计量经济分析 = Econometric analysis

Models that depict innovation as a smooth, well-behaved linear process badly misspecify the nature and direction of the causal factors at work. Innovation is complex, uncertain, somewhat disorderly, and subject to changes of many sorts. Innovation is also difficult to measure and demands close coordination of adequate technical knowledge and excellent market judgment in order to satisfy economic, technological, and other types of constraints—all simultaneously. The process of innovation must be viewed as a series of changes in a complete system not only of hardware, but also of market environment, production facilities and knowledge, and the social contexts of the innovation organization.

An Overview of Innovation

A detailed review of the education sector in Australia as in the data provided by the 2006 edition of the OECD's annual publication, 'Education at a Glance' is presented. While the data has shown that in almost all OECD countries educational attainment levels are on the rise, with countries showing impressive gains in university qualifications, it also reveals that a large of share of young people still do not complete secondary school, which remains a baseline for successful entry into the labour market.

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Education at a Glance

We explore how new types of hybrid organizations (organizations that combine institutional logics in unprecedented ways) can develop and maintain their hybrid nature in the absence of a “ready-to-w...

Building sustainable hybrid organizations: the case of commercial microfinance organizations

Economics Of Discrimination

Accepted version of article published in the journal: Journal of Banking & Finance Published version available on Science Direct:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jbankfin.2008.11.009

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Performance and governance in microfinance institutions

Microfinance Mission Drift

This paper analyzes the economic rationale for board regulation in place and for introducing new regulation in the future. We relate the value of the firm to the use of employee directors, board independence, directors with multiple seats, and to gender diversity. Our evidence shows that the firm creates more value for its owners when the board has no employee directors, when its directors have strong links to other boards, and when gender diversity is low. We find no relationship between firm performance and board independence. These characteristics of value-creating boards support neither popular opinion nor the current politics of corporate governance.

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Governance and Politics: Regulating Independence and Diversity in the Board Room

Policy advocates argue the case for the transformation of non-government Microfinance Organizations (MFOs) into shareholder owned firms. The argument is that this will bring about superior performance. This paper investigates whether the superiority of shareholder owned MFOs is empirically supported. The findings indicate that the difference between shareholder owned MFOs and non-government MFOs is minimal. Our results contradict established paradigms and policy guidelines in the industry. However, the results are not necessarily surprising since ownership theories do not predict a clear preference for one type of ownership in the microfinance market. Furthermore, findings in general banking markets as well as the pro-poor banking history indicate that mutual and non-profit ownership can compete successfully with investor ownership.

https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/Delivery.cfm/SSRN_ID1728719_code769087.pdf?abstractid=970513&mirid=2

Performance and Trade-offs in Microfinance Organizations - Does Ownership Matter?

This paper explores how board composition influences the conflict of interest between principals and agents, the production of information for monitoring and advice, and the board's effectiveness as a decision-maker. Paying particular attention to the board's independence, information production, and diversity, we exploit unusually rich data from an unexplored institutional environment to estimate models that control for endogeneity. We find that the firm's performance is higher when directors own equity in the firm, have wide information networks to other firms, and when the board has low gender diversity, no employee directors, and small size. No association is found between performance and independence. Board mechanisms are often endogenously determined, both by each other and by the firm's performance. These characteristics of value-creating boards are consistent with theoretical predictions and the limited evidence from other institutional regimes, but lend no support to popular opinion and the current politics of corporate governance.

https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/Delivery.cfm/SSRN_ID966407_code94470.pdf?abstractid=966407&mirid=1

R. Øystein Strøm

Papers

Performance and governance in microfinance institutions

Microfinance Mission Drift

Governance and Politics: Regulating Independence and Diversity in the Board Room

Performance and Trade-offs in Microfinance Organizations - Does Ownership Matter?

Aligned, Informed, and Decisive: Characteristics of Value-Creating Boards