The principal aim of this paper is to test how firm characteristics affect Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) capital structure. We carry out an empirical analysis over a panel data of 6482 non?financial Spanish SMEs along the five-year period 1994?1998, modelling the leverage ratio as a function...

In this paper a hierarchic Gamma model for the Bayesian analysis of unemployment duration with covariables is proposed. We modelize the risk function of each individual with the corresponding to a Gamma distribution associated with its covariables by means of a non-deterministic relationship...

We study the incentive problem between the owners of a firm and its CEO's due to the unobservability of the manager's actions. Our model departs from the literature in two ways. First, we acknowledge that, in contrast with standard repeated moral hazard models, actions taken by CEO's have a...

The study focuses on the analysis of market orientation and its effects on two of the most significant sectors in the Valencian Community: the ceramics sector and the tourism sector. Particularly, there arises the need for companies in these sectors to adopt market orientation as a management...

This paper treats of a public investment project in an important area named themediterranean arc. Specifically, it is dedicated to design and value an expansion projectof a shipping port. The valuation methodology is based on the contingent claimsanalysis, using equilibrium arguments. This...

The paper examines the origin of the differences in the wage distribution between native-born and immigrant workers in the Spanish labour market, paying special attention to the effect of immigrant segregation into low-paying occupations and firms. Our evidence reveals that immigrants from...

This paper analyzes the role of religious conflict in the process of development of a country. We construct an index of religious polarization using data on the proportions of each religion in a country. The index of polarization is an alternative to the usual fragmentation index. We argue that...

This paper analyzes the relationship between human capital and convergence with a model that takes into account the different effects of human capital accumulation on regional convergence. As an input, human capital produces convergence due to both decreasing returns and public intervention on...

This study analyses cost and revenue inefficiencies for a sample of European railway companies. On the basis of a DEA model we calculate cost and revenue inefficiencies, decomposing them into inefficiencies of a technical or allocative type. It is observed that inefficiencies in revenues are...

As a result of the publication of the Code of Corporate Good Governance in 1998, known as the Olivencia Code, some companies voluntarily created an audit committee, after the recommendation of the Code in which all companies, especially listed, were encouraged to create them. Therefore, the aim...