Archives: Séminaires Passés 2007-2009
Séminaires passés
Legal Investor Protection and Takeovers
Speaker: Denis Gromb (INSEAD, CEPR, and ECGI)
Date and place: 22/03/2012 at 14:00
IESEG School of Management - Collines sud de l'Arche, 40 passage de l'Arche, 92037 Paris-La Défense cedex
Lecture Room: H-426
Description:
- We study the role of legal investor protection for the efficiency of the market for corporate control. Stronger legal investor protection limits the ease with which an acquirer, once in control, can extract private benefits at the expense of non-controlling investors. This, in turn, increases the acquirer's capacity to raise outside funds to finance the takeover. Absent effective competition for the target, the increased outside funding capacity does not make efficient takeovers more likely, however, because the bid price, and thus the acquirer's need for funds, increase in lockstep with his pledgeable income. In contrast, under effective competition, the increased outside funding capacity makes it less likely that the takeover outcome is determined by the bidders' financing constraints–and thus by their internal funds–and more likely that it is determined by their ability to create value. Accordingly, stronger legal investor protection can improve the efficiency of the takeover outcome. Taking into account the interaction between legal investor protection and financing constraints also provides new insights into the optimal allocation of voting rights, sales of controlling blocks, and the role of legal investor protection in cross-border mergers and acquisitions.
Institution(s) co-organizing the seminar with IESEG: IESEG SEMINAR jointly with LEM UMR 8179
Using Strategic Performance Measurement Systems for Strategy Formulation: Does it Work in Dynamic Environments?
Speaker: Ricardo Malagueno de Santana (Essex Business School)
Date and place: 12/04/2012 at 14:00
IESEG School of Management - 3, rue de la Digue, 59000 Lille
Lecture Room: B-252 (B-building, second floor)
Description:
- This paper examines the extent to which the usage of strategic performance measurement systems (SPMSs) influences organisational performance through the shaping of the strategic agendas and the strategic decision arrays that result from strategy (re)formulation processes. Using a combination of archival and survey data collected from 267 medium and large Spanish companies, we find evidence supporting a positive association between the usage of SPMSs and organisational performance which is mediated by the comprehensiveness of the strategic decision arrays (expressed both in terms of array size and array variety). This suggests that the usage of SPMSs influences performance not only through strategy implementation as generally discussed in previous empirical research, but also through strategy (re)formulation. Furthermore, we find this mediation is negatively moderated by the level of environmental dynamism, so that the comprehensiveness of strategic decision arrays that result from strategy (re)formulation processes mediates the association between usage of SPMSs and organisational performance when environmental dynamism is low, but not when environmental dynamism is high.
Institution(s) co-organizing the seminar with IESEG: IESEG SEMINAR jointly with LEM UMR 8179
Stock-Bond Returns Comovements and Accounting Information
Speaker: Stefano Cascino (London School of Economics)
Date and place: 16/02/2012 at 14:00
IESEG School of Management - 3, rue de la Digue, 59000 Lille
Lecture Room: B-050 (B-building, ground floor)
Description:
- I study the debt contracting value of accounting information as a potential determinant of firm-level stock-bond return comovements. Prior studies suggest that stock and bond returns should generally exhibit a positive correlation, although threat of wealth expropriation from bondholders to shareholders might result in a less positive relation. Consistent with the notion that high quality accounting information is an efficient contracting mechanism able to reduce potential agency conflicts among shareholders and bondholders, I find that when the likelihood of risky events (e.g., takeovers) is high, stock-bond return correlation decreases and firms with high levels of contracting relevant accounting information experience on average less pronounced declines in correlation. This finding implies that contracting relevant accounting information helps bondholders to anticipate detrimental managerial actions. Moreover, controlling for other firm-level and security-level determinants of stock-bond correlation, I find that measures of accounting quality and use of debt covenants act as complementary governance mechanisms aimed at reducing agency conflicts between bondholders and shareholders.
Institution(s) co-organizing the seminar with IESEG: IESEG SEMINAR jointly with LEM UMR 8179
Learning How to Smile: Can Rational Learning Explain the Predictable Dynamics in the Implied Volatility Surface?
Speaker: Alejandro Bernales (Banque de France)
Date and place: 31/01/2012 at 10:30
IESEG School of Management - 3, rue de la Digue, 59000 Lille
Lecture Room: B-254 (B-building, second floor)
Description:
- We develop a general equilibrium asset pricing model under rational learning to explain the puzzling and yet unexplained predictable dynamics observable in option prices. In our model, the fundamental dividend growth rate is unknown and subject to breaks, where time periods between breaks follow a memory-less stochastic process. Immediately after a break there is insufficient information to price option contracts accurately. However, as new information arrives a representative Bayesian agent recursively learns about the parameters of the process followed by fundamentals. We show that learning makes beliefs time-varying in ways that induce large and dynamic premiums in option prices and their implied volatilities. In addition, we find that learning generates different dynamic effects across option contracts with different strike prices and maturities, which induce rich and realistic movements in the volatility surface implicit in option prices. Moreover, similarly to the predictability features observable from option market data, learning yields statistically strong predictable dynamics in option prices.
