Disclosure of mergers without regulatory restrictions: Insider trading in pre-1914 Germany

In the pre-World-War I period, lacking regulatory restrictions allowed ‘hidden' mergers however, some companies disclosed information voluntarily. I analyze insider gains by investigating the share price behavior prior to merger announcements. When companies hid information, stocks exhibited positive abnormal returns prior to newspaper reports that uncovered hidden transactions.

The impact of trading mechanisms and stock characteristics on order processing and information costs: A panel GMM approach

My study provides a panel approach to quantify the impact of trading mechanisms and stock characteristics on spread components. Based on the two-way decomposition of Huang and Stoll (1997), a cross-sectional dimension is added. Arrelano and Bover's (1995) dynamic GMM procedure and the Helmert''s transformation allow controlling for company specific effects. In line with former research, I confirm higher order processing costs on the NASDAQ. My model identifies the reasons for higher information costs on dealer markets, namely lower market capitalization and less attention of financial analysts. Yet the trading mechanism itself is not responsible for higher information costs.

A theory of operational cash holding, endogenous financial constraints, and credit rationing

This paper develops a theory of operational cash holding. Liquidity shocks due to delayed payments must be financed using cash or short-term debt. Debt holders provide an irrevocable credit line given a firm's expected insolvency risk, and equity holders select optimum cash holding. The model demonstrates the trade-off between cash holding and investing in fixed assets. Introducing uncertain cash-flows leads to precautionary cash holding if debt holders impose financial constraints. Precautionary cash holding, in turn, reduces insolvency risk enhancing access to short-term finance. The theory shows that credit rationing can occur in the absence of market frictions. Using U.S. data from 1998 to 2012, empirical findings suggest that the decline in credit lines has contributed to the increase in cash holding in line with theoretical predictions

Measuring financial exclusion of firms

Supplementary material associated with this article can be found, in the online version, at 10.1016/j.frl.2020.101568 Supplementary Data S1. Supplementary Raw Research Data. This is open data under the CC BY license http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Peer reviewedPostprin

On the uniqueness of the Laplacian spectra of coalescence of complete graphs

Acknowledgments: I would like to thank Nicole Snashall for her encouragement, comments and support. I also would like to thank Jozef Siran for his comments on amalgamations, which led to more thinking about defining my graphs. This project started with an application to social networks; however, it developed into a much more general study. I would like to dedicate this paper to the memory of Alto Zeitler (1945-2022), my mathematics teacher.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Business cycles and economic policy, 1945-2007.

We explain how governments contributed and responded to fluctuations in economic activity in Europe during the second half of the twentieth century. In the second section we sketch the basic ideas essential to understanding the relationship between economic policy and business cycles. They include the notion that monetary and fiscal policies influence fluctuations in output, employment, and inflation according to the financial openness of the economy (free capital flows versus capital controls), as well as the currency regime chosen by policy makers (pegged versus flexible exchange rates). We also document the timing of financial liberalization in Europe and the persistent preference of most European governments for pegged exchange rate regimes over the entire period. We then examine the evolution of basic features of cycles in Europe, such as volatility and synchronization. We note the falling volatility of cycles in the 1960s and from the mid-1980s until 2007, explaining why changes in economic policy making were a fundamental driver. In the next section we support this analysis with narratives of the responses of national governments and central bankers to cyclical fluctuations before and after the global recession of 1974-5. Finally we look briefly at the historical and recent experience of eastern Europe, assessing the area's reintegration from 1989 after the long economic decoupling from the rest ofthe continent in 1945Ciclos económicos; Política económica; Europa;

Financial inclusion and financial technology : Finance for everyone?

We are very grateful for the financial support provided by the ESRC and NSFC (Newton Fund). This paper is part of the research project entitled ‘Research on China’s Financial System towards Sustainable Growth: The Role of Innovation, Diversity and Financial Regulation’ (ESRC: ES/P005241/1 and the National Natural Science Foundation of China: 71661137002. In addition, this research was supported by the National Social Science Foundation of China (Project Number: 17ZDA071).Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Testing the fire-sale FDI hypothesis for the European financial crisis

Using a panel of corporate transactions in 27 EU countries from 1999 to 2012, we investigate the impact of the financial crisis on the market for corporate assets. In particular, we test the ‘fire-sale FDI’ hypothesis by analyzing the number of cross-border transactions, the price of corporate assets and the impact of credit and macroeconomic conditions. According to the fire-sale FDI hypothesis, countries affected by a crisis attract foreign buyers selling assets at a discount. We find a dampening effect of the crisis on cross-border transactions in all EU countries. Although countries with higher sovereign default risk and lower economic demand attracted more foreign buyers in the crisis, lower domestic credit is associated with less cross-border transactions. Corporate assets in crisis countries are cheaper, particularly if domestic credit is low; however, these findings are not limited to the crisis period. This pattern is strikingly different from the East Asian and Latin American financial crises. Overall, we find little evidence for ‘fire-sale FDI’ suggesting an integrated European market without significant frictions

Elite business networks and the field of power: A matter of class?

We explore the meaning and implications of Bourdieu’s construct of the field of power and integrate it into a wider conception of the formation and functioning of elites at the highest level in society. Corporate leaders active within the field of power hold prominent roles in numerous organizations, constituting an ‘elite of elites’, whose networks integrate powerful participants from different fields. As ‘bridging actors’, they form coalitions to determine institutional settlements and societal resource flows. We ask how some corporate actors (minority) become hyper-agents, those actors who ‘make things happen’, while others (majority) remain ‘ordinary’ members of the elite. Three hypotheses are developed and tested using extensive data on the French business elite. Social class emerges as persistently important, challenging the myth of meritocratic inclusion. Our primary contribution to Bourdieusian scholarship lies in our analysis of hyper-agents, revealing the debts these dominants owe to elite schools and privileged classes