Dynamics of the urban zoning structure: An empirical investigation of zoning change

This study empirically examines the role of land prices in the decision to rezone vacant land from one land use to another. Although the study of zoning and related issues is well documented, this is one of only a handful of studies that directly examines zoning changes. Unlike previous studies that treat zoning as static, acknowledging only that the current allocation of land differs from the market allocation, this study examines if the allocation of land will be reallocated (rezoned) toward a market allocation. The study is unique in that it analyzes zoning changes on an individual property basis and is based on transactions of vacant parcels. The data are drawn from a single municipality, Chicago—Illinois, allowing a uniform definition of zoning classification rather than trying to combine data under multiple zoning authorities.     

Term structure models and the zero bound: An empirical investigation of Japanese yields

When Japanese short-term bond yields were near their zero bound, yields on long-term bonds showed substantial fluctuation, and there was a strong positive relationship between the level of interest rates and yield volatilities/risk premiums. We explore whether several families of dynamic term structure models that enforce a zero lower bound on short rates imply conditional distributions of Japanese bond yields consistent with these patterns. Multi-factor “shadow-rate” and quadratic-Gaussian models, evaluated at their maximum likelihood estimates, capture many features of the data. Furthermore, model-implied risk premiums track realized excess returns during extended periods of near-zero short rates. In contrast, the conditional distributions implied by non-negative affine models do not match their sample counterparts, and standard Gaussian affine models generate implausibly large negative risk premiums.     

Dividend reinvestment plans and Pecking Order capital structure behavior: An empirical investigation

Due to the asymmetric information effect, corporations have been reluctant to use external sources of equity capital. The adoption of dividend reinvestment plans (DRP) by large numbers of firms may indicate an alternative way to raise external equity funds. It has been shown that many factors may explain a firm’s decision concerning the source of the shares made available to DRP participants. The hypothesis to be tested is that the nature of the DRP actually selected may be predicted by financial characteristics such as cash flow generation, investment needs, historical dividend policy, firm ownership structure and firm capital structure. Using logistic regression analysis, results of joint tests of financial variables suggested by the Pecking Order Theory of capital structure indicate significant support for the hypothesis. Specifically, ownership structure, historical dividend policy and debt ratio are found to be key determinants of the type of DRP utilized.     

Structural shifts in urban population density gradients: an empirical investigation

This study investigates the structural shifts in urban population density gradients by first using the shifting regression technique of Farley, Hinich, and McGuire to detect the possible change in the structure of an urban area. Secondly, a generalized random coefficient technique is used to simultaneously detect the possible structural change and stochastic behavior of density gradients. Data for 50 United States SMSA's are used to do the empirical analyses.     

Predicting relative forecasting performance: An empirical investigation

The relative performances of forecasting models change over time. This empirical observation raises two questions. First, is the relative performance itself predictable? Second, if so, can it be exploited in order to improve the forecast accuracy? We address these questions by evaluating the predictive abilities of a wide range of economic variables for two key US macroeconomic aggregates, namely industrial production and inflation, relative to simple benchmarks. We find that business cycle indicators, financial conditions, uncertainty and measures of past relative performances are generally useful for explaining the models’ relative forecasting performances. In addition, we conduct a pseudo-real-time forecasting exercise, where we use the information about the conditional performance for model selection and model averaging. The newly proposed strategies deliver sizable improvements over competitive benchmark models and commonly-used combination schemes. The gains are larger when model selection and averaging are based on both financial conditions and past performances measured at the forecast origin date.     

Benchmarking institutional variety in the eurozone: An empirical investigation

The European debt crisis has shown that the future of the European Union (EU) depends on the willingness of each member country to implement responsible policies, avoid moral hazard and uncooperative attitudes, and ensure stability and soundness. However, the European institutional variety means that each member country reacts differently to shocks and policies, follows a different path of recovery, and adapts to common institutions, including the common currency, in different ways. Helping countries to converge toward a situation that guarantees well-being, stability, and development at the national and community level is the goal of the European benchmark. This benchmark is a framework inspired by European treaties that, through the distance-to-frontier score methodology, aims to measure member countries’ performance and identify inefficiencies and negative externalities within the economic, social, and political institutions of each member country. The paper presents an empirical investigation of the European benchmark. Based on the results obtained, all countries can improve their performance, and none of them can be considered a model for the others. However, the Mediterranean and post-communist countries have more challenges to face and therefore need to make greater efforts.     

