Firm-level Heterogeneity Research Articles

Skewness in Stock Returns: Reconciling the Evidence on Firm Versus Aggregate Returns

Aggregate stock market returns display negative skewness. Firm stock returns display positive skewness. The large literature that tries to explain the first stylized fact ignores the second. This article provides a unified theory that reconciles the two facts by explicitly modeling firm-level heterogeneity. I build a stationary asset pricing model of firm announcement events where firm returns display positive skewness. I then show that cross-sectional heterogeneity in firm announcement events can lead to conditional asymmetric stock return correlations and negative skewness in aggregate returns. I provide evidence consistent with the model predictions. The Author 2012. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The Society for Financial Studies. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com., Oxford University Press.

Optimal Monetary Policy in a Two Country Model with Firm-Level Heterogeneity

This paper studies non-cooperative monetary policy in a two country general equilibrium model where international economic integration is endogenised through firm-level heterogeneity and monopolistic competition. Economic integration between countries is a source of policy competition, generating higher long-run inflation, and increased gains from monetary cooperation.

Distributional Dynamics Under Smoothly State-Dependent Pricing

Starting from the assumption that firms are more likely to adjust their prices when doing so is more valuable, this paper analyzes monetary policy shocks in a DSGE model with firm-level heterogeneity. The model is calibrated to retail price microdata, and inflation responses are decomposed into 'intensive,' 'extensive,' and 'selection' margins. Money growth and Taylor rule shocks both have nontrivial real effects, because the low state dependence implied by the data rules out the strong selection effect associated with fixed menu costs. The response to sector-specific shocks is gradual, but inappropriate econometrics might make it appear immediate.

The Determinants of Firm Exit from Exporting: Evidence for the UK

This study seeks to understand to what extent new exporters are able to survive in international markets and whether exit from exporting is more likely to be associated with firm-level heterogeneity or more general factors such as trade costs and/or barriers to entry and exit (such as sunk costs). This study presents the first analysis undertaken for a nationally representative group of UK firms on the determinants of exit from exporting, using panel data covering all market-based sectors of the UK during 1997–2003. Our findings suggest that the probability of a firm ceasing to export is directly influenced by its productivity and other attributes associated with firm-level productivity differences (such as size and foreign ownership). Micro-finance factors, such as profitability and the ability to finance through long-term debt, play an additional role. Lastly, sectoral differences (e.g. industrial concentration) also help explain the firm’s exit decision, whilst trade costs lead to a higher probability of exiting from selling internationally.

Capital allocation, stock return volatility and productivity growth in US industries

Using firm-level Compustat data from 1971 to 2000, we report a substantial cross-industry variation of allocative efficiency in capital expenditure in the US economy. Industries with higher allocative efficiency are the ones with higher firm-level value-added growth heterogeneity, higher information transparency captured by firm-specific stock return volatility and faster long-run productivity growth. This finding is consistent with the idea of creative destruction, where a well-functioning market mechanism sharply distinguishes winners from losers and thus enhances economic growth in the long run. Allocative efficiency has a substantial economic significance and explains as much as 24.5% of the difference in long-run industry productivity growth.

Distributional dynamics under smoothly state-dependent pricing

Starting from the assumption that firms are more likely to adjust their prices when doing so is more valuable, this paper analyzes monetary policy shocks in a DSGE model with firm-level heterogeneity. The model is calibrated to retail price microdata, and inflation responses are decomposed into “intensive”, “extensive”, and “selection” margins. Money growth and Taylor rule shocks both have nontrivial real effects, because the low state dependence implied by the data rules out the strong selection effect associated with fixed menu costs. The response to sector-specific shocks is gradual, but inappropriate econometrics might make it appear immediate.

International trade in services: A portrait of importers and exporters

We provide a novel set of stylized facts on firms engaging in international trade in services, using unique data on firm-level exports and imports from the world's second largest services exporter, the United Kingdom (UK). We show that only a fraction of UK firms engage in international trade in services, that trade participation varies widely across industries and that service traders are different from non-traders in terms of size, productivity and other firm characteristics. We also provide detailed evidence on the trading patterns of service exporters and importers, such as the number of markets served, the value of exports and imports per market and the share of individual markets in overall sales. We interpret these facts in the light of existing theories of international trade in services and goods. Our results demonstrate that firm-level heterogeneity is a key feature of services trade. Also, we find many similarities between services and goods trade at the firm level and conclude that existing heterogeneous firm models for goods trade will be a good starting point for explaining trade in services as well.

