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This paper aims to examine the interdependence of financial decisions (investment, financing, dividends and cash-holding) under financial constraints.

The authors specify and estimate a system of simultaneous equations with panel data and firm fixed effects by three-stage least squares in a sample of firms from 62 countries from 1996 to 2010.

The main findings largely corroborate previous studies regarding the interdependence of financial decisions. The authors also find evidence suggesting that financial constraints have a major impact on firms’ financial decisions. The results also suggest that financial constraints manifest themselves in virtually all firms, indicating that such constraints are a matter of degree and not of kind.

Implications regarding the impact of cash flows on investment and cash-holding decisions are only partially confirmed.

The results are consistent with the hypothesis that financial constraints distort the financial policies of firms. For the purpose of formulating policies that reduce these distortions, the authors emphasize the role of the availability of internal funds and the recoverable fraction of assets in easing financial constraints, thus allowing for greater investment on the part of firms.

The results suggest that regulators should promote policies that reduce the dependence of corporate investment on internally generated cash flows.

Unlike previous studies, the authors account for the direct impact endogenous variables could have on each other. In addition, they explore the impact of each country’s particular legal environment on the pledgeability of assets at the company level.

This study aims to analyze the influence of taxes and corporate governance on the dividend policy of Brazilian companies.

The authors identify the changes of the tax legislation in Brazil in the period 1986-2011 and check their effect on corporate dividend policies for preferred and common shares. The authors use panel data Probit and Tobit estimation to verify the probability of companies to pay dividends under different tax regimes. The final sample comprises 672 companies, 1,159 traded stocks and 30,134 observations

The authors’ results suggest that changes in the tax legislation have a significant influence on dividend payments. Also, firms do not follow target payout ratios, but dividends are moderately dependent on past payments. Dividend payouts are affected by stock voting rights, privatization and dividend deductibility. Changes in regulation that reduce the agency problems among shareholders affect positively payout ratios.

For managers, maximizing shareholders’ value requires taking into account the consequences of the taxation when designing financial policies for the firm. For investors, stock portfolio selection should take into account payout behavior and how changes in dividend taxation affect stocks’ value. For policymakers, the effects of changes in the tax code on corporate behavior are of utmost importance to stimulate private investment and economic growth.

There are several tax law changes in Brazil within the period analyzed, creating a good opportunity to study the effect of taxation on dividend policy and its dynamics over time.

This paper sets out to argue that, due to a stable set of economic policies over the past decade, today Brazil is much more resilient to international financial crises than in the 1990s.

The paper presents preliminary macroeconomic data in a country case study.

The paper concludes that the initial impact of the current international financial crisis on Brazil has been much less severe than similar crisis episodes in the past.

Given that the crisis is still unfolding, the paper presents only preliminary data regarding its impact on emerging markets.

The paper suggests that emerging markets should adopt flexible exchange rate regimes and stable macroeconomic policies as a means to reduce their exposure to international shocks.

The paper makes an initial diagnosis regarding the impact of the international financial crisis on emerging markets that have adopted sensible economic policies, and is of interest to scholars, business people, and policymakers in developed and emerging countries.

The purpose of this paper is to report on the systematic translation and content validation method used to produce the Brazilian Portuguese version of the Duke Special Survey on Corporate Policy by Graham and Harvey.

In accordance with the requirements for cross‐cultural application of surveys, the paper accounts for obvious differences in language, culture, and the institutional setting and employ well‐known techniques from the field of psychology, such as the use of backtranslation, to ensure faithfulness to the original survey. A panel of experts served as judges in evaluating the clarity of language and the practical pertinence and theoretical dimensions of the questionnaire. Coefficients of content validity for each item and for the instrument as a whole are reported.

The results illustrate how a questionnaire designed for one country should be rigorously translated and validated prior to use in another country.

Although the content validity of the translated version of the Duke Special Survey on Corporate Policy for use in Brazil is generally satisfactory, a few items may prove to be a challenge for the Brazilian CFO to answer, particularly those questions concerning features that are uncommon in the Brazilian financial market.

This paper explores the field study method in finance by borrowing from the vast experience of psychology research in the rigorous translation and validation of survey instruments. This study also highlights the similarities and differences in the interpretation of questions between emerging and developed markets.

