Leveraged Buy Out: Dynamic agency model with write-off option

We present a dynamic agency model in which the LBO fund may write the entrepreneur's project off at the end of the starting stage to invest in a competitive project. The two partners provide unobservable efforts in both stages to enhance the productivity of the acquired company. We show that under restrictive conditions, the debt-equity contracts induce the entrepreneur and the LBO fund to provide the first best efforts under restrictive conditions in the two stages. Moreover, the write-off threat boosts the incentives of the entrepreneur and the LBO fund such that they provide high efforts. If the compensation cost is exogenous, the sharing rule of this cost depends on the quality of the competitive project. The entrepreneur and the bank share the amount of compensation if it is not very profitable. Otherwise, the whole amount of compensation is pledged to the entrepreneur. If the compensation's amount is endogenous, in order to induce the entrepreneur to provide high effort, the optimal financial contracts must give her the entire compensation's revenue.Leveraged Buy Out, incentives, exit, write-off option, double moral hazard

Islamic private equity: what is new?

The current paper analyzes similarities and differences between conventional and Islamic private equity (PE). Despite the financial subprime crisis and the lack of liquidities in financial markets, PE still play an important role in financing growing unlisted firms all over the world. However, conventional PE and Islamic PE display different features. First, Islamic PE funds have less investments opportunities and cannot diversify their projects across activities and sectors mainly because of the Shari’ah compliance criterion. For instance, the PE funds is composed of the managers team, the Shari’ah supervision board SSB and the supervision compliance officer SCO. Second, the choice of PE partnerships depends on the target’s performance, the Islamic scholars’ school and the religiosity degree of the country where they operate, and the SSB policy. Third, they bear varied and different risks from their conventional counterparts. As a consequence, Islamic PE financing is expensive and still not very competitive. Fourth, to overcome and mitigate risks, conventional PE funds can issue convertible securities and abandon prematurely bad quality projects. In contrast, Islamic PE funds are actively involved in the project only in specific cases and cannot exit prematurely the target but can sell gradually their stocks to cover their equity. Finally, financial modes vary according to the degree of involvement of the PE fund in the project and the pre-agreed arrangements between the entrepreneur and the PE fund.Islamic Private Equity, venture capital, PLS

Does corporate governance affect stock liquidity in the Tunisian Stock Market?

The aim of the current paper is to study the link between the effects of corporate governance on information asymmetry problems and stock liquidity in the Tunisian Stock Market. We use a sample of 49 Tunisian firms listed between 1998 and 2007. Our results show that corporate governance has direct and indirect effects on stock liquidity. Threat of expropriation exerted by family and foreign shareholders discourages reluctant investors,which decreases stock liquidity. In contrast, they invest their capital in State controlled firms. In fact, State is regarded as an effective controller rather than a shareholder. The State involvement in Tunisian firms is considered as state guarantee for investors, which increases stock liquidity. Our results provide evidence that some attributes of corporate governance improve stock liquidity because they reduce information asymmetry.corporate governance, shareholder identity, stock liquidity, Tunisian Stock Exchange

Firm's information environment and stock liquidity: evidence from Tunisian context

This paper analyzes the relationship between public disclosure, private information and stock liquidity in the Tunisian market. We use a sample of 41 listed firms in the Tunis Stock Exchange in 2007. First, we find no evidence that there is a relation between public and private information. Second, Tunisian investors do not trust the information disclosed in both annual reports and web sites, consequently it has no effects on stock liquidity, in contrast with private information.corporate information disclosure, private information, stock liquidity, emerging market.

Performance of islamic banks across the world: an empirical analysis over the period 2001-2008

Our study aims at analyzing Islamic bank efficiency over the period 2001-2008. We found that they were efficient at 92%. The level of efficiency could however vary according to the region where they operate. Asia displays the highest score with 96%. Indeed, country like Malaysia made reforms in order to allow these banks to better cope with the existing financial system, display the highest scores. On the contrary countries with Islamic banking system do not necessarily display efficiency scores superior to the average. The subprime crisis seems to have impacted those banks indirectly. And market power and profitability have a positive impact on Islamic banks efficiency, while it is the contrary for their size. The latter implies that they do not benefit from scale economy, may be because of the specificity of Islamic financial products.Islamic Finance, Islamic Banks, performance, efficiency, stochastic frontier analysis

Islamic Private Equity

The Islamic private equity (IPE) market has grown dramatically over the last few years. There are some similarities between venture capital (VC) and some traditional methods in Islamic financing. In medieval Islamic societies it is hard to pinpoint the starting of IPE but there were partnership arrangements similar to those practiced in conventional private equity (PE). But both academicians and professionals argue that the VC activity started in 1946 when General Doriot, a French born and a Harvard educated businessman, established the American Research and Development Corporation (ARDC). It grew in Silicon Valley in the 1970s. Intel and Microsoft are amongst the most famous projects financed through VC. Without the intervention of venture capitalists none of these would have seen light of day or at least achieved such a spectacular rate of development in such a short period (Queyrel, 2006).Islamic Finance, Islamic banks, Shari'ah compliance

