Large capital infusions, investor reactions, and the return and risk performance of financial institutions over the business cycle and recent finanical crisis

The authors examine investors' reactions to announcements of large seasoned equity offerings (SEOs) by U.S. financial institutions (FIs) from 2000 to 2009. These offerings include market infusions as well as injections of government capital under the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP). The sample period covers both business cycle expansions and contractions, and the recent financial crisis. They present evidence on the factors affecting FI decisions to issue capital, the determinants of investor reactions, and post-SEO performance of issuers as well as a sample of matching FIs. The authors find that investors reacted negatively to the news of private market SEOs by FIs, both in the immediate term (e.g., the two days surrounding the announcement) and over the subsequent year, but positively to TARP injections. Reactions differed depending on the characteristics of the FIs, stage of the business cycle, and conditions of financial crisis. Larger institutions were less likely to have raised capital through market offerings during the period prior to TARP, and firms receiving a TARP injection tended to be larger than other issuers. The authors find that while TARP may have allowed FIs to increase their lending (as a share of assets) in the year after the issuance, they took on more credit risk to do so. They find no evidence that banks' capital adequacy increased after the capital injections.Securities ; Financial services industry ; Banks and banking

Do Bankers Sacrifice Value to Build Empires? Managerial Incentives, Industry Consolidation and Financial Performance

Bank consolidation is a global phenomenon that may enhance stakeholders' value if managers do not sacrifice value to build empires. We find strong evidence of managerial entrenchment at U.S. bank holding companies that have higher levels of managerial ownership, better growth opportunities, poorer financial performance, and smaller asset size. At banks without entrenched management, both asset acquisitions and sales are associated with improved performance. At banks with entrenched management, sales are related to smaller improvements while acquisitions are associated with worse performance. Consistent with scale economies, an increase in assets by internal growth is associated with better performance at most banks. Key Words: consolidation, acquisitions, managerial incentives, efficiency, agency problems, corporate control, stochastic frontier

Weekend hospitalization and additional risk of death: An analysis of inpatient data

Objective To assess whether weekend admissions to hospital and/or already being an inpatient on weekend days were associated with any additional mortality risk.Design Retrospective observational survivorship study. We analysed all admissions to the English National Health Service (NHS) during the financial year 2009/10, following up all patients for 30 days after admission and accounting for risk of death associated with diagnosis, co-morbidities, admission history, age, sex, ethnicity, deprivation, seasonality, day of admission and hospital trust, including day of death as a time dependent covariate. The principal analysis was based on time to in-hospital death.Participants National Health Service Hospitals in England.Main Outcome Measures 30 day mortality (in or out of hospital).Results There were 14,217,640 admissions included in the principal analysis, with 187,337 in-hospital deaths reported within 30 days of admission. Admission on weekend days was associated with a considerable increase in risk of subsequent death compared with admission on weekdays, hazard ratio for Sunday versus Wednesday 1.16 (95% CI 1.14 to 1.18; P < .0001), and for Saturday versus Wednesday 1.11 (95% CI 1.09 to 1.13; P < .0001). Hospital stays on weekend days were associated with a lower risk of death than midweek days, hazard ratio for being in hospital on Sunday versus Wednesday 0.92 (95% CI 0.91 to 0.94; P < .0001), and for Saturday versus Wednesday 0.95 (95% CI 0.93 to 0.96; P < .0001). Similar findings were observed on a smaller US data set.Conclusions Admission at the weekend is associated with increased risk of subsequent death within 30 days of admission. The likelihood of death actually occurring is less on a weekend day than on a mid-week day

Analysis of Warm Magnetic Measurements in a LHC Main Dipole Prototype

The data relative to the magnetic measurements at room temperature of the MBP2N1 prototype of the LHC dipole are presented. The measured field harmonics are compared to the results of the numerical model of the dipole cross section. The contribution from different effects are evaluated and compared to experimental data. Relevant quantities on the mechanical structure and on the expected field quality are worked out

Modeling magnetohydrodynamics and non equilibrium SoHO/UVCS line emission of CME shocks

We provide a guideline to interpret the UVCS emission lines (in particular O VI and Si XII) during shock wave propagation in the outer solar corona. We use a numerical MHD model performing a set of simulations of shock waves generated in the corona and from the result we compute the plasma emission for the O VI and Si XII including the effects of NEI. We analyze the radiative and spectral properties of our model with the support of a detailed radiation model including Doppler dimming and an analytical model for shocks, and, finally, we synthesize the expected O VI 1032A line profile. We explain several spectral features of the observations like the absence of discontinuities in the O VI emission during the shock passage, the brightening of Si XII emission and the width of the lines. We use our model also to give very simple and general predictions for the strength of the line wings due to the ions shock heating and on the line shape for Limb CMEs or Halo CMEs. The emission coming from post-shock region in the solar corona roughly agrees with the emission from a simple planar and adiabatic shock, but the effect of thermal conduction and the magnetic field may be important depending on the event parameters. Doppler dimming significantly influences the O VI emission while Si XII line brightens mainly because of the shock compression. Significant shock heating is responsible for the wide and faint component of the O VI line usually observed which may be taken as a shock signature in the solar corona.Comment: 11 pages, 12 figures, 2 appendixe

The influence of tropospheric biennial oscillation on mid-tropospheric CO_2

Mid-tropospheric CO_2 retrieved from the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) was used to investigate CO_2 interannual variability over the Indo-Pacific region. A signal with periodicity around two years was found for the AIRS mid-tropospheric CO_2 for the first time, which is related to the Tropospheric Biennial Oscillation (TBO) associated with the strength of the monsoon. During a strong (weak) monsoon year, the Western Walker Circulation is strong (weak), resulting in enhanced (diminished) CO_2 transport from the surface to the mid-troposphere. As a result, there are positive (negative) CO2 anomalies at mid-troposphere over the Indo-Pacific region. We simulated the influence of the TBO on the mid-tropospheric CO_2 over the Indo-Pacific region using the MOZART-2 model, and results were consistent with observations, although we found the TBO signal in the model CO_2 is to be smaller than that in the AIRS observations

Information sharing and credit : firm-level evidence from transition countries

We investigate whether information sharing among banks has affected credit market performance in the transition countries of Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, using a large sample of firm-level data. Our estimates show that information sharing is associated with improved availability and lower cost of credit to firms. This correlation is stronger for opaque firms than transparent ones and stronger in countries with weak legal environments than in those with strong legal environments. In cross-sectional estimates, we control for variation in country-level aggregate variables that may affect credit, by examining the differential impact of information sharing across firm types. In panel estimates, we also control for the presence of unobserved heterogeneity at the firm level, as well as for changes in macroeconomic variables and the legal environment