Exit as governance: The effect of stock liquidity on firm productivity

Abstract

This study examines the effect of stock liquidity on firm productivity. Our findings indicate that stock liquidity positively affects firm productivity. Our study provides several pieces of evidence to show that stock liquidity enhances firm productivity through facilitation of corporate governance by shareholders and stock price efficiency. Additionally, we confirm that the impact of stock liquidity on productivity is more pronounced for firms with lower attendance at shareholder meetings, with less financial constraints and that are state-owned enterprises. This study makes a valuable contribution to the existing literature by presenting novel evidence regarding the influence of stock liquidity on firm productivity in emerging markets.

Influence of the cash conversion cycle on firm’s financial performance: Evidence from publicly traded firms in the Latin American context

Abstract

This study investigates the relationship between the cash conversion cycle (CCC) and the financial and market performances of publicly traded” firms in six Latin American (LatAm) countries: Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, and Peru. The analysis covers the period from 2000 to 2018. The results indicate that increases in CCC negatively impact the generation of operating cash flows and long-term investments, and increase financial risk. Other findings suggest that the mechanisms through which CCC affects a firm's financial performance can provide a satisfactory explanation of its market performance. The evidence is consistent with the hypothesis that CCC is a relevant driver of value in working capital management in undeveloped or emerging economies.

Transparency or ambiguity? Voluntary IFRS adoption and earnings management in Japan

Abstract

This study examines the mechanism of voluntary IFRS adoption on earnings management in Japan. Limited research clarifies how IFRS adoption influences earnings management. Using data from listed firms between 2011 and 2018, the multivariate regression results suggest that voluntary IFRS adoption in Japan increases the extent of discretionary accruals. Furthermore, the relation becomes more pronounced when firms have greater accounting opportunities and stronger cost incentives. The main findings hold after various robustness tests. This study fills the gap in the literature by investigating the mechanism that IFRS adoption enhances opportunities and motivation for earnings management through accounting ambiguity.

Analysis of Variation in Foreign Inflows by Different Categories of Foreign Portfolio Investors

The Indian Economic Journal, Volume 72, Issue 2, Page 270-286, March 2024.
The liberalisation of Indian financial markets has smoothened the capital flows of international institutional investors, resulting in rising foreign investor participation in the domestic equity and debt markets. Since the reforms of the 1990s, India has become one of the favourite investment hubs of foreign institutional investors (FIIs) across the globe. The research aims to analyse the variation in contribution to foreign inflows by the three different categories of foreign portfolio investments (FPIs) and the determinants of inflows of the categories of FPIs. The study is based on the use of secondary data collected from the National Securities Depository Limited and the Securities Exchange Board of India. One-way ANOVA has been employed to examine the variation in inflows by different categories of FIIs. Autor regressive distributed lag model has been used to understand the factors determining the inflows of FPIs. The results of the study revealed that there exists variation in the inflows of investments among the different categories of FIIs. The variation in inflows by different categories into equity instruments was significant, while the inflows into debt instruments were not significant. Furthermore, the highest inflows were seen from the second category of FIIs.JEL Codes: C32, G2

Inefficiency Analysis of Tax Efforts in Special Category States of India: Evidence from a Stochastic Frontier Model

The Indian Economic Journal, Ahead of Print.
The current article examines the tax efforts of India’s main mountainous states that have been accorded special category status by the National Development Council. These states have been under persistent budgetary pressure and are partially reliant on central funds in the form of grants in ‘aid’ and other central transfers. The present article employs the Stochastic Frontier Analysis (SFA) model to assess ‘tax effort’ of special category states. The model results implied that ‘tax effort’ rises with increase in the share of secondary sector, revenue expenditure and road infrastructure. Further, the level of debt lowers ‘tax effort’, whereas the introduction of FRBM and Goods and Service Tax Regime (GST) has raised the inefficiency in own tax mobilization. On the basis of tax effort index, computed through John Drew (JLMS) methodology, this study also indicates that Assam, Uttarakhand, and Jammu and Kashmir are in a far better position in tax efforts score compared to the north eastern special category states.JEL Codes: H2, H21, H22, H71

Manufacturing Productivity Measurement in India: An Evolutionary Trend

The Indian Economic Journal, Volume 72, Issue 2, Page 372-388, March 2024.
We undertake an extensive literature survey and segregate the methods mainly into two approaches: parametric and non-parametric. Further, we categorise the non-parametric techniques into the Growth Accounting Approach and the Deterministic Frontier Approach. The evaluation and development of methods used in the study of productivity growth measurement is a continuous process over the years, even if we found a longstanding critical debate from the classical school, popularly known as the Cambridge controversy. This article presents a holistic review of methods for documenting the growth debates in independent India, which helps understand the concepts for the new researcher in the field and the policymakers in the developing and less developed countries.JEL Codes: D24, E24, O47

On the Impacts of Government Size on Economic Growth in India: Some Evidence from Smooth Transition Autoregression Model

The Indian Economic Journal, Ahead of Print.
This article examines the threshold effects of government size (measured as a percentage share of government final consumption expenditure in GDP) on economic growth from a non-linear perspective. We apply a smooth transition autoregression (STAR) model to estimate the threshold level of government size and its impact on economic growth in India for the period spanning from 1971 to 2019. The empirical results reveal that the relationship between government size and economic growth is non-linear. The study finds a statistically significant positive relationship between the size of the government and economic growth below the estimated threshold level of government size of 10.45 per cent. Above the 10.45 per cent threshold level, government size has a deleterious impact on economic growth. The results also reveal that the transition from one extreme economic phase to another is gradual. The findings of our study recommend that policymakers can enhance India’s economic growth by restricting government size to the estimated threshold level or by reducing the size of the government when it lies well above the threshold level.JEL Codes: JEL H00, JEL E6, JEL E62

Incentivizing Demand for Supply-Constrained Care: Institutional Birth in India

Abstract
If overcrowding harms health care quality, the impacts of encouraging more people to use services are not obvious. Impacts will depend on whether marginal entrants benefit and whether they benefit enough to offset the congestion externalities imposed on inframarginal users. We develop a general-equilibrium model that formalizes these ideas. We examine them empirically by studying JSY, a program in India that paid women to give birth in medical facilities. We find evidence that JSY increased perinatal mortality in areas with low health-system capacity, was particularly harmful in more-complex births, reduced the quality of facilities' postnatal care, and generated harmful spillovers onto other services.

Contracts and Firms’ Inflation Expectations

Abstract
We use novel survey data to study firms’ inventory contracts. We document facts about the usage of purchase and sale contracts. We find that firms purchase and sell inventory through three contractual arrangements: fixed price and quantity, fixed price only, and fixed quantity only. Those using fixed price and quantity hold the largest share of contracts. The average duration of purchase contracts is not very different from the average duration of sale contracts. We then find that the upward bias in inflation expectations is a feature of firms that do not purchase or sell largely through contracts. Our findings are useful in the calibration of sticky price models.

How Green Is Sugarcane Ethanol?

Abstract
Biofuels offer one approach for reducing carbon emissions. However, the necessary agricultural expansion may endanger tropical forests. I use a dynamic model of land use to disentangle the roles of acreage and yields in the supply of sugarcane ethanol in Brazil. The model is estimated using remote sensing (satellite) information of sugarcane activities. Estimates imply that, at the margin, 92% of new ethanol comes from increases in area and only 8% from increases in yield. Direct deforestation accounts for 19% of area expansion at the margin in the long run. I further assess carbon emissions and deforestation implications from ethanol policies.