Roman Matousek

This paper examines the effectiveness of government subsidies in fostering innovation among small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), with a particular focus on additionality, crowding-out, and cherry-picking effects. Using the latest national survey data on Chinese high-tech SMEs, we apply robust econometric techniques—including the Heckman selection model, structural equation modeling (SEM), and propensity score matching (PSM)—to address potential selection bias and endogeneity. Our findings reveal that government subsidies positively influence both innovation inputs and outputs, suggesting a predominant additionality effect rather than a crowding-out effect, at least within high-tech SMEs. However, subsidies do not appear to alleviate the financial constraints faced by most SMEs, indicating that they are insufficient as a standalone solution to financing challenges. Furthermore, state ownership enhances input additionality but does not significantly impact output additionality. We also find evidence of cherry-picking in subsidy allocation, with loans exhibiting stronger additionality effects on innovation compared to grants and tax credits, which are more prone to selective intervention. These findings highlight the need for more targeted subsidy policies that prioritize financially constrained firms with high innovation potential while mitigating government selectivity. Our study offers valuable insights for policymakers seeking to design more effective innovation support mechanisms for high-tech SMEs.

In the non-radial efficiency measurement literature, it is common to estimate technical (in)efficiency by maximising weighted slacks primarily from the computational viewpoint. This means that efficiency measures and targets are obtained based on farthest distance projections. However, when the decision making units (DMUs) operate at less than the efficient scale, such modelling approach can be very restrictive. This paper proposes a minimum distance Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) model in order to evaluate the efficiency of Japanese banking sector over the period 2013–2019. The proposed model is based on Koopmans notion of strong efficiency. When comparing our findings from the minimum distance slack inefficiency model with those against the traditional slack inefficiency model, we find significant differences. These differences are primarily based on the way the benchmark targets have been set in the two methodological frameworks. Finally our finding brings forward the importance and the implications on bank efficiency measurement, when non-feasible targets are set during the bank efficiency evaluation.

This paper is a study of the influence of economic policy uncertainty on the capital structure of companies operating in the Russian market. The sample size is particularly notable (over 16,000 companies and 230,000 observations are included) insofar as previous studies have invariably used smaller selections due to the complexities of data processing. Several hypotheses are proposed and treated which concern the interrelations between company debt policies and the status of individual, sectoral, or industry relevant commercial activity, where the constant threat of economic uncertainty due to political or other external machinations affects the market. This research paper examines the following capital structure determinants: profitability, asset structure, company size, tax shield, non-debt tax shield, growth opportunity, and risk. The following methods are applied to test a series of nine hypotheses proposed as the most salient indicators of the present state of academic consensus: the Pool model (Pool), the fixed effect model (FE), and the random effect model (RE). In this context, the influence of economic uncertainty on the status of different debt types in 16,882 Russian companies between 2000 and 2017 was studied using the economic policy uncertainty index calculated in 2012. The results serve to confirm many of the extant hypotheses in the academic literature in the area of capital structural evaluation. For example, it is immediately apparent that the influence of uncertainty is of less significance for large companies as regards all types of debt (joint, short-term and long-term), due to their greater stability and lower risks for creditors. Among other conclusions, it is confirmed that as long as serious government participation is characteristic of the Russian banking system, the efficacy of the debt financing system is not equal for all sectors, and those sectors which are of strategic importance for the state are particularly resilient in troubled economic periods. However, interestingly, in the case of a short-term debt leverage such influence does not materialise. From a theoretical point of view this paper will be useful for researchers studying the fluctuating market conditions of developing or transitional markets (the large sample size will make this study particularly attractive for further evaluation at all levels of academic analysis). An understanding of the multivariate interrelations described in this paper may also be useful to company managers and investors who will gain insight into the consequences of fluctuations in levels of economic uncertainty for different types of companies.

Does doing “good” always translate into doing “well”? Debate over the “value” of corporate social responsibility is high on the agenda of corporate finance research. Deeper understanding is required on managers' incentives to pursue and implement corporate social responsibility related strategies, as is more thorough comprehension of the effect of these strategies to firms' performance levels as well as shareholder and wider stakeholder valuations of the firm. This paper provides a new lens by approaching the subject from a different methodological paradigm, grounded in the performance benchmarking methods more commonly applied in operational research. In so doing, we provide novel evidence of the effect of corporate choices on environmental, social, and governance (ESG) strategic investment compliance (i.e., doing good) to firms' eco‐efficiency levels (doing well). In brief, our empirical findings suggest that ESG and firm's eco‐performance are nonlinearly related. Specifically, advanced ESG policies and disclosure levels are associated with a positive affect to firms' eco‐efficiency levels, but only up to a point, after which the effect becomes “neutral,” that is, ESG demonstrates a visible pattern of diminishing marginal returns. Thus, we may humbly conclude that a firm may “do well” by doing good, but it is not clear they should ever expect to “do great” just by “doing good.” The threshold at which this “neutrality” appears varies systematically with the characteristics of the sector in which the firm is operating, as well as dimensions of board diversity. Finally, it is evident that ESG implementation choices can be a source of managerial agency problems.