Employment Changes, the Structure of Adjustment Costs, and Firms' Size

In this paper we analyze the pattern of employment adjustment at the plant level using a rich data set for Norway. We first document the stylized facts about employment changes in small and large plants. The data reveals important differences across size classes. In particular, episodes of zero net employment changes are more frequent for smaller plants. A simple "q" model of labor demand is then developed, allowing for the presence of fixed, linear and convex components in adjustment costs. Econometric estimation supports the importance of departing from traditional models of labor demand based solely on symmetric convex adjustment costs. Fixed (or linear) components of adjustment costs are important. There is, moreover, evidence that fixed costs contain a component that are unrelated to size, in addition to a components proportional to size. As a result, the range of inaction is wider for smaller plants. Finally, the quadratic components of costs are asymmetric and, although some ambiguities exist about the nature of the asymmetry, the more general models indicate that it is more costly at the margin to contract employment than to expand it.Adjustment costs; employment demand; size

How financial liberalization in Indonesia affected firms'capital structure and investment decisions

How did financial liberalization affect Indonesian firms? The authors analyzed real and financial indicators for the establishments in their panel of Indonesian manufacturing establishments for 1981-88. Their sample was not representative, but their evidence shows that economic reform had favorable effect on the performance of smaller firms. Liberalization helped reallocate domestic credit toward smaller firms to a level roughly proportionate to their contribution to value-added. Moreover, other firms were successful in replacing expensive domestic credit with cheaper foreign credit, releasing some domestic credit to establishments that lacked access to it. Nominal and real interest rates rose to very high levels, but real returns to capital assets remain high and have increased substantially for small and medium-size exporting establishments. For all groups, higher rates of financial leverage gave rise to extremely high returns on owned equity. Medium-size firms - both conglomerate and non-conglomerate - have had the highest rates of return to capital, financial leverage, and returns to equity. Financial reform has had a significant impact on firm's real and financial choices. Shifting from administrative allocations of credit to market-based allocations has increased borrowing costs, particularly for smaller firms, but it has also widened access to finance. The net effect appears to have been a decrease in the degree of market segmentation and a relaxation of financial constraints to the benefit of investment activity.Banks&Banking Reform,Environmental Economics&Policies,Financial Intermediation,Economic Theory&Research,Financial Crisis Management&Restructuring

Employment Changes, the Structure of Adjustment Costs, and Plant Size

In this paper we analyze the pattern of employment adjustment using a rich panel of Norwegian plants. The data suggest that the frequency of episodes of zero net employment changes is inversely related to plant size. We develop and estimate a simple “q” model of labor demand, allowing for the presence of fixed, linear and convex components of adjustment costs. The econometric evidence supports the existence of purely fixed components, unrelated to plant size. As a result, the range of inaction is wider for smaller plants. The quadratic components of costs are also important. Finally, in most specifications both fixed and convex costs are higher for employment contractions.Adjustment costs; employment demand; size.

BIM FROM LASER CLOUDS AND FINITE ELEMENT ANALYSIS: COMBINING STRUCTURAL ANALYSIS AND GEOMETRIC COMPLEXITY

This paper describes the use of BIM models derived from point clouds for structural simulation based on Finite Element Analysis (FEA). Although BIM interoperability has reached a significant level of maturity, the density of laser point clouds provides very detailed BIM models that cannot directly be used in FEA software. The rationalization of the BIM towards a new finite element model is not a simple reduction of the number of nodes. The interconnections between the different elements and their materials require a particular attention: BIM technology includes geometrical aspects and structural considerations that allow one to understand and replicate the constructive elements and their mutual interaction. The information must be accurately investigated to obtain a finite element model suitable for a complete and detailed structural analysis. The aim of this paper is to prove that a drastic reduction of the quality of the BIM model is not necessary. Geometric data encapsulated into dense point clouds can be taken into consideration also for finite element analysis

Point clouds turned into finite elements: The umbrella vault of Castel Masegra

The paper presents a workflow for finite element model generation from point clouds acquired via photogrammetry and laser scanning. The case study is a room with an umbrella vault in Castel Masegra, located in Sondrio (Italy). The complexity of the room required an accurate geometric survey from a set of dense point clouds, from which a detailed BIM as well as 2D drawings were generated. Finally, a tetrahedral mesh was derived from the geometric model and was used to run a finite element analysis. The aim of this work is to describe the procedure developed and illustrate the main challenges found

Debt Maturity Choices, Multi-stage Investments and Financing Constraints

We develop a dynamic investment options framework with optimal capital structure and analyze the effect of debt maturity. We find that in the absence of financing constraints short-term debt maximizes firm value. In contrast with most literature results, in the absence of constraints, higher volatility may increase initial debt for firms with low initial revenues, issuing long term debt that expires after the investment option maturity. This effect, which is due to the option value of receiving the value of assets and remaining tax savings, does not hold for short term debt and firms with high profitability, where an increase in volatility reduces the firm value. The importance of short-term debt is reduced in the presence of non-negative equity net worth or debt financing constraints and firms behave more conservatively in the use of initial debt. With non-negative equity net worth, higher volatility has adverse effects on the firm value, while with debt financing constraints higher volatility may enhance firm value for firms with relatively low revenue that have out-of-the-money investment options