Showing papers on "Physical capital published in 2005"

An empirical investigation of the relationship between intellectual capital and firms’ market value and financial performance

Abstract: Purpose – The purpose of this article is to investigate empirically the relation between the value creation efficiency and firms’ market valuation and financial performance.Design/methodology/approach – Using data drawn from Taiwanese listed companies and Pulic's Value Added Intellectual Coefficient (VAIC™) as the efficiency measure of capital employed and intellectual capital, the authors construct regression models to examine the relationship between corporate value creation efficiency and firms’ market‐to‐book value ratios, and explore the relation between intellectual capital and firms’ current as well as future financial performance.Findings – The results support the hypothesis that firms’ intellectual capital has a positive impact on market value and financial performance, and may be an indicator for future financial performance. In addition, the authors found investors may place different value on the three components of value creation efficiency (physical capital, human capital, and structural cap...

Intellectual capital and performance in causal models: Evidence from the information technology industry in Taiwan

Abstract: Purpose – This paper seeks to investigate the impact of intellectual capital elements on business performance, as well as the relationship among intellectual capital elements from a cause‐effect perspective.Design/methodology/approach – The partial least squares approach is used to examine the information technology (IT) industry in Taiwan.Findings – Results show that intellectual capital elements directly affect business performance, with the exception of human capital. Human capital indirectly affects performance through the other three elements: innovation capital, process capital, and customer capital. There also exists a cause‐effect relationship among four elements of intellectual capital. Human capital affects innovation capital and process capital. Innovation capital affects process capital, which in turn influences customer capital. Finally, customer capital contributes to performance. The cause‐effect relationship between leading elements and lagged elements provides implications for the managem...

An empirical investigation of the relationship between intellectual capital and firms market value and financial performance

Abstract: Purpose – The purpose of this article is to investigate empirically the relation between the value creation efficiency and firms’ market valuation and financial performance. Design/methodology/approach – Using data drawn from Taiwanese listed companies and Pulic’s Value Added Intellectual Coefficient (VAICe) as the efficiency measure of capital employed and intellectual capital, the authors construct regression models to examine the relationship between corporate value creation efficiency and firms’ market-to-book value ratios, and explore the relation between intellectual capital and firms’ current as well as future financial performance. Findings – The results support the hypothesis that firms’ intellectual capital has a positive impact on market value and financial performance, and may be an indicator for future financial performance. In addition, the authors found investors may place different value on the three components of value creation efficiency (physical capital, human capital, and structural capital). Finally, evidence is presented that R&D expenditure may capture additional information on structural capital and has a positive effect on firm value and profitability. Originality/value – The results extend the understanding of the role of intellectual capital in creating corporate value and building sustainable advantages for companies in emerging economies, where different technological advancements may bring different implications for valuation of intellectual capital.

Democracy and Economic Growth: A Historical Perspective

Abstract: Recent studies appear to show that democracy has no robust association with economic growth. Yet all such work assumes that the causal effect of democracy can be measured by a country's regime status in a particular year (T), which is correlated with its growth performance in a subsequent period (T+l). The authors argue that democracy must be understood as a stock, rather than a level, measure. That is, a country's growth performance is affected by the number of years it has been democratic, in addition to the degree of democracy experienced during that period. In this fashion, democracy is reconceptualized as a historical, rather than a contemporary, variable—with the assumption that long-run historical patterns may help scholars to understand present trends. The authors speculate that these secular-historical influences operate through four causal pathways, each of which may be understood as a type of capital: physical capital, human capital, social capital, and political capital. This argument is tested in a crosscountry analysis and is shown to be robust in a wide variety of specifications and formats.

Modeling and Measuring Organization Capital

Abstract: Manufacturing plants have a clear life cycle: they are born small, grow substantially with age, and eventually die. Economists have long thought that this life cycle is driven by organization capital, the accumulation of plant‐specific knowledge. The location of plants in the life cycle determines the size of the payments, or organization rents, plant owners receive from organization capital. These payments are compensation for the interest cost to plant owners of waiting for their plants to grow. We use a quantitative growth model of the life cycle of plants, along with U.S. data, to infer the overall size of these payments.

