Ownership concentration and market value of European banks

This paper investigates the relationship between ownership concentration and market value of European banks, and the role of the institutional environment in shaping this relationship. Using GMM dynamic estimator on a sample of European banks over a 13-year period (1993–2005) we find on average a negative effect of ownership concentration on bank value, measured by Tobin's Q. However, this effect varies across different institutional settings; while higher ownership concentration results in a lower bank value particularly in the countries belonging to German legal family, the impact of ownership concentration is positive in Scandinavia. We propose that, besides the legal protection of small investors, the differences in the impact of ownership concentration across the countries could be due to the identity of the predominant owners, i.e. financial institutions in Germany and trusts and foundations in Scandinavia. This in turn implies that restrictions of shareholdings in banks could alleviate governance problems in some countries, but lower bank valuation in others.     

Quantification of symmetry for functional data with application to equine lameness classification

This paper presents a study on symmetry of repeated bi-phased data signals, in particular, on quantification of the deviation between the two parts of the signal. Three symmetry scores are defined using functional data techniques such as smoothing and registration. One score is related to the L ₂-distance between the two parts of the signal, whereas the other two are constructed to specifically measure differences in amplitude and phase. Moreover, symmetry scores based on functional principal component analysis (PCA) are examined. The scores are applied to acceleration signals from a study on equine gait. The scores turn out to be highly associated with lameness, and their applicability for lameness quantification and detection is investigated. Four classification approaches turn out to give similar results. The scores describing amplitude and phase variation turn out to outperform the PCA scores when it comes to the classification of lameness.     

Table of Contents Volume 7 2003

Volume Contents

Table of Contents Volume 7 2003     

Treating intimate partner violence within intact couple relationships: outcomes of multi-couple versus individual couple therapy

An experimental design was used to determine outcomes of a domestic violence-focused treatment program for couples that choose to stay together after mild-to-moderate violence has occurred. Forty-two couples were randomly assigned to either individual couple or multi-couple group treatment. Nine couples served as the comparison group. Male violence recidivism rates 6 months after treatment were significantly lower for the multi-couple group (25%) than for the comparison group (66%). In contrast, men in the individual couple condition were not significantly less likely to recidivate (43%) than those in the comparison group. In addition, marital satisfaction increased significantly, and both marital aggression and acceptance of wife battering decreased significantly among individuals who participated in multi-couple group therapy, but not among those who participated in individual couple therapy or the comparison group.     

Educational assortative mating: a micro‐educational approach

This article presents a new way of analysing educational assortative mating patterns, using a detailed ‘micro‐educational’ classification capturing both hierarchical and horizontal forms of educational differentiation. Taking advantage of rich Danish population data, we apply log‐linear models that include four ways of measuring educational homogamy patterns: (a) by returns to education, (b) by macro‐education (five aggregated levels), (c) by field of study (16 categories), and (d) by a disaggregated micro‐educational classification, combining levels and fields of study (54 groups). Our results show declines in educational homogamy from 1984 to 2013, but the odds ratios of being educationally homogamous at the university college and university levels remain of substantial magnitude, by both the macro‐ and micro‐educational measures. The micro‐educational classification outperforms all other measures in explaining the associations in the homogamy tables. The income measure (‘returns to education’) does a particularly poor job of explaining homogamy patterns from 1984 to 2013.     

“Responsiveness of mature oak trees (Quercus robur L.) to soil water dynamics and meteorological constraints in urban environments”

Urban Ecosystems - Urban trees contribute to the regulation of microclimates of cities through transpirational cooling. The main environmental factors determining transpiration are evaporative...     

Delistings and the costs of governance: a study of European stock exchanges 1996–2004

In recent years there has been a dramatic increase in delistings from stock exchanges in the US and Europe, and this trend has been partly attributed to increasing administrative costs in listed companies. Has corporate governance regulation gone too far? We examine delistings from European stock exchanges 1996–2004 and find that standard corporate governance regulation—like investor protection and corporate governance codes—is associated with more delistings and in particularly going private transactions. In contrast, the tendency to go private is found to be lower, when the quality of overall governance is high. The results continue to hold when we take into consideration that governance policy may be endogenous.     

Ownership Structure and Value of the Largest European Firms: The Importance of Owner Identity

The paper examines the relationship betweenownership structure and value of the largestEuropean firms. Using simultaneous estimationand controlling for nation and industry effectswe find that ownership concentration (measuredby the fraction of ``closely held' shares) hasa positive effect on firm value (market-to-bookvalue of equity), when the largest owner is afinancial institution or another corporation. If the largest owner is a family or a singleindividual, ownership concentration has noeffect on firm value, and the effect isnegative if the largest owner is a governmentorganisation. Firm value is found to have apositive feedback effect on ownershipconcentration except for governments, whichhold higher stakes in low-value firms. Inother words, owner-identity matters,particularly in a Continental Europeaninstitutional setting where ownershipconcentration is high and minority investorprotection is low.     

再回中国就像回家

<正>我的名字叫斯格里德(Sigrid),中文名字叫全心宜,今年17岁,来自瑞士。我来到中国是因为这个国家看起来如此不同,如此有趣,我想要经历一些与过去不同的事情,所以我来到中国。起初,一切看起来那么困难,我什么都不懂,