exchange rate fundamentals forecasting and speculation bayesian models in black markets summary although speculative activity is central to black markets for currency the out of sample performance of structural models in those settings is unknown we substantially update the literature on empirical determinants of black market rates and evaluate the out of sample performance of linear models and non parametric bayesian treed gaussian process btgp models against the random walk benchmark fundamentals based models outperform the benchmark in out of sample prediction accuracy and trading rule profitability measures given future values of fundamentals in simulated real time trading exercises however the btgp achieves superior realized profitability accuracy and market timing while linear models do no better than a random walk copyright 2013 john wiley sons ltd

impacts of wind and solar spatial diversification on its market value a case study of the chilean electricity market abstract renewable energy is expected to become the main electricity source in the world in the coming decades with solar and wind power taking a big share of the energy supply although there has been a remarkable advance on renewable energy technologies their integration is still difficult for regulators market designers and system operators due to the high variability and limited predictability of solar and wind resources measures can be adopted to ease their integration among them geographical diversification there is plenty of literature about the diversification of solar and wind resources and there is a common conclusion greater dispersion smooths out power production however literature on the effects of spatial diversification on the power system electricity prices and renewable energy market value is much scarcer this paper studies the effects of spatial diversification and questions whether integration policies are incentivizing the placement of renewable generators where they provide the highest value to the electricity system in chile using real data and a simplified dispatch model the analysis presented shows evidence of the effects of diversification on wind and solar market value in chile results suggest that spatial diversification has a strong positive effect on the market value of renewable energy especially in scenarios with active transmission and hydro storage constraints wind market value may vary up to us 10 mw h depending on the level of diversification and the spatial and temporal constraints of the system and given current storage capacity of hydro reservoirs the solar market value may increase us 5 mw h due to diversification if transmission capacity is enough even though these results must be observed with caution because they depend on the assumptions made there is an important effect of renewable spatial diversification that should be observed by regulators

res and risk renewable energy s contribution to energy security a portfolio based approach abstract during the first decade of the 21st century renewable energy sources res had been gaining momentum due to environmental issues concerns about pollution and climate change have raised public awareness encouraging governments to adopt policies to preserve and protect the environment regarding energy res promotion together with energy efficiency measures has been the main policy response to address such concerns as a consequence res development during the first decade of the 21st century has been remarkable although res deployment has been mainly focused on achieving environmental goals its potential contribution to energy security went not unnoticed however it is worth noting that while the trade off between environmental goals and the use of res to accomplish them and competitiveness has been widely explored the relationship between energy security and res has received less attention both at the conceptual and energy policy levels this article tries to address such a relationship the present article focuses on renewable electricity imports as illustrated by the case of the mediterranean solar plan after introducing the energy security energy risk concept and its dimensions the article focuses on the contribution of res in terms of security of supply for a given energy mix using the portfolio theory most of the analyses of the interactions between res and energy security focus on the national level with res being mainly conceived as a substitute for fuel imports to produce electricity and reduce so called energy dependence however new transmission technologies allow the import of electricity directly from neighbouring countries far out of the range of regular electricity lines therefore this article tries to broaden the analysis of energy security to international res trade flows applying the previous discussion to the main project involving significant international green electricity trade the mediterranean solar plan

the effect of utility time varying pricing and load control strategies on residential summer peak electricity use a review abstract peak demand for electricity in north america is expected to grow challenging electrical utilities to supply this demand in a cost effective reliable manner therefore there is growing interest in strategies to reduce peak demand by eliminating electricity use or shifting it to non peak times this strategy is commonly called demand response in households common strategies are time varying pricing which charge more for energy use on peak or direct load control which allows utilities to curtail certain loads during high demand periods we reviewed recent north american studies of these strategies the data suggest that the most effective strategy is a critical peak price cpp program with enabling technology to automatically curtail loads on event days there is little evidence that this causes substantial hardship for occupants particularly if they have input into which loads are controlled and how and have an override option in such cases a peak load reduction of at least 30 is a reasonable expectation it might be possible to attain such load reductions without enabling technology by focusing on household types more likely to respond and providing them with excellent support a simple time of use tou program can only expect to realise on peak reductions of 5