Capital Reallocation and Liquidity

Abstract: This paper shows that the amount of capital reallocation between firms is procyclical. In contrast, the benefits to capital reallocation appear countercyclical. We measure the amount of reallocation using data on flows of capital across firms and the benefits to capital reallocation using several measures of the cross sectional dispersion of the productivity of capital. We then study a calibrated model economy where capital reallocation is costly and impute the cost of reallocation. We find that the cost of reallocation needs to be substantially countercyclical to be consistent with the observed joint cyclical properties of reallocation and productivity dispersion.

An Analysis of Working Capital Management Results Across Industries

Abstract: Firms are able to reduce financing costs and/or increase the funds available for expansion by minimizing the amount of funds tied up in current assets. We provide insights into the performance of surveyed firms across key components of working capital management by using the CFO magazine’s annual Working Capital Management Survey. We discover that significant differences exist between industries in working capital measures across time. In addition, we discover that these measures for working capital change significantly within industries across time.

Cheap children and the persistence of poverty

Abstract: This paper develops a theory of fertility that offers an explanation for the persistence of poverty within and across countries. If educated individuals have a comparative advantage in raising educated children then parental fertility choice is shown to give rise to a poverty trap, in which the poor choose high fertility rates with low investment in child quality. Moreover, the impact of child quality choice on economic performance is amplified by the diluting effect of higher fertility on physical capital accumulation. The theory proposes insights regarding the effects of inequality, globalisation and life expectancy on economic growth and demographic transitions. This paper develops a theory of fertility and child educational choice that offers an explanation for the persistence of poverty within and across countries. The joint determination of the quality (education) and quantity of children in a household is studied under the key assumption that individuals’ productivity as teachers increases with their own human capital. In contrast, the minimum time cost associated with raising a child regardless of the child’s quality ‐ the quantity cost ‐ is not affected by parental education. As a result, the price of child quantity relative to the price of child quality increases with individuals’ wages. In particular, for low-wage individuals, for whom the opportunity cost of time is low, children of minimal quality are ‘cheap’. This assumption, therefore, generates a comparative advantage for the poor in child quantity, whereas high-wage (educated) individuals have a comparative advantage in raising quality children. Consistent with the well-known evidence, poor households thus choose relatively high fertility rates with relatively low investment in their offspring’s education; and therefore, their offspring are poor as well. In contrast, high-income families choose low fertility rates with high investment in education, and therefore, high income persists in the dynasty. Evidence from the US, provided by Hanushek (1992), suggests that a trade-off between quantity and quality of children does indeed exist. Hanushek argues that movements in family size could explain over half the variance in some test scores, and that the elasticity of achievements with respect to the number of children in the family is )0.03, implying that the annual achievement growth of each child in a family will fall about 2% when a second child is added and about 0.5% when a sixth child is added. 1

Outside entrepreneurial capital

Abstract: This paper investigates factors that affect rejection rates in applications for outside finance among different types of investors (banks, venture capital funds, leasing firms, factoring firms, trade customers and suppliers, partners and working shareholders, private individuals and other sources), taking into account the non-randomness in a firm's decision to seek outside finance. The data support the traditional pecking order theory. Further, the data indicate that firms seeking capital are typically able to secure their requisite financing from at least one of the different available sources. However, external finance is often not available in the form that a firm would like.

The Relative Richness of the Poor? Natural Resources, Human Capital, and Economic Growth

Abstract: Are natural resources a blessing or a curse? Bravo-Ortega and De Gregorio present a model in which natural resources have a positive effect on the level of income and a negative effect on its growth rate. The positive and permanent effect on income implies a welfare gain. There is a growth effect stemming from a composition effect. However, the authors show that this effect can be offset by having a large level of human capital. They test their model using panel data for the period 1970-90. They extend the usual specifications for economic growth regressions by incorporating an interaction term between human capital and natural resources, showing that high levels of human capital may outweigh the negative effects of the natural resource abundance on growth. The authors also review the historical experience of Scandinavian countries, which in contrast to Latin America, another region well-endowed with natural resources, shows how it is possible to grow fast based on natural resources. This paper is a product of the Office of the Chief Economist, Latin America and the Caribbean Region.

