scholarly journals Does Corruption Lead to Lower Subnational Credit Ratings? Fiscal Dependence, Market Reputation, and the Cost of Debt

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-19
Author(s):  
Maciej Sychowiec ◽  
Monika Bauhr ◽  
Nicholas Charron
Keyword(s):  
Credit Ratings ◽  
National Level ◽  
Negative Relationship ◽  
Cost Of Debt ◽  
Economic Implications ◽  
Sovereign Credit Ratings ◽  
Heterogeneous Effects ◽  
Federal Revenue ◽  
Negative Effect ◽  
Using Data

Abstract While studies show a consistent negative relationship between the level of corruption and range indicators of national-level economic performance, including sovereign credit ratings, we know less about the relationship between corruption and subnational credit ratings. This study suggests that federal transfers allow states with higher levels of corruption to retain good credit ratings, despite the negative economic implications of corruption more broadly, which also allows them to continue to borrow at low costs. Using data on corruption conviction in US states and credit ratings between 2001 and 2015, we show that corruption does not directly reduce credit ratings on average. We find, however, heterogeneous effects, in that there is a negative effect of corruption on credit ratings only in states that have a comparatively low level of fiscal dependence on federal transfers. This suggest that while less dependent states are punished by international assessors when seen as more corrupt, corruption does not affect the ratings of states with higher levels of fiscal dependence on federal revenue.

scholarly journals Which Religions Still Affect Schooling? A Study of 143 Countries

2016 ◽  
Vol 15 (4) ◽  
pp. 439-484 ◽  
Author(s):  
Horst Feldmann
Keyword(s):  
National Level ◽  
Roman Catholicism ◽  
Recent Past ◽  
World Religions ◽  
Eastern Orthodoxy ◽  
Secondary Schooling ◽  
Negative Effect ◽  
Using Data ◽  
Positive Effect

This paper studies which world religions have exerted a contemporary influence on the extent of secondary schooling at the national level in the recent past. Using data on 143 countries and the period 1973 to 2012, it finds that both Hinduism and Judaism have a large positive effect, particularly among females. The group of other Eastern religions (which covers comparatively small religions, notably Confucianism) also has a positive effect, though it is slightly smaller, especially among girls. Islam has a negative effect, which is larger among females than among males. Neither Buddhism nor the three branches of Christianity – Eastern Orthodoxy, Roman Catholicism and Protestantism – have any statistically significant effect. The results are robust to numerous controls and variations in specification.

scholarly journals Investigating the Negative Relationship between Wages and Obesity: New Evidence from the Work, Family, and Health Network

2018 ◽  
pp. 63-82
Author(s):  
Matthew J. Trombley ◽  
Jeremy W. Bray ◽  
Jesse M. Hinde ◽  
Orfeu M. Buxton ◽  
Ryan C. Johnson
Keyword(s):  
National Level ◽  
Negative Relationship ◽  
Fortune 500 ◽  
Limited Evidence ◽  
Wage Penalty ◽  
Health Measures ◽  
Work Family ◽  
Using Data ◽  
New Evidence ◽  
Direct Measures

A substantial literature has established that obesity is negatively associated with wages, particularly among females.  However, prior research has found limited evidence for the factors hypothesized to underlie the obesity wage penalty.  We add to the literature using data from IT workers at a U.S. Fortune 500 firm that provides us with direct measures of employee income and BMI, and health measures that are unavailable in national-level datasets.  Our estimates indicate that the wage-obesity penalty among females only occurs among obese mothers, and is not attributable to differences in health or human capital that may be caused by having children. Published: Online November 2018. 

scholarly journals Signing Auditors’ Foreign Experience and Debt Financing Costs: Evidence for Sustainability of Chinese Listed Companies

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (23) ◽  
pp. 6615 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hou ◽  
Liao ◽  
Liu ◽  
Xiong
Keyword(s):  
Audit Quality ◽  
Negative Relationship ◽  
Debt Financing ◽  
Cost Of Debt ◽  
Listed Firms ◽  
Foreign Experience ◽  
Financing Costs ◽  
Negative Effect ◽  
The Cost ◽  
Industry Expertise

This study investigates whether signing auditors with foreign experience influence debt financing costs. Using a sample of Chinese listed firms for the period of 2001–2016, this study hand-collects the information of signing auditors’ foreign experience and empirically examines the relationship between signing auditors’ foreign experience and debt financing costs. The empirical results show that signing auditors’ foreign experience is significantly and negatively correlated with debt financing costs, suggesting that signing auditors’ foreign experience improves audit quality, reduces information risk and thereby lowers the cost of debt financing. Further analyses show that the negative effect of signing auditors’ foreign experience on the cost of debt financing is more pronounced in audit firms without industry expertise, suggesting that audit firm industry expertise mitigates the negative relationship between signing auditors’ foreign experience and debt financing costs. These results imply that signing auditors who have foreign experience could serve a significant role in debt financing, which would strengthen firms’ sustainability.

