The International Trade Credit Channel: Implications for Industry Performance

Chapter II: The international trade credit channel: Implications for industry investment Abstract: Trade credit is an important feature of many trade contracts offering buyers a means of financing purchases using credit from suppliers. This paper aims to identify a channel through which international trade credit and international trade affect industry investment. I use an interaction variable approach, first implemented by Rajan and Zingales (1998), where industries are ranked by different propensities to use trade credit according to their industry specific production properties. This ranking is then interacted with measures of aggregate trade credit and trade openness at the country level to examine how industry investment in industries with higher or lower dependence on trade credit responds to the availability of trade credit. The dataset includes 23 manufacturing industries in 20 countries from 1999-2009. Controlling for industry size along with access to and dependence on domestic external finance, I show that industries with a higher propensity to use trade credit benefit from greater international trade credit and greater trade openness in terms of a higher investment share relative to economy-wide investment. Chapter III: The role of international trade credit for investment volatility Abstract: In this study, I analyze another aspect of the link between international trade credit and industry investment. Specifically, I examine the effect of access to international trade credit on the volatility of industry investment. A decrease in aggregate investment volatility has previously been shown to be linked to a decrease in aggregate output volatility. While some literature indicates that trade credit might dampen the investment volatility by providing additional internal finance and reducing informational asymmetries where financial institutions are limited, other literature suggests trade credit might increase the investment volatility by building up credit chains, such that potential liquidity shocks might be transmitted via credit connected firms. Using data from 23 manufacturing industries in 20 countries over the period 1999-2009, I construct measures of the volatility in each industry\u27s investment share across countries. I test the effect of various measures of trade credit, while accounting for the industry propensity to use trade credit. My initial results imply that higher average international trade credit in trade credit dependent industries increases the volatility in the investment share. Chapter IV: “The link between International Trade Credit and Industry value added” Abstract: In this paper, I aim to examine the role of international trade credit on industry value added. Rajan and Zingales (1998) and many other authors suggest that well developed financial institutions play a crucial role for growth in value added. Fisman and Love (2003) expand this idea to the usage of trade credit and show that more trade credit dependent industries have higher industry growth in value added in countries with weak financial institutions. These findings suggest that firms in countries with a lack of access to external finance substitute trade credit for bank credit. In this paper, I examine explicitly the impact of international trade credit. While Fisman and Love (2003) use a cross sectional dataset and regress a 10 year compounding growth rate in industry value added on interactions between financial development and external finance dependence and trade credit dependence, I make use of a panel dataset using the value added share as the dependent variable. The dataset includes 23 manufacturing industries in 30 countries from 1986-2010. Controlling for the different countries’ levels of overall development along with access to and dependence on domestic external finance, I show that industries with a higher propensity to use trade credit exhibit a higher value added share when international trade credit is less available, consistent with Fisman and Love’s finding on financial development and suggestive that international trade credit is a poor substitute for domestic financial developmen

Optical nonlinearities of small polarons in lithium niobate

An overview of optical nonlinearities of small bound polarons is given, which can occur in the congruently melting composition of LiNbO3. Such polarons decisively influence the linear and nonlinear optical performance of this material that is important for the field of optics and photonics. On the basis of an elementary phenomenological approach, the localization of carriers in a periodic lattice with intrinsic defects is introduced. It is applied to describe the binding energies of four electron and hole small polarons in LiNbO3: small free Nb4+Nb polarons, small bound Nb4+Li polarons, small bound Nb4+Li:Nb4+Nb bipolarons, and small bound O− hole polarons. For the understanding of their linear interaction with light, an optically induced transfer between nearest-neighboring polaronic sites is assumed. It reveals spectrally well separated optical absorption features in the visible and near- infrared spectral range, their small polaron peak energies and lineshapes. Nonlinear interaction of light is assigned to the optical formation of short- lived small polarons as a result of carrier excitation by means of band-to- band transitions. It is accompanied by the appearance of a transient absorption being spectrally constituted by the individual fingerprints of the small polarons involved. The relaxation dynamics of the transients is thermally activated and characterized phenomenologically by a stretched exponential behavior, according to incoherent 3D small polaron hopping between regular and defect sites of the crystal lattice. It is shown that the analysis of the dynamics is a useful tool for revealing the recombination processes between small polarons of different charge. Nonlinear interaction of small polarons with light furthermore results in changes of the index of refraction. Besides its causal relation to the transients via Kramers-Kronig relation, pronounced index changes may occur due to optically generated electric fields modulating the index of refraction via the linear electro-optic effect, also. Based on a microscopic picture and by considering the local structural environment of bound polarons, the appearance of photovoltaic currents is explained straightforwardly as a result of the optically induced carrier transfer. Both transient absorption and index changes are spatially confined to the intensity profile of the interacting light allowing for the recording of efficient mixed absorption and phase volume holograms. By means of holographic spectroscopy, these small-polaron based optical nonlinearities are verified either without or with the action of the linear electro-optic effect; their prominent features are highlighted by appropriate experimental studies wherin the ultrafast response on the picosecond time scale is the most recognized one. Based on these findings, the consequences for applications of LiNbO3 in the field of nonlinear optics and photonics are presented. Besides visionary examples like real-time, 3D holographic displays, the impact of optical nonlinearities of small polarons for present applications are discussed with frequency conversion and respective limiting effects, such as green-induced infrared absorption and optical damage, as important example

