Abstract
We show that banking relationships promote corporate environmental, social, and governance (ESG) policies. Specifically, banks are more likely to grant loans to borrowers with ESG profiles ...similar to their own and positively influence the borrower’s subsequent ESG performance. Their influence is more pronounced when (1) banks have significantly better ESG ratings than borrowers and (2) borrowers are bank dependent. We exploit M&A among lenders as a source of quasi-exogenous variation in the lender’s ESG standard to alleviate endogeneity concerns. Overall, our study presents the first evidence on the interplay between responsible bank lending and borrowers’ ESG behavior.
Abstract
This paper proposes “implied stochastic volatility models” designed to fit option-implied volatility data and implements a new estimation method for such models. The method is based on ...explicitly linking observed shape characteristics of the implied volatility surface to the coefficient functions that define the stochastic volatility model. The method can be applied to estimate a fully flexible nonparametric model, or to estimate by the generalized method of moments any arbitrary parametric stochastic volatility model, affine or not. Empirical evidence based on S&P 500 index options data show that the method is stable and performs well out of sample.
This paper focuses on participation in decision-making processes and how rural youth could benefit from its use in development projects and initiatives. General literature and relevant international ...experiences related to participation mechanisms aimed at youth show that participation boosts interventions linked to improvements of young people's livelihoods and developmental opportunities. However, participation mechanisms are less explored (and used) in rural settings: we know little of the effectivity of rural participation, even less so for youth, in developing countries. Based on the review of 54 documented cases about participation of rural youth in developing countries, we conclude that participation mechanisms towards rural youth can produce substantial results to enhance the development and social inclusion opportunities through three channels. First, collecting rural youth´s opinions around issues relevant to them through platforms that are sensible to the challenges they face to participate. Second, capitalising rural youth and their organisations, improving their financial assets but also working in character skills and intergenerational partnerships that let them break the status quo. Third, articulating youth with new institutions, organisations, and territories through new links supported by diversification of the urban-rural continuum and new information technologies.
We study the effect of a key early intervention policy, designed to support families with children up to age 4, on the rate at which children up to age 9 are taken into social care. The gradual ...build‐up of over 3600 Sure Start Children's Centres (SSCCs), operated by Local Authorities (LAs) across England, created large spatial and cohort variation in the provision of a service that included health and parenting support, early learning and some childcare. LAs are also responsible for the safeguarding of children, and about 25 children per 10,000 are taken into care annually, in the majority of cases to protect them from abuse and neglect. SSCC provision may help to identify children at risk from maltreatment while also improving longer‐term outcomes. We therefore estimate the causal effect of SSCC provision on care entry rates, allowing separate effects for children within versus beyond the policy target age. Consistent with the hypothesized effects, our findings indicate that SSCC provision raised the care entry rate among children aged 0–4 (within target age), but reduced it for children aged 5–9 (beyond target age). We also provide corroborating evidence using data on Child Protection Plans and Serious Case Reviews.
This study assesses the relative financial performance of firms operating in an environment in which economic freedom is protected by effective institutions. To do this, we examine the moderating ...effect of economic freedom on the relationship between board structure and financial performance. Using longitudinal data across 30 European countries, we find that firms with a one‐tier board consistently outperform those with a two‐tier board, but the relative underperformance of two‐tier boards is partially mitigated by the inclusion of employee representatives. The positive influence of employee representatives on the performance of firms with two‐tier boards is bolstered by greater economic freedom.
Fuelled by increasing inequality and rising fiscal deficits, the interest in wealth taxation has grown over recent years, both in the public debate and in academia. A key concern is that the wealth ...tax may reduce the amount of capital available to closely held firms and drag down their employment. Yet knowledge about the behavioural effects of a wealth tax is limited. A wealth tax is almost by construction imperfect, as the value of some assets is unobserved. In particular, intangible assets held by non‐traded firms are in practice tax‐exempt, giving firm owners an incentive to allocate wealth into their businesses, for example, in the form of (untaxed) human capital investments. We utilize rich Norwegian register data and a series of tax reforms implemented between 2007 and 2017 to study how a net wealth tax imposed on owners of small and medium‐sized businesses affects their firms' employment. Identification of causal effects is based on a saturated control function approach, fully isolating the influence of tax reforms. Our results indicate a positive causal relationship between the level of a household's wealth tax and subsequent employment growth in the taxpayers' closely held firms.
We examine the impact of financial inclusion on multidimensional poverty in impoverished counties. The results show that (1) financial inclusion can directly alleviate the multidimensional poverty, ...but this effect is heterogeneous between different groups. (2) Agricultural industrialization is the realization mechanism of financial inclusion to alleviate multidimensional poverty. We recommend that financial inclusion not only need to solve the problem of credit exclusion faced by the poor but also need to improve the ability of the poor to convert credit funds into production capital and combine financial inclusion with agricultural industrialization in poverty areas.
Pour ne pas me limiter à faire la promotion de cet ouvrage, et avant de remercier les personnes grâce auxquelles ce travail considérable a pu être accompli, je voudrais concentrer mes remarques, ...suggestions, voire critiques, sur trois points: les sujets abordés et la méthode de présentation, les orateurs et animateurs de tables rondes, le public, avant de remercier en conclusion tous les organisateurs, certains permanents, d’autres qui se sont succédés dans la continuité.
This study analyzes the impact of children's household chores and market labour on learning using Prova Brazil census data from 2007/2011, 2009/2013, 2011/2015 and 2013/2017. To do that, we created a ...large panel dataset with students in 5th and 9th Grades. A panel fixed effects model with an instrumental variable approach was applied to control for the endogeneity of child labour. Possible attrition bias was taken into account through inverse probability weights. The work performed by children either in the household, or in the labour market was detrimental to their academic performance. In the 2013/2017 panel, the largest impact was a reduction close to 12.3 per cent in Portuguese and more than 10 per cent in Mathematics test scores when children worked in both places labour market and household. Our results also indicate that household chores, which are often not counted in social statistics and not considered dangerous, should be included in policies designed to combat child labour.
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