Evgeni Peev

Corporate Financing in the New Member States: Firm-Level Evidence for Convergence and Divergence Trends

The paper presents results of an ongoing research project on corporate financing patterns in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) since 1999. It addresses three broad issues. What are the specifics of corporate financing in CEE compared to countries in Western Europe? What country institutional and company factors may explain the similarities and differences between capital structures in the EU-15 and New Member States (NMS)? What are the major convergence and divergence trends in corporate financing patterns in an enlarged Europe? The study analyses the interactions between country institutional differences, firm ownership structures, other firm-specific characteristics and corporate financial patterns in both the EU-15 and NMS. It summarises the firm-level evidence and outlines several unresolved questions and major dimensions for further research.

Determinants of Ultimate Control of Large Firms in Transition Countries: Empirical Evidence

We identify the ultimate ownership structures of the 20 largest firms in 12 transition countries in 1996, and the subsequent patterns of ownership change over 1996-2008. Of the state-controlled companies in 1996 more than half are still in state hands in 2008. Better quality of governmental institutions, larger external but not domestic government debt, smaller company size, and higher company profitability increase the likelihood of privatization as well as the likelihood that the company ends up ultimately in foreign hands. We document that, after 20 years, control structure and institutional quality convergence on the West is still largely incomplete.

The persistence of profits in banking: an international comparison

ABSTRACT This article examines the dynamics of bank profitability in the USA, Germany, Great Britain, France, Italy and Switzerland over the period 1993–2014. We find long-run bank profit persistence in all six countries in the period before the financial crisis in 2008. Banks with large capital ratios are persistently more profitable, and there is little evidence of a link between bank size and the persistence of bank profits. Commercial (saving) banks are persistently more (less) profitable in four of the six countries. The effects of the financial crisis in 2008 differed dramatically across countries as well as across ownership types. While US banks experienced dramatic declines in the immediate aftermath of the crisis, they recovered much faster than their European counterparts and essentially retain their long run profit potential by the year 2014.