Why do some countries industrialize later than others? Recent literature suggests that the prime reason is low agricultural productivity. This paper argues that the initial level of human capital could also be a contributing factor. We construct a neoclassical growth model, which predicts that...

Using data from a panel of 15 countries over the period 1990-1998, the determinants of the use of non cash payment instruments are analysed. The estimation results highlight the importance of distinguishing between the determinants of the value and volume of noncash transactions. It is found in...

Using a panel of 5999 Belgian small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) over the period 2002-2008, we employ a Bayesian approach to derive firm-varying investment-cash flow sensitivities (ICFS) from reduced-form investment equations which include different measures of investment opportunities...

We investigate the extent to which financing constraints affect the innovation activities of over 120,000 mainly unlisted Chinese firms over the period 2000–2007. Based on a variety of specifications and estimation methods, we document that Chinese firms' innovation activities are constrained...

We examine the relationship between the degree of foreign ownership and performance of recipient firms, using a panel of 21,582 Chinese firms over the period 2000-2005. We find that joint-ventures perform better than wholly foreign-owned and purely domestic firms. Although productivity and...

We construct a dynamic monopolistic competition model with heterogeneous firms to study the links between firms' earnings volatility, their degree of financial constraints, their survival probabilities, and their export market participation decisions. Our model predicts that more volatile firms...