This study investigates the impact macroeconomic factors have on corporate capital structure in Sweden. We use a panel data analysis of unbalanced data for the sample period, 2005-2014. While previous research has shown that key factors internal to the firm are highly correlated with leverage, such as profitability, asset tangibility and firm size, we add external factors and test for economic growth, inflation, interest rates, corporate tax rates, and exchange rates. Our models do not present any substantial explanatory power for the relationship between the macroeconomic environment and different leverage ratios. This study finds some support for certain indicators, although not consistent across ratios.

This study examines the determinants of economic growth at sub-national level in South Africa, and investigates cross-locality medium-term (five-year) growth rate differentials between 354 magisterial districts. The period in question is 1998 to 2002. A dynamic panel data regression model is used that includes measures of geography (distance and natural resources) as well as recent estimates of physical and human capital. It is found that the significant determinants of local economic growth are distance from internal markets, human capital, export propensity, and the capital stock of municipalities (reflecting institutional quality and governance on local government level). Distance from international harbours, as a measure of transport costs, and urban agglomeration (or density) affects growth indirectly through its significant effect on the ability of a region to export. Overall, these results indicate that geography is important for economic growth, independent of its effects in institutions. Bearing in mind the medium-term focus of the work, no evidence of absolute convergence could be found over a five-year period, rather the tentative evidence suggests slow beta convergence. / Thesis (Ph.D. (Economics))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2005.

This study examines the determinants of economic growth at sub-national level in South Africa, and investigates cross-locality medium-term (five-year) growth rate differentials between 354 magisterial districts. The period in question is 1998 to 2002. A dynamic panel data regression model is used that includes measures of geography (distance and natural resources) as well as recent estimates of physical and human capital. It is found that the significant determinants of local economic growth are distance from internal markets, human capital, export propensity, and the capital stock of municipalities (reflecting institutional quality and governance on local government level). Distance from international harbours, as a measure of transport costs, and urban agglomeration (or density) affects growth indirectly through its significant effect on the ability of a region to export. Overall, these results indicate that geography is important for economic growth, independent of its effects in institutions. Bearing in mind the medium-term focus of the work, no evidence of absolute convergence could be found over a five-year period, rather the tentative evidence suggests slow beta convergence. / Thesis (Ph.D. (Economics))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2005.

This study reviews the competition and productivity of the U.S. freight transportation industry for the past 41 years. This study investigated the trends of HHI market concentration index values and labor productivity values of rail and truck sectors and tried to find any relationships between the two values in the separate periods before and after the abolishment of the ICC. This study also investigated how the existence of a regulatory body impacted productivity of the freight transportation industry by using a Cobb Douglas production function on annual financial statement data in the U.S. stock exchange market. This study found that: while the truck sector became more competitive after the abolishment of the ICC, the rail sector became less competitive, both sectors had a strong positive correlation between HHI and labor productivity, and the ICC’s abolishment resulted in positive changes of total factor productivity for the truck sector only.

Ten years have passed since Wal-Mart’s public announcement about its RFID technology adoption plan in 2003. Some large competitors of Wal-Mart in the U.S. retail industry jumped on the trend of RFID technology adoption. However, many U.S. retailers do not consider adopting RFID technology because of the uncertainty of return on investment and the lack of business cases demonstrating its profitability, productivity, or efficiency. This study investigates whether RFID companies have better financial performance ratios in the U.S. retail industry. RFID retailers have significantly higher operating margin, lower days-in-inventory, and lower per-employee costs. Compared with pre-RFID, the RFID retailers did not improve profit ratios after they adopted it, but their days-in-inventory ratio and sales efficiency improved significantly. Compared to small RFID retailers, large RFID retailers show greater inventory management efficiency and sales efficiency. Regression analyses show that inventory management efficiency does impact gross margins, but the impact of cost efficiency is negligible. RFID retailers have a positive relationship with gross margin increases. The regression analyses using the Cobb-Douglas production function show that the RFID retailers have a little higher labor productivity than non-RFID retailers. In summary, the analyses reveals that RFID retailers have a better record of maintaining an efficient inventory management and higher labor productivity, but more research is needed to demonstrate the relationship between cost efficiency and profitability.

This paper examines whether the total amount issued of a company has an effect on corporate bonds’ yield spreads on the Swedish debt capital market. With panel data regression of over 150,000 observations from over 20 investment graded companies, it is found that the relationship is smile-like. Companies with lower and higher amount of issued bonds have a higher yield spread compared to those in the middle-size range of the same credit risk. The significance hold after controlling for other regressors such as bond-specific, firm-specific, and macroeconomic variables. The effect can be viewed as a market-illiquidity problem from the theory of constrained investors where Swedish issuers outgrow the smaller SEK market and the yield spread levels are not fully explained by default risk determinants. The paper’s result indicates that the total amount outstanding of a company has a role in explaining the dynamics of corporate bonds’ yield spread. / Denna uppsats undersöker om det totala utfärdade beloppet för ett företag har en effekt på företagsobligationers yield spread på den svenska skuldkapitalmarknaden. Med paneldataregression på över 150,000 observationer från över 20 investeringsgraderade företag kan det konstateras att förhållandet är icke-linjärt. Företag med lägre och högre belopp emitterade obligationer har en högre yield spread jämfört med dem i medelstorleksintervallet av samma kreditrisk. Signifikansen håller efter kontroll för andra regressorer, såsom obligationsspecifika, företagsspecifika och makroekonomiska variabler. Effekten kan ses som ett problem med illikviditet på marknaden utifrån teorin om begränsade investerare där svenska emittenter växer ifrån den mindre SEK-marknaden. Uppsatsens resultat indikerar att det totala utestående beloppet för ett företag har en roll i att förklara dynamiken i företagsobligationernas yield spread.