Confidence intervals: An empirical investigation of the series in the M-competition

This paper empirically evaluates the uncertainty of forecasts. It does so using the 1001 series of the M-Competition. The study indicates that although, in model fitting the percentage of observations outside the confidence intervals is close to that postulated theoretically, this is not true for forecasting. In the latter case the percentage of observations outside the confidence intervals is much higher than that postulated theoretically. This is so for the great majority of series, forecasting horizonts, and methods. In addition to evaluating the extent of uncertainty, we provide tables to help users to construct more realistic confidence intervals for their forecasts.     

Scale efficiencies in US telecommunications: An empirical investigation

In this paper we evaluate scale efficiency patterns of local operating companies in the US telecommunications industry. Scale efficiency is defined as the ability of each company to operate as close to its most productive scale size as possible, and is calculated using data envelopment analysis. The analysis of scale efficiencies is conducted for a set of 39 local operating companies, over six time periods: 1975, 1978, 1981, 1984, 1987 and 1990. During these time periods, several technical and institutional changes took place in the industry which are likely to have had an impact on the abilities of the companies to exploit feasible scale efficiencies, and we find that scale efficiencies have steadily increased over these time periods. We also establish that the Bell operating companies are no different from the independent companies in their ability to be scale efficient; single-state firms are relatively more scale efficient; line digitization, during the periods studied, has not significantly impacted scale efficiency; and firms belonging to multi-company parents are more scale efficient. Additionally, policy regime changes, such as the introduction of intra-LATA toll market competition and incentive regulation schemes, have positively impacted firms' abilities to attain scale efficiency, while micro-segment competition in local markets have, so far, not had the expected impact.     

An empirical investigation of scheduling performance criteria

Planning and scheduling significantly influence organizational performance, but literature that pays attention to how organizations could or should organize and assess their planning processes is limited. We extend planning and scheduling theory with a categorization of scheduling performance criteria, based on a three-stage survey research design. Particularly, the results show that, next to schedule quality, the planning process factors timeliness, flexibility, communication, and negotiation are important performance criteria, and especially so in organizations that are faced with high levels of uncertainty. The results suggest that organizational and behavioral aspects of planning and scheduling cannot be mitigated with advanced models and software that solely focus on good schedules. Rather, high quality schedules and high quality scheduling processes need to be facilitated simultaneously to attain high planning and scheduling performance.     

An empirical investigation of intraurban wage gradients

Intraurban wage gradients have received little attention in the urban literature but have been shown theoretically to be important indicators of the spatial characteristics of urban economic activity. This study examines the spatial distribution of wages of five groups of municipal public employees in the Chicago SMSA. Negative wage gradients, significant at the 0.05 level, are found for four of the five labor groups. Results show that monthly wages decrease on average as much as $24 per additional mile from the city center.     

An empirical investigation into supply chain vulnerability

A growing number of academicians and practitioners have put supply chain risks on their agendas, particularly triggered by a recent series of catastrophic events that have disrupted economies and supply chains around the globe. Given the increasing awareness of this important topic, the purpose of this research was to study supply chain risks in more detail and to investigate the relationship between supply chain vulnerability and supply chain risk. Responses from 760 executives from firms operating in Germany reveal that supply chain characteristics such as a firm's dependence on certain customers and suppliers, the degree of single sourcing, or reliance on global supply sources are relevant for a firm's exposure to supply chain risk. Overall, this research represents the first large-scale investigation of this important relationship and provides a finer understanding of the antecedents of supply chain vulnerability.     

Profit distribution management by Islamic banks: An empirical investigation

The objective of this paper is to ascertain whether Islamic banks do in fact manage profit distributions and if so, what factors are associated with the extent of profit distribution management. The results suggest that most Islamic banks manage profit distributions, with the extent of profit distribution directly related to religiosity, financial development, asset composition, and existence of discretionary reserves, while it is inversely related to market familiarity with Islamic banking, market concentration, depositor funding reliance and the age of the Islamic bank.     

Postauditing capital assets and firm performance: An empirical investigation

The argument presented in this paper is that the adoption of sophisticated postaudit procedures should be associated with improved firm performance. Based on a matched-pair experimental design, utilizing the Wilcoxon matched-pairs signed-ranks test and a newly developed statistic to test for a change point, empirical evidence is provided to support this argument.     

Economic rents and mutual fund performance: An empirical investigation

We investigate the monthly returns of 377 open-end mutual funds during the September 1981–1994 period to learn whether economic rents can be garnered through the judicious selection of the advertising and sales method in the mutual fund industry. Specifically, we seek to learn whether direct sales or mass marketing produces economic rents under the assumption that those rents would be passed on to consumers to build a “high quality” image to differentiate the product line. Results suggest that no-load funds produce superior net returns except in the aggressive growth category.     

