The Impact of the Definition of Inflation on the Effectiveness of Inflation Accounting Adjustments

In tests of inflation accounting methods, inflation is generally seen as a simple phenomenon: the prices of all elements change at the same rate. The example presented here deals with a different case: inflation is characterized by changes in the structure of prices. In particular, prices of articles bought and articles sold do not vary at the same rates.
In this context, it is observed that three types of adjustments are not effective, i.e. they do not have the potential to report real or nominal rates of return. This result should be considered as a criticism of the coherence of inflation accounting methods.     

An Analysis of the Impact of Interest Rate Ceilings

The first aim of this study is to estimate the interest rates paid for motor vehicle loans. The second aim is to identify those potential borrowers most likely to be rationed out of the market by the imposition of rate ceilings. Rate ceilings constrain the rates paid by successful loan applicants to be no greater than the applicable ceiling level. These constraints are dealt with by treating the interest rate paid as a variable truncated at the ceiling level. Assuming the dependent variable is truncated normal, consistent estimates are obtained by employing the maximum likelihood method of Hausman and Wise.     

THE DUNLOP COMMISSION'S OMISSIONS ON AMERICAN LABOR MARKET POLICY

In 1994 and 1995, a U.S. presidential task force called the "Dunlop Commission" issued reports on the labor market and made various public policy recommendations. The commission's fact-finding report identified a variety of problems, primarily economic, such as widening wage inequality, lagging productivity, and unemployment. However, the commission's recommendation report limited its focus primarily to collective bargaining labor law and proposed solutions that appeared unlikely to have a significant impact on the problems identified in the first report. The commission's narrow charge, its insistence on maintaining a consensus among its members, and the limited range of views represented by its membership explain these inconsistencies.     

Before an Analyst Becomes an Analyst: Does Industry Experience Matter?

Using hand‐collected biographical information on financial analysts from 1983 to 2011, we find that analysts making forecasts on firms in industries related to their preanalyst experience have better forecast accuracy, evoke stronger market reactions to earning revisions, and are more likely to be named Institutional Investor all‐stars. Plausibly exogenous losses of analysts with related industry experience have real financial market implications—changes in firms’ information asymmetry and price reactions are significantly larger than those of other analysts. Overall, industry expertise acquired from preanalyst work experience is valuable to analysts, consistent with the emphasis placed on their industry knowledge by institutional investors.     

Information Provision in Procurement Auctions

We study the optimal provision of information in a procurement auction with horizontally differentiated goods. The buyer has private information about her preferred location on the product space and has access to a costless communication device. A seller who pays the entry cost may submit a bid comprising a location and a minimum price. We characterize the optimal information structure and show that the buyer prefers to attract only two bids. Further, additional sellers are inefficient since they reduce total and consumer surplus, gross of entry costs. We show that the buyer will not find it optimal to send public information to all sellers. On the other hand, she may profit from setting a minimum price and that a severe hold‐up problem arises if she lacks commitment to set up the rules of the auction ex ante.     

Why Consumers Choose Managed Mutual Funds Over Index Funds: Hypotheses from Consumer Behavior

Much evidence exists which suggests that the vast majority of equity mutual fund managers do not possess differential information (or skills) which allow them to achieve above average market returns for their investors. Thus, when investors pay fees to equity mutual fund managers for investment advice and management, the very probable outcome is that they are reducing the return that they would otherwise achieve by investing in a nonmanaged index fund that tracks the total stock market (e.g., Wilshire 5000) or some significant portion of it (e.g., the Standard & Poor's 500). The long-term negative consumer welfare implications are large, very possibly in the hundreds of thousands of dollars for individual consumer investors. Drawing largely on insights from the psychology, consumer behavior, and behavioral finance literatures, we offer a series of hypotheses that may partially account for such consumer choices. We conclude with a call for increased government- and employer-sponsored education programs aimed at creating a more informed consumer investor.     

Evidence on Attitudes Toward Alternative Sharing Arrangements

Attitudes of undergraduates toward a range of alternative organizational forms are surveyed. Results show that students prefer firms where employees have significant ownership and control. Our findings strongly support the hypothesis of a strong gender effect influencing undergraduates' preferences for different tyes of firms. Results also indicate the importance of political orientation in influencing respondents' preferences.     

BENEFITS OF PRESERVING OLD-GROWTH FORESTS AND THE SPOTTED OWL

This paper presents results from a national contingent-valuation study of the economic benefits of preserving old-growth forests in the Pacific Northwest. The study elicits "market-like" valuation responses from U.S. households concerning the benefits of a conservation policy for the northern spotted owl. These data provide a basis for estimating the benefits of preservation in terms of average household willingness to pay. Existing cost estimates are used to compute threshold prices that the benefits of the policy must exceed for the policy to be efficient. Benefit/cost ratios are calculated using "best" and "lower-bound" estimates of the benefits of preservation. Under all combinations of assumptions, the estimated benefits exceed the costs of the conservation policy.