Are defined contribution pension schemes socially sustainable? A conceptual map from a macroprudential perspective

If the combined retirement income, provided by public and private defined contribution (DC) pension schemes, falls below socially acceptable standards, there is a political risk that consensus seeker policymakers could yield to pressures to commit future fiscal revenues. These contingent liabilities, when incorporated in markets’ expectations, are bound to create spillovers on sovereign risk, with negative feedback loops on the capital adequacy of banks and of other intermediaries, owing to losses on their government paper. Among the causes of reduced annuities out of the final assets in DC pension funds is an equity risk premium much lower than the commonly values advertised by the industry and by policymakers. From a macroprudential perspective, this political risk should be taken into account in stress tests assessing banks’ resilience to financial shocks.pensions, equity risk premium, political risk, sovereign risk, stress test;

When do trade credit discounts matter? Evidence from Italian firm-level data

Italian firms are top users of trade credit in an international comparison. The paper offers some clues to the determinants of this stylised fact exploiting the answers of about 1900 manufacturing firms on a wide range of contractual features, separately for domestic and foreign counterparties. The main finding is that, with the almost totality of commercial transactions made on credit, there is no evidence that trade credit is more expensive than loans. An econometric investigation shows that discounts offered have the expected effect of reducing payment delays only for customers located abroad, where customary credit periods are shorter. The result is consistent with the poor explanatory power of the discounts received for the trade debt period of domestic firms and with the evidence of larger buyers willing to exploit their market power with suppliers.Trade credit; Late payments; Credit rationing

Is trade credit more expensive than bank loans? Evidence from Italian firm-level data.

The study, aimed at evaluating the likely effects of the EC Directive on late payments, provides direct evidence that interfirm credit received by Italian manufacturing firms is, if ever, only slightly more expensive than bank loans. An econometric exercise shows that financial determinants have a stronger impact on recorded credit and debt periods for larger firms, able to use trade credit to smooth their cycle; smaller firms seem to adapt more passively to counterparties' supply and demand. A novel finding is that shorter credit periods are associated to the directly measured discount offered for quicker payments.Trade credit; Late payments; Credit rationing

Trade credit in Italy: Evidence from individual firm data

Interfirm late payments are a hot issue in the EU, as witnessed by the 1998 bills passed in Italy and in the U.K. and by the soon to be approved EU Directive. Comprehensive information, especially on the effective own cost, is however almost absent in the literature. The paper provides the first detailed evidence of the trade debt own cost for the Italian manufacturing firms, arising out of discounts offered and of penalties for late payments. It is shown that, comparing also self-defined bank lending rationed and non rationed firms, interfirm credit received is, if ever, only slightly more expensive than bank credit. Cross-section econometric analysis, besides establishing the greater reactivity of credit received rather than granted to the external funds implicit cost, finds that the discount offered for early payments affects significantly credit granted to buyers. The estimates obtained for the basic specifications are robust when the sample is split according to various criteria; larger firms, probably because less financially constrained, react more strongly to sales reductions via longer credit and debt periods.trade credit, late payments,credit rationing

Structural breaks in the interest rate pass-through and the euro. A cross-country study in the euro area and the UK

We search for breaks in the short term business lending rate pass-through in euro countries, possibly associated with the introduction of the euro. One break is detected in six national retail rates among EMU countries; two breaks are found in other six cases, and in the UK as well. The last break occurs much earlier for France while several quarters later for other countries, suggesting a loose link if ever with the event. Pass-throughs decrease (except for France), becoming even more incomplete (except for Netherlands); though the adjustment to equilibrium is faster, cross-country heterogeneity remains fairly large. With the new harmonized interest rates database, available since 2003, pass-throughs are much closer to one, especially for larger loans.Interest rates; Monetary policy; Economic and Monetary Union (EMU); Cointegration analysis; Structural breaks

Gaussian Effective Potential and Antiferromagnetism in the Hubbard Model

The Gaussian Effective Potential (GEP) is shown to be a useful variational tool for the study of the magnetic properties of strongly correlated electronic systems. The GEP is derived for a single band Hubbard model on a two-dimensional bi-partite square lattice in the strong coupling regime. At half-filling the antiferromagnetic order parameter emerges as the minimum of the effective potential with an accuracy which improves over RPA calculations and is very close to that achieved by Monte Carlo simulations. Extensions to other magnetic systems are discussed.Comment: 9 pages, 3 figures; 1 figure removed; final discussion revised and a new reference adde