Business Commons^™

Ceo Compensation And Risk-Taking At Financial Firms: Evidence From U.S. Federal Loan Assistance, Amar Gande, Swami Kalpathy

Amar Gande

We examine whether risk-taking among the largest financial firms in the U.S. is related to CEO equity incentives before the 2008 financial crisis. Using data on U.S. Federal Reserve emergency loans provided to these firms, we find that the amount of emergency loans and total days the loans are outstanding are increasing in pre-crisis CEO risk-taking incentives – “vega”. Our results are robust to accounting for endogeneity in CEO equity incentives and selection of financial firms into emergency loan programs. We also rule out the possibility that our results are driven by a bank’s funding base, bank complexity, CEO overconfidence, …

Competitive Intensity And Its Two-Sided Effect On The Boundaries Of Firm Performance, Joao Montez, Francisco Ruiz-Aliseda, Michael D. Ryall

Michael D Ryall

The new perspective emerging from strategy's value-capture stream is that the effects of competition are two-fold: competition for an agent bounds its performance from below, while that for its transaction partners bounds from above. Thus, assessing the intensity of competition on either side is essential to understanding firm performance. Yet, the literature provides no formal notion of "competitive intensity" with which to make such assessments. Rather, some authors use added value as their central analytic concept, others the core. Added value is simple, but misses the crucial, for-an-agent side of competition. The core is theoretically complete, but difficult to interpret …

Suppliers, Investors, And Equity Market Liberalizations, Martin Strieborny

Martin Strieborny

Allowing foreign investors to acquire equity stakes in domestic firms stimulates the real economy by promoting frictionless relationships between buyers and suppliers of intermediate goods. I combine insights from research on financial liberalization and relationship-specific investment to derive this hypothesis and then use a difference-in-difference empirical framework to test it. Results from panel-data and event-study estimations confirm that equity market liberalizations boost output growth particularly in suppliers-dependent industries that require a high share of specialized inputs in their production process. Financial openness can thus facilitate smooth interactions between firms and an important corporate stakeholder - suppliers of crucial production inputs.

Contract Structure For Joint Production: Risk And Ambiguity Under Compensatory Damages, Michael D. Ryall, Rachelle C. Sampson

Michael D Ryall

We develop a model in which the parties to a joint production project have a choice of specifying contractual performance in terms of actions or deliverables. Penalties for noncompliance are not specified; rather, they are left to the courts under the legal doctrine of compensatory damages. We analyze three scenarios of increasing uncertainty: Full Knowledge - where implications of partner actions are known; Risk - where implications can be probabilistically quantified; and, Ambiguity - where implications cannot be so quantified. Under Full Knowledge, action requirements dominate: they always induce the maximum economic value. This dominance vanishes in the Risk scenario. …

Alianzas Estratégicas, Guillermo Arosemena

Guillermo Arosemena

No abstract provided.

The Political Consequences Of Party System Change, Riccardo Pelizzo, Zim Nwokora

riccardo pelizzo

This article engages one of the important gaps in the literature on party system effects: the consequences of party system change. We discuss how existing empirical approaches to party system change do not actually capture the changeability of patterns of party competition, which is the most direct understanding of the term “party system.” We propose a measure that does exactly this: the index of fluidity. Applying this measure to countries in South East Asia, we show that party system change is associated with harmful effects, including lower foreign direct investment and deterioration of the rule of law

Policy Options For Revenue Neutral Gst For Oil And Gas, Sacchidananda Mukherjee, R. Kavita Rao

Sacchidananda Mukherjee

1. The study suggests alternative design of GST where tax cascading goes down and prices fall and the Government revenue remains unchanged. 2. Substantial reduction in cascading of taxes is observed for a shift from baseline to alternative scenarios and tax system becomes cleaner. 3. Elimination of cascading of taxes will result in rising export competitiveness of Indian industries in the international markets. 4. In all alternative designs of GST, the prices across the sectors either remain unchanged or decline 5. Dismantling the administered pricing mechanism for petrol and diesel along with introduction of comprehensive GST for petroleum products benefits …

“The Influence Mix” – Information Access In The New Age And Empowerment Of Consumers ¿Decline Or Reformulation In Branding Development?, Alejandro Castro

Alejandro Castro

The new technological age is changing the rules in marketing. Now consumers are influenced by other sources of information and brands might be losing the battle. Itamar Simonson and Emanuel Rosen state in their book “Absolute Value” that consumers now base their decisions on reviews from other users, opinions and other emerging technologies that are turning choices more rational. Therefore traditional sources of information controlled by marketing are fading. In this article we focus on Brands and we answer the following question ¿Are we before a declining on branding or are we force to implement new marketing strategies for branding …

Game Theory In Transport & Logistic World, Sajjad Khaksari

SAJJAD KHAKSARI

"OV & DP and BRT" some assumptions and a Case Study for studying John Nash "Game Theory" method in logistics and transportation world and that is only a briefly attempt to get familiar with the idea. A thought which asks "Is it possible to model and analyze one of the authenticity of the transport or logistics service request with respect to the Game Theory optimization idea?

