This thesis presents two essays in Corporate Finance. In the first essay, I use the August 2007 crisis episode to gauge the effect of financial contracting on real firm behavior. I identify heterogeneity in financial contracting at the onset of the crisis by exploiting ex-ante variation in...

What relationship exists between working conditions and teacher turnover in child-care (early care and education) programs? Research has shown high staff turnover is a major factor affecting the quality of care. Using a new survey and data set I designed of union and randomly selected non-union...

International acquisitions are extremely difficult to maneuver and success is far from guaranteed. Navigating through financial statements is one thing, but trying to link together two or more geographically and culturally diverse workforces is an entirely another thing. This study analyzes...

The past few years have witnessed the increasing ubiquity ofuser-generated content on seller reputation and product condition inInternet based used-good markets. Recent theoretical models of tradingand sorting in used-good markets provide testable predictions to use toexamine the presence of...

This paper investigates the roles of industrial cluster on the efficiency of rice milling and the improvement of milled rice quality. The data were obtained in Kumasi area, central Ghana because the enhancement of domestic rice production is a urgent policy issue in this country, but little...

The challenge of implementing EU quality and safety standards for food production and trading is one of the driving forces behind the restructuring of the agrofood chains in Central and Eastern European Countries (CEEC). The progress made in the compliance process not only varies amongst sectors...

A repeated-purchases model is developed to explore the fundamental economic factors that lie behind the choice of different quality assurance systems and their associated degrees of stringency by firms. Differences in the quality discoverability of a sought-after attribute, market structure,...

Participants in a supply chain of agricultural value-added products face significant challenges. Many of the costly distinctive traits desired by consumers are difficult (if not impossible) to observe even after consumption. A complicating factor, addressed here, is that in some circumstances...

The Fruit and Vegetables (FV) sector has a relevant and increasing economic value in the EU, accountingfor about 20% of the total value of agricultural production; the Countries with higher significance are Greece, Spainand Italy (from 25% to 35%). Nevertheless the producers are negatively...

One bank that is committed in managing Islamic banking services is Bank Syariah Mandiri.Bank Syariah Mandiri, a bank run business based on Islamic Sharia principles. This principle is poured into a pillar muamalah based on the value of fairness, trust, partnership, transparency, and mutual...