We investigate the importance of employer preferences in explaining Sticky Floors, the pattern that women are, compared to men, less likely to start to climb the job ladder. To this end we perform a randomised field experiment in the Belgian labour market and test whether hiring discrimination...

Numerous empirical studies find a substantial extent of discrimination in hiring decisions. Anonymous job applications have gained attention and popularity to identify and combat this form of discrimination. To test whether their intended effects result in practice, in several European countries...

We introduce a novel data set to analyze the impact of the Covid-19 crisis on SME cash flows. The crisis led to a sharp drop in economic activity in the UK, which hit SMEs harder than larger businesses. The data set comprises monthly information on all 2 million SMEs that have current accounts...

This study examines the influence of labour market conditions on corporate capital structure in a sample of 2,892 firms from France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and the UK. After considering the effect of unemployment and inflation, we analyse the impact of two market imperfections: employees’...

The global financial crisis has shown that money affects the real economy. This study examines the influence of the price and stock of money in the economy on capital structure throughout the business cycle during the last financial crisis, with particular focus on the roles of long- and...

This study illustrates how information from micro-level and survey-based databases can be used, along with macroeconomic indicators, to provide a better understanding of corporates' investment obstacles. We investigate impediments to corporate investment across the EU. We use a novel dataset...

The spread of minority equity interest by large investors within productive sectors has garnered theattention of major institutions worldwide. This work draws a picture of such “common ownership”in the European energy industry in 2007-2018, by means of novel indicators covering both the...

Using microdata, we analyse the determinants of firm relocation and conventional outsourcing decisions as a way to reduce employment. The results for a sample of 32 countries show the relevance of factors not considered previously in the literature. Firms that are below average in quality or...

This paper looks into the recruitment processes of a number of European companies and puts particular emphasis on the importance of the use of informal recruitment channels and of direct applications combined with waiting lists. Through this we seek to generate new knowledge about how European...

This study examines the remuneration of non-executive directors, examining individual monitoring characteristics and director capital in addition to firm characteristics. Using a large sample of FTSE All-Share non-executive directors from 2001-2012, we find that remuneration is positively linked...