The use of financial information by trade union negotiators in plant level collective bargaining

The aim of this paper is to undertake a critical review of recently completed empirical work, carried out under