App Newsletter 2, Riccardo Pelizzo

riccardo pelizzo

This is the second issue of the newsletter of African Politics and Policy. In this issue our collaborators discuss the uneasy relationship between democracy and development, Tourism in Tanzania, elections in Togo, and Chinese Investments in Africa.

Incorporating Sustainability Into Principles Of Macroeconomics: A Case Study, Madhavi Venkatesan

Madhavi Venkatesan

Using grant funded resources, this case study explicitly engaged students in a Principles of Macroeconomics course with respect to the impact of sustainability-based values on economic indicators and standard of living parameters, while coincidentally opening discussion to the implicit nature of consumption-based values in the economic assessment of growth. Student assimilation and reaction to the curriculum was documented over the period of the course. Students provided responses to weekly questionnaires, which tracked their changing perceptions, values, and behaviors. Weekly class discussions and individual student assessment of the awareness fostered by reviewing the two divergent value structures also contributed to qualitative …

Does Stronger Patent Protection Increase Export Variety? Evidence From U.S. Product-Level Data, Olena Ivus

Olena Ivus

Proponents of global intellectual property rights (IPRs) reforms have argued that developing countries' weak IPRs limit their access to foreign innovative products and technologies. Central to our understanding of the effects of IPRs on product access is the influence of national differences in patent protection on corporate behavior and business strategy of multinational firms. Using detailed product data on U.S. exports from 1990 to 2000, this paper assesses the impact of strengthening IPRs in developing countries on product variety of U.S. exports. Colonial origin and cross-industry variation in patent effectiveness serve to identify the impact. The results show that the …

Malaysian Tax System And Individual Tax Knowledge, Noraza Mat Udin

NORAZA MAT UDIN

No abstract provided.

A Burning Question: Does Arson Increase When Local House Prices Decline?, Michael D. Eriksen, James M. Carson

Michael D Eriksen

We construct panel data on house prices and the determined cause of 4.8 million individual fires in the United States between 1986 and 2010 to test whether decreases in local housing market prices coincided with increases in arson. Since some insured homeowners may attempt to disguise the actual cause of fire as accidental, we also examine how decreases in local house prices are associated with changes in the total number of fires and the probability of determined causes of accidental fires. For the sample period, our results suggest that declines in local house prices coincided with increases in arson, the …

[Slides] Resale Price Maintenance In The Age Of Showrooming, Jeanine Miklos-Thal, Greg Shaffer

Jeanine Miklos-Thal

We examine the leading pro-competitive justification for RPM, free-riding on dealer services, in today’s context of brick-and-mortar versus online retailing. Market research studies show that many consumers visit a brick-and-mortar store to examine a product and select its features, but then purchase it at a discounted price from an online retailer. An often-voiced concern is that such “showrooming” will discourage traditional retailers from providing demand-enhancing sales services. According to the classic free-riding theory (Telser, 1960), manufacturers can solve this problem by imposing price floors that prevent online retailers from undercutting brick-and-mortar retailers. Counter to this widely used argument, we find …

Whose Beliefs Drive Trade In The Stock Market? Evidence From Household Belief Dispersion And Trading Volume, Dan Li, Geng Li

Geng Li

No abstract provided.

Information, Contract Design, And Unsecured Credit Supply: Evidence From Credit Card Mailings, Song Han, Benjamin Keys, Geng Li

Geng Li

No abstract provided.

Axiomatic Social Choice Theory, David Randall Jenkins

David Randall Jenkins

Ordered Relations Theory’s two axioms ultimately enable (individual: society) well-being transitivity inasmuch as they impound Social Choice Theory’s impossibility theorem, impossibility-resolving axioms, and all such further regressive impossibility theorems and impossibility-resolving axioms.

Игры В Призрачном Мире Теневой Банковской Деятельности, Bryane Michael

Брайн Майкл

В своем анализе мы, ско- рее, делаем акцент на способах, позволяю- щих теневому банковскому сектору прино- сить пользу отдельным предпринимателям и компаниям на быстроразвивающихся рынках. Кредиты от таких «небанковских финансовых учреждений», как их часто на- зывают, способны помочь в ослаблении се- рьезных кредитных ограничений во многих анализируемых нами экономических систе- мах. Вследствие этого мы предпочли сосре- доточиться на том, каким образом отдель- ные предприниматели и компании могут предоставлять недорогие кредиты, предла- гать инвесторам доход, генерируемый та- кими кредитами, и при этом по-прежнему получать прибыль.

Compound Interest And The Power Of Saving, Richard H. Serlin

Richard H. Serlin

This is an article with an included assignment that I give to my personal finance 1 students. The first part talks about the power of compound interest. I go into depth about the intuition why it's so powerful, why it takes off, and has been called the eighth wonder of the world. I've haven't seen anywhere else an extensive explanation of the intuition like I have here.

