New vehicle feebates

New vehicle feebate programs encourage improved fleet‐wide vehicle fuel efficiency; yet analyses of these policies have been limited to ad hoc proposals. In this paper, we exploit an extensive, multi‐year dataset which includes more than 16 million observations to evaluate the welfare implications of a long‐standing vehicle feebate program in the Canadian province of Ontario. We: (1) show that second‐best optimal feebates can be written as a function of new vehicle Pigouvian taxes; (2) find that Ontario's feebate program was welfare‐enhancing relative to a no feebate scenario but that a second‐best optimal benchmark would have yielded additional welfare while reducing fleet‐wide emissions; and (3) find that Ontarian consumers responded asymmetrically to fees versus rebates.     

How Does an Individual's Innate Preferences Impact Innovation and Creativity?

Organizational leaders commonly reward innovation and creativity and many times it is the individual with the “brilliant idea” who is recognized. The current article examines the four types of innovative ideas that lead to organizational change and effectiveness and how every person on a team plays a role in achieving the idea. As a manager or leader of people being aware of individual styles and preferences will lead to increased recognition of all innovative and creative contributions that can have a positive impact on organizational culture.     

Proximity to the SEC and Stock Price Crash Risk

We explore the possibility that Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) oversight influences disclosure practices in a manner that reduces the likelihood of individual stock price crashes. Firms located farther from the SEC have greater stock price crash risk and this result is more pronounced for firms with financial statements that are less readable (those with larger 10‐K filings) and more pronounced when SEC budgets are relatively smaller. Similar results are obtained in response to SEC regional office location changes that are more likely to be exogenous. Our results suggest that SEC oversight induces disclosure practices that reduce the likelihood of large negative disclosures.     

The effect of growth opportunities on the market reaction to dividend cuts: evidence from the 2008 financial crisis

We consider returns from rebalanced and buy and hold portfolios consisting of the same stocks. Theoretical properties are derived using Jensen’s inequality and the Hölder’s Defect Formula. Simulations are used to confirm theory and to investigate ambiguous cases where theory is silent. Rebalancing decreases total return volatility, while buy and hold produces greater expected return. Results are more opaque with respect to Sharpe Ratios and expected geometric means. Our empirical tests are based on portfolios composed of the risk-free asset, CRSP market value returns and returns from five Fama–French industries. While rebalancing reduces volatility and momentum effect, our tests largely favor the buy and hold strategy due to the high relative returns enjoyed by stocks vis-a-vis the risk-free asset. Transactions cost for rebalancing the portfolio are economically negligible.     

Pathways through trusteeship: Responding to the trustee recruitment crisis

Getting on Board 2017 suggests that the recruitment of trustees to the Board of Trustees (henceforth volunteer trustees) by charities in the United Kingdom is in a state of crisis. This report and a range of other stakeholders offer advice and guidance about recruitment, but attention to what motivates individuals to become trustees is lacking. Drawing upon the Pathways Through Participation framework , we argue that an important part of addressing the crisis in trustee recruitment is to consider the motivations of volunteer trustees in tandem with their resources and triggers for volunteering. We draw upon a study of 14 volunteer trustees of learning disability charities to explore how a critical understanding of volunteer trusteeship as a pathway through participation provides a full and rounded picture of trustee recruitment. Building on other research on volunteer recruitment and markets, we argue that recruitment can be improved when charities better understand what motivates their volunteer trustees. We recommend that charities consider trusteeship as a pathway through participation as part of their recruitment practices.     

The economic effects of expanded compensation disclosures

This paper analyzes the effects of expanded compensation disclosures on manager pay. For identification, I use the introduction of the Compensation Discussion and Analysis (CD&A) in the 2007 proxy season, a significant expansion in required compensation disclosures, to compare manager pay at firms with and without the disclosure in a difference-in-differences analysis. These disclosures are associated with increasing pay, contrary to the conventional wisdom that pay disclosures reduce pay levels via better shareholder monitoring. I hypothesize that enhanced ex ante disclosures of incentive plans reduce boards’ flexibility to make ex post adjustments or to use subjectivity and pressure boards toward more formulaic plans. Both effects impose higher payout risk on managers, leading to increased pay levels. Consistent with this hypothesis, the CD&A introduction is associated with lower likelihood to earn variable cash pay, greater use of formula-based pay, and higher pay at firms with more volatile measures of performance.     

Shareholder Returns from Supplying Trade Credit

We examine shareholder wealth implications of supplying financing to customers. Robust results suggest that excess returns and changes in trade receivables are directly and significantly related. Further evidence indicates the value of receivables is higher for suppliers with stronger motives relating to operating and contracting costs. The results also suggest a discounted value of receivables for financially unconstrained firms. Overall, we conclude that investors recognize trade credit as an effective instrument in mitigating frictions hindering sales growth. Thus, certain suppliers are positioned to derive increased strategic benefits from credit policy.     

Informal trail creation: hiking,trail running,and mountain bicycling in shortgrass prairie

This study considers initial impacts on vegetation cover caused by mountain bicycling, trail running, and hiking in a shortgrass prairie environment. Vegetation cover measurements were taken at multiple intervals following experimental recreational use on three uphill and three downhill trail segments. All three activities caused statistically significant increases in bare ground cover between the first baseline measurement and post-treatment sampling one year later. Short-term effects were more variable: walking and bicycling caused statistically significant increases in bare ground, but running did not. The study suggests that impacts to vegetation differ not just between uses, but also within a single type of recreational activity depending upon site-specific characteristics, and that the timing of use and recovery are important factors in informal trail creation. The rapid creation of trail impacts also has management implications, especially as recreational pressures increase and recreationists seek more challenging terrain and opportunities off-trail. This research suggests that the dynamics of trail formation from running deserve further attention and likely differ from hiking or mountain biking impacts.