Winter Term 2023/2024

• January 11, 2024 / 12:30 pm - 1:30 pm / D3.0.233
  Roberto Pinto (Lancaster University)
  "Non-financial firms as liquidity providers to banks: Evidence from the unsecured money market"
  
  Abstract: We study the liquidity provision activities by non-financial firms to banks in the short-term wholesale unsecured money market (UMM). Using transaction-level data from the ECB, we document that non-financial firms act as one of the major liquidity providers to banks in the UMM, with daily trading volume of €9 billion. Firms in the UMM lend almost half of their cash to banks mainly through call accounts and term deposits, and mainly to domestic banks. Using the Covid-19 outbreak as a shock to firms’ cash demand, we show that greater cash demand leads to greater liquidity provisions, especially for firms more resilient to the Covid-19. More resilient firms provide liquidity with longer maturities, have more lending transactions, and lend to more banks.

• December 21, 2023 / 11:00 am - 12:00 pm / D3.0.233
  Renée Adams (Saïd Business School, University of Oxford)
  "Shareholderism around the World: Corporate Purpose, Culture and Law"
  
  Abstract: We provide the first comprehensive analysis of directors’ shareholderism: their stances towards shareholders and stakeholders. In a sample of more than 900 directors originating from 55 countries and serving in 23 countries, we document that directors’ shareholderism varies according to their individual values, their cultural heritage and their status as expatriate directors. Shareholderism does not appear to depend on the distinction between common and civil law. IV-regressions that address the endogeneity of directors’ expatriate status suggest that expatriates do not always conform to local attitudes. Our results highlight the potential importance of director nominations in shaping board attitudes and may be useful for assessing the efficacy of legal measures addressing corporate purpose such as the Pacte Law in France and the EU’s proposed approach to corporate sustainability. Current approaches to ensuring corporations do the “right” thing may be too narrowly focused.