In the second part I give the students a nice assignment to see how much their savings can grow if they invest even a modest amount consistently, month in and month out, in …

Timing Is Everything? An Empirical Analysis Of The Determinants Of Service Quality Provision, Olivier Chatain, Alon Eizenberg

Olivier Chatain

We utilize a unique database from a large legal services provider to examine how service quality responds to the firm's available capacity, and to the nature of the firm-client relationship. We develop empirical measures of both the (internal) level of resources available to the firm at different points in time, and of the (external) value creation for customers. Our results indicate that service quality increases in the amount of the firm's available resources, suggesting that quality adjustment can be used as a means of tackling capacity constraints. We also find that service quality increases in the number of previous successful …

Regional Institutional Development, Political Connections, And Entrepreneurial Performance In China's Transition Economy, Wubiao Zhou

Wubiao Zhou

While previous research has emphasized the role of political connections in facilitating entrepreneurial performance in China’ early reform period (1978 – 1999), this study argues that regional institutions had been increasingly conducive to entrepreneurial activities and, thus, also played a key role in China’s entrepreneurial success during that period. The purpose of this study is twofold. First, it aims to demonstrate how regional institutional development facilitated entrepreneurial performance in China. Second, it aims to understand how formal institutional development among Chinese regions affected the role of political connections. Using a two-level hierarchical dataset on Chinese private enterprises, this study finds …

The Growth And Transformation Of The Temporary Job Market, Travis J. Begin

Travis J Begin

The temporary job market is likely to grow as the economy evolves. This descriptive analysis discusses from a labor supply and demand perspective the determinants of temporary employment, where it developed, who it pertains to, and in which industries and occupations it is utilized. In addition, statistical analysis provides an insight into the temporary employment form in international labor markets. This provides a framework to predict the future of temporary employment as the economy evolves.

Housing Vouchers And The Price Of Rental Housing, Michael D. Eriksen, Amanda Ross

Michael D Eriksen

We estimate the effect of increasing the supply of housing vouchers on rents using a panel of housing units in the American Housing Survey. We do not find that an increase in vouchers affected the overall price of rental housing, but do estimate differences in effects based on an individual unit’s rent before the voucher expansion. Our results are consistent with voucher recipients renting more expensive units after receiving the subsidy. We also find that the largest price increases were for units near the maximum allowable voucher rent in cities with an inelastic housing supply.

Privateers & Paes: Economic Harms To Competition And Innovation, Robert G. Harris

Robert G Harris

This paper addresses the problems of aggressive rent-seeking activities by patent assertion entities (PAEs), especially those involving patent thickets. It analyzes the fundamental differences in the strategic interests of practicing entities and PAEs and explains why those differences affect the conduct of PAEs and increase the opportunities for, and economic harm caused by PAEs’ rent-seeking and patent holdup. It also addresses the anticompetitive harms caused when practicing entities transfer patents to PAEs, especially those that incentivize assertion of the transferred patents against their competitors, i.e. “patent privateering.”

Competitividad Y Bienestar Nacional, Guillermo Arosemena

Guillermo Arosemena

No abstract provided.

Voice Without Say: Why Capital-Managed Firms Aren’T (Genuinely) Participatory, Justin Schwartz

Justin Schwartz

Why are most capitalist enterprises of any size organized as authoritarian bureaucracies rather than incorporating genuine employee participation that would give the workers real authority? Even firms with employee participation programs leave virtually all decision-making power in the hands of management. The standard answer is that hierarchy is more economically efficient than any sort of genuine participation, so that participatory firms would be less productive and lose out to more traditional competitors. This answer is indefensible. After surveying the history, legal status, and varieties of employee participation, I examine and reject as question-begging the argument that the rarity of genuine …

Economic Aspects Of Internet Security, Henk Lm Kox, Bas Straathof

Henk LM Kox

An economic perspective on Internet security is useful not only for identifying weak spots, but also for finding solutions to security problems. It focuses on the behaviour and economic incentives of both infrastructure providers and end users. Individual parties may have insufficient incentives to invest in cybersecurity. The free play of markets markets may not deliver a socially optimal level of security on the Internet for at least three reasons: information asymmetry, externalities and market power. Information asymmetry might occur in various situations. For example, end users are not able to verify whether an Internet Service Provider (ISP) correctly informs …

A Theory Without A Movement, A Hope Without A Name: The Future Of Marxism In A Post-Marxist World, Justin Schwartz

Justin Schwartz

Just as Marx's insights into capitalism have been most strikingly vindicated by the rise of neoliberalism and the near-collapse of the world economy, Marxism as social movement has become bereft of support. Is there any point in people who find Marx's analysis useful in clinging to the term "Marxism" - which Marx himself rejected -- at time when self-identified Marxist organizations and societies have collapsed or renounced the identification, and Marxism own working class constituency rejects the term? I set aside bad reasons to give on "Marxism," such as that the theory is purportedly refuted, that its adoption leads necessarily …

Futuro Del Mundo, Guillermo Arosemena

Guillermo Arosemena

No abstract provided.