Institution(s) co-organizing the seminar with IESEG: IESEG SEMINAR jointly with LEM UMR 8179
Management's Earnings Justification and Earnings Management under Different Institutional Regimes
Speaker: Walter Aerts (University of Antwerp)
Date and place: 12/01/2012 at 14:30
IESEG School of Management – 3, rue de la Digue, 59000 Lille
Lecture Room: A-254 (A-building, second floor)
Description:
- We examine the association of earnings management propensity and management's use of explanations on earnings in their annual report commentary in an international setting. We include 162 listed companies from five industries in the United Kingdom, Australia, the USA and Canada. We argue that more accruals earnings management will engender more intense justification of earnings changes in order to mitigate investors' earnings management concerns. We expect that the association between accruals earnings management and the use of earnings explanations will be affected by the adequacy of the explanation offered. We also expect that stronger institutional scrutiny will affect the strength of these relationships. Our results indicate that the direction of accruals management has a profound impact on the amount and type of earnings explanations offered. Consistent with expectations, we find that companies exhibiting stronger earnings-increasing accruals management tend to display more earnings explanations, especially of a causal nature. The use of causal explanations in conjunction with upward earnings management is, however, strongly moderated by the institutional environment. Companies exhibiting earnings-decreasing accrals management generally offer more technical-accounting explanations and less causal explanations. Taken together, our evidence shows a close alignment of a company's earnings management propensity and its use of explanatory disclosures on earnings in management commentary, suggesting that companies have strong incentives to mitigate expected earnings management costs by justifying earnings. Whereas technical-accounting explanations may be generally sufficient to address earnings management concerns, they may not be effective to rationalize earnings-increasing accruals changes in a high scrutiny environment. Our results suggest that in such an environment causal disclosures on earnings, which are less litigation-proof than explanations of a technical-accounting nature and generally tend to be avoided in a high scrutiny environment, are perceived as more adequate in justifying post-managed earnings.
Institution(s) co-organizing the seminar with IESEG: IESEG SEMINAR jointly with LEM UMR 8179
Effects on Hospital Net Revenue: Payer Mix or Efficiency?
Speaker: Vivian Valdmanis (University of the Sciences in Philadelphia)
Date and place: 29/09/2011 at 14:00
IESEG School of Management – 3, rue de la Digue, 59000 Lille
Lecture Room: A-320 (A-building, first floor)
Description:
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Background: There are two lines of inquiry regarding the economic health of hospitals – patient payer mix and internal efficiencies.
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Objectives: In this paper, we combine the two to assess which aspect has more impact on hospital net revenues.
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Research Design and Findings: Applying a data envelopment analysis (DEA) and multiple regression method to hospitals operating in Florida during 2005, we find that patients covered by private insurance adds more to net revenues that either Medicare and Medicaid. The number of uninsured patients also adds to net revenues, most likely from disproportionate share payments to hospitals treating the uninsured. Patients covered by other public programs, detracted from net revenues. The number of excess beds and excess physicians cost hospitals, $40,431 and $ 7,225 respectively.
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Conclusions: Our findings suggest that payer mix does not have the same degree of effect on hospital net revenues as does the internal efficiency of hospital operation. Therefore, hospital decision makers can maintain financial viability if they allocate their resources effectively.
- Keywords: Financial Viability, Hospital Efficiency, Payer Mix
Institution(s) co-organizing the seminar with IESEG: IESEG SEMINAR jointly with LEM UMR 8179
Management Control and Residual Risk in Interfirm Transactions
Speaker: Henri Dekker (VU University Amsterdam)
Date and place: 06/10/2011 at 15:00
IESEG School of Management – 3, rue de la Digue, 59000 Lille
Lecture Room: A-320 (A-building, first floor)
Description:
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Management control systems mitigate but rarely eliminate risks in interfirm transactions. Residual risk, though undesirable, is the outcome of balancing the costs and benefits of management control. We use survey data about 287 interfirm information technology transactions to confirm that management controls are intentionally incomplete. We then test whether the association between direct measures of residual risks and misalignment between transactions characteristics and management controls are moderated by prior ties between transaction partners and the strategic importance of the transaction. The transactions cost economics (TCE) literature finds that the association between transactions characteristics and management controls differs when transaction partners have prior experience transacting. We extend this research by showing that partners' prior ties weaken the association between control system misalignment and both residual performance risk and residual relational risk (Das and Teng 1998). Zajac and Olsen (1993) hypothesize that integrating the resource-based theory of interfirm transactions with TCE theory better explains management control choices. Strategically important transactions are typically accompanied by careful supplier selection (Dekker 2008). The strategic nature of the transaction increases performance risk, while supplier selection decreases relational risk as compared with that predicted by TCE theory based on transaction characteristics. We contribute evidence that strategically important transactions exhibit a significantly weaker association between direct assessments of residual relational risk and control system misalignment, and a significantly stronger association between residual performance risk and control system misalignment. Finally, we test for joint moderating effects of prior ties and strategic importance on management control system design. We find that risky transactions of low strategic importance between partners without prior ties exhibit a significant association between control system misalignment and residual performance and relational risk. When similar transactions are conducted in settings of high strategic importance between partners with prior ties, control system misalignment is only associated with residual performance risk, not relational risk. In sum, direct measures of the residual risks that remain after implementing intentionally incomplete management controls allow us to contribute confirming evidence on the role of prior ties in control system design, to provide new evidence supporting Zajac and Olsen's integrated theory of firm boundaries, and to develop hypotheses and tests of the combined effects of prior ties and strategic importance on management control system design for risky interfirm transactions.
Institution(s) co-organizing the seminar with IESEG: IESEG SEMINAR jointly with LEM UMR 8179
Challenges in Inter-Disciplinary Research: Strategies from Crafting Research Ideas to Publishing
Speaker: Kevin Desouza (Metropolitan Institute at Virginia Tech)
Date and place: 11/10/2011 at 15:00
IESEG School of Management – 3, rue de la Digue, 59000 Lille
Lecture Room: B-252 (B-building, second floor)
Description:
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In this presentation, I will share my experiences in executing inter-disciplinary research projects. Studying complex phenomenon requires us to undertake research that (1) draws on multiple disciplines, (2) engages a diverse group of stakeholders, (3) appreciates a plurality of research approaches, and (4) communicates to a diverse set of audiences. Executing inter-disciplinary research is no easy feat to accomplish. Researchers face daunting challenges from the onset, beginning with the very inception of ideas, crafting of problem statements, executing the research process, and communicating the results via publications in academic and practitioner outlets. However, these challenges should not be viewed as an excuse to abandon inter-disciplinary research in favor of narrow-minded and singular research exercises, which reduce complex phenomenon in deterministic fashions so as to arrive at simplistic problems that lack relevance. I will present a method (process) for executing inter-disciplinary research that has served me well. Illustrative examples of research projects will be used to exemplify this process and outline strategies for researchers to consider when conducting inter-disciplinary research projects.
