This paper explores the existence and importance of financing constraints for R&D investments in large EU and US manufacturing companies over the 2000-2007 period. The main results obtained by estimating error-correction equations suggest that the sensitivity of R&D investments to cash flow...

This paper revisits the credit spread puzzle for banks from the perspective of information contagion. The puzzle consists of two stylized facts: Structural determinants of credit risk not only have low explanatory power but also fail to capture common factors in the residuals. We reproduce the...

Empirical models of capital accumulation estimated on aggregate data series are based on the assumption that capital asset types respond in the same way to cost variables. Likewise, aggregate models do not consider potential heterogeneity in investment behavior originating on the demand side for...

Little is known yet about the impact of the COVID crisis on household income and jobs in absence of real time information on these variables. A recent literature strand has sought to overcome data limitations to assess the distributional impact of policy measures taken in the EU using various...

Firm investment, Intangible assets, Loan terms, Credit constraint, Survey data, Instrumental variable approachUsing European firm-level data from a new survey, the EIBIS, we document the effect of bank loan terms on investment in intangible assets of non-financial corporations. We show that...

The worldwide trend to decentralize the responsibilities and budgets of governments impacts local firm dynamics in various ways. We use the example of Spain to test empirically whether the decentralization of governance has been conducive to increased diversification and a more even city-size...

How do firm-level collective agreements affect firm performance in a multi-level bargaining system? Using detailed Belgian linked employer-employee panel data, our findings show that firm agreements increase both wage costs and labour productivity (with respect to sector-level agreements)....

This paper examines the macroeconomic effects of tax changes in the EU between 2000 and 2016. The novelty of our approach hinges on the use of real-time estimates of discretionary fiscal adjustments, covering personal income taxes, social insurance contributions, corporate income taxes and value...