A Convergência às Normas Internacionais de Contabilidade Aplicadas ao Setor Público e seu Impacto nos Municípios do Alto Uruguai Gaúcho

A globalização representa um fato concreto na sociedade e o mundo age em sintonia com os países que o integram. Diante desse contexto global, a padronização dos métodos e conceitos nas diversas áreas, dentre elas, a área pública se torna inevitável. O objetivo central do estudo é identificar o impacto percebido pelos contadores públicos da região do Alto Uruguai do Rio Grande do Sul em face da convergência das Normas Brasileiras de Contabilidade Aplicadas ao Setor Público aos padrões internacionais. O método utilizado foi o indutivo devido ao estudo de uma base menor procedendo-se à generalização. A pesquisa caracteriza-se como descritiva quanto aos objetivos, de levantamento em relação aos procedimentos, de investigação e de abordagem qualitativa e quantitativa quanto ao problema. Os resultados obtidos apontam uma inteiração razoável dos contabilistas pesquisados frente à adoção das novas normas, sendo que os mesmos preveem a ocorrência de entraves na aplicação, fato este proporcional ao relevante interesse dos mesmos em frequentar cursos de especialização para entendimento e aprofundamento do assunto. Os resultados do estudo permitem concluir que os respondentes estimam um custo razoável para aplicação das normas e que a implantação desta, auxiliará pouco o combate à corrupção

Práticas de contabilidade gerencial em cooperativas de produção agropecuária do estado do Rio Grande do Sul

Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Centro Sócio-Econômico, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Contabilidade, Florianópolis, 2015.A tomada de decisões nas organizações demanda informações úteis e confiáveis para suporte à gestão, e as práticas de contabilidade gerencial têm a importância de gerar informações decorrentes dos eventos econômicos empresariais para apoio às decisões. Nesse sentido, o objetivo deste estudo consiste em verificar como se dá a relação entre a adoção de práticas de contabilidade gerencial e fatores contingenciais, nas cooperativas de produção agropecuária do estado do Rio Grande do Sul. Para atender ao objetivo realizou-se uma pesquisa de levantamento por meio de questionário estruturado, obtendo como amostra cinquenta cooperativas. A pesquisa enquadra-se como descritiva, prática, survey, quantitativa e aplicada. Dentre um conjunto das 25 práticas mais empregadas em pesquisas anteriores, a partir do ano 2000, os resultados do estudo mostram que, na amostra da pesquisa, práticas tradicionais de contabilidade gerencial são mais adotadas que práticas modernas, sendo a análise de lucratividade, o ponto de equilíbrio e a margem de contribuição as mais utilizadas e balanced scorecard, just in time e EVA as menos adotadas. A necessidade de utilização das práticas e a relação custo-benefício do uso correspondem aos fatores que mais motivam a adoção, enquanto a falta de conhecimento e de experiência da equipe interna são os que mais restringem a adoção. A partir da análise de grupos de cooperativas com características semelhantes, e avaliando a relação entre a adoção das práticas e os fatores contingenciais identifica-se a maior adoção de práticas nas cooperativas que se percebem como detentoras de alta tecnologia, inseridas em ambientes dinâmicos e as de porte mais elevado. A adoção de práticas tradicionais prevalece nos diferentes clusters, no entanto elevam-se os níveis de adoção de práticas modernas em agrupamentos de cooperativas inseridas em ambientes mais dinâmicos, de alta tecnologia ou de maior porte. Observa-se que as cooperativas com estrutura funcional, em geral, apresentam maiores níveis de adoção de práticas de contabilidade gerencial que as divisionais, e aquelas com estratégia focada em baixo custo adotam práticas em maior nível do que as com foco em diferenciação.Abstract : The decision-making in organizations demand useful and trustworthy information to support the general management therefore the management accounting practices have the importance of generating statistics resulting from business and economic events to support the decision. Thus, the purpose of this study is to ascertain how is the interrelation between the adoption of management accounting practices and the contingencial factors at agricultural production cooperatives in the state of Rio Grande do Sul - Brazil. In order to achieve this, it was conducted a research and data collection by using a structured questionnaire, obtaining as a sample fifty cooperatives. The research fits into descriptive, practice survey, quantitative and applied. From a set of 25 practices most used in previous researches, from 2000, the result clearly shows that in the survey sample, the traditional management accounting practices are more adopted than the modern practices ones, then, the profitability analysis, the break-even point and the contribution margin are the most commonly used and balanced scorecard, just in time and EVA the less adopted. The need to use of the practical and cost-effective use correspond to the factors that motivate the adoption, while the lack of knowledge and experience of the internal team are the ones that restrict adoption the most. From the analysis of the groups of cooperatives with similar characteristic, and evaluating the relationship between the practices and the contingencial factors it was identified that there is an increasingly adoption practices at cooperatives that perceived itself as high-tech, set in dynamic environments and the higher size. The adoption of traditional practices prevailing in different clusters, however it is raised the levels from the adoption of modern practices in groups of cooperatives inserted in more dynamic environments, high-tech or larger. It can be observed that cooperatives with functional structure, in general, have higher adoption levels of management accounting practices than the divisional ones and those with the strategy focused on the lower cost adopted practices to a greater level than focusing on differentiation