Public Policy and the Creation of Active Venture Capital Markets

Abstract: We study how public policy can contribute to increase the share of early stage and high-tech venture capital investments, thus helping the development of active venture capital markets. A simple extension of the seminal model by Holmstrom and Tirole (1997) provides a theoretical base for our analysis. We then explore a unique panel of data for 14 European countries between 1988 and 2001. We have several novel findings. First, the opening of stock markets targeted at entrepreneurial companies positively affects the shares of early stage and high-tech venture capital investments; reductions in capital gains tax rates have a similar, albeit weaker, effect. Second, a reduction in labor regulation creases the share of high-tech investments. Finally, we find no evidence of a shortage of supply of venture capital funds, and no evidence of an effect of increased public R&D spending on the share of high-tech or early stage venture capital investments.

Entrepreneurship capital and regional growth

Abstract: This paper introduces the concept of entrepreneurship capital and links it to the economic performance of regions. We give a definition of entrepreneurship capital and suggest different measures of this variable. Economic performance of regions is measured by the stock and the growth rate of regions, labor productivity. We find that entrepreneurship capital is stronger in urban areas and spatially correlated. Using regressions of production functions and growth equations, we find evidence that entrepreneurship capital has a positive and large impact on region's labor productivity. However for growth, this result holds only for risk-oriented measures of entrepreneurship capital and for densely populated regions. We derive policy implications from these findings.

Human Capital and Convergence: A Production-Frontier Approach

Abstract: Using nonparametric, production-frontier methods, we decompose labor productivity growth into components attributable to technological change (shifts in the world production frontier), technological catch-up (movements toward or away from the frontier), and physical and human capital accumulation (movements along the frontier). We find that (1) technological change is decidedly nonneutral, (2) productivity growth is driven primarily by physical and human capital accumulation, (3) the increased international dispersion of productivity is explained primarily by physical capital accumulation, and (4) international polarization (the shift from a unimodal to a bimodal distribution) is brought about primarily by efficiency changes (technological catch-up).

Pitfalls of a state-dominated financial system: the case of china

Abstract: State-owned financial institutions have been proposed as a way to address market failure, but the recent literature has also highlighted their pathological problems. This paper studies the case of China for pitfalls of a state-dominated financial system, including possible segmentation of the internal capital market due to local government interference and mis-allocation of capital. Even without formal legal prohibition to capital movement across regions, we find that capital mobility within China is low. Furthermore, to the extent some capital moves around the country, the government (as opposed to the private sector) tends to allocate capital systematically away from more productive regions toward less productive ones. In this context, a smaller role of the government in the financial sector might increase economic efficiency and the rate of economic growth.

Human capital and convergence: a production-frontier approach*

Abstract: Using nonparametric, production-frontier methods, we decompose labor productivity growth into components attributable to technological change (shifts in the world production frontier), technological catch-up (movements toward or away from the frontier), and physical and human capital accumulation (movements along the frontier). We find that (1) technological change is decidedly nonneutral, (2) productivity growth is driven primarily by physical and human capital accumulation, (3) the increased international dispersion of productivity is explained primarily by physical capital accumulation, and (4) international polarization (the shift from a unimodal to a bimodal distribution) is brought about primarily by efficiency changes (technological catch-up).

Externalities and Growth

Abstract: Externalities play a central role in most theories of economic growth. We argue that international externalities, in particular, are essential for explaining a number of empirical regularities about growth and development. Foremost among these is that many countries appear to share a common long run growth rate despite persistently different rates of investment in physical capital, human capital, and research. With this motivation, we construct a hybrid of some prominent growth models that have international knowledge externalities. When calibrated, the hybrid model does a surprisingly good job of generating realistic dispersion of income levels with modest barriers to technology adoption. Human capital and physical capital contribute to income differences both directly (as usual), and indirectly by boosting resources devoted to technology adoption. The model implies that most of income above subsistence is made possible by international diffusion of knowledge.