foreign entry cultural barriers and learning this paper examines the longevity of foreign entries hypotheses are developed on the mode start ups vs acquisitions and ownership structure wholly owned vs joint ventures in relation to cultural distance the hypotheses are tested within a framework of organizational learning using data on 225 entries that 13 dutch firms carried out from 1966 onwards results show that the presence of cultural barriers punctuates an organization s learning cultural distance is a prominent factor in foreign entry whenever this involves another firm requiring the firm to engage in double layered acculturation we also identify locational paths of learning the longevity of acquisitions is positively influenced by prior entries of the firm in the same country similarly the longevity of foreign entries in which the firm has a majority stake improves whenever the expanding firm engaged in prior entries in the same country and in other countries in the same cultural block

cross border venture capital investments the impact of foreignness on returns against the background of the growing internationalization of venture capital vc investing this is the first global comparison of the returns generated by individual domestic and cross border deals we examine investments worldwide during 1971 2009 and find that cross border investments significantly underperform compared with equivalent domestic investments returns are negatively affected by geographic distances cultural disparities and institutional differences between the home and host countries returns on cross border and domestic deals also decline after the late 1990s international portfolio diversification and the saturation of domestic markets may explain why vc investors make cross border investments despite poor expected returns

optimal wind power deployment in europe a portfolio approach geographic diversification of wind farms can smooth out the fluctuations in wind power generation and reduce the associated system balancing and reliability costs the paper uses historical wind production data from five european countries austria denmark france germany and spain and applies the mean variance portfolio theory to identify cross country portfolios that minimise the total variance of wind production for a given level of production theoretical unconstrained portfolios show that countries spain and denmark with the best wind resource or whose size contributes to smoothing out the country output variability dominate optimal portfolios the methodology is then elaborated to derive optimal constrained portfolios taking into account national wind resource potential and transmission constraints and compare them with the projected portfolios for 2020 such constraints limit the theoretical potential efficiency gains from geographical diversification but there is still considerable room to improve performance from actual or projected portfolios these results highlight the need for more cross border interconnection capacity for greater coordination of european renewable support policies and for renewable support mechanisms and electricity market designs providing locational incentives under these conditions a mechanism for renewables credits trading could help aligning wind power portfolios with the theoretically efficient geographic dispersion 2009 elsevier ltd

the founding rate of venture capital firms in three european countries 1970 1990 abstract in this article the sectorial and environmental forces that facilitate or inhibit the creation of venture capital companies are studied in the three european countries where the industry is most developed the united kingdom france and the netherlands the focus is on the start up phase of the industry the period from 1970 1990 the founding of firms can be studied on four different levels entrepreneurial organizational population and macroeconomic in this study a population approach is taken this implies that we do not attempt to explain any single founding but rather the aggregate number of foundings that occur in an industry in a certain period in a certain country according to the organizational ecology theory the population density i e the total number of organizations in a population is the major environmental factor that affects the founding rate through two processes initially when the density is low each founding eases new foundings because the simple prevalence of a form tends to give it legitimacy thereby spurring imitations the training ground for qualified personnel grows and the supporting networks are widened and strengthened the legitimation process does not grow forever once enough organizations of a certain kind exist legitimation attains a ceiling as the number of organizations increases the second process becomes dominant the competition for resources raw material personnel customers capital grows leading to a negative relationship between the density and the founding rate everything else being equal thus the founding rate declines as the number of organizations increases once a threshold is reached the major hypothesis that is tested here is that the population density has an inverted u shaped effect on the founding rate of venture capital organizations in addition the effect that the venture capital firms of the three countries have on each other is studied two populations are said to interact when the populations affect each other s growth rate but the interaction need not be symmetrical the second hypothesis tested in this study is that populations in different countries have a positive effect on each other and not a competitive effect because the legitimating effect does not halt at geographical borders yet the competition for resources capital people deals among geographically different populations is limited in this industry this study is valuable because until now the existing ecological studies focus on long established industries testing the theory in a young industry that emerged only in the seventies in europe has merits in its own right because the technological progress after the second world war has altered the organizational environment tremendously the communication and transportation revolutions may have especially influenced the way in which organizations interact with each other and with the environment the venture capital firms are furthermore special in the way they are organized with the dual structure of management company and investment fund s if the theory holds in this young industry important additional evidence will be given that the theory is truly applicable to populations of all types in any time period and in any society carroll 1988 p 18 finally this study extends the theory by giving evidence on how industries in different countries may interact upon each other we show empirically that the major factor that influences the overall founding rate in each of the three countries is the density of the industry i e the number of organizations that already exist in the industry this confirms the population ecology theory when the density is low adding a new organization to the industry raises the probability of a subsequent founding when the density is high the contrary is true the institutional changes considered here such as the establishment of tax transparent legal entities or state guarantees against losses in the netherlands and the establishment of secondary stock markets do not significantly influence the founding rate in any of the three countries moreover the dutch foundings are positively influenced by the british density and the french foundings by the dutch density the british foundings are on the contrary negatively influenced by the dutch density the competitive effects between the netherlands and the u k are thus more important than initially thought the relationship between the density and the founding rate is the strongest most consistent and most significant relationship found in this study thus the number of organizations that already exist in an industry is very important in explaining the founding of organizations apart from for example the personality of the entrepreneur or from the networks in which he or she is involved this indicates that when trying to explain the founding of organizations the industry structure and more specifically the number of organizations that exist at the moment of the founding cannot be ignored

