Are regional institutional factors determinants of the capital structure of SMEs?

This paper analyses the role that institutional factors play in explaining differences in the capital structure of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) across regions belonging to a single country. Specifically, it studies the effect of the development of the financial sector and of the economic situation on leverage of firms. Furthermore, the standard firm-factor determinants of debt, such as firm size, asset structure, profitability, growth, business risk and age are also incorporated. For this empirical study, we use a sample of 638 SMEs representing every Spanish region for the period 1999-2007, and apply the panel data methodology. Our results suggest that the capital structure depends on the regional financial sector and the regional economic situation which implies that institutional factors at regional level help to better explain financing decisions of SMEs

Financial forecasts of SMEs in IPOs: fact or fiction?

Este artículo valora el proceso de previsión financiera de las pequeñas y medianas empresas (PYME) en sus salidas a bolsa. Específicamente, se analiza la calidad de las previsiones de beneficios realizadas y se exploran los factores que determinan la precisión de tales previsiones. Este estudio considera todas las empresas que han salido a cotizar al Mercado Alternativo Bursátil español (MAB). Los resultados muestran que los directivos de las empresas del MAB han sido mayoritariamente optimistas y altamente imprecisos en la estimación de los beneficios futuros.This article assesses the financial forecasts of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in their process of initial public offering (IPO). In particular, the quality of earnings forecasts is analysed and the determinants of accuracy of earning forecasts are explored. To this end, the empirical study considers all the companies listed on the Spanish Alternative Stock Market (MAB). The results show that managers of newly listed Spanish SMEs have mostly been optimistic and highly inaccurate when estimating their future earnings

Nematodes marins de les algues fotòfiles del litoral de Menorca. I. Enoplida

The genus Ferrissia (F. Ancylidae) and Acroloxus (F. Acroloxidae) have been frequently confused, or simply undetected because of their size and limnic habitat. They are represented in the Catalan Countries (Catalonia, Valencia and the Balearic Islands) by Ferrissia wautieri and Acroloxus lacustris. A description of both species and their geographical and ecological distribution follows: F. Wautieri appears to be ubiquitous on the continent, in calm or, less frequently, moderately flowing waters, in lowlands and hills; A. Lacustris lives in freshwater marshes or wide placid, highly vegetated canals in the northeastern part of Catalonia, though subfossil recordings have been made further south. This is the first recording of F. Wautieri in the Iberian Peninsula. We suggest that there may exist competition phenomena between freshwater limpets: Ancylus fluviatilis (Muller, 1774) lives in well oxygenated running water, Acroloxus (s.s.) lacustris (Linnaeus, 1753) predominates in permanent lentic environments of Eurosiberian affinity, and Ferrissia (Pettancylus) wautieri (Mirolli, 1960) extends throughout the Mediterranean regions, especially in casual waters, displaying the opportunism of a good colonizing species, due to its ability to form a septum to resist adverse conditions and because its reproduction is accomplished almost exclusively by self-fertilisation