Do Local Analysts Know More? A Cross-Country Study of the Performance of Local Analysts and Foreign Analysts

This paper examines whether analysts resident in a country make more precise earnings forecasts for firms in that country than analysts who are not resident in that country. Using a sample of 32 countries, we find that there is an economically and statistically significant analyst local advantage even after controlling for firm and analyst characteristics. The importance of the local advantage is inversely related to the quality of the information provided by firms. In particular, the local advantage is high in countries where earnings are smoothed more, less information is disclosed by firms, and firm idiosyncratic information explains a smaller fraction of stock returns. The local advantage is also negatively related to market participation by foreign investors and by institutions and positively related to holdings by insiders. U.S. investors underweight a country's stocks more in their portfolios if that country has a higher analyst local advantage.

Does Corporate Social Responsibility Reduce the Costs of High Leverage? Evidence from Capital Structure and Product Market Interactions

Research on capital structure and product market interactions shows that high leverage is associated with substantial losses in market share due to unfavorable actions by customers and competitors. We examine whether corporate social responsibility (CSR) affects firms’ interactions with customers and competitors, and whether it can reduce the costs of high leverage. We find that CSR reduces losses in market share when firms are highly leveraged. By reducing adverse behavior by customers and competitors, CSR helps highly leveraged firms keep customers and guard against rivals’ predation. Our results support the stakeholder value maximization view of CSR

Nominal Stock Price Anchors: A Global Phenomenon?

Weld et al. (2009) find that the average nominal U.S. stock price has been approximately $25 since the Great Depression. They report that this nominal price fixation is primarily a U.S. or North American phenomenon. Using a larger data set from 38 countries, we show that this nominal price fixation is a global phenomenon. We exploit the introduction of the euro in 1999 to show that stock splits maintain these nominal stock price anchors. Generally, firms in countries with larger drops in nominal prices had fewer stock splits after stock prices were displayed in euros

Family control and expropriation at not-for-profit organizations: evidence from korean private universities

We study an agency problem in private universities — the conflict between controlling families and other stakeholders. We investigate whether universities over which controlling families have disproportionately significant power relative to the amount of funds they contribute, that is, universities with high expropriation risk, are associated with lower outside donations and poor quality. Using a sample of Korean private universities, we find that measures of family control in excess of monetary contributions are negatively related to the level of outside donation and measures of university quality. We also find that universities at which the controlling family exerts disproportionate control are more likely to face disputes between the controlling family and other stakeholders. Finally, we show that our results are not driven by reverse causality

Family control and expropriation at not-for-profit organizations: evidence from korean private universities

We study an agency problem in private universities — the conflict between controlling families and other stakeholders. We investigate whether universities over which controlling families have disproportionately significant power relative to the amount of funds they contribute, that is, universities with high expropriation risk, are associated with lower outside donations and poor quality. Using a sample of Korean private universities, we find that measures of family control in excess of monetary contributions are negatively related to the level of outside donation and measures of university quality. We also find that universities at which the controlling family exerts disproportionate control are more likely to face disputes between the controlling family and other stakeholders. Finally, we show that our results are not driven by reverse causality

FIIs and Indian Stock Market: A Causality Investigation

While the volatility associated with portfolio capital flows is well known, there is also a concern that foreign institutional investors might introduce distortions in the host country markets due to the pressure on them to secure capital gains. In this context, present chapter attempts to find out the direction of causality between foreign institutional investors (FIIs) and performance of Indian stock market. To facilitate a better understanding of the causal linkage between FII flows and contemporaneous stock market returns (BSE National Index), a period of nineteen consecutive financial years ranging from January 1992 to December 2010 is selected. Granger Causality Test has been applied to test the direction of causality.Aczkolwiek brak stabilności związany z przepływami kapitału portfelowego jest dobrze znany, to istnieje również obawa, że zagraniczni inwestorzy instytucjonalni mogą wprowadzać zakłócenia na rynkach krajów przyjmujących z uwagi na wywieraną na nich presję, aby zapewniać zyski kapitałowe. W tym kontekście niniejszy rozdział próbuje poznać kierunek przyczynowości pomiędzy zagranicznymi inwestorami instytucjonalnymi (FIIs) i działaniem indyjskiej giełdy. Aby ułatwić lepsze zrozumienie związku przyczynowego między przepływami FII i mającymi miejsce w tym samym czasie wynikami giełdy papierów wartościowych (BSE National Index), wybrany został okres dziewiętnastu kolejnych lat począwszy od stycznia 1992 do grudnia 2010. Do zbadania kierunku przyczynowości zastosowano test przyczynowości Grangera

Pseudogap Behavior Revealed in Interlayer Tunneling in Overdoped Bi2_2Sr2_2CaCu2_2O8+x_{8+x}

We report heating-compensated interlayer tunneling spectroscopy (ITS) performed on stacks of overdoped Bi$_2$Sr$_2$CaCu$_2$O$_{8+x}$ intrinsic junctions, where most of bias-induced heating in the ITS was eliminated. The onset temperature of the pseudogap (PG), revealed in the hump structure of the electronic excitation spectra, reached nearly room temperature for our overdoped intrinsic junctions, which represented the genuine PG onset. At a temperature below but close to $T_c$, both the superconducting coherence peak and the pseudogap hump coexisted, implying that the two gaps are of separate origins. The hump voltage increased below $T_c$, following the superconducting gap voltage, which led to a conclusion that the hump structure below $T_c$ in our ITS arose from the combined contribution of the quasiparticle spectral weights of two different characters; one of the superconducting state and another of the PG state near the antinodal region.Comment: accepted in Phys. Rev.

An Integrated Korean Biodiversity and Genetic Information Retrieval System

Background: On-line biodiversity information databases are growing quickly and being integrated into general bioinformatics systems due to the advances of fast gene sequencing technologies and the Internet. These can reduce the cost and effort of performing biodiversity surveys and genetic searches, which allows scientists to spend more time researching and less time collecting and maintaining data. This will cause an increased rate of knowledge build-up and improve conservations. The biodiversity databases in Korea have been scattered among several institutes and local natural history museums with incompatible data types. Therefore, a comprehensive database and a nation wide web portal for biodiversity information is necessary in order to integrate diverse information resources, including molecular and genomic databases. Results: The Korean Natural History Research Information System (NARIS) was built and serviced as the central biodiversity information system to collect and integrate the biodiversity data of various institutes and natural history museums in Korea. This database aims to be an integrated resource that contains additional biological information, such as genome sequences and molecular level diversity. Currently, twelve institutes and museums in Korea are integrated by the DiGIR (Distributed Generic Information Retrieval) protocol, with Darwin Core2.0 format as its metadata standard for data exchange. Data quality control and statistical analysis functions have been implemented. In particular, integrating molecular and genetic information from the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) databases with NARIS was recently accomplished. NARIS can also be extended to accommodate other institutes abroad, and the whole system can be exported to establish local biodiversity management servers. Conclusion: A Korean data portal, NARIS, has been developed to efficiently manage and utilize biodiversity data, which includes genetic resources. NARIS aims to be integral in maximizing biofrom resource utilization for conservation, management, research, education, industrial applications, and integration with other bioinformation data resources. It can be found at http://www.naris.go.krclose1