Credit in the euro area: An empirical investigation using aggregate data

This paper uses multivariate cointegration techniques to estimate a model of aggregate bank lending in the euro area. The model provides a quantitative benchmark for assessing conjunctural developments in loans to the area-wide private sector. Large and protracted deviations of realised loans from the paths implied by the model may reveal information about the emergence of financial imbalances as well as about the state of the economy, particularly about the strength of inflationary pressures. A specific application of the model shows that its error-correction term contains information on future changes in inflation over forecast horizons of relevance for monetary policy.     

An empirical investigation of water consumption forecasting methods

Many regions on earth face daily limitations in the quantity and quality of the water resources available. As a result, it is necessary to implement reliable methodologies for water consumption forecasting that will enable the better management and planning of water resources. This research analyses, for the first time, a large database containing data from 2 million water meters in 274 unique postal codes, in one of the most densely populated areas of Europe, which faces issues of droughts and overconsumption in the hot summer months. Using the R programming language, we built and tested three alternative forecasting methodologies, employing univariate forecasting techniques including a machine-learning algorithm, with very promising results.     

我国新股首日回报率的实证分析

新股首日超额回报是世界范围的一种普遍现象,而在我国尤为突出,国内外对此给出了各种解释,但至今尚未形成一致性认识,文章选取1996年1月至2004年12月在我国上海证券交易所上市的616只A股为样本,进行了横截面的分析后发现:信息不对称并非我国新股折价的主要原因,我国新股折价是由二级市场投机引起。     

An empirical investigation of the cross sectional determinants of lease use

This paper examines the determinants of cross-sectional variation in lease ratios. Results indicate that leases substitute for debt and that relative lease use is negatively related to the size of the lessee. Leased assets, as a fraction of total assets, are negatively related to the financial strength of the lessee. Relative lease use is positively related to the lessee's level of non-debt tax shields, and some support is found for a negative relationship between leasing and the tax rate. Additionally, asset factors, as proxied by industry, provide most of the explanatory power of the model.     

Effects of standardization and innovation on mass customization: An empirical investigation

Mass customization (MC) refers to the capability to produce customized goods for a mass market. Innovation can enhance the flexibility and responsiveness of a company, and standardization enables the company to achieve economies of scale and scope, both of which are necessary for developing MC capability. A conceptual model is proposed to explore the relationships among innovation, standardization, MC capability, and delivery speed. Hypotheses are tested using survey data from 204 manufacturing companies in China. The results show that standardization positively influences innovation. Innovation and standardization positively affect MC capability and are complementary in developing MC capability. Innovation significantly enhances delivery speed. However, the direct effect of standardization on delivery speed is nonsignificant. In addition, innovation and standardization indirectly affect delivery speed through MC capability. This study contributes to the literature by providing empirical evidence on the individual and interactive effects of standardization and innovation in developing MC capability and their joint influence on delivery speed. The results will help managers understand the roles of standardization and innovation in improving organizational capability and performance.     

The effects of Six Sigma on corporate performance: An empirical investigation

The purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of adopting Six Sigma on corporate performance. Although there is a fairly large and growing body of anecdotal evidence associated with the benefits of implementing Six Sigma, there is very little systematic and rigorous research investigating these benefits. This research extends previous research in several important ways including utilizing a sample of 84 Six Sigma firms that represent a wide variety of industries and firm characteristics, utilizing rigorously constructed control groups to ensure the validity of our comparisons and conclusions, and investigating the impact of adopting Six Sigma on corporate performance over a ten year period. To carry out this investigation, the event study methodology is employed. The ten year period consists of three years prior to Six Sigma implementation, the event year corresponding to the year Six Sigma is adopted, and six years post Six Sigma implementation. To assess the impact of adopting Six Sigma on corporate performance we utilize commonly used measures including Operating Income/Total Assets (OI/A), Operating Income/Sales (OI/S), Operating Income/Number of Employees (OI/E), Sales/Assets (S/A), and Sales/Number of Employees (S/E). The sample Six Sigma firms are compared to different benchmarks including the overall industry performance and to the performance of carefully selected portfolios of control firms. The results of the study indicate that adopting Six Sigma positively impacts organizational performance primarily through the efficiency with which employees are deployed. More specifically, enhanced employee productivity results were observed in both static analyses that assessed the performance of the sample Six Sigma firms relative to their control groups at discrete points in time and dynamic analyses of the Six Sigma firms’ rate of improvement relative to the rate of improvement of their control groups. Benefits in terms of improved asset efficiency were not observed. Finally, there was no evidence that Six Sigma negatively impacts corporate performance.