The Cost of Sustainability Capital and the Creation of Sustainable Value by Companies

Abstract: Summary We develop and apply a valuation methodology to calculate the cost of sustainability capital, and, eventually, sustainable value creation of companies. Sustainable development posits that decisions must take into account all forms of capital rather than just economic capital. We develop a methodology that allows calculation of the costs that are associated with the use of different forms of capital. Our methodology borrows the idea from financial economics that the return on capital has to cover the cost of capital. Capital costs are determined as opportunity costs, that is, the forgone returns that would have been created by alternative investments. We apply and extend the logic of opportunity costs to the valuation not only of economic capital but also of other forms of capital. This allows (a) integrated analysis of use of different forms of capital based on a value-based aggregation of different forms of capital, (b) determination of the opportunity cost of a bundle of different forms of capital used in a company, called cost of sustainability capital, (c) calculation of sustainability efficiency of companies, and (d) calculation of sustainable value creation, that is, the value above the cost of sustainability capital. By expanding the well-established logic of the valuation of economic capital in financial markets to cover other forms of capital, we provide a methodology that allows determination of the most efficient allocation of sustainability capital for sustainable value creation in companies. We demonstrate the practicability of the methodology by the valuation of the sustainability performance of British Petroleum (BP).

Capital Flows in a Globalized World: The Role of Policies and Institutions

Abstract: We describe the patterns of international capital flows in the period 1970 2000. We then examine the determinants of capital flows and capital flows volatility during this period. We find that institutional quality is an important determinant of capital flows. Historical determinants of current legal institutions have a direct eect on foreign investments. Policy plays a significant role in explaining the changes in the level of capital flows over time and their volatility.

The Capital Structure Puzzle: The Evidence Revisited

Abstract: Since the formulation of the M&M propositions almost 50 years ago, financial economists have been debating whether there is such a thing as an optimal capital structure—a proportion of debt to equity that maximizes shareholder value. Some finance scholars have followed M&M in arguing that both capital structure and dividend policy are largely “irrelevant” in the sense that they have no significant, predictable effects on corporate market values. Another school of thought holds that corporate financing choices reflect an attempt by corporate managers to balance the tax shields and disciplinary benefits of greater debt against the costs of financial distress. Yet another theory says that companies do not have capital structure targets, but simply follow a financial “pecking order” in which retained earnings are preferred to outside financing, and debt is preferred to equity when outside funding is required. In reviewing the evidence that has accumulated since M&M, the authors argue that taxes, bankruptcy (and other “contracting”) costs, and information costs all appear to play an important role in corporate financing decisions. While much of the evidence is consistent with the argument that companies set target leverage ratios, there is also considerable support for the pecking order theory's contention that firms are willing to deviate widely from their targets for long periods of time. According to the authors, the key to reconciling the different theories—and thus to solving the capital structure puzzle—lies in achieving a better understanding of the relation between corporate financing stocks (the levels of debt and equity in relation to the target) and flows(or which security to issue at a particular time).

The relative richness of the poor? natural resources, human capital, and economic growth

Abstract: Are natural resources a blessing or a curse? The authors present a model in which natural resources have a positive effect on the level of income and a negative effect on its growth rate The positive and permanent effect on income implies a welfare gain There is a growth effect stemming from a composition effect However, the authors show that this effect can be offset by having a large level of human capital They test their model using panel data for the period 1970-90 They extend the usual specifications for economic growth regressions by incorporating an interaction term between human capital and natural resources, showing that high levels of human capital may outweigh the negative effects of the natural resource abundance on growth The authors also review the historical experience of Scandinavian countries, which in contrast to Latin America, another region well-endowed with natural resources, shows how it is possible to grow fast based on natural resources

Horses and Rabbits? Trade-Off Theory and Optimal Capital Structure

Abstract: This paper examines optimal capital structure choice using a dynamic capital structure model that is calibrated to reflect actual firm characteristics. The model uses contingent claim methods to value interest tax shields, allows for reorganization in bankruptcy, and maintains a long-run target debt to total capital ratio by refinancing maturing debt. Using this model, we calculate optimal capital structures in a realistic representation of the tra ditional trade-off model. In contrast to previous research, the calculated optimal capital structures do not imply that firms tend to use too little leverage in practice. We also esti mate the costs borne by a firm whose capital structure deviates from its optimal target debt to total capital ratio. The costs of moderate deviations are relatively small, suggesting that a policy of adjusting leverage infrequently is likely to be reasonable for many firms.

