Regional heterogeneity among non-operating earnings quality, stock returns, and firm value in biotech industry

This paper analyses regional heterogeneity under the discretionary measures of non-operating earnings quality and stock returns on firm value in Taiwan’s biotech industry during 2008–2015. An econometric framework based on panel smooth transition regression models is employed in a non-linear panel data model. The results show that biotech firms near the bottom threshold for operating income have low-quality non-operating earnings and those near the upper threshold demonstrate the opposite. Investors who exclusively focus on stock returns are thus likely to miss important information about the quality of earnings.

Tunisian Labor Market and Regional Heterogeneity: Application of PSTR Model

This paper is devoted to investigating the matching process for Tunisia using desaggregated data by assuming that the rising of the unemployment rate result from regional disparities which yield variation of matching efficiencies across regions. Since most econometric aspects of spatial heterogeneity can be handled by means of the standard panel data methods, we focus our discussion on the new technique: Panel Smooth Transition Regression models (PSTR). The distinction is that we can compute regional specific sensibilities for 23 regions over the period 1984-2004. Given this objective, we consider three structural factors that allow explaining the regional imbalances. Contrary to the previous econometric techniques of the matching theory, estimates of the coefficients depend, of three transition variables. The results show that women insertion, the qualification share and population density significantly contribute to explain the asymmetry of the matching process across regions. Our main conclusion is that the hiring in Tunisia is driven essentially by the stock of vacancies about is the region. The willingness of job seekers, obviously, remains low, although it is different between regions and seems relatively important in urban zones.