The Unusual Behavior of the Federal Funds Rate and Treasury Yields: A Conundrum or an Instance of Goodhart's Law?
Speaker: Daniel L. Thornton (Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis)
Date and place: 08/09/2011 at 16:30
IESEG School of Management – 3, rue de la Digue, 59000 Lille
Lecture Room: A103 (A-building, first floor)
Description:
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In February 2005, Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan referred to the decline in long-term rates in the wake of the Fed increasing the target for the federal funds rate by 150 basis points as a "conundrum." Greenspan's remarks generated considerable interest and research. I document that the relationship between Treasury yields and the federal funds rate changed dramatically in the late 1980s, well in advance of Greenspan's observation. I hypothesize that the marked change in the relationship is a consequence of the Federal Open Market Committee switching from using the funds rate as an operating instrument to using the funds rate to implement monetary policy, i.e., change in the relationship is an instance of Goodhart's Law. Evidence from a variety of sources supports this hypothesis.
Download the paper. 
Discussion about the paper by Alain Durré.
Preemptive Bidding, Target Resistance and Takeover Premia: An Empirical Investigation
Speaker: Stefano Sacchetto (Carnegie Mellon University, USA)
Date and place: 18/05/2011 at 15:00
IESEG School of Management – 3, rue de la Digue, 59000 Lille
Lecture Room: B 253 (B-building, second floor)
Description:
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This paper proposes an empirical framework to evaluate two sources of large takeover premia that have been advanced in the literature: preemptive bidding and target resistance. We develop an auction model that features costly sequential entry of bidders in takeover contests and encompasses both explanations. The parameters of the model are estimated using a structural approach for a sample of US target firms in the period 1988-2006. We find that takeover premia are mainly determined by target resistance rather than preemptive bidding. The paper also quantifies the benefits of preemption for an initial bidder and the effects of target resistance and costs of entry on bidders' participation decisions.
Institution(s) co-organizing the seminar with IESEG:
- IESEG SEMINAR jointly with LEM UMR 8179
Spillovers of Risk Disclosures by Cross-Listed firms on NYSE to homemarkets: the Role of Audit Quality and Home Market Investor Protection Regimes
Speaker: Ann Gaeremynck (Catholic University of Louvain, Belgium)
Date and place: 31/03/2011 at 14:30
IESEG School of Management – 7, rue Solférino, 59000 Lille
Lecture Room: E 254 (E-building, ground floor)
Description:
- In this study the industrial organization theory of knowledge spillovers in multinational corporations is applied to audit knowledge transfers in global audit firm networks. For firms cross-listed on the NYSE we examine (1) how the characteristics of the global audit firm network affect early disclosures made in their home market and (2) whether the impact of the global audit network on the disclosures made in the home market depends on the investor protection regime in the home-country. Using the annual report of 311 firm-year observations over the period 2007-2008, we find that cross-listed firms audited by a home-country auditor who belong to a global audit firm network where the U.S. auditor is industry specialist, are more likely to have spillovers of business and industry risk disclosures to the annual report in the home market. Furthermore, we find that the knowledge flows are weaker to audit firms with stronger knowledge bases, which shows that home-country auditor industry specialist earns less in terms of knowledge transfers from the global audit network. Finally, results show that knowledge spillover effects are smaller to low than high quality investor protection regimes except if the home-country auditor is also an industry specialist. This shows that in weak investor protection regimes, the U.S. and the home-country specialist are complements in improving early and voluntary business and industry risk disclosures in the annual report.
Institution(s) co-organizing the seminar with IESEG:
- IESEG SEMINAR jointly with LEM UMR 8179
Co-Authors of the underlying paper:
- Ine Danckaert, Catholic University of Louvain, Belgium
- Donald Stokes, Monash University, Australia
Mental Accounting in the Housing Market
Speaker: Artashes Karapetyan (Norges Bank, Norway)
Date and place: 10/03/2011 at 15:30
IESEG School of Management – 3, rue de la Digue, 59000 Lille
Lecture Room: B 254 (B-building, second floor)
Description:
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We use a survey to identify a consumer bias with regard to different sources of debt-financing. Less salient debt may generate psychological benefits. This should be weighed against the possible economic costs of a sub-optimal capital structure, but low levels of financial literacy make it unlikely that all households perceive the full economic costs. As a result there is a bias in favour of less salient debt. In a market with limited scope for arbitrage this consumer bias is likely to generate inefficiencies. We examine such a market in both theory and practice. The predictions of our model are given strong support by market data.
Institution(s) co-organizing the seminar with IESEG:
- IESEG SEMINAR jointly with LEM UMR 8179
Co-Authors of the underlying paper:
- Johan Almenberg (Ministry of Finance, Sweden)
The Sources of Shareholders' Wealth Gains in French Going-Private Transactions: The Role of the Largest Controlling Shareholders
Speaker: Sabri Boubaker (Champagne School of Management, Groupe ESC Troyes, & Université Paris Est, IRG, Créteil)
Date and place: 01/02/2011 at 14:30
IESEG School of Management – 3, rue de la Digue, 59000 Lille
Lecture Room: D 01 (D-building, ground floor)
Description:
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The present study investigates the sources of the expected shareholders wealth gains in French going private transactions (hereafter GPTs). Using a sample of 161 GPTs over the 1997-2009 period, we first show two main sources of these gains namely the reduction of pregoing private transaction costs associated with the agency problems between controlling and minority shareholders and the pre-going private undervaluation of firms. The results also document that the expected shareholder gains are affected by the existence a second largest shareholder during the pre-going private period. The avoidance of listing costs and the expected reduction of free cash flows do not finally seem to have an impact on premiums or cumulative abnormal returns.
Institution(s) co-organizing the seminar with IESEG:
- IESEG Seminar jointly with LEM UMR 8179
Co-Authors of the underlying paper:
- Alexis Cellier (Université Paris Est, IRG, Créteil, France),
Wael Rouatbi (DEFI, ESSEC Tunis, Tunisia)
Are Timber, Biodiversity and Recreation Compatible Productions in Oak High Forests?