Optimal Bank Capital with Costly Recapitalization

Abstract: We study optimal bank capital choice as a dynamic tradeoff between the opportunity cost of equity, the loss of franchise value following a regulatory minimum capital violation, and the cost of recapitalization. We introduce a recapitalization delay, which results in a strictly positive probability of capital adequacy violation and qualitatively influences optimal capital raising policies. We calibrate the model to bank accounting return data and evaluate the model's ability to explain observed bank capital ratios. Differences in return volatility explain a significant fraction of the cross-sectional variation in bank capital ratios. Differences in the level of capital market imperfections across banks constitute a secondary explanation. Our analysis points to the need for improved forward looking estimates of bank return volatility.

Firms' Capital Allocation Choices, Information Quality, and the Cost of Capital

Abstract: In this paper, we establish a link between information quality, firms' capital investment decisions and their cost of capital. We characterize asset prices in a market equilibrium framework with perfect competition for firm shares and derive a pricing equation that is equivalent to the CAPM. Using this characterization, we show that higher information quality leads to a lower cost of capital via its effect on expected cash flows. Better information improves the coordination between firms and investors with respect to capital investment decisions, which investors price in equilibrium by discounting firms' expected cash flows at a higher rate. This effect survives the forces of diversification in a capital market with perfect competition, even when information quality is uncorrelated across firms.

The Winner's Curse of Human Capital

Abstract: We extend a model developed by Evans and Jovanovic (1989) to explain when start-ups are credit constrained. We show that the magnitude of the credit constraint is conditioned by the relative productivity of human capital in both wage work and self-employment. The effect of predicted household income on start-up capital is used to indicate the existence of financial constraint. Empirical analysis reveals that entrepreneurs with high human capital have both greater financial wealth and greater levels of start-up capital pointing to the endogenous nature of credit constraints. High human capital relaxes financial constraints, apparently due to greater productivity of human capital in wage work than in self-employment. Those who are the least likely to be credit constrained in self-employment are those that are least likely to switch into self-employment,and vice versa.

Bubbles and Capital Flow Volatility: Causes and Risk Management

Abstract: Emerging market economies are fertile ground for the development of real estate and other financial bubbles. Despite these economies' significant growth potential, their corporate and government sectors do not generate the financial instruments to provide residents with adequate stores of value. Capital often flows out of these economies seeking these stores of value in the developed world. Bubbles are beneficial because they provide domestic stores of value and thereby reduce capital outflows while increasing investment. But they come at a cost, as they expose the country to bubble-crashes and capital flow reversals. We show that domestic financial underdevelopment not only facilitates the emergence of bubbles, but also leads agents to undervalue the aggregate risk embodied in financial bubbles. In this context, even rational bubbles can be welfare reducing. We study a set of aggregate risk management policies to alleviate the bubble-risk. We show that liquidity requirements, sterilization of capital inflows and structural policies aimed at developing public debt markets "collateralized" by future revenues, all have a high payoff in this environment.

Modes of labor flexibility at firm level: Are there any implications for performance and innovation? Evidence for the Swiss economy

Abstract: The aim of this study is to define and measure numerical and functional labor flexibility at the firm level and investigate empirically the impact of each of these flexibility modes on performance and innovation measures as well as the interrelationship between them. Our estimation equation contains, besides the classical production factors labor and physical capital, information and communication technologies (ICT) capital, human capital, variables for flexible organizational practices as well as measures for numerical labor flexibility. The empirical investigation is based on data for about 1400 Swiss firms. Copyright 2005, Oxford University Press.