Firm growth, European industry dynamics and domestic business cycles

Based on the empirical firm growth literature and on heterogeneous (microeconomic) adjustment models, this paper empirically investigates the impact of European industry fluctuations and domestic business cycles on the growth performance of European firms. Since the implementation of the Single market program (SMP) the EU 27 member states share a common market. Accordingly, the European industry business cycle is expected to become a more influential predictor of European firms' behavior at the expense of domestic fluctuations. Empirically, the results of a two-part model for a sample of European manufacturing firms reject this hypothesis. Additionally, subsidiaries of Multinational Enterprises (MNEs) constitute the most stable firm cohort throughout the observed business cycle.Firm growth, industry dynamics, domestic business cycle, European integration, multinational enterprises, two-part model

First-principles thermodynamic screening approach to photo-catalytic water splitting with co-catalysts

We adapt the computational hydrogen electrode approach to explicitly account for photo-generated charges and use it to computationally screen for viable catalyst/co-catalyst combinations for photo-catalytic water splitting. The hole energy necessary to thermodynamically drive the reaction is employed as descriptor for the screening process. Using this protocol and hybrid-level density-functional theory we show that water oxidation on bare TiO2 surfaces is thermodynamically more complex than previously thought. This motivates a screening for suitable co-catalysts for this half-reaction, which we carry out for Au particles down to the non-scalable size regime. We find that almost all small Au clusters studied are better suited for water photo-oxidation than an extended Au(111) surface or bare TiO2 facets.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figure

Employment effects of acquisitions: Evidence from acquired European firms

This paper examines the employment effects of acquisitions for acquired European firms taking non-random selection of acquisition targets explicitly into account. Following the empirical firm growth literature and theories put forward in the mergers and acquisition (M&A) literature we control for convergence dynamics in firm size and distinguish between different types of acquisitions. Empirically, we estimate an endogenous treatment model using accounting data for a newly created sample of acquired and non-acquired European firms. Our results reveal positive employment effects for all different types of acquisitions

Single molecule pulling with large time steps

Recently, we presented a generalisation of the Jarzynski non-equilibrium work theorem for phase space mappings. The formalism shows that one can determine free energy differences from approximate trajectories obtained from molecular dynamics simulations in which very large timesteps are used. In this work we test the method by simulating the force induced unfolding of a deca-alanine helix in vacuum. The excellent agreement between results obtained with a small, conservative time step of 0.5 fs and results obtained with a time step of 3.2 fs (i.e., close to the stability limit) indicates that the large time step approach is practical for such complex biomolecules. We further adapt the method of Hummer and Szabo for the simulation of single-molecule force spectroscopy experiments to the large time step method. While trajectories generated with large steps are approximate and may be unphysical - in the simulations presented here we observe a violation of the equipartition theorem - the computed free energies are exact in principle. In terms of efficiency, the optimum time step for the unfolding simulations lies in the range 1-3 fs.Comment: 8 pages, 8 figure

Critical analysis of fragment-orbital DFT schemes for the calculation of electronic coupling values

We present a critical analysis of the popular fragment-orbital density-functional theory (FO-DFT) scheme for the calculation of electronic coupling values. We discuss the characteristics of different possible formulations or 'flavors' of the scheme which differ by the number of electrons in the calculation of the fragments and the construction of the Hamiltonian. In addition to two previously described variants based on neutral fragments, we present a third version taking a different route to the approximate diabatic state by explicitly considering charged fragments. In applying these FO-DFT flavors to the two molecular test sets HAB7 (electron transfer) and HAB11 (hole transfer) we find that our new scheme gives improved electronic couplings for HAB7 (-6.2% decrease in mean relative signed error) and greatly improved electronic couplings for HAB11 (-15.3% decrease in mean relative signed error). A systematic investigation of the influence of exact exchange on the electronic coupling values shows that the use of hybrid functionals in FO-DFT calculations improves the electronic couplings, giving values close to or even better than more sophisticated constrained DFT calculations. Comparing the accuracy and computational cost of each variant we devise simple rules to choose the best possible flavor depending on the task. For accuracy, our new scheme with charged-fragment calculations performs best, while numerically more efficient at reasonable accuracy is the variant with neutral fragments

Distance Matters - Evidence from Professional Team Sports

This paper assesses the role of distance in professional team sports, taking the example of football (soccer). We argue that a team’s performance in terms of scored and conceded goals decreases with the distance to the foreign playing venue. To test this hypothesis empirically, we investigate 6,389 away games from the German Football Premier League (’Erste Deutsche Bundesliga’) between the playing seasons 1986-87 and 2006-07. We find that distance contributes significantly in explaining a guest team’s propensity to concede goals, but not so for scoring goals. Focusing on the difference between scored and conceded goals (‘goal difference’) as a measure of the overall success of a football team, we observe a significant and non-monotonic impact of distance on team performance.Professional team performance, distance, event count data, poisson regression model

FDI versus Exports Substitutes or Complements? A Three Nations Model and Empirical Evidence

There are two main options for companies to serve foreign markets; exports and foreign direct investment (FDI). Based on the Helpman, Melitz and Yeaple (2004) model for two host countries this paper derives a clear theoretical prediction for the decision between both strategies. A bivariate probit model is estimated using AMADEUS database to analyse the probability of using one or the other strategy. The empirical evidence indicates that a considerable number of companies use a combination of both strategies to serve foreign markets, which is in line with the analyzed three country model

Oil and the Duration of Dictatorships

This paper studies empirically the relationship between oil endowment and the duration of autocratic leaders. A simple theoretical setting shows how the relationship between oil endowment and the duration of the dictatorial regime is mediated by the price of oil. Using a dataset on 106 dictators, our empirical analysis supports the predictions of the theoretical model and indicates that dictators in countries which are relatively better endowed in terms of oil stay longer in office. This result is robust to changes in the definition of dictatorial regimes, as well as to controlling for other economic and political variables.Natural resources, dictatorship, political economy, duration

Performance of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises in Services Trade: Evidence from French Firms

This paper empirically investigates the key firm- and industry-specific restrictions to the performance of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in services trade. For this purpose, we use firm-level data from firms in France operating in different services sectors over the time period 1998 to 2007 and formulate two-part models consisting of (i) (dy namic) export equations and (ii) (dynamic) export share equations. Our results confirm the view that a relatively low share of SMEs engage in services trade. In line with the new-new trade theory, our results also corroborate that more productive SMEs have a higher export probability. The key finding of this paper is that the export decisions of SMEs in services sectors are estimated to be extremely persistent, implying that trade pol icy efforts, including the allocation of scarce trade promotion budgets, should be directed at addressing the barriers faced in establishing the first export operation. Finally, our sub-sectoral estimates reveal considerable heterogeneity across different types of services