This study aims to provide insights into the interplay between environmental, social, and governance (ESG) scores and financial outcomes by investigating whether it leads to enhanced financial performance and firm value, partly during the economic crisis constituted by the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) and COVID-19 pandemic. The study uses the theoretical frameworks stakeholder theory, resource-based view (RBV) theory, as well as customer and investor preference theory as an explanatory model for the results conducted by the panel data regression on a dataset of 248 companies derived from the Standard & Poor’s (S&P) 500 index from 2006 to 2023. The study found that ESG performance significantly enhances both return on capital employed (ROCE) and Tobin's Q. A one-unit increase in ESG score leads to a 0.59860 percentage increase in ROCE and a 0.5329 percentage increase in Tobin's Q. It can be established that larger companies exhibit lower financial performance and market valuations, while companies in the lowest ESG score quartile benefit more from ESG improvements. The impact of ESG scores on firm value is more pronounced during the Global Financial Crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic. The empirical findings from this study provide robust evidence supporting the theoretical framework and the growing body of literature suggesting a positive relationship between ESG performance and corporate financial outcomes. The findings offer valuable insights for business leaders, policymakers, and investors on the strategic importance of sustainability initiatives in today's complex business environment.

<p dir="ltr">Airport parking revenues become essential in maintaining daily aeronautical and non-aeronautical operations and financing capital expenditures. There exist significant variations between different airports in terms of their parking revenues, and such variations will not be eliminated when airport parking revenue is standardized by passenger volume. Given the limited empirical research on airport parking revenues, this study examines the variation of airport parking revenue per locally originating passenger using random-effects regression on a five-year panel dataset. Our regression results reveal a significant positive relationship between airport economy parking price and airport parking revenue per locally originating passenger. Additionally, we find a significant positive relationship between household vehicle ownership and airport parking revenue per locally originating passenger. However, the number of offsite parking service providers can lead to a significant negative effect on airport parking revenue per locally originating passenger. Based on these findings, airport operators can implement strategic management initiatives tailored to local market conditions, with the goal of optimizing airport parking revenues and improving passenger welfare.</p>

The aim of this thesis is to identify fiscal behaviour of municipalities in the Czech Republic within economic cycle. The starting point of this thesis is that municipalities do not have the responsibility for macroeconomic stability, unlike the central level of government, and their preference is sustainability of its own budget. Absence of a motivation for implementing the countercyclical policy leads to a consideration that the behaviour of municipalities is rather procyclical. For the analysis there were used datas of 325 municipalities during the time from 2001 to 2014. The research was designed to test the dependence of the budgetary indicator on the output gap. As a method of exploration there was used the panel regression analysis with random effects estimate for help with robust standard errors in the version of White cross-section method. The results confirmed a statistically significant effect of the output gap on the budgetary indicators, tax revenues, tax on personal income from self-employment and capital expenditures. With the growth of the output gap also tax revenues and revenues from taxes on a personal income from self-employment are growing. With the growth of the output gap capital expenditures are declining. These budgetary indicators are developed countercyclical. A statistically significant effect of the output gap on the other budgetary indicators failed to prove. The main hypothesis of this thesis is not rejected. Budgetary behaviour municipalities in the Czech Republic is influenced by the economic cycle. Fiscal behaviour of municipalities in the Czech Republic within economic cycle is countercyclical.