renewable generation and electricity prices taking stock and new evidence for germany and austria abstract economic theory predicts that the increase of renewable electricity production should reduce the price of electricity in the short run which is also known as the merit order effect although the merit order effect is only one of several consequences of renewable production on the electricity system it is crucial to determine its size for the economic evaluation of renewable energies in this paper we present a comprehensive overview of relevant past research results on the price effect of renewables additionally we conduct a new empirical analysis of the price effect of renewable production for the austrian german region a market that clearly qualifies for a merit order effect analysis given its characteristics based on the review and our own analysis we show that the merit order effect varies depending on the region and the assessment method chosen we also find that the size of this effect is less dispersed throughout different markets than previously suggested by the literature

venture capital internationalization synthesis and future research directions research on venture capital internationalization vc has expanded rapidly over the last decade this paper reviews the extant literature on vc internationalization and highlights gaps in our knowledge we identify three major research streams within this literature which revolve around the following questions 1 which vc firms invest across borders and what countries do they target with a macro economic or a micro economic focus 2 how do vc firms address the liabilities of non domestic investing and 3 what are the real effects of international vc investments we provide an overview of the contributions in these research streams discuss the role of public policy and suggest avenues for future research specifically we call for a deeper understanding of 1 the functioning and impact of vc firms modes of internationalization 2 micro level processes such as the functioning and decision making of international investment committees the interaction between headquarters and local offices or the development of international human and social capital 3 the role of country institutions in vc internationalization and its real effects and 4 the interplay of international vc with alternative financing sources

decarbonization scenarios for the eu and mena power system considering spatial distribution and short term dynamics of renewable generation we use the multi scale power system model limes eu to explore coordinated long term expansion pathways for renewable energy re generation long distance transmission and storage capacities for the power sector of the europe and middle east north africa mena regions that lead to a low emission power system we show that ambitious emission reduction targets can be achieved at moderate costs by a nearly complete switch to re sources until 2050 if transmission and storage capacities are expanded adequately limiting transmission capacities to current levels leads to higher storage requirements higher curtailments and to an increase in temporal and spatial electricity price variations results show an escalation of electricity prices if emission reductions exceed a critical value adequate expansion of transmission and storage capacities shift this threshold from 70 to 90 emission reductions in 2050 relative to 2010

cultural differences and cross border venture capital syndication we examine cross border syndication in investments led by foreign venture capitalists vcs focusing on the potential correlation between cultural differences and the formation of vc syndicates contrary to the risk sharing motive we find that a greater cultural disparity between the countries of investors and their companies is actually associated with smaller vc syndicates this is driven largely by lesser local investor representation in foreign vc led syndicates however certain cultural disparity related syndication strategies such as the involvement of locally experienced foreign vcs or syndicate members from culturally similar countries are associated with greater presence of local vcs who provide valuable monitoring services we further show that these culture linked syndication approaches are significantly correlated with vc financing and monitoring strategies in cross border investments and their eventual success

determinants of required return in venture capital investments a five country study abstract using two complementary theoretical perspectives we develop hypotheses regarding the determinants of the return required by venture capitalists and test them on a sample of over 200 venture capital companies vccs located in five countries consistent with resource based theory we find that early stage specialists require a significantly higher return than other vccs when investing in later stage ventures consistent with financial theory we find that acquisition buyout specialists require a significantly lower return than other vccs when investing in expansion companies furthermore in comparison to specialists highly stage diversified vccs require a significantly higher return for early stage investments independent vccs require a higher rate of return than captive or public vccs in general higher required returns are associated with vccs who provide more intensity of involvement have shorter expected holding period of the investment and being located in the us or uk in comparison to those in france belgium and the netherlands