Sourcing Premia with Incomplete Contracts: Theory and Evidence

Abstract Drawing on Grossman & Helpman (2004) and Antràs & Helpman (2004), we identify general conditions that result in an unambiguous mapping of a firm’s productivity level into the organizational form and location of its input sourcing. Using a detailed 2006-2008 data set for Spanish manufacturing firms, we then establish a number of stylized facts about firm-level heterogeneity in sourcing strategies that have largely gone unnoticed in existing literature on input sourcing. Finally, we explore this heterogeneity through econometric estimation of productivity premia associated with different sourcing strategies. We find a robustly significant premium on a strategy that features offshore production of intermediate inputs through a related party (vertical integration). Lower productivity premia are found for strategies that rely on outsourcing to unrelated parties abroad or on vertical integration within the home economy. Across all specifications employed, estimated mean productivity is lowest for domestic-outsourcing firms.

Distributional Dynamics Under Smoothly State-Dependent Pricing

Starting from the assumption that firms are more likely to adjust their prices when doing so is more valuable, this paper analyzes monetary policy shocks in a DSGE model with firm-level heterogeneity. The model is calibrated to retail price microdata, and inflation responses are decomposed into “intensive”, “extensive”, and “selection” margins. Money growth and Taylor rule shocks both have nontrivial real effects, because the low state dependence implied by the data rules out the strong selection effect associated with fixed menu costs. The response to firm-specific shocks is gradual, though inappropriate econometrics might make it appear immediate. JEL Classification: E31, E52, D81

Comparability Effects of Mandatory IFRS Adoption

We investigate the effects of mandatory IFRS adoption on the comparability of financial accounting information. Using two comparability proxies based on De Franco et al. [2011] and a comparability proxy based on the degree of information transfer, our results suggest that the overall comparability effect of mandatory IFRS adoption is marginal. We hypothesize that firm-level heterogeneity in IFRS compliance explains the limited comparability effect. To test this conjecture, we first hand-collect data on IFRS compliance for a sample of German and Italian firms and find that firm-, region-, and country-level incentives systematically shape IFRS compliance. We then use the identified compliance determinants to explain the variance in the comparability effect of mandatory IFRS adoption and find it to vary systematically with firm-level compliance determinants, suggesting that only firms with high compliance incentives experience substantial increases in comparability. Moreover, we document that firms from countries with tighter reporting enforcement experience larger IFRS comparability effects, and that public firms adopting IFRS become less comparable to local GAAP private firms from the same country.

Gravity Estimation of the Intensive and Extensive Margins of Trade: An Alternative Procedure with Alternative Data

Helpman, Melitz and Rubinstein (2008) derive gravity equations to estimate effects of trade barriers on the intensive and extensive margins of trade. They exploit the frequency of zeros in aggregate bilateral trade data to identify effects on the extensive margin and to obtain controls for firm level heterogeneity and sample selection on the intensive margin. By using data on the number of bilaterally traded products we improve on identification and allow estimation of the extensive margin when data contain only positive trade flows. We also control for the pervasive presence of heteroscedasticity in trade data. The heterogeneity and selection biases are shown to be small and unimportant whereas the heteroscedasticity bias is large and important.

Deploying Individual-Level Resources Under Constraints: Evidence from the UK M&A Legal Advisory Market

In this paper, we develop and test a framework to better understand how firms strategically deploy their individual-level resources to opportunities. We analyze the allocation of individual-level resources (lawyers) to projects (M&A mandates) in the UK corporate M&A legal market. We find evidence that firms adapt their allocation decisions to deal with the constraints on resource deployment associated with resource scarcity and congestion. Specifically, firms appear to adopt five strategies to manage their constrained resources: Load Equalization, Selective Stretching, Assortative Matching, Relationship Building, and Relational Capital Substitution. We also find suggestive evidence of firm level heterogeneity in the firm’s ability to appropriately deploy resources. Overall, this paper refines the understanding of the resource deployment process and of individuals as rent-generating assets.

Policy Implications of Heterogeneous Firms Trade Theory

This paper considers the trade and trade-related policy implications of the heterogeneous firms trade literature developed in the context of “new new trade theory”. The recognition in trade theory of firm-level heterogeneity and of the complex global strategies of multinational firms has not changed the basic conclusion that there are significant gains from trade and investment, but it has generated new insights concerning the nature of adjustments in response to policy changes that are of considerable importance to policymakers operating in a stakeholder-driven policymaking process that is highly sensitive to the adjustment process triggered by trade policy changes. The “policy readiness” of the current findings is evaluated and qualified implications are identified for the relative importance of multilateral versus regional and bilateral trade agreements, trade promotion policies, and a number of policy interfaces including trade and innovation and trade and finance. A significant empirical research agenda is indicated by the fact that policymakers currently do not have the quantitative policy tools to evaluate the national interest in trade negotiations, given that this depends on understanding the relationship between the productivity distribution of firms and the changes in market access contemplated in trade policy initiatives, the interaction between productivity and firms entering into two-way trading (importing intermediates and exporting), the interaction between trade and horizontal direct investment, and the impact of changes in market access at home and abroad for the organizational decisions of multinational firms.

