How many banks does it take to lend? Empirical evidence from Europe

We provide empirical evidence on the determinants of the number of bank lenders using a sample of more than 3000 loans to firms from 24 European countries. Our testable hypotheses are built upon different theoretical frameworks drawn from the existing literature, referring to firm characteristics, strategic considerations, geographical distances, bank market concentration, efficiency of legal system, and development of alternative sources of funds. Our main results show that the number and the international diversity of lenders is increased by loan and firm characteristics which reduce agency costs, and by financial structure and legal environment characteristics which mitigate expropriation risk.Lending relationships, number of lenders, bank loans, financial governance, asymmetric information, Europe.

Effets de Pairs dans l'Éducation, le Sport et les Arts pour des jeunes Canadiens

Rapport de recherche présenté à la Faculté des arts et des sciences en vue de l'obtention du grade de Maîtrise en sciences économiques

No Going Back: The Interactions Between Processed Inventories and Trade Credit

Our paper focuses on testing the advantages in controlling the buyer and salvaging goods supplied where we have information on the nature of the transacted good and information on the inventory of buyers and sellers. We find transactions in specialized goods tend to be conducted more often using trade credit, but willingness to extend trade credit also depends on the ability of the firm to resell goods when demand is uncertain and on inventory costs. The advantages in salvage of goods is also limited by the extent to which goods have been processed by the receiving firm. These findings are derived from 82,000 French firms in four sectors over the period 1999-2007. Our results confirm the findings of the existing literature based on US and UK data, while also giving more support to the inventory transactions cost motive for firms with specialized goods.Trade credit, Inventories

A Top-Down Approach to Managing Variability in Robotics Algorithms

One of the defining features of the field of robotics is its breadth and heterogeneity. Unfortunately, despite the availability of several robotics middleware services, robotics software still fails to smoothly handle at least two kinds of variability: algorithmic variability and lower-level variability. The consequence is that implementations of algorithms are hard to understand and impacted by changes to lower-level details such as the choice or configuration of sensors or actuators. Moreover, when several algorithms or algorithmic variants are available it is difficult to compare and combine them. In order to alleviate these problems we propose a top-down approach to express and implement robotics algorithms and families of algorithms so that they are both less dependent on lower-level details and easier to understand and combine. This approach goes top-down from the algorithms and shields them from lower-level details by introducing very high level abstractions atop the intermediate abstractions of robotics middleware. This approach is illustrated on 7 variants of the Bug family that were implemented using both laser and infra-red sensors.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figures, Presented at DSLRob 2013 (arXiv:cs/1312.5952

The Application of Working Memory Theory to the Learning of Physics

The first aim of this research was to replicate in physics work which had been done in chemistry by Johnstone and El-Banna 1987(52,85), in which Working Memory Theory had been used to account for student performance in traditional exams. This was carried out and the results in physics coincided well with the chemistry findings that Working Memory Theory space correlated well with exam performance and that a sharp fall in performance occurred when the demand of a question exceeded the Working Memory Space. An additional study was done to relate Field Dependence/ Field Independence measures to performance and to Working Memory Space. This was found to be of lesser importance. The second aim was to apply the insights gained in the first part of the study to help in the design of student laboratory and tutorial experiences . The laboratory work was carried out with undergraduates in Glasgow while the tutorial work was carried out with both Glasgow undergraduates and Algerian Baccalaureat students. 1. In the light of preliminary work, laboratory instruction manuals were redesigned so as to reduce information load by improved layout, by the use of diagrams and by the removal of extraneous and misleading information. We have evidence that the understanding and the attitudes of students in the laboratory have been improved. 2. Attention was also turned to problem solving; tutorial problems have been designed in different forms to change the load in them and so minimise the psychological effects and the processing demand. The follow up of the findings has resulted in improved student performance. These findings should be generally applicable to the learning of physics. Changes in education are often made on the basis of belief, fashion or necessity. In this study we had time to look carefully at a theoretical approach to change which enabled hypotheses to the raised and tested and which also suggested a mechanism for systematically improving learning in physics