where the wind blows assessing the effect of fixed and premium based feed in tariffs on the spatial diversification of wind turbines abstract feed in tariffs fit are among the most important policy instruments to promote renewable electricity production the fixed price fit ffit which guarantee a fixed price for every unit of produced electricity and the premium based fit pfit which pay a premium on top of the market price are commonly implemented in the eu costs for balancing intermittent electricity production may be significantly higher with ffit than with pfit and ffit do not provide any incentive to produce electricity when marginal production costs are high in contrast pfit do provide strong incentives to better match renewable power output with marginal production costs in the system the purpose of this article is to assess the effects of the two tariff schemes on the choice of wind turbine locations in an analytical model we show that both the covariance between wind power supply and demand as well as between the different wind power locations matter for investors in a pfit scheme high covariance with other intermittent producers causes a decrease in market prices and consequently in revenues for wind power investors they are therefore incentivized to diversify the locations of wind turbines to decrease the covariance between different wind power production locations in an empirical optimization model we analyze the effects of these two different schemes in a policy experiment for austria the numerical results show that under a pfit scheme 1 spatial diversification is incentivized 2 the covariance of wind power production with marginal electricity production costs increases and 3 the variances of the wind power output and of residual load decrease if wind power deployment attains 10 of total national electricity consumption

assessing the impact of wind generation on wholesale prices and generator dispatch in the australian national electricity market abstract growing climate change and energy security concerns are driving major wind energy deployment in electricity industries around the world despite its many advantages growing penetrations of this highly variable and somewhat unpredictable energy source pose new challenges for electricity industry operation one issue receiving growing attention is the so called merit order effect of wind generation in wholesale electricity markets wind has very low operating costs and therefore tends to displace higher cost conventional generation from market dispatch reducing both wholesale prices and conventional plant outputs this paper extends the current literature on this effect through an empirical study employing a range of econometric techniques to quantify the impacts of growing wind penetrations in the australian national electricity market nem the results suggest that wind is having a marked impact on spot market prices and while wind is primarily offsetting higher operating cost gas generation it is now also significantly reducing dispatch of emissions intensive brown coal generation great care needs to be taken in extrapolating these results to longer term implications however the study does propose a methodology for assessing this effect highlights the impacts that wind is already having on nem outcomes and suggests promising directions for future research

knowledge transfer capacity and its implications for the theory of the multinational corporation this study updates and extends research on foreign entry modes by examining the impacts of knowledge transfer capacity and knowledge tacitness research on international corporate expansion has long emphasized that deploying intangible knowledge based assets is required for successful international expansion more recently research from a knowledge based perspective has addressed the role of tacitness in constraining a firm s ability to transfer knowledge internationally we combine these perspectives to describe how knowledge tacitness affects the relative suitability of four archetypal entry modes exporting licensing establishing an alliance and wholly owned entry we then examine and develop conceptually a seldom studied firm characteristic knowledge transfer capacity we offer predictions that describe the combined effects of knowledge tacitness and transfer capacity on entry mode choice we distinguish between the transfer capacity of the organization that develops knowledge source transfer capacity and that of the organization that seeks to access that knowledge recipient transfer capacity the discussion addresses how our model generalizes to knowledge seeking strategies and to the study of ongoing multinational networks the study enriches and reconciles multiple theoretical perspectives on entry strategy it brings together the study of knowledge characteristics and firm heterogeneity in the theory of the multinational corporation and in international and strategic management more generally journal of international business studies 2003 34 356 373 doi 10 1057 palgrave jibs 8400037

the effect of national culture on the choice of entry mode characteristics of national cultures have frequently been claimed to influence the selection of entry modes this article investigates this claim by developing a theoretical argument for why culture should influence the choice of entry two hypotheses are derived which relate culture to entry mode choice one focusing on the cultural distance between countries the other on attitudes towards uncertainty avoidance using a multinomial logit model and controlling for other effects the hypotheses are tested by analysing data on 228 entries into the united states market by acquisition wholly owned greenfield and joint venture empirical support for the effect of national culture on entry choice is found