A área de cultivos de sequeiro no Uruguai quadriplicou-se na ultima década como consequência dos aumentos nos preços das commodities, do crescimento da soja e da rápida consolidação da lógica empresarial na produção de grãos. A conduta das principais empresas agrícolas mudou a realidade do setor, aumentando a concentração da terra e deslocando outras atividades. Novas regiões começaram a ser utilizadas para a agricultura e o incremento da demanda pelos arrendamentos da terra elevou os preços e dificultou o acesso a este recurso. Utilizando como referencial teórico o paradigma Estrutura-Conduta-Desempenho da Organização Industrial, a pesquisa foi realizada com o objetivo de identificar e analisar como as variáveis da conduta empresarial afetaram os resultados, consolidando assim o processo de expansão agrícola no Uruguai. Foram realizadas entrevistas com experts visando identificar as empresas a serem entrevistadas, das quais seis responderam sobre as suas estratégias e resultados no período 2004/05 a 2008/09. Os dados foram analisados com ferramentas de estatística descritiva, matrizes de correlações e pela construção de modelos de regressão com dados em painel, visando identificar variáveis da conduta que explicassem a expansão da área e da produção, além das variações na produtividade e nas margens líquidas por hectare. Os modelos foram testados em três subgrupos de variáveis, aquelas pertencentes à totalidade da empresa, à produção de soja e do trigo. Os resultados demonstram que a maior distribuição dos sistemas de produção nas regiões do Uruguai e a proporção de terra arrendada tiveram efeito estatisticamente significativo e positivo na expansão da área e da produção, indicando a importância destas duas estratégias nos resultados. Apesar de que o arrendamento da terra tenha permitido gerar incrementos na área e na produção do bloco de empresas, teve um efeito negativo na produtividade da soja. Isto confirmou a necessidade de desenvolver mais eficientes processos de produção, aprimorando as parcerias com os proprietários da terra, perspectivas que foram apontadas pelas empresas. Após a realização desta pesquisa, estima-se que a continuidade da expansão agrícola ocorra a partir de ajustes nos processos de produção mais do que por novos aumentos importantes da superfície. / Uruguayan dry land cropping has quadrupled in the last decade as a result of important increases in commodities prices, the growth in soybean cropping, and the fast consolidation of grain production enterprise models. The actions of the most important agricultural companies have modified the sector’s reality, increasing the land concentration and relocating other activities. New regions began being used for cropping and the increase in demand for land to lease resulted in higher rental values and more difficulty of access to this resource. Using the Structure-Conduct-Performance paradigm of the Industrial Organization as a theoretical reference, the research was carried out with the aim of identifying and analyzing how enterprise conduct variables affected the results, therefore consolidating the agricultural expansion process in Uruguay. Expert interviews were carried out, with the aim of identifying the companies to be later analyzed. Six of them reported their strategies and results in the period between 2004/05 and 2008/09. Data processing and analysis were undertaken through the descriptive statistic study, correlations matrices and through the construction of panel data regression models. This was developed with the aim of identifying enterprise conduct variables which explained the area and productive expansions, apart from productivity variations and net margins per hectare. Models were evaluated in three sub-groups of variables; those that belonged to the whole company and the ones related to wheat or soybean production. Results indicate that an increase in territorial diversification of production areas in the different Uruguayan regions, and the proportion of leased land had a statistically significant and positive effect on area and production expansion, which indicates the significance of these two strategies in the companies’ results. Although land leasing allowed an increase in production and area, it had a negative effect on the soybean productivity. This situation reaffirms the need to develop more efficient production processes, by improving relationships with land owners, a fact that was rated as highly relevant by the companies. Through this research, it can be conclude that the continuity of agricultural expansion will take place through production-process improvements, rather than through significant increases in the cropping areas. / La superficie de cultivos de secano en Uruguay se cuadriplicó en la última década como resultado de importantes aumentos en los precios de las commodities, del crecimiento de la soja y de la rápida consolidación de modelos empresariales en la producción de granos. La conducta de las principales empresas agrícolas modificó la realidad del sector, aumentando la concentración de la tierra y reubicando otras actividades. Nuevas regiones comenzaron a ser utilizadas para la agricultura y el incremento de la demanda por arrendamientos de tierra elevó sus precios y dificultó el acceso a este recurso. Utilizando como referencial teórico el paradigma Estructura-Conducta-Resultados de la Organización Industrial, el trabajo fue realizado con el objetivo de identificar y analizar como las variables de la conducta empresarial afectaron los resultados, consolidando así el proceso de expansión agrícola en Uruguay. Fueron realizadas entrevistas a experts, con el objetivo de identificar a las empresas que posteriormente fueron analizadas. Seis de ellas respondieron sobre sus estrategias y resultados en el período comprendido entre la zafra 2004/05 y 2008/09. El procesamiento y análisis de los datos se hizo a partir del estudio de estadística descriptiva, matrices de correlaciones y a partir de la construcción de modelos de regresión con datos de panel. Esto fue realizado con el objetivo de identificar variables de la conducta empresarial que explicaron la expansión del área y la producción, además de las variaciones en la productividad y en los márgenes neto por hectárea. Los modelos fueron evaluados en tres subgrupos de variables, aquellas que pertenecían a la totalidad de la empresa y las relacionadas con la producción de soja o de trigo. Los resultados indican que la mayor diversificación territorial de los sistemas de producción en las diferentes regiones de Uruguay y la proporción de tierra arrendada tuvieron un efecto estadísticamente significativo y positivo en la expansión del área y la producción, lo que indica la importancia de estas dos estrategias en los resultados de las empresas. A pesar de que el arrendamiento de la tierra permitió aumentar la producción y área, tuvo un efecto negativo en la productividad de la soja. Esto situación reafirma la necesidad de desarrollar procesos de producción más eficientes, mejorando las relaciones con los propietarios de la tierra, situaciones que fueron evaluadas como muy relevantes por las empresas. A partir de este trabajo se concluye que la continuidad de la expansión agrícola tendrá lugar a partir de mejoras en los procesos de producción y no por nuevos aumentos significativos en la superficie.