Speaker: Nicolas Robert (UMR 1092 INRA-ENGREF, Laboratoire des Ressources Forêt-Bois, INRA, Nancy)
Date and place: 27/01/2011 at 14:00
IESEG School of Management – 3, rue de la Digue, 59000 Lille
Lecture Room: B 253 (B-building, second floor)
Description:
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Produce wood, preserve the environment, provide social services: all these goods and services are expected of the forests nowadays. Forests can sustainably produce them, but how much? These products are joint outputs in a production process composed of forest growth and management. Therefore, it is important to characterize how outputs are joined to set production goals.
In this paper, we simulate alternative management scenarios for Quercus petraea even-aged high forest at the stand scale. Then we estimate for each scenario the production of three goods and services: 1) the production of wood in terms of the net present value of an infinite series of rotations (NPVIS); 2) the preservation of biodiversity, using an indicator of the number of bird species potentially present in the forest (Bio); 3) the production of a recreation service, in terms of attractiveness for recreational activities (A). Lastly, we determine production possibility frontiers for the three two-output combinations.
We show that NPVIS and Bio or NPVIS and A are substitute products of forest management, but there are possibilities for producing both in a single management unit. Bio and A are compatible to a certain extent.
The methodology employed seems efficient to study multi-functionality at the stand level.
Institution(s) co-organizing the seminar with IESEG:
- IESEG Seminar jointly with LEM UMR 8179
Co-Authors of the underlying paper:
- Anne Stenger (INRA Nancy)
The Effect of Rating Scale Format on Response Style: The Number of Response Categories, Response Category Labels and the Format Dimensions Polarity and Anchoring
Speaker: Elke Cabooter (Universiteit van Gent)
Date and place: 01/10/2010 at 12:50
IESEG School of Management – 3, rue de la Digue, 59000 Lille
Lecture Room: B 254 (B-building, second floor)
Description:
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Questionnaires are an important source of data in marketing research.
Unfortunately, survey data is often confounded by response styles such as acquiescence response style, disacquiescence response style, extreme response style, midpoint response style and misresponse. Researchers use different rating scale formats with varying number of response categories and varying label formats (e.g., seven point rating scales labeled at the endpoints, fully labeled five point scales…) or which differ on two dimensions, namely Polarity (unipolar versus bipolar) and Anchoring (only positive numbers or negative and positive numbers), but have few guidelines when selecting a specific format. To investigate which scale format performs best in terms of minimizing different response styles, we set up several studies. We find evidence of strong effects of scale format on response distributions and misresponse to reversed items and formulate recommendations on scale format choice.
Institution(s) co-organizing the seminar with IESEG:
- IESEG Seminar jointly with LEM UMR 8179
The Story Is Out There: A Weblog Transportation Theory
Speaker: Tom van Laer (Maastricht University, NL)
Date and place: 24/09/2010 at 12:50
IESEG School of Management – 3, rue de la Digue, 59000 Lille
Lecture Room: B 254 (B-building, second floor)
Description:
- Weblog (blog) posts that expose service failures are increasing dramatically, leading more and more companies to encourage their employees to engage in direct dialogue with customer bloggers. Current research on integrity restoration offers little guidance regarding appropriate responses. For one, various foci of attention affect employees' alignment with the company's or customers' interest in the aftermath of a blog post. We posit that employees' attention might reflect either an instrumental or an empathic other-focus. This research further suggests that not only what (with which content) but also how (in which format) the company responds, contributes to an effective restoration of integrity and a reduction of consumers' intentions to switch. In Study 1, we prime participants with a particular focus. After the participants read a negative online customer narrative, they indicate the extent to which they would take the customer's interests to heart. The results indicate that participants with an instrumental focus do not assume stewardship, but participants with an empathic other-focus internalize the customer's interests. Furthermore, transportation, or the extent to which employees mentally enter the world evoked by the customer narrative, mediates the relationship between focus and stewardship perception. The results of Study 2 show that the combination of denial content and analytical format as well as apologetic content and narrative format works better than combinations of opposing response content and format. Comparing narrative apologies and denials in two consecutive studies, we demonstrate that the concept of "transportation"—the engrossing effect of a narrative—is the mechanism underlying narrative-based integrity restoration. We further assess in Study 3 how the use of empathy accounts for higher levels of transportation and perceived integrity. Consumers trust in stories from the involved employee.
Institution(s) co-organizing the seminar with IESEG:
- IESEG Seminar jointly with LEM UMR 8179
Spot and Forward Volatility in Foreign Exchange
Speaker : Pasquale Della Corte (Warwick Business School, UK)
Date and place : 07/05/2010 at 11:30
IESEG School of Management - 3, rue de la Digue 59000 Lille,
Lecture Room: B 254 (B-building, second floor)
Description :
- This paper investigates the empirical relation between spot and forward implied volatility in foreign exchange. We formulate and test the forward volatility unbiasedness hypothesis, which may be viewed as the volatility analogue to the extensively researched hypothesis of unbiasedness in forward exchange rates. Using new data sets of spot implied volatility quoted on over-the-counter currency options, we compute the forward implied volatility that corresponds to the delivery price of a forward contract on future spot implied volatility. This contract is known as a forward volatility agreement. We find strong evidence that forward implied volatility is a systematically biased predictor that overestimates future spot implied volatility. This bias in forward volatility generates high economic value to an investor exploiting predictability in the returns to volatility speculation and indicates the presence of predictable volatility term premiums in foreign exchange.