the private and public economics of renewable electricity generation generating electricity from renewable sources is more expensive than conventional approaches but reduces pollution externalities analyzing the tradeoff is much more challenging than often presumed because the value of electricity is extremely dependent on the time and location at which it is produced which is not very controllable with some renewables such as wind and solar likewise the pollution benefits from renewable generation depend on what type of generation it displaces which also depends on time and location without incorporating these factors cost benefit analyses of alternatives are likely to be misleading other common arguments for subsidizing renewable power green jobs energy security and driving down fossil energy prices are unlikely to substantially alter the analysis the role of intellectual property spillovers is a strong argument for subsidizing energy science research but less persuasive as an enhancement to the value of installing current renewable energy technologies

estimating the value of wind energy using electricity locational marginal price abstract there is an increasing interest in adding renewables such as wind to electricity generation portfolios in larger amounts as one response to concern about atmospheric carbon emissions from our energy system and the resulting climate change most policies with the aim of promoting renewables e g rps fit do not explicitly address siting issues which for wind energy are currently approached as the intersection of wind resource land control and transmission factors this work proposes the use of locational marginal price lmp the location and time specific cost of electricity on the wholesale market to signal locations where generation can address electricity system insufficiency after an examination of the spatial and temporal behavior of lmp in michigan over the first two years of wholesale market operation this work combines lmp with wind speed data to generate a value metric high value sites in michigan tend to be sites with higher wind speeds with the bulk of value accruing in the fall and winter seasons

the merit order effect a detailed analysis of the price effect of renewable electricity generation on spot market prices in germany the german feed in support of electricity generation from renewable energy sources has led to high growth rates of the supported technologies critics state that the costs for consumers are too high an important aspect to be considered in the discussion is the price effect created by renewable electricity generation this paper seeks to analyse the impact of privileged renewable electricity generation on the electricity market in germany the central aspect to be analysed is the impact of renewable electricity generation on spot market prices the results generated by an agent based simulation platform indicate that the financial volume of the price reduction is considerable in the short run this gives rise to a distributional effect which creates savings for the demand side by reducing generator profits in the case of the year 2006 the volume of the merit order effect exceeds the volume of the net support payments for renewable electricity generation which have to be paid by consumers

the merit order effect in the italian power market the impact of solar and wind generation on national wholesale electricity prices abstract italy promoted one of the most generous renewable support schemes worldwide which resulted in a high increase of solar power generation we analyze the italian day ahead wholesale electricity market finding empirical evidence of the merit order effect over the period 2005 2013 an increase of 1 gwh in the hourly average of daily production from solar and wind sources has on average reduced wholesale electricity prices by respectively 2 3 mwh and 4 2 mwh and has amplified their volatility the impact on prices has decreased over time in correspondence with the increase in solar and wind electricity production we estimate that over the period 2009 2013 solar production has generated higher monetary savings than wind production mainly because the former is more prominent than the latter however in the solar case monetary savings are not sufficient to compensate the cost of the related supporting schemes which are entirely internalized within end user tariffs causing a reduction of the consumer surplus while the opposite occurs in the case of wind

the bid ask spread in the black market for dollars in brazil note several studies have offered empirical support for the demsetz bagehot theory of dealer services and bid ask spreads the tests have always concentrated on bid ask spreads or price dispersion in cross section studies of securities markets thus stoll 1978 for example tested a theory of the bid ask spreads in the over the counter market for common stocks and garbade and silber 1976 studied price dispersion in the market for u s government bonds in each case the object was to determine the spreads associated with different securities depending on their characteristics such as trading volume or risk the present study by contrast focuses on the time series of the bid ask spread we report on the bid ask spreads in the black market for dollars and show support for the theory of spreads in a market far less institutionalized than the u s capital markets moreover structural features of the market not present in security markets are shown to influence the spread the theory of bid ask spreads was developed by demsetz 1968 and has since been extended in a number of papers among which garbade and silber 1976 and ho and stoll 1981 are of particular interest for our questions the literature is comprehensively reviewed in cohen maier schwartz and whitcomb 1979 the theory views dealers as providers of liquidity services the exchange houses provide a liquidity service in standing ready to buy or sell securities in our case u s dollarsthus saving potential customers the need to search and the possibility of illiquidity in exchange for this service the dealer can charge a fee that takes the form of a bid ask spread the spread covers the costs of running the establishment and specific costs of making the market there are in particular two costs of market making one is the opportunity cost of carrying a cash inventory and the other arises from the risk of dealing with customers who have potential inside information the inventory costs arise because there is not perfect synchronization between inflows and outflows the cost is given by the interest rate times the average inventory position customers with inside information pose a risk because they may have privileged access to news about exchange rate changes trade restrictions or political events that will influence the market these customers cannot be dis

