Greasing the wheels? The impact of regulations and corruption on firm entry

This paper investigates the question of whether corruption might ‘grease the wheels’ of an economy. We investigate whether and to what extent the impact of regulations on entrepreneurship is dependent on corruption. We first test whether regulations robustly deter firm entry into markets. Our results show that the existence of a larger number of procedures required to start a business, as well as larger minimum capital requirements are detrimental to entrepreneurship. Second, we test whether corruption reduces the negative impact of regulations on entrepreneurship in highly regulated economies. Our empirical analysis, covering a maximum of 43 countries over the 2003–2005 period, shows that corruption facilitates firm entry in highly regulated economies. For example, the ‘greasing’ effect of corruption kicks in at around 50 days required to start a new business. Our results thus provide support for the ‘grease the wheels’ hypothesis

The western edge of the Mediterranean Pelagian Platform: A Messinian mixed siliciclastic-carbonate ramp in northern Tunisia

The marine Messinian deposits of Tunisia cover a narrow littoral strip some 300 km long between the northern Bizerte and Cap Bon areas and the central-eastern Sahel region. Litho- and biofacies analysis of six stratigraphic sections reveals the distinctive features of these deposits. The lower Messinian deposits are characterized by ubiquitous siliciclastics and abundant oolitic/bioclastic limestones organized in an eastward facing ramp. Westward (landward), this ramp changes into coastal lagoons, sometimes containing evaporites. Eastward, the ramp passes to the reefal Pelagian Platform extending as far as Lampedusa. Two main sedimentary cycles are distinguished: 1) an early Messinian siliciclastic retrogradational then oolitic/bioclastic progradational cycle (Beni Khiar Formation and lower Oued bel Khedim Formation); 2) a late Messinian brackish to continental cycle that probably accumulated in rapidly subsiding lagoons (Oued el Bir Formation and upper Oued bel Khedim Formation). The Tunisian early Messinian cycle is partly eustatically controlled, but the late Messinian cycle cannot be confidently correlated to other well-known Messinian series because of tectonic movements. The lower Messinian deposits of Tunisia are also characterized by abundant suspension-feeding organisms (molluscs and bryozoans) and rare corals, calcareous algae, echinoids, and larger benthic foraminifers. The proposed palaeoenvironmental model shows that the lower Messinian ramp of Tunisia was located on a current-protected margin and subjected to continent-derived sediment and nutrient supply. Eastward, nutrient influx diminished and a shallow-water isolated carbonate platform with coralgal facies developed between the western and the eastern Mediterranean basins. The main hydrological connection between these two basins occurred through a narrow seaway situated to the northeast of the Pelagian Platform, south of Sicily and Malta. © 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved

Can mergers in Europe help banks hedge against macroeconomic risk?

This study investigates the motive of geographic risk diversification in the lending activity for bank mergers in the EU on a sample of large banking groups. Geographic diversification should allow banks to reduce their risk. It is observed that the loan portfolios of European banks are home-biased. The portfolio approach is applied to explore the risk-return efficiency of the locations of banks' activities. Mergers between pairs of banks are also studied. Evidence of the sub-optimality of the loan portfolios of European banks in terms of geographic risk diversification, and of the existence of potential gains from inter-country pair mergers is also provided.

Voting and turning out for monetary integration: the case of the French referendum on the Maastricht treaty

This article analyses the voting and abstention patterns in French departments in the 1992 referendum on the Maastricht treaty, in light of the potential impact of monetary union. We observe that departmental characteristics implying either greater benefits or lower costs from monetary union are significantly correlated with the approval rate. This supports the view that the voting behaviour of individual agents depended on their self-interest. The impact of economic characteristics on the abstention rate is less clear. Indeed, the variable that is most significantly correlated with abstention in the referendum is average abstention in other elections.

Political regime and FDI from advanced to emerging countries

Foreign direct investment, Political regime, Democracy, Tobit models, F23, P51, P48, C24,

Causality between corruption and the level of GDP

Interaction between corruption and economic development is one of the most widely studied topics in the recent history of scientific research. Because of the strong influence of both these factors on the standard of living, we have tried to answer the following question: In what time frame is the interaction between these two factors most prominent? Taking into account the data of the level of corruption (as measured by the Corruption Perception Index (CPI) and economic development (as measured by the movement of GDP per year), in the time period from 1995 to 2011, we divided the research results into three time zones: zone 1 – which covers the time period of the first five years (short-term impacts), zone 2 – which covers the time period of the next five years (medium-term impacts), and finally zone 3 – which covers the time period of the last five years (long-term impacts). Based on the research results, we have come to conclusion that the strongest causality between these two factors are in zone 2, the so-called medium-term framework. The empirical findings of this article suggest that further research in this direction is necessary, if we take into account the fact that corruption is present in almost all countries of the world

Optimal Conservatism and Collective Monetary Policymaking under Uncertainty

We study how the optimal degree of conservatism relates to decision-making procedures in a Monetary Policy Committee (MPC). In our framework, central bank conservatism is required to attenuate the volatility of monetary decisions generated by the presence of uncertainty about the committee members' output objective. We show how this need for conservatism varies according to the number of MPC members, the MPC's composition as well as its decision rule. Moreover, we find that extra central bank conservatism is required when there is ambiguity about the MPC's true decision rule