Institution(s) co-organizing the seminar with IESEG:
- IESEG Seminar jointly with LEM UMR 8179
Co-Authors of the underlying paper:
- Lucio Sarno (Cass Business School, Centre for Economic Policy Research - CEPR)
- Ilias Tsiakas (Warwick Business School, UK)
Individual Investor Perceptions And Behavior During The Financial Crisis
Speaker : Thomas Post (Maastricht University, School of Business and Economics,The Netherlands)
Date and place : 27/05/2010 at 14:00
IESEG School of Management - 3, rue de la Digue 59000 Lille,
Lecture Room: B 254 (B-building, second floor)
Description :
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This paper examines the perceptions and behavior of individual investors during the recent financial crisis using a unique panel dataset of individual investors covering the period April 2008 until April 2009. On a monthly basis, we measured investors' risk attitudes and perceptions, their subjective perceptions of stock market volatility, optimism, and trust in public policy makers. In addition, we have the full record of these investors' brokerage accounts including asset allocation, individual trades, transaction times and dates, transaction value, and transaction commissions. Combining this longitudinal data set with demographics and market data yields a unique natural experiment that allows us to develop a holistic view and generate key insights of the dynamic intertemporal interactions between investors' perceptions, transaction behavior, and overall stock market performance during a major financial market meltdown. Analyses indicate that while investor perceptions and attitudes seem to be clearly linked with aggregate stock market developments, actual trading behavior is not. These results reveal that a combination of panel survey data and hard actual transaction data provides us with a more comprehensive understanding of individual investor behavior during turbulent market conditions. They improve our understanding of the underlying micro-level drivers of capital market movements during crises.
Institution(s) co-organizing the seminar with IESEG:
- IESEG Seminar jointly with LEM UMR 8179
Co-Authors of the underlying paper:
- Arvid O. I. Hoffmann
- Joost M. E. Pennings
Monetary Transmission Right from the Start: The (Dis)Connection Between the Money Market and the ECB's Main Refinancing Rates
Speaker : Puriya Abbassi (Gutenberg Universität Mainz, Germany)
Date and place : 12/04/2010 at 11:00
IESEG School of Management - 3, rue de la Digue 59000 Lille
Lecture Room: B 254 (B-building, second floor)
Description :
- The relation between the ECB's main refinancing (MRO) rates and the money market is key for the monetary transmission process in the euro area. This paper investigates how money market rates respond to the new information revealed by MRO auctions. Our results confirm a stabilizing level relationship between the overnight rate Eonia and MRO rates before the financial crisis. Since the start of the financial crisis, however, we find that MRO auction outcomes even exacerbated the disconnection of money market rates from the policy-intended interest rate level. These findings support the fixed rate full allotment policy introduced by the ECB as an unconventional measure to re-stabilize banks' refinancing conditions.
Institution(s) co-organizing the seminar with IESEG:
- IESEG Seminar jointly with LEM UMR 8179
Co-Authors of the underlying paper:
- Dieter Nautz (Freie Universität Berlin)
Ownership Structure, Board Of Directors And The Value Of Cash Holdings
Speaker: Sabri Boubaker (Institut de Recherche en Gestion, Université Paris Est Créteil)
Date and place: 26/03/2010 at 10:30
IESEG School of Management - 3 rue de la Digue - 59000 Lille
Lecture Room: A 201 (A-building, second floor)
Description:
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This study investigates the effects that selected characteristics of the board of directors have on the value of cash holdings of publicly listed French firms. Theory suggests that investors are more likely to consider that additional cash holdings contribute to improve firm value when the quality of corporate governance is higher and vice versa. Using the valuation regression of Fama and French (1998), empirical results show that the value of cash holdings decreases with the separation between ultimate cash flow rights and ultimate control rights of the controlling shareholder. Moreover, the separation between the CEO and the chairman of the board of directors, low proportions of controlling family directors and board members availability are shown to have a positive effect on the value of cash holdings in firms exhibiting high excess control levels. These effects are negative at low excess control levels which supports the argument that shareholders discount the marginal value of cash holdings when firms are badly governed and confirms the existence of agency costs associated with high cash holdings in concentrated ownership setting.
Institution(s) co-organizing the seminar with IESEG:
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IESEG Seminar jointly with LEM UMR 8179
Co-Authors of the underlying paper:
- Imen Derouiche (ESSEC Tunis, Tunisia)
Sales Promotion Effectiveness During A Price War
Speaker: Francesca Sotgiu (HEC, Paris)
Date and place: 26/03/2010 at 12:50-14:50,
IESEG School of Management - 3 rue de la Digue - 59000 Lille
Lecture Room: B 252 (B-building, second floor)
Description:
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During a price war, when retailers compete against each other with long-lasting price cuts, does it still pay for a manufacturer to offer temporal discounts? We analyze the promotions of a multinational CPG manufacturer, across four leading national supermarket chains before and during a price war. The price war we consider started in the Netherlands in the fall of 2003 among grocery retailers. Our results highlight different recommendations for the manufacturers, according to whether the prices of their brands have been reduced or not during the price war. Not only does the effectiveness of sales promotions change, but also the manufacturers have to rethink the way they implement their promotions.
Institution(s) co-organizing the seminar with IESEG:
- IESEG Seminar jointly with LEM UMR 8179
Market maker pricing and profits at the London Stock Exchange
Speaker: Thanos Verousis (School of Business and Economics, Swansea University, UK)
Date and place: 19/03/2010 at 14:00
IESEG School of Management - 7 rue Solférino - 59000 Lille
Lecture Room: E-12
Description:
- In this paper, we study the upstairs market on the Stock Exchange Trading System (SETS) of the London Stock Exchange. We hypothesize that the implicit interaction between the upstairs and the downstairs market at the LSE alters the pricing mechanism at the upstairs market. We show that the upstairs market operates on the basis of a notional minimum price increment, especially for retail investors. More importantly, we show that market participants can extract larger economic rents when trading at the upstairs market. The institutional setting allows investors to reduce transaction costs for assets traded at the upstairs market. Also, we confirm that there is a very clear association between price clustering and asset valuation by market participants.