special exchange rates for capital account transactions the governments of developing countries are constrained in the effective implementation of domestic policy by the interlinkages of national and international financial markets domestic macroeconomic conditions are influenced by the interaction of national and world interest rates and prices and through the impact of real exchange rates on employment the domestic responses to changes in these factors are often strong and rapid this article suggests that dual rates can indeed be used successfully as a strictly transitory policy to offset sudden shocks in capital markets the article develops models which indicate why these dual systems are able to prevent inflationary or recessionary pressures caused by a misaligned exchange rate in the short term while free capital account rates can cut the flow of capital flight however a dual rate system cannot prevent a possibly equivalent loss of foreign reserves that will ultimately result because of the impact of the overvaluation of the commercial rate on the trade balance in the longer term a dual rate system with a misaligned commercial rate exacerbates the government s deficit ultimately real wages must be cut and real interest rates raised to generate sufficient foreign exchange to finance the external debt thus a dual rate works well if the commercial rate is maintained close to the equilibrium level

renewables vs energy efficiency the cost of carbon emissions reduction in spain while support instruments have succeeded to largely deploy renewables during the 1996 2008 period little attention has been paid to energy efficiency measures resulting in a high energy intensity and large growth of energy demand energy related co2 emissions have increased significantly at the same time important investments in combined cycle gas turbines have taken place this paper analyses whether from a cost minimization viewpoint renewable support has been the best policy for reducing emissions when compared to the promotion of energy efficiency in sectors such as transportation or buildings we use a model of the spanish energy sector to examine its evolution in the time period considered under different policies it is a bottom up static partial equilibrium linear programming model of the complete spanish energy system we conclude that demand side management dsm clearly dominates renewable energy re support if the reduction of emissions at minimum cost is the only concern we also quantify the savings that could have been achieved a total of 5 billion per year mainly in re subsidies and in smaller costs of meeting the reduced demand net of dsm implementation cost

the market value of variable renewables the effect of solar wind power variability on their relative price this paper provides a comprehensive discussion of the market value of variable renewable energy vre the inherent variability of wind speeds and solar radiation affects the price that vre generators receive on the market market value during windy and sunny times the additional electricity supply reduces the prices because the drop is larger with more installed capacity the market value of vre falls with higher penetration rate this study aims to develop a better understanding on how the market value with penetration and how policies and prices affect the market value quantitative evidence is derived from a review of published studies regression analysis of market data and the calibrated model of the european electricity market emma we find the value of wind power to fall from 110 of the average power price to 50 80 as wind penetration increases from zero to 30 of total electricity consumption for solar power similarly low value levels are reached already at 15 penetration hence competitive large scale renewable deployment will be more difficult to accomplish than as many anticipate

an ex post analysis of the effect of renewables and cogeneration on spanish electricity prices abstract growing concerns about climate change and energy dependence are driving specific policies to support renewable or more efficient energy sources such as cogeneration in many regions particularly in the production of electricity these policies have a non negligible cost and therefore a careful assessment of their impacts seems necessary in particular one of the most debated impacts is their effect on electricity prices for which there have been some ex ante studies but few ex post studies this article presents a full ex post empirical analysis by looking at use of technologies and hourly electricity prices for 2005 2009 in spain to study the effects that the introduction of renewable electricity and cogeneration has had on wholesale electricity prices it is particularly interesting to perform this study in spain where an active system of public support to renewables and cogeneration has led to a considerable expansion of these energy sources and electricity pricing is at the center of intense debate the paper reports that a marginal increase of 1 gwh of electricity production using renewables and cogeneration is associated with a reduction of almost 2 per mwh in electricity prices around 4 of the average price for the analyzed period

cross border private equity syndication institutional context and learning abstract private equity pe has become an increasingly international phenomenon but there is a lack of research that looks at the process by which pe firms invest across borders we aim to fill this gap in the literature by examining the role of institutional context and organizational learning as determinants of cross border pe syndication we examine these issues by studying the international expansion by later stage uk pe investors into continental europe over the period 1990 to 2006 our results indicate that institutional context in terms of the number of pe firms in the local environment and the presence of investment bankers in the local market and organizational learning in terms of the pe firm s experience in the host country the pe firm s multinational experience and the number of investment managers per portfolio company but not the presence of local offices are significantly related to the use of cross border syndicates implications for theory and practice are suggested

