We study the determinants of value creation in the cross section of U.S. commercial banks. We develop novel measures of individual bank's productivities at collecting deposits and making loans. We relate these measures to bank market values and find that variation in deposit productivity...

There is a divergence in the returns of top-performing (star) firms and the rest of the economy, especially in industries that rely on a skilled labor force, raising concerns about their market power. We show that the divergence is explained by the mis-measurement of intangible capital. While...

The quality management is one of the methods to optimize the relation between the products quality and the costs involved. In quality management, the basic principle is that through a moderate increase in costs to prevent defects, ultimately is achieved a substantial decrease in costs due to...

This paper investigates whether financial obstacles, and, more generally, financial pressure faced by firms, significantly affect firm growth. For this purpose, we use an unbalanced panel of about 1,000,000 observations for around 155,000 non-financial corporations in five euro area countries....

Firm-level investment paths are commonly characterised by periods of low or zero investment punctuated by large investment 'spikes'. We document that such spikes are important for understanding firm and aggregate level investment in the UK. We show that annual variation in aggregate investment...

We examine the link between corporate financing and investment decisions of European firms by using a novel firm-level survey of the European Investment Bank (EIBIS). The survey provides rich quantitative information of a wide range of financing sources and tangible and intangible investment...

In this paper we study firm dynamics and industry equilibrium when firms under financial distress face a non-trivial choice between alternative bankruptcy procedures. Given limited commitment and asymmetric information, financial contracts specify default, renegotiation and reorganization...

The process of globalization encompasses economic and financial integration. Abolition of capital controls and dismantling of barriers of different kinds are important ingredients of the process that will entirely change the exposure of previously sheltered companies to shocks on the global...

The process of globalization encompasses economic and financial integration. The abolition of capital controls and the dismantling of barriers of different kinds will expose previously sheltered companies to shocks on the global economic arena. Policy-makers in already globalized countries have...

This paper investigates whether financial obstacles, and, more generally, financial pressure faced by firms, significantly affect firm growth. For this purpose, we use an unbalanced panel of about 1,000,000 observations for around 155,000 non-financial corporations in five euro area countries....