Institution(s) co-organizing the seminar with IESEG:
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IESEG Seminar jointly with LEM UMR 8179
Co-Authors of the underlying paper:
- Owain ap Gwilym (Bangor Business School, Bangor University, UK)
Information Sharing And Information Acquisition In Credit Markets
Speaker: Artashes Karapetyan (University of Zürich, Switzerland)
Date and place: 23/03/2010 at 10:30
IESEG School of Management - 3 rue de la Digue - 59000 Lille
Lecture Room: A 201 (A-building, second floor)
Description:
- Since information asymmetries have been identified as an important source of bank profits, it may seem that the establishment of information sharing (e.g., introducing credit bureaus or public registers) will lead to lower investment in acquiring information. However, banks base their decisions on both hard and soft information, and it is only the former type of data that can be communicated credibly. We show that when hard information is shared, banks will invest more in soft information. These will produce more accurate lending decisions, provide higher welfare, lead to an increased focus on relationship banking and favor informationally opaque borrowers. We test our theory using a large sample of firm-level data from 24 countries.
Institution(s) co-organizing the seminar with IESEG:
- IESEG Seminar jointly with LEM UMR 8179
Co-Authors of the underlying paper:
- Bogdan Stacescu (Norwegian School of Management)
Relationship between movements in GDP growth components and the unemployment rate
Speaker: Christophe Tavera (CREM UMR CNRS 6211 - Université de Rennes 1)
Date and place: 04/03/2010 at 14:00
IESEG School of Management - 7 rue Solférino - 59000 Lille
Lecture Room: E-02
Description:
- In the early 1960s Arthur Okun observed that growth slowdowns coincide with rising unemployment and estimated an empirical measure of the negative correlation between GDP growth and unemployment from postwar data series.
In this paper, we propose to go deeper into the empirical characteristics of the Okun's Law relationship by evaluating the influence of the technical change as a component of output growth on unemployment variations. Technical change is the main driving force of output growth and gdp per capita increase in the long term. However, in the medium term, technical change can lead to mitigated effects on unemployment due to labor market rigidities and to the characteristics of the adequacy of the skilled labor force with technological improvements.
Evaluating the global impact of the technical change component of output movements on unemployment can thus highlight some of the theoretical foundations of the Okun's Law relationship which is most of the time considered as a purely empirical regularity. Moreover, this kind of analysis may be directly related to two groups of recent papers which show that contrary to the Okun's law relationship philosophy, unemployment variations may be related to the permanent component of gdp (Sinclair 2009) and that technology absorption can distort the relationship between output growth and unemployment (Hoon-Ho 2007, Vandenbussche-Aghion-Meghir 2004, Duernecker 2008).
Co-Authors of the underlying paper:
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Jean-Philippe Boussemart (University of Lille 3 and IESEG School of Management - CNRS-LEM UMR 8179) , Walter Briec (University of Perpignan, GEREM)
Bicultural Identity and the Dark Side of Targeting
Speaker: Stefano Puntoni (Rotterdam School of Management, Netherlands)
Date and place: 19/02/2010 at 12:50
IESEG School of Management – 3 rue de la Digue – 59000 Lille
Lecture Room: B-254
Description:
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Globalization underlines the importance of understanding multicultural consumers' responses to marketing efforts. This paper explores bicultural consumers' reactions to culture cues and targeted communication in order to investigate the dark side of targeting in a bicultural identity setting. Whereas the extant literature on ethnic identification and identity salience has focused on the positive effects of message-congruent culture cues on consumer response to targeted communication, we examine the consequences of message-incongruent culture cues. Three studies with second generation members of ethnic minorities demonstrate the negative consequences of message-incongruent ethnic and mainstream culture cues for consumer response to spokespersons and products and for donation behavior. Demonstrating the role of acculturation processes, the studies also document the importance of the degree of internalization of the activated identity. The paper contributes to the theoretical domains of identity activation, acculturation, and dual attitude theory, as well as the substantive domains of consumer globalization and target marketing.
Keyword: identity activation, acculturation, ethnic identity, targeting, biculturals.
International Spill-Overs in Pharmaceutical Pricing: The Role of Geography, Trade and Regulation
Speaker: Isabel Verniers (Rotterdam School of Management, Netherlands)
Date and place: 29/01/2010 at 12:50
IESEG School of Management – 3 rue de la Digue – 59000 Lille
Lecture Room: B 254 (B-building, second floor)
Description:
- Pricing is often controversial in industries of societal importance, such as utilities (e.g. energy prices), telecommunication (e.g. fixed line service fees) and medicine (e.g. drug prices). The affordability to all citizens of such products may be a concern, which is often a cause for government intervention through regulation in price setting in such markets. Prices may show wide variation across international markets, generating a sense of inequity in high-price markets.
Prior studies inventoried variation in regulation and price patterns but did not examine the relationship between prices across countries. This paper identifies the extent to which the price of a drug in one country has a relationship with the price of the same drug in other countries. We study the existence of such price spill-overs across 39 countries for 16 drugs across 173 months. Our study shows that price spill-overs exist across international pharmaceutical markets. Geographically close countries and countries that share a strong trade relationship have more similar prices than geographically distant countries or countries that share a weak trade relationship. Interestingly, the presence of cross-country reference pricing regulation may not always enhance international price spill-overs, as companies may adjust their launch sequence within the reference set to circumvent such regulation.
We deliver insights into which countries influence each other with regard to pricing at several points in time. Pharmaceutical companies need to account for the international price spill-overs we identify in their pricing decisions, such that they reach a price across all countries that maximizes their total profits.
