This paper examines the efficacy of Japanese management and corporate governance by comparing the long-term post-merger operating performance of the U.S. targets acquired by Japanese bidders compared ...to the performance of well-matched U.S. targets of U.S. bidders. Unlike prior studies that focus on short-term stock price reactions of target firms, it is possible to undertake this long-term analysis of performance by identifying targets that survive as independent entities because of partial acquisitions. The findings suggest that targets of Japanese bidders either perform no differently from targets of U.S. bidders, or possibly even underperform. Thus, the evidence does not support the oft-claimed superiority of Japanese management and corporate governance system.
The U.S. defense industry provides a natural experiment for examining how changes in growth opportunities affect the level and structure of corporate debt. The growth opportunities of defense firms, ...compared with other firms, increased substantially during the Reagan defense buildup of the early 1980s but then declined significantly with the end of the cold war and associated defense budget cuts in the late 1980s and early 1990s. We examine how the level and structure of corporate debt changed for a sample of 61 defense firms and a benchmark sample of 61 manufacturing firms during 1980–95, a period spanning the changes in growth opportunities. The debt levels of weapons manufacturers, which were most affected by the changes in growth opportunities, increased significantly as their growth opportunities declined. In addition, these firms lengthened the maturity structure of their debt, decreased the ratio of private to public debt, and decreased the use of senior debt as their growth opportunities declined. The results complement other studies that have found cross-sectional relations between proxies for growth opportunities and leverage variables and validate the prominent role played by growth opportunities in the theory of corporate finance.
Given historical, religious, economic, cultural and ethnical differences between Croatia and Serbia, level of exposure to USA/Americans, recent bilateral relationships with US Government, and the ...fact that Serbian people gave some of the lowest ratings in the world to USA/Americans in several Median Gallup Polls, speculations were that Serbian university students would have lower expectations of traveling to USA in general or to take classes at a university in the USA, as well as lower ratings about USA/Americans than their Croatian counterparts. Although no significant difference was detected regarding expectations to travel to USA in general, Croatian students expressed significantly higher expectations to take on-campus or online classes with USA University. Surprisingly there was no significant difference between Croatian and Serbian students' views on USA leadership, quality of current and future life in USA, how open, free and influenced by religion is the American society. Furthermore, while Croatian students perceived Americans to be friendlier and more likable, Serbians felt that Americans are better educated and harder workers. Since studies were conducted in Croatia in 2008 and 2010, the paper will also examine any shifts between these two studies. The Croatian students' results from 2010 will be compared and contrasted to the Serbian students from 2010. PUBLICATION ABSTRACT
We extend the existing literature on the factors explaining the value of acquired firms by examining the effect of corporate governance and other characteristics of Japanese and U.S. acquirers on the ...long-term post-acquisition stock and accounting performance of their U.S. targets over 1980--2000, a period during which both U.S. and Japanese economies experienced both superior and poor performances. In addition to analyzing the bidder---target relationship in general, focus on Japanese bidders permits us to investigate the role of unique Japanese characteristics: keiretsu membership, cross-holding and ties to a main bank. The unresolved debate on the efficiency of the U.S. versus Japanese corporate governance system developed in the early 1990s, following the slowdown in the U.S. and boom in the Japanese economy. Critics claim that the main banks do nothing special and that the whole discussion is theory driven. In addition, the hypothesized advantages of the Japanese governance system, namely cross-holding, negligible shareholding, latitude and long-term focus of managers, may lead to greater agency problems. For data availability reason we analyzed U.S. targets whose stock continued to independently trade for at least a year following the acquisition. To separate general and uniquely Japanese effects of bidders, a sample of U.S. targets, that independently existed following acquisition by U.S. bidders, were selected from the same industry and year in which Japanese acquired U.S. targets. Overall results suggest that better managed bidders with more resources positively affect the performance of smaller targets in related industries. In the presence of alternative methods for managing the agency problem the targets' leverage becomes more important as a source of funds than a tool to manage agency problem. The mixed results for the Japanese governance variables, expected positive for the main bank and unpredicted negative for the keiretsu and cross-holding, do not allow a clear-cut answer as to which governance system is dominant since the characteristics of the Japanese governance system have mixed effects on the corporate performance.
This paper presents the application of the multiple regression analysis model in macroeconomic research using the model of Bosnia and Herzegovina in the period from 2005 to 2018. The objective of the ...research is to evaluate the effects of macroeconomic factors (independent variables) to gross domestic product (dependent variable), and based on theoretical and methodological research. Applying the Enter method, out of six independent variables, they are all included in the regression model, whereas the sequence of inclusion in the model is the following: foreign direct investments, Import, Export, Growth rate, unemployment and inflation. Numerous research indicate positive connection between gross domestic product as the dependent variable and foreign direct investments, Import, Export, Growth rate, unemployment and inflation, as independent variables. Other factors negligibly explain the most important indicator of economic activities of a country. Our assignment is to either confirm or reject the abovementioned statement.
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