Seller Concentration in Irish Services: Evidence from the Annual Services Inquiry

Seller concentration and its interactions on the performance of markets has occupied industrial organisation and competition economists for decades. While there has been much research on concentration in manufacturing markets, few studies have considered concentration in the services sector, which typically accounts for the majority of economic activity in developed countries. This paper presents estimates of the concentration ratio (i.e. the cumulative market share accounted for by the top 5, 20 and 100 firms) in the Irish services sector using publicly available data from the Annual Services Inquiry (ASI). It might be thought that the grouped nature of the ASI data render it impractical to estimate concentration accurately in this context but a technique due to McCloughan and Abounoori (2003), and subsequently applied to grouped data in the British construction sector (McCloughan, 2004) and the Irish manufacturing sector (McCloughan, 2005), facilitates estimation of concentration in Irish services sub-sectors for the first time. While the ASI data are aggregated, and while the analysis suggests that the Irish services sector is characterised by low concentration, the results nevertheless provide some interesting new information, based on adding value to an existing, publicly available data source, on which services sub-sectors are relatively concentrated and on the trend in concentration in recent years.Concentration, size distribution of firms, services, competition, competitiveness

The role of investment, fundamental Q and financing frictions in agricultural investment decisions: an analysis pre and post financial crisis

JEL classifcation: G31, G32, F34This paper uses a fundamental Q model of investment to consider the role played by nancing frictions in agricultural investment decisions, controlling econometrically for censoring, heterogeneity and errors-in-variables. Our ndings suggest that farmer's in- vestment decisions are not driven by market fundamentals. We nd some evidence that debt overhang restricts investment but investment is not dependent on liquidity or internal funds. The role of nancing frictions in determining investment decisions changes in the post- nancial crisis period when debt overhang becomes a signi cant impediment to farm investment. The evidence suggests that farmers increasingly rely on internal liquidity to drive investment. Finally, we nd no evidence that farmers use o -farm capital to fund on-farm investment.Teagasc Walsh Fellowship Programm

The role of fundamental Q and financing frictions in agricultural investment decisions: an analysis pre and post financial crisis

This paper uses a fundamental Q model of investment to consider the role played by financing frictions in agricultural investment decisions, controlling econometrically for censoring, heterogeneity and errors-in-variables. Our findings suggest that farmer's investment decisions are not driven by market fundamentals. We find some evidence that debt overhang restricts investment but investment is not dependent on liquidity or internal funds. The role of financing frictions in determining investment decisions changes in the post-financial crisis period when debt overhang becomes a significant impediment to farm investment. The evidence suggests that farmers increasingly rely on internal liquidity to drive investment. Finally, we find no evidence that farmers use off-farm capital to fund on-farm investment.Credit Constraints, Firm Level Investment, Tobin's Q, Debt

The role of financing frictions in agricultural investment decisions: an analysis pre and post financial crisis

This paper uses a fundamental Q model of investment to consider the role played by financing frictions in agricultural investment decisions, controlling econometrically for censoring, heterogeneity and errors-in-variables. Our findings suggest that farmer's investment decisions are not driven by market fundamentals. We find some evidence that debt overhang restricts investment but investment is not dependent on liquidity or internal funds. The role of financing frictions in determining investment decisions changes in the post-financial crisis period when debt overhang becomes a significant impediment to farm investment. The evidence suggests that farmers increasingly rely on internal liquidity to drive investment. Finally, we find no evidence that farmers use on-farm capital to fund on-farm investment.Credit Constraints, Firm Level Investment, Tobin's Q, Debt, Agricultural Finance, G31, G32, F34,

Bank-lending constraints and alternative financing during the financial crisis: Evidence from European SMEs

The financial crisis has brought to the fore concerns regarding small- and medium-sized enterprises' (SMEs) capacity to access traditional bank lending. Using European firm-level data on SME access to finance since the onset of the financial crisis, we find that bank-lending constrained SMEs are significantly more likely to avail of alternative forms of external finance, controlling for firm-level and country-level characteristics. We then determine the implications that usage of alternative forms of finance can have for certain economically desirable business activities. In particular, we find that using alternative finance substantially reduces the likelihood of business fixed investment. This effect is not evident for business innovation

Does financial liberalisation improve access to investment finance in developing countries?