Systematic Liquidity Risk And Stock Price Reaction To Shocks: Evidence From London Stock Exchange
Speaker: Khelifa Mazouza (Bradford University School of Management)
Date and place: 16/01/2010 at 14:30
IESEG School of Management – 3 rue de la Digue – 59000 Lille
Lecture Room: B 254 (B-building, second floor)
Paper and slides: Download the paper - (PDF - 247 Ko)
Description:
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This study examines the relationship between systematic liquidity risk and stock price reaction to large one-day price changes (or shocks). We base our analysis on 642 constituents of the FTSEALL share index. Our overall results are consistent with Brown et al.'s (1988) uncertain information hypothesis. However, further analysis suggests that stocks with low systematic risk react efficiently to shocks of different signs and magnitudes whereas stocks with high systematic liquidity risk overreact to negative shocks and underreact to positive shocks. Thus, trading on price patterns following shocks may not be profitable, as it involves taking substantial systematic liquidity risk
ADVERTISING AND PRICE EFFECTIVENESS OVER THE BUSINESS CYCLE
Speaker: Maarten Gijsenberg (Louvain School of Managment/Mons Campus, Belgium)
Date and place: 13/11/2009 at 12:50
IESEG School of Management – 3 rue de la Digue – 59000 Lille
Lecture Room: B 254 (B-building, second floor)
Description:
- Firms are under ever increasing pressure to justify their marketing expenditures. Once considered mere costs, these expenditures are more and more treated as investments that should deliver shareholder value. This evolution towards greater accountability is reinforced in times of economic contractions, as every dollar starts to matter more. Firms facing difficult times tighten their belts, and marketing budgets are among the first to be reconsidered (McKinsey, 2009). Prices are increased (e.g. Deleersnyder et al., 2004) and advertising expenditures are reduced (Deleersnyder et al., 2009). Sound decisions on where (not) to cut investments, however, require a correct assessment of the effectiveness of the different marketing-mix instruments. In this study, we therefore conduct a systematic investigation of the evolution in the effectiveness of two important marketing mix instruments, price and advertising, over the business cycle. Analyses are based on 163 branded products in 37 mature CPG categories in the UK, and this for a period of 15 years. The data are a combination of (i) monthly national sales data, (ii) monthly advertising data, (iii) data on the general economic conditions, and (iv) consumer survey data.
ON ECONOMIC EFFICIENCY UNDER NON-CONVEXITY
Speaker: Walter Briec - University of Perpignan
Date and place: 01/10/2009
IÉSEG School of Management -
7 rue Solférino - 59000 LILLE
Lecture Room: E01 (ground floor)
IESEG Seminar jointly with LEM UMR8179
Co-Authors of the underlying paper: Jean-Paul Chavas, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Paper and slides: Download the paper - (PDF - 247 Ko)
Description:
- This paper investigates economic efficiency under non-convexity. The analysis relies on a generalization of the separating hyperplane theorem under non-convexity. The concept of zero-maximality is used to characterize Pareto efficiency under non-convexity. We show the existence of a separating hypersurface that can be used to provide a dual characterization of efficient allocations. When the separating hypersurface is non-linear, this implies that non-linear pricing is an integral part of economic efficiency. Implications for the decentralization of economic decisions under non-convexity are discussed.
DOCTORAL STUDENTS SEMINAR
Speaker: Mircea Epure (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona) - "Benchmarking and Competition: A Multidimensional Total Factor Productivity Framework"; Bouye Ahmed Moulaye Hachem (IÉSEG) - "Optimal Capacity Utilization and Reallocation in a German Bank Branch Network"
Date and place: 15/06/2009 at 14:00
IÉSEG School of Management - 3 rue de la Digue - 59000 LILLE
Lecture Room: B254 (B-building, second floor)
IESEG Seminar jointly with LEM UMR8179
Description:
- "Benchmarking and Competition: A Multidimensional Total Factor Productivity Framework"
This study proposes a competition/benchmarking framework to analyze the total factor productivity (TFP) of the Spanish banking sector between 1998 and 2006. To do so, different specifications of the Malmquist TFP index (Bjurek 1996) are tailored under specific benchmarking perspectives: (1) static, (2) base year and (3) dynamic TFP change. These approaches assume fixed units as benchmarks (scarcely used) and/or base technologies (classical method) together with the pros of the standard Hicks-Moorsteen index. The combination of these viewpoints enables the manager to see the different facets of the firm's activity and thus have a broad ground for decision making. Furthermore, the developed methodological tool can be transposed in any industry. Following the setting up of benchmarks in accordance with market share and efficiency, results show the TFP scores' distribution and the associated catching-up effects through time. Nonetheless, in practice or in future research one could establish a different benchmark for each unit as a function of strategic choices and competitive advantages.
- "Optimal Capacity Utilization and Reallocation in a German Bank Branch Network: Exploring Some Strategic Scenarios"
Quite a few studies have considered efficiency at the bank branch level by comparing mostly a single branch network, while an abundance of studies have focused on comparing banking institutions. However, to the best of our knowledge no study has ever assessed performance at the level of the branch bank network by looking for ways to reallocate resources such that overall performance improves. Here, we introduce the Johansen-Färe measure of plant capacity of the firm into a multi-output, frontier-based version of the short-run Johansen industry model. The first stage capacity model carefully checks for the impact of the convexity assumption on the estimated capacity utilization.
CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY
Speaker: Vivian Valdmanis University of the Sciences in Philadelphia
Date and place: 05/05/2009 at 14:00
IÉSEG School of Management - 3 rue de la Digue - 59000 LILLE
Lecture Room: B253 (B-building, second floor)
IESEG Seminar jointly with LEM UMR8179
Description:
Hurricanes often result in shifts in capacity utilization. Before the event, elective procedures are canceled. Given the lessons from Hurricanes Katrina and Gustave, emergency preparedness plans must recognize capacity at the service-line level. This information can provide an additional level of detail to better design response activities and develop cost-effective disaster response plans. We model a possible preparedness plan for Florida hospitals in the case of a major hurricane. Following Johansen, we measure capacity in a frontier setting using data envelopment analysis. We also use a criterion of economic capability to ensure that a Pareto Optimal situation can be maintained. Information on hospital capacity, patient characteristics of inpatient discharges, and financial performance was merged to perform this study. Our findings suggest there is not enough excess capacity for some specialized services in Florida. However, possible evacuation policies can still be derived from our findings satisfying medical and economic capabilities.
CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY
Speaker: Valérie Swaen, Sankar Sen, Kenneth De Roeck, Gildas Barbot
Date and place: 17/04/2009 at 09:30
IÉSEG School of Management - 7 rue Solférino - 59000 LILLE
Lecture Room: E12 (first floor)
IESEG Seminar jointly with the Center of Excellence on Consumers, Markets and Society from the Louvain School of Management (Belgium)
Description:
- 9h45 Introduction by Valérie Swaen - Professor of Marketing and Corporate Social Responsibility at Louvain School of Management, Belgium and IESEG School of Management, France
- 10h00 Presentation by Sankar Sen - Professor of Marketing at the Zicklin School of Business, Baruch College, a senior college of the City University of New York
Title: "Doing well by doing good: Stakeholder reactions to Corporate Social Responsibility" - 10h45 Presentation by Kenneth De Roeck – Teaching and research assistant in marketing at the Louvain School of Management, Belgium
Title: "Employees' reactions to corporate social responsibility" - 11h45 Presentation by Gildas Barbot – Professor of economy and management, IUT (Institut Universitaire de Technologie), University of Lille I nd PhD. student at Lille School of Management resarch Center, University of Lille II.
Title: "Is social responsible investment a matter of personal conviction? A study of "framing effects" in individual investment choices" - 12h30 Presentation by Valérie Swaen - Professor of Marketing and Corporate Social Responsibility at Louvain School of Management, Belgium and IESEG School of Management, France
Title: "The Boomerang Effect of CSR Promotion Campaigns During Endogenous CSR Crises" (research in collaboration with Joëlle Vanhamme – Professor of Marketing at IESEG School of Management, France - and Guido Berens – Professor of Marketing at Erasmus University, Rotterdam School of Management, the Netherlands)
INNOVATION EN EUROPE ET EFFICACITE TECHNIQUE
Speaker: Claude Mathieu - Université Paris XII
Date and place: 25/03/2009 at 14:00
IÉSEG School of Management
- 3 rue de la Digue
- 59000 LILLE
Lecture Room: A103 (first floor)
IESEG Seminar jointly with LEM UMR8179
Paper and slides: Download the paper - (PDF - 203936 Ko)
Co-Author(s) of the underlying paper with Mohamed Harfi
Description: Supposer que les dépenses de R&D constituent une mesure pertinente de performance des pays en matière d'innovation repose sur l'hypothèse implicite que les pays innovants sont tous aussi efficaces. Or, cette hypothèse peut apparaître comme très forte s'il n'existe pas un lien univoque et systématique entre effort de R&D et résultat du processus d'innovation. Dans ces conditions, tous les pays ne sont pas nécessairement techniquement efficients au sens où ils ne se situent pas tous systématiquement sur la frontière de production de l'innovation. Partant de ce constat, la faiblesse de l'investissement privé en R&D pour certains pays européens ne serait-elle pas pour partie le simple reflet d'une organisation plus efficace des activités d'innovation ? A l'inverse, certains pays ne cherchent-il pas à compenser une inefficience technique de leur processus d'innovation par un effort élevé en matière de R&D ? Ce travail propose de mesurer l'inefficacité des pays européens en matière d'innovation. Nous estimons une frontière stochastique de production d'innovation de type Cobb-Douglas pour en déduire une mesure d'inefficacité par pays. Les estimations sont effectuées à partir de l'enquête CIS4 qui fournit des données d'industries (Nace à 2 chiffres) appartenant à 17 pays européens (soit 16 Etats membres de l'UE auxquels il convient d'ajouter la Norvège). L'analyse économétrique met en évidence des écarts d'inefficience entre les pays avec la présence d'un lien assez étroit entre la taille, exprimée en termes effort en R&D et l'efficience technique. Ce résultat est sensiblement modifié par une analyse plus fine menée en distinguant le niveau technologique des secteurs. Ainsi, pour certains « petits » pays leur efficience permet de compenser une moindre quantité produite d'innovation par rapport aux plus grands pays comme l'Allemagne. Toutefois, la compensation reste très partielle et ne permet en aucun cas de compenser l'effet taille.
ABOUT AMBIGUITY: AXIOMS, EXPERIMENTS AND APPLICATIONS
Speaker : Jean-Marc Tallon - Université Paris 1
Date and place: 18/03/2009 at 14:00
IÉSEG School of Management
- 7 rue Solférino
- 59000 LILLE
Lecture Room: E02 (ground floor)
IESEG Seminar jointly with LEM UMR8179
Description : Starting with Ellsberg's experiments, we discuss the way in which ambiguity is dealt with in economics. A simple presentation of the main models of decision under ambiguity will be followed by an application in portfolio choice. We end up with a quick presentation of recent experimental results.
PRICING OF AN INTERRUPTIBLE SERVICE WITH FINANCIAL COMPENSATION AND RATIONAL EXPECTATIONS
Speaker : Fred Schroyen - Norwegian School of Business and Economics (NHH Bergen)
Date and place
: 18/02/2009 at 14:00
IÉSEG School of Management - 7 rue Solférino - 59000 LILLE
59000
Lecture Room: E21 (second floor)
IESEG Seminar jointly with LEM UMR8179
Co-Author(s) of the underlying paper with Adekola Oyenuga
Description : This paper proposes a pricing framework that combines the occurrence of supply interruptions with financial compensations. Consumers post ex ante demands for a designated period. These demands are met if ex post supply capacity is sufficient. However, when supply is inadequate, all ex ante demands will be equiproportionally rationed with compensation being paid for any unserved demand. Consumers post their demands based on their expectations regarding the reliability of the supply system. The model is closed by imposing rational expectations. We identify that while a consumer's ex ante power demand is decreasing in the power price and increasing in the compensation rate, it is increasing when there is a mean-preserving spread in the distribution of future supplies, provided the consumer is sufficiently prudent; i.e., when his coefficient of relative prudence exceeds two, and his coefficient of interruption aversion exceeds one. We also derive the welfare maximising price and show that when consumers are sufficiently prudent, pessimistic (equilibrium) expectations regarding the supply reliability warrant a higher price compared with a situation of supply adequacy.