Effect of Political Ideology, Femininity, and Gender on Abortion Stigma

Effect of Political Ideology, Femininity, and Gender on Abortion Stigma Rym Yousfi, Dept. of Psychology, Emily Beatty, and Allison Patev and Chelsie Dunn, Dept. of Psychology Graduate Students, with Dr. Kristina Hood, Dept. of Psychology Abortion stigma is a negative characteristic attributed to individuals who terminate a pregnancy that marks them as inferior to social ideals of womanhood (Kumar et al, 2009). One factor influencing abortion stigma is political ideology. Conservative individuals display more opposition to abortion and hold more abortion stigmatizing attitudes, when compared to their liberal counterparts (Bessett et al, 2015). Further, individuals’ gender may impact endorsement of these stigmatizing attitudes towards individuals who have had an abortion. Women have less stigma likely due to the fact that they could need to have an abortion (Patev, Hood, & Hall, 2019). Although gender seems to predict abortion stigma, it is unclear how individuals’ endorsement of traditional feminine characteristics may relate to abortion stigma, independent of gender. Abortion violates fundamental entities of womanhood, such as being a nurturing mother and being sexually pure (Kumar et al, 2009). Feminine ideals indicate that women should not have control over their own reproduction and sexuality, leading to increased stigmatizing attitudes towards women who have an abortion (Norris et al, 2011). Therefore, the endorsement of traditional feminine ideals may lead to increased abortion stigma, regardless of political ideology or gender. Limited study has examined the relationship between feminine characteristics and abortion stigma. Better understanding abortion stigma is essential; as, research has shown that stigmatizing attitudes can greatly affect the health of individuals who have had an abortion (Major & Gramzow, 1999; O’Donnell et al., 2018). The current study sought to determine the effect of femininity on abortion stigmatizing attitudes, beyond the effects of political ideology and gender. We initially projected that individuals with more traditional feminine values would hold more abortion stigma. Participants (N= 305) were recruited via Amazon Mechanical Turk and completed an online survey. The survey included the Stigmatizing Attitudes, Beliefs, and Actions Scale (Shellenberg et al., 2014) to assess abortion stigma, the Personal Attributes Questionnaire (Spence et al., 1974) to assess femininity, one item assessing gender (i.e., men coded as 1 and women coded as 2), and one item assessing political ideology (e.g., lower scores indicate conservative ideology). A hierarchical regression was conducted to determine how individuals’ femininity impacts abortion stigma, beyond the effects of gender and political ideology. Political ideology was entered in the first step, and was significant,b= -.54, SE= .28, p\u3c .001, with more of a conservative ideology related to increased abortion stigma. Political ideology accounted for 29.1% of the variability in abortion stigma. Gender was entered in the second step, controlling for political ideology, and was found to be significant, b = -.11, SE= 1.29,p= .03, with women holding less stigma than men. Gender accounted for an additional 1.1% of the variability in abortion stigma, beyond the effects of political ideology. Finally, femininity was added into the third step, controlling for gender and political ideology, and significantly predicted abortion stigma, b = -.11, SE= .16, p= .03, and accounted for an additional 1.0% of the variance in abortion stigma. However, this finding was not in the predicted direction. We found a negative relationship, indicating that individuals with more femininity held less abortion stigma. This is counter to our original prediction, where we projected that individuals with more traditional feminine characteristics would hold more abortion stigma. These findings extend on previous work determining factors that predict abortion stigma. Having a better understanding of these factors combined influence will aid in decreasing abortion stigma. These results could help to create educational programs on sexual and reproductive health that can reduce abortion stigma and bias, and ultimately could lead to reducing negative health outcomes for individuals who have had an abortion.https://scholarscompass.vcu.edu/uresposters/1338/thumbnail.jp

La contradicción del arbitraje internacional y las excepciones generales en la ejecución de la ley en el sistema jurídico argelino

La capacidad de rechazar la aplicación de laudos ―resoluciones dictadas en arbitraje internacional―, no debería resolverse atendiendo a la ley interna del país que debe aplicar dicho dictamen. El mismo régimen general desafía la naturaleza del arbitraje internacional. Puede decirse, simple y llanamente, que en aras de mantener el orden público debe preservarse el interés público, bien sea político, social o económico. Hasta qué punto se atenta contra la idea del “orden público”, en ambos sistemas jurídicos, el nacional y el internacional, con la aplicación de resoluciones y laudos internacionales. El presente trabajo estudia las contradicciones del derecho internacional y las excepciones para su puesta en ejecución, estudiando el caso del sistema legal argelino

Structural investigation of (111) oriented (BiFeO3)(1-x){\Lambda}/(LaFeO3)x{\Lambda} superlattices by X-ray diffraction and Raman spectroscopy

(BiFeO3)(1-x){\Lambda}/(LaFeO3)x{\Lambda} superlattices (SLs) with varying x have been grown by pulsed laser deposition on (111) oriented SrTiO3 substrates. In order to obtain good epitaxy and flat samples a conducting SrRuO3 buffer has been deposited prior to the superlattices to screen the polar mismatch for such (111) SrTiO3 orientation. X-ray diffraction reciprocal space mapping on different family of planes were collected and evidenced a room temperature structural change at x=0.5 from a rhombohedral/monoclinic structure for rich BiFeO3 to an orthorhombic symmetry for rich LaFeO3. This symmetry change has been confirmed by Raman spectroscopy and demonstrates the different phase stability compared to similar SLs grown on (100) SrTiO3. The strongly anisotropic strain and oxygen octahedral rotation/tilt system compatibility at the interfaces probably explain the orientation dependence of the phase stability in such superlattices.Comment: 17 pages, 3 figure