does legal enforcement affect financial transactions the contractual channel in private equity analyzing 210 developing country private equity investments we find that transactions vary with nations legal enforcement whether measured directly or through legal origin investments in high enforcement and common law nations often use convertible preferred stock with covenants in low enforcement and civil law nations private equity groups tend to use common stock and debt and rely on equity and board control transactions in high enforcement countries have higher valuations and returns while relying on ownership rather than contractual provisions may help to alleviate legal enforcement problems these results suggest that private solutions are only a partial remedy

comparing the costs of intermittent and dispatchable electricity generating technologies economic evaluations of alternative electric generating technologies typically rely on comparisons between their expected life cycle production costs per unit of electricity supplied the standard life cycle cost metric utilized is the levelized cost per mwh supplied this paper demonstrates that this metric is inappropriate for comparing intermittent generating technologies like wind and solar with dispatchable generating technologies like nuclear gas combined cycle and coal levelized cost comparisons are a misleading metric for comparing intermittent and dispatchable generating technologies because they fail to take into account differences in the production profiles of intermittent and dispatchable generating technologies and the associated large variations in the market value of the electricity they supply levelized cost comparisons overvalue intermittent generating technologies compared to dispatchable base load generating technologies they also overvalue wind generating technologies compared to solar generating technologies integrating differences in production profiles the associated variations in the market value of the electricity supplied and life cycle costs associated with different generating technologies is necessary to provide meaningful comparisons between them this market based framework also has implications for the appropriate design of procurement auctions created to implement renewable energy procurement mandates the efficient structure of production tax credits for renewable energy and the evaluation of the additional costs of integrating intermittent generation into electric power networks

a review of demand side management policy in the uk abstract demand side management dsm refers to actions undertaken on the demand side of energy metres a broad definition of dsm is proposed to include current policy objectives for emissions reduction energy security and affordability and encompasses energy efficiency demand response and on site back up generation and storage the paper reviews the concept of dsm outlines the historical impacts of dsm globally since the energy crises of the 1970s analyses uk dsm policy and examines the influence of eu directives on uk dsm policy as the country is currently deciding on how to include the demand side in its electricity market reform proposals and wider energy policy much of the focus of previous research has been on dsm technological trials and modelling studies rather than dsm policy and the paper contributes to filling this gap policy recommendations for the uk context are discussed and it is clear that the success of dsm policies is determined primarily by regulatory support and utility financial incentives it is important that policy clarity is provided and that current and new policies do not overlap

experience imitation and the sequence of foreign entry wholly owned and joint venture manufacturing by south korean firms and business groups in china 1987 1995 the evolution of foreign entry in the form of joint ventures and wholly owned manufacturing operations is examined as a staged process shaped by experience and imitation dynamics at the firm group and industry levels of analysis the expansion of south korean firms into china between 1987 and 1995 lends support to the staged view of foreign entry over time technology intensive firms are more likely to abandon joint venture entry modes owing to contractual hazards firms in the same business group are found to imitate each other s choice of joint ventures and wholly owned plants firms in the same industry mimic each other s choice of wholly owned plants though not of joint ventures

venture capital and management led leveraged buy outs a european perspective abstract management and leveraged buy outs became phenomena of the 1980s from beginnings in the u s they quickly traversed the atlantic spreading first to the u k and then throughout europe the venture capital industry has played a crucial role in the development of buy outs in europe particularly in smaller deals in the u k the netherlands and france this paper examines three aspects of the market for venture and development capital funded management led buy outs in europe it provides a framework for analysis of the different levels of development of each country s market it examines performance of u k buy outs and addresses the extent and nature of exits throughout the paper use is made of the extensive database of european buy outs developed by the authors the main conclusions to emerge are as follows european experience can not be compared to that in the u s as a single economy there are important differences between european countries in respect of the level of buy out activity and the extent to which conditions are or will be favourable for the development of such transactions conceptually a buy out market may be considered as requiring three main factors to be present if it is to develop the generation of buy out opportunities the infrastructure to complete a transaction and opportunities for the investors in a buy out to realise their gains these broad groups may be further sub divided the generation of opportunities will be heavily influenced by attitudes to entrepreneurial risk and hence willingness of managers to buy the ownership structure of industry and hence the generation of entities which are for sale and the state of development of mergers and acquisition markets the infrastructure to complete transactions includes sources of funding both in respect of venture capital availability and the ability of banks to fund transactions the nature of legal and taxation regimes and the existence of intermediaries and advisors who can both identify and negotiate buy outs the existence of suitable exit routes comprises stock market flotation sale to another group and recapitalisation possibly through a secondary buy out many of these factors are similar to the conditions necessary for venture capital deals to develop the generation of entities for sale may take various forms with succession issues in family firms divestment of unwanted divisions privatization of public sector activities and going privates of companies quoted on a stock market being the most important this framework was used to analyze european buy out markets through a combination of interview and desk research the evidence shows that the most highly developed buy out markets and those with the greatest short term potential are not necessarily to be found in the largest economies u s investors who turn towards europe to develop their markets at a time when the u s buy out market is experiencing a downturn and european investors seeking to broaden their activities need to be aware of these differences as in comparable studies in the u s u k lbos on the evidence from our survey of 182 buyouts on average produce performance improvements u k lbos appear to undertake a greater level of new product development and asset purchase after buy out than do their counterparts in the u s and have placed less emphasis on asset disposals than u s lbos managers buying out frequently tightened up their control of working capital the results of our survey indicate support for both the entrepreneurial and agency cost reduction perspectives about buy outs with the former perhaps being somewhat more in evidence exit routes are an important aspect of the buy out market but evidence presented here indicates that buy outs are unlikely to exit in the way in which they originally envisaged in particular buy outs that initially were aiming for flotation on a secondary tier stock market have almost invariably been sold to third parties

