spin independent detectors. The complementarity between indirect searches, in particular using gamma rays from dwarf spheroidal galaxies, spin dependent and spin independent direct search techniques is emphasized. We comment on the impact of the negative results on squark searches at the LHC. Finally, we investigate how the fundamental parameters of the models can be constrained in the event of a dark matter signal.Comment: 21 pages, 16 figure

Anatomy of flower and fruit of Vassobia breviflora (Solanaceae) in the south of the southern Yungas (Argentina)

Solanaceae es una familia con aproximadamente 2400 especies de distribución cosmopolita. Vassobia breviflora es la única especie del género presente en Argentina. El objetivo de este trabajo fue revisar y caracterizar la anatomía de la flor y fruto de V. breviflora a partir de muestras recolectadas en poblaciones de las Yungas del noroeste argentino. Se aplicaron técnicas anatómicas convencionales. Los resultados mostraron que la mayoría de las estructuras de la flor, el fruto y la semilla no difirieron de lo previamente reportado respecto de la organización estructural descripta para otras especies de Solanaceae. No obstante, por primera vez, describimos el androceo, el fruto, la semilla, pedicelo floral y frutal, cinco tipos de tricomas y cinco tipos de estomas en el perianto. Encontramos diferencias en la forma del tejido de transmisión y del tipo de óvulo respecto de lo previamente descripto. Además, localizamos el parénquima y las células epidérmicas secretoras del nectario. En el contexto de la familia Solanaceae, discutimos la función y valor diagnóstico de las estructuras descriptas.Solanaceae is a family with nearly 2400 species of cosmopolitan distribution. Vassobia breviflora is the only species of the genus present in Argentina. The goal of this work was to review and characterize the anatomy of the flower and fruit of V. breviflora from samples collected in populations of Yungas in the argentine Northwest. Conventional anatomical techniques were applied. The results showed that most flower, fruit and seed structures did not differ from those previously reported regarding the structural organization described for other species of the Solanaceae family. However, for the first time, we described the androecium, fruit, seed, floral and fruit pedicels, five types of tricomes and five types of stomata in the perianth. We found some differences in the shape of the transmission tissue and in the type of ovule with respect to that previously reported. Also, we located the parenchyma and the epidermic secretory cells of the nectary. In the context of the family Solanaceae, we discussed the function and diagnostic value of the described structures.Fil: Bernacki, F. G.. Fundación Miguel Lillo; ArgentinaFil: Albornoz, P. L.. Fundación Miguel Lillo; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de Tucumán. Facultad de Ciencias Naturales e Instituto Miguel Lillo; ArgentinaFil: Valoy, M.. Fundación Miguel Lillo; ArgentinaFil: Ordano, Mariano Andrés. Fundación Miguel Lillo; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentin

The Higgs boson in the MSSM in light of the LHC

We investigate the expectations for the light Higgs signal in the MSSM in different search channels at the LHC. After taking into account dark matter and flavor constraints in the MSSM with eleven free parameters, we show that the light Higgs signal in the $gamma\gamma$ channel is expected to be at most at the level of the SM Higgs, while the $h\rightarrow b\bar{b}$ from W fusion and/or the $h \rightarrow\tau\bar\tau$ can be enhanced. For the main discovery mode, we show that a strong suppression of the signal occurs in two different cases: low $M_A$ or large invisible width. A more modest suppression is associated with the effect of light supersymmetric particles. Looking for such modification of the Higgs properties and searching for supersymmetric partners and pseudoscalar Higgs offer two complementary probes of supersymmetry.Comment: 19 pages, 8 figure