This paper considers the effect of financial liberalisation on access to investment finance using firm level data covering 57 developing and transition countries. An index is presented which measures financial market liberalisation along the following policy dimensions: directed lending, credit controls and reserve requirements, state control of banking,openness of international financial flows, banking market entry, prudential regulation and supervision, and securities market development. Categorising firms as financially constrained across four measures, the results indicate that financial liberalisation reduces the probability of being credit constrained, with the effect strongest for young, domestic private small and medium sized enterprises. Increases in the degree of liberalisation, decrease the probability of being constrained by between 5 and 20 percent depending on the constraint definition. However, for Sub-Saharan Africa, the results indicate that financial liberalisation actually increases financing constraints for firms. This may help explain the stylised fact that despite a commitment to financial reform, the predicted growth benefits have not been realised in this region

Women and Employment in Ireland: Results of a National Survey. General Research Series Paper No. 69, April 1973

THIS Report makes available the results of a national survey on several topics relating to the employment of women in the Republic of Ireland. The survey was conducted between March and May 197I. The costs of the fieldwork and data processing were met by a grant from the Department of Labour. The project was carried out under the general guidance of a committee which included members of the Departments of Labour and Finance. As emphasised, however, in the Acknowledgements, responsibility for the views expressed rests solely with the authors of the Report

The MultiSite Spectroscopic Telescope campaign: 2m spectroscopy of the V361 Hya variable PG1605+072

We present results and analysis for the 2m spectroscopic part of the MultiSite Spectroscopic Telescope (MSST) campaign undertaken in May/June 2002. The goal of the project was to observe the pulsating subdwarf B star PG1605+072 simultaneously in velocity and photometry and to resolve as many of the >50 known modes as possible, which will allow a detailed asteroseismological analysis. We have obtained over 150 hours of spectroscopy, leading to an unprecedented noise level of only 207m/s. We report here the detection of 20 frequencies in velocity, with two more likely just below our detection threshold. In particular, we detect 6 linear combinations, making PG1605+072 only the second star known to show such frequencies in velocity. We investigate the phases of these combinations and their parent modes and find relationships between them that cannot be easily understood based on current theory. These observations, when combined with our simultaneous photometry, should allow asteroseismology of this most complicated of sdB pulsators.Comment: 9 pages, 5 figures, accepted for publication in A&A; Figure 1 at lower resolution than accepted versio

Enhanced Integrin α4β1-Mediated Adhesion Contributes to a Mobilization Defect of Endothelial Progenitor Cells in Diabetes.

Diabetes is associated with a deficit of circulating endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs), which has been attributed to their defective mobilization from the bone marrow. The basis for this mobilization defect is not completely understood, and we sought to determine if hyperglycemic conditions enhanced EPC adhesion. We found that culturing EPCs in high glucose media increased adhesion to bone marrow stromal cells. This enhanced adhesion was associated with decreased expression of protein kinase A regulatory subunit 1β (PRKAR1β), activation of protein kinase A (PKA), and phosphorylation of α4-integrin on serine 988. This potentiated adhesion was reversed by treatment with a PKA inhibitor, overexpression of PRKAR1β, or expression of a phosphorylation-defective α4-integrin variant (α4[S988A]). Using a model of type 1 diabetes, we showed that α4(S988A)-expressing mice have more circulating EPCs than their wild-type counterparts. Moreover, diabetic α4(S988A) mice demonstrate enhanced revascularization after hind limb ischemia. Thus, we have identified a novel signaling mechanism activating PKA in diabetes (downregulation of an inhibitory regulatory subunit) that leads to deficits of circulating EPCs and impaired vascular repair, which could be reversed by α4-integrin mutation