system friendly wind power how advanced wind turbine design can increase the economic value of electricity generated through wind power abstract previous studies find that the economic value of electricity usd mwh generated by wind power drops with increasing market share different measures can help mitigate the value drop including electricity storage flexible conventional plants expansion of transmission and demand response this study assesses another option a change in design of wind power plants advanced wind turbines that are higher and have a larger rotor compared to rated capacity lower specific rating generate electricity more constantly than classical turbines recent years have witnessed a significant shift towards such advanced technology our model based analysis for northwestern europe shows that such design can substantially increase the spot market value of generated electricity at a 30 penetration rate the value of 1 mwh of electricity generated from a fleet of advanced turbines is estimated to be 15 higher than the value of 1 mwh from classical turbines the additional value is large whether compared to wind generation costs to the value drop or to the effect of alternative measures such as electricity storage extensive sensitivity tests indicate that this finding is remarkably robust the increase in bulk power value is not the only advantage of advanced turbines additional benefits might accrue from reduced costs for power grids and balancing services to fully realize this potential power markets and support policies need to be appropriately designed and signal scarcity investors

from the editors what makes a study sufficiently international journal of international business studies 2008 39 180 183 doi 10 1057 palgrave jibs 8400351 from the flow of submissions that arrive on the desk of the jibs editors it appears that the issue of what makes a study sufficiently international to be of potential interest to jibs and its readership is perhaps not so obvious to some contributors to the journal one of the top reasons for desk rejection is a misunderstanding by authors of jibs s position on what studies are sufficiently international some leading journals in the business and management domain such as academy of management journal amj consider studies to be sufficiently international if they either involve a non us setting or a non us co author this is definitely not the case in jibs in the following discussion which includes specific examples we clarify what makes a study sufficiently international for jibs and provide advice to help authors to determine in advance the suitability of their potential submissions to jibs as the leading journal in international business ib in short jibs entertains only submissions that are intrinsically international in nature as noted in the jibs statement of editorial policy that can be found on http www palgrave journals com jibs jibs statement html

the merit order effect of wind and photovoltaic electricity generation in germany 2008 2016 estimation and distributional implications abstract generation from renewable energy sources in germany has experienced a considerable uptake in recent years mainly responsible for this development is the german renewable energy sources act erneuerbare energien gesetz eeg this paper considers redistributive implications of the eeg for different electricity consumers using time series regression analysis we show that electricity generation by wind and pv has reduced spot market prices considerably by 6 mwh in 2010 rising to 10 mwh in 2012 we use these results to build a near term forecasting tool for merit order effects projected to reach 14 16 mwh in 2016 on the other hand the costs of the eeg are passed forward to consumers in the form of a surcharge our findings highlight significant redistributive transfers under the current design of the eeg in particular some energy intensive industries are benefiting from lower wholesale electricity prices whilst being largely exempted from contributing to the costs of the scheme we also highlight implications of our results for other areas for reform of the eeg such as adequate remuneration mechanisms that ensure efficient operation and investment decisions are made under the scheme more generally these findings suggest that policy makers need to integrate distributional assessments into policy design and implementation