The purpose of this paper is to test the main theories of corporate debt maturity in a multi‐country framework, in an attempt to understand country‐specific constraints.

Dynamic panel data analysis estimated by the generalized method of moments, techniques that account properly for cross‐section and time series variation allowing for dynamic effects.

There is a substantial dynamic component in the determination of a firm's maturity structure; firms face moderate adjustment costs towards its optimal maturity, and the determinants of maturity structure and their effects are similar between Latin American countries and the USA; and there is a partial empirical support for each of the theoretical hypotheses tested.

Firm ownership, accounting standards, financial market depth, and the degree of supervision on financial reporting may vary across countries, which may affect the quality and consistency of some variables.

Firms face costs in adjusting the maturity of their debt, which gives such decision a long‐term character, and the determinants of debt maturity do not seem very sensitive to a country's business and financial environment.

The paper focuses on a sample of developing countries that have so far been ignored in empirical studies, employs empirical techniques that account properly for cross‐section and time series variation, and the model allows for dynamic effects that have seldom been considered in previous research.

The purpose of this paper is to survey financial managers in the Arab Gulf region about a broad set of financial decisions and contrast their answers with both prescriptions of financial theory and practices of their North American and European peers.

The paper uses Graham and Harvey's questionnaire on the cost of capital, capital budgeting and capital structure that is also employed by Brounen et al. in Europe, containing two additional questions on corporate governance. Moreover, the survey included an additional question about Islamic financial instruments.

Despite each firm's unique characteristics and institutions, chief financial officers (CFOs) in the Middle East are acting in a manner similar to their North American and European counterparts.

All CFOs surveyed are located in countries that abide by a combination of Islamic, civil (French, Romano‐Germanic), and common (Anglo‐Saxon) laws. To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first time that a nearly identical corporate finance survey has been simultaneously administered in North America, Europe and the Arab Gulf region.

The purpose of this paper is to present eight papers selected from ALTEC 2015 that provide an overview of innovation in Latin America.

This editorial seeks to define innovation by examining its conceptual foundations. It considers innovation beyond firms and technology to address other forms, such as social and institutional innovations. Thereafter, it discusses innovation in the context of Latin America and suggests means by which to stimulate it in the region. Finally, the authors present the eight papers included in this “special edition.”

The major findings of the paper are that it considers non-technological innovation within firms, innovation beyond the firm and innovation beyond technology. Moreover, it helps to better understand a core issue of innovation in Latin America, which is the focus on macroeconomic policy instead of microeconomic stimuli.

A broader understanding of the concept of innovation is of notable importance. Innovation implies the recognition of issues related to the market (firm), but also to the community (society) and to humanly devised constraints (institutions). Technology is only one part of it. For this special issue, the selected articles highlight the efforts made by different authors to contribute to innovation studies in the editors’ region.

Este número presenta ocho manuscritos seleccionados del ALTEC 2015, que ofrecen un panorama de la innovación en América Latina.

Esta editorial busca definir la innovación mediante la examinación de sus fundamentos conceptuales. Esto considera que la innovación va más allá de las firmas y la tecnología para abordar otros tipos, tales como innovación social e institucional. Posteriormente, se analiza la innovación en el contexto de América Latina y se sugieren medios para su estimulo en la región. Finalmente, presentamos los ocho artículos incluidos en esta Edición Especial.

Las principales conclusiones de esta editorial son que se considera la innovación no tecnológica dentro de las firmas, la innovación más allá de la firma y la innovación más allá de la tecnología. Además, esto ayuda a comprehender mejor una cuestión central de la innovación en América Latina, que es el enfoque en política macroeconómica en lugar de los estímulos microeconómicos.

Un mayor entendimiento del concepto de innovación es de gran importancia. La innovación implica el reconocimiento de las cuestiones relacionadas con el mercado (firma), pero también con la comunidad (sociedad) y con las restricciones humanamente concebidas (instituciones). La tecnología es solo una parte de esta. Para esta Edición Especial, los artículos seleccionados destacan los esfuerzos realizados por diferentes autores para contribuir a los estudios de innovación en nuestra región.