We study the influence of television translation techniques on the quality of the English spoken across the EU and OECD. We identify a large positive effect for subtitled original version as opposed to dubbed television, which loosely corresponds to between four and twenty years of compulsory...

We study the price convergence of goods and services in the euro area in 2001-2002. To measure the degree of convergence, we compare the prices of around 220 items in 32 European cities. The width of the border is the price difference attributed to the fact that the two cities are in different...

We present a model that shows how interactions between creditor groups in bankruptcy can affect the debt issuance decisions of firms, and test the most important implications of the theory. In particular, we show that firms that issue debt with a specific seniority level may tend to keep issuing...

We study how the adoption of the euro as the common currency in Europe has affected firms' investment rates. Using corporate data from the eleven countries that adopted the euro in January 1999, as well as from a control sample of five other European countries, our paper shows that: (i) the euro...

In this paper we study the changes in corporate valuations induced by the adoption of the euro as the common currency in Europe. We use corporate-level data from eleven countries that adopted the euro, the three EU countries that did not start using the euro, as well as Norway and Switzerland....

Cross-border mergers allow firms to alter the level of protection they provide to their investors, because target firms usually import the corporate governance system of the acquiring company by law. Therefore, cross-border mergers provide a natural experiment to analyze the effects of changes...

In this paper we study the changes in corporate valuation, investments, and financing choices induced by the formation of Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) in Europe. We use corporate - level data from ten countries that adopted the euro, the three EU countries that did not join EMU, as well as...

Using data from 20 countries that have suffered a currency crisis, this paper studies firm-level leverage and performance before and after a crisis has occurred. First we provide some evidence of increasing leverage both before and after a crisis. We show that, in the years preceding a currency...

This paper provides an explanation of currency crises based on an argument that bailing out financially distressed exporting firms through a currency depreciation is ex-post optimal. Exporting firms have profitable investment opportunities, but they will not invest because high leverage causes...

We present a model that shows how interactions between creditor groups in bankruptcy can affect the debt issuance decisions of firms. In particular, we show that firms that issue debt with a specific seniority level may tend to keep issuing debt at the same level to avoid the costs of conflicts...