Determinants of Firm Growth: Evidence from Vietnamese Small and Medium Sized Manufacturing Enterprises

2018 ◽  
pp. 71-87
Author(s):  
Hang Thu Nguyen ◽  
Quy Thanh Khuu
Keyword(s):  
Firm Growth ◽  
Negative Relationship ◽  
Firm Characteristics ◽  
Highly Educated ◽  
Manufacturing Enterprises ◽  
Labor Quality ◽  
Negative Effect ◽  
Using Data ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Owner Characteristics

Using data from a survey of small and medium scale manufacturing enterprises (SMEs) in Vietnam, this study investigates the impact of firm and owner characteristics on firm growth. The results reveal that firm size has a negative effect on firm growth, suggesting the invalidity of Gibrat’s Law. Moreover, the results indicate the dependence of firm growth on firm and owner attributes. Regarding firm characteristics, leverage, labor quality, training and export activities all enhance growth, while firm age is negatively associated with the growth of SMEs. As for owner characteristics, the results indicate a negative relationship between owner age and firm growth. Furthermore, female-headed firms have higher growth than male-headed firms; and highly educated owners create higher growth than those with lower levels of education.

scholarly journals Does proximity to conflict affect tourism: Evidence from NATO bombing

PLoS ONE ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (10) ◽  
pp. e0258195
Author(s):  
Marina Tkalec ◽  
Ivan Žilić
Keyword(s):  
Synthetic Control ◽  
North West ◽  
Control Approach ◽  
Heterogeneous Effects ◽  
Negative Effect ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Using Data ◽  
Nato Bombing ◽  
Flexible Model ◽  
Identification Strategy

Although conflict, war, violence, and terrorism affect tourism, research that identifies possible channels of these effects is scarce. We explore if the adverse effects are channelled through proximity to conflict areas. We use the conflict in Kosovo in 1999 and the country Croatia as a quasi-natural experiment and take advantage of the specific north-west to south-east orientation of Croatian Adriatic counties to identify the effect of NATO bombing in Kosovo on tourism outcomes as well as the potential proximity channel. Using data on the population of Croatian firms and the difference-in-differences identification strategy we find that tourism companies’ revenues decreased significantly due to NATO bombing, especially in accommodation services and in companies with 50 or more employees. However, using a synthetic control approach we find that the adverse effect is only transitory. Analysing heterogeneous effects with respect to the distance of the firm from Kosovo—using a linear and a more flexible model—we find compelling evidence that within-country proximity to conflict is not a significant channel through which the negative effect propagates.

scholarly journals Downgrading among higher education graduates in Italy and France: exploring regional differences

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria Carella ◽  
Jean-François Léger
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
National Level ◽  
Regional Level ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Structural Determinants ◽  
Economic Implications ◽  
Spatial Approach ◽  
Territorial Unit ◽  
Managerial Positions ◽  
Using Data

In France and Italy – like all the countries of the European Union – the proportion of higher education graduates in the working population has continued to increase. At the same time, the number of jobs requiring this level of education has not grown as quickly. In France and Italy, this has meant a decrease in the proportion of tertiary graduates who occupy managerial positions, and a growing share of these graduates hold jobs as middle and low ranking employees. Several studies have investigated the phenomenon of professional downgrading, focusing on its structural determinants and socio-economic implications at the national level and examining international differences. Nevertheless, only a few studies explore disparities in over-education and compare nations at the regional level. By addressing the need for a spatial approach to this subject, which is so far lacking in the scientific literature, this paper examines the downgrading of higher education graduates in Italy and France at the regional level and discusses the real occupational returns for high levels of education. Using data from the Italian and French censuses, the findings of this analysis show significant sub-regional heterogeneities regarding access to managerial positions for graduates according to the territorial unit observed.

scholarly journals The Determinants of Sovereign Credit Ratings: Indonesia and Its Neighborhood Countries 1998-2016

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 46
Author(s):  
Akhmad Solikin ◽  
Gerry Michel
Keyword(s):  
Credit Rating ◽  
Current Account Deficit ◽  
Credit Ratings ◽  
Negative Relationship ◽  
Secondary Data ◽  
Credit Rating Agency ◽  
Sovereign Credit ◽  
Sovereign Credit Ratings ◽  
Domestic Savings ◽  
Fiscal Balance

The aim of this research is to study the determinants of sovereign credit ratings of Indonesia andits neighborhood countries in the period of 1998-2016. Using secondary data and analyzed usingordered probit, it is found that every credit rating agency has its own variables influencing to itspublished credit ratings.In general, for Indonesia and its neighborhood countries, the variables withsignificant and positive relationship are fiscal balance and current account deficit to GDP, freedomindex, and GDP per capita; while the variables with significant and negative relationship are externaldebt to GNI and real exchange rate. Gross domestic savings to GDP influences credit ratings inboth ways. Interestingly, inflation does not affect the credit ratings. Indonesia and neighborhoodgovernments could use this information to manage their macroeconomic indicators in order to getfavorable ratings from credit rating agencies.

Migration and the Internet

2017 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 331-342 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas John Cooke ◽  
Ian Shuttleworth
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Information And Communication Technologies ◽  
Unobserved Heterogeneity ◽  
Panel Study ◽  
The United States ◽  
Negative Effect ◽  
Information And Communication ◽  
Using Data ◽  
And Migration ◽  
Dynamics Models

It is widely presumed that information and communication technologies, or ICTs, enable migration in several ways; primarily by reducing the costs of migration. However, a reconsideration of the relationship between ICTs and migration suggests that ICTs may just as well hinder migration; primarily by reducing the costs of not moving.  Using data from the US Panel Study of Income Dynamics, models that control for sources of observed and unobserved heterogeneity indicate a strong negative effect of ICT use on inter-state migration within the United States. These results help to explain the long-term decline in internal migration within the United States.

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