DINAMIKA INDUSTRI MANUFAKTUR DAN RESPON TERHADAP SIKLUS BISNIS

The role of the manufacturing industry in the economy has expanded significantly from 19 percent in 1990 to 26 percent in 2009, while its labor absorption only increased from 10 percent to 12.2 percent. The cycle of the manufacturing industry has been in line with the economic growth. This study explores the implications of the firm-level heterogeneity over the business cycle. By using the panel multinomial logit, it shows that firms with less capital and small size have greater probability to exit the industry during the boom/ bust period. Sensitivity of the company to changes in capital is greater during the boom period. Only highly productive firms enter and begin production during recessions. Companies with higher productivity rate also have greater probability to enter the market. In contrast, higher production cost and higher market concentration increase the probability for smaller companies to exit from the industry.JEL Classification: : D24, L6, E32Keywords: Production, Cost, Capital and Total Factor Productivity, Industry Studies Manufacturing, Business Fluctuations/cycles

THE DYNAMICS OF MANUFACTURING INDUSTRY AND THE RESPONSE TOWARD BUSINESS CYCLE

The role of the manufacturing industry in the economy has expanded significantly from 19 percent in 1990 to 26 percent in 2009, while its labor absorption only increased from 10 percent to 12.2 percent. The cycle of the manufacturing industry has been in line with the economic growth. This study explores the implications of the firm-level heterogeneity over the business cycle. By using the panel multinomial logit, it shows that firms with less capital and small size have greater probability to exit the industry during the boom/ bust period. Sensitivity of the company to changes in capital is greater during the boom period. Only highly productive firms enter and begin production during recessions. Companies with higher productivity rate also have greater probability to enter the market. In contrast, higher production cost and higher market concentration increase the probability for smaller companies to exit from the industry.JEL Classification: : D24, L6, E32Keywords: Production, Cost, Capital and Total Factor Productivity, Industry Studies Manufacturing, Business Fluctuations/cycles

Productivity of airline carriers and its relation to deregulation, privatisation and membership in strategic alliances

This study looks at how deregulation, privatisation and the formation of strategic alliances have affected the productivity of international airlines. We evaluate all three factors simultaneously and disaggregate the carriers’ operations into production and sales and allow for unobserved firm-level heterogeneity through random parameters. Estimations of stochastic frontier models reveal that on the aggregate level, deregulation increases productivity, membership in alliances has an ambiguous effect and state ownership has no significant effect. Disaggregating the carriers’ operations confirms the productivity gains from deregulation, and that state ownership and alliances have contradictory effects.

Observed and unobserved heterogeneity in stochastic frontier models: An application to the electricity distribution industry

In this study we combine different possibilities to model firm level heterogeneity in stochastic frontier analysis. We show that both observed and unobserved heterogeneities cause serious biases in inefficiency results. Modelling observed and unobserved heterogeneities treat individual firms in different ways and even though the expected mean inefficiency scores in both cases diminish the firm level efficiency rank orders turn out to be very different. The best fit with the data is obtained by modelling unobserved heterogeneity through randomizing frontier parameters and at the same time explicitly modelling the observed heterogeneity into the inefficiency distribution. These results are obtained by using data from Finnish electricity distribution utilities and the results are relevant in relation to electricity distribution pricing and regulation.

Skewness in Stock Returns: Reconciling the Evidence on Firm versus Aggregate Returns

Aggregate stock market returns display negative skewness. Firm-level stock returns display positive skewness. The large literature that tries to explain the first stylized fact ignores the second. This paper provides a unified theory that reconciles the two facts by explicitly modeling firm-level heterogeneity. I build a stationary asset pricing model of firm announcement events where firm returns display positive skewness. I then show that cross-sectional heterogeneity in firm announcement events can lead to negative skewness in aggregate returns. I provide evidence consistent with the model predictions.

Evolutionary Patterns in Industrial Evolution

Evolutionary Patterns in Industrial Evolution

Estimating the Option Value of Waiting: A Dynamic Entry Game of the U.S. Local Telephone Competition

We estimate a dynamic oligopoly entry game in the early U.S. local telephone market. We observe the identities of potential entrants into local markets and therefore the waiting time of each potential entrant before it commits actual entry. To capture the feature of the data, we allow firms to be heterogeneous long-run players who have option value of waiting. We find that firm-level heterogeneity in entry costs plays a significant role in determining a firm's entry behavior into a local market. Our model can be used to conduct counterfactual simulations to understand the effectiveness of subsidy policies with different focuses.