Microscopic analysis of interface composition dynamics in m-plane AlInN

We present first microscopic evidence on approximately two monolayers of interfacial indium depletion in one-directionally lattice-matched AlInN grown on m-plane GaN as measured by energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy. Contrary to other reports, we find no significant incorporation of parasitic gallium into the volume material, but only some spreading of gallium across the GaN/AlInN heterointerface. Using a quantitative description of this behaviour, we conclude that the observed effects are not depending on the crystal orientation, nominal stoichiometry and strain state of the AlInN, but rather represent an inherent characteristic of its growth dynamics, related to the differences in metal-nitrogen binding energies of AlN and InN

Exudative glomerulonephritis associated with acute leptospirosis in dogs.

In the past 20 years in Switzerland, dogs with suspect acute leptospirosis frequently showed severe glomerular changes that had not been previously reported. These features were characterized by abundant extravasated erythrocytes and fewer neutrophils accompanied by marked fibrin exudation into the urinary space that was interpreted as an exudative glomerulonephritis (GN). This retrospective study describes this significant glomerular pathological change and investigates the association with leptospirosis. Tissues from 50 dogs with exudative GN, retrieved from 2 pathology archives in Switzerland were reviewed using hematoxylin and eosin, periodic acid-Schiff, phosphotungstic acid-hematoxylin, and Warthin and Starry stains. Clinical and postmortem data were collected for each case. Immunohistochemistry (IHC) and/or polymerase chain reactions were used as confirmatory tests for leptospirosis. While all 50 cases had clinical and pathological features supporting a diagnosis of leptospirosis, 37 cases were confirmed for the disease. Using a LipL32 antibody in addition to the OMV2177 antibody raised against the lipopolysaccharide of Leptospira interrogans serovar Copenhageni increased the detection rate of Leptospira by IHC in exudative GN from 24% to 62%. Signalment, seasonality, clinical signs, blood results, and pathological changes in dogs with exudative GN were similar to those reported for dogs without GN and confirmed infection by Leptospira spp.. Exudative GN was common among Swiss dogs with leptospirosis where it caused acute severe disease. Leptospirosis should be considered as a cause of this new pathologic feature by the pathologist. The pathogenesis remains unclear, but involvement of a geographic-specific serovar with unique virulence factors is suspected and warrants further investigation

Exudative glomerulonephritis associated with acute leptospirosis in dogs

In the past 20 years in Switzerland, dogs with suspect acute leptospirosis frequently showed severe glomerular changes that had not been previously reported. These features were characterized by abundant extravasated erythrocytes and fewer neutrophils accompanied by marked fibrin exudation into the urinary space that was interpreted as an exudative glomerulonephritis (GN). This retrospective study describes this significant glomerular pathological change and investigates the association with leptospirosis. Tissues from 50 dogs with exudative GN, retrieved from 2 pathology archives in Switzerland were reviewed using hematoxylin and eosin, periodic acid-Schiff, phosphotungstic acid-hematoxylin, and Warthin and Starry stains. Clinical and postmortem data were collected for each case. Immunohistochemistry (IHC) and/or polymerase chain reactions were used as confirmatory tests for leptospirosis. While all 50 cases had clinical and pathological features supporting a diagnosis of leptospirosis, 37 cases were confirmed for the disease. Using a LipL32 antibody in addition to the OMV2177 antibody raised against the lipopolysaccharide of Leptospira interrogans serovar Copenhageni increased the detection rate of Leptospira by IHC in exudative GN from 24% to 62%. Signalment, seasonality, clinical signs, blood results, and pathological changes in dogs with exudative GN were similar to those reported for dogs without GN and confirmed infection by Leptospira spp.. Exudative GN was common among Swiss dogs with leptospirosis where it caused acute severe disease. Leptospirosis should be considered as a cause of this new pathologic feature by the pathologist. The pathogenesis remains unclear, but involvement of a geographic-specific serovar with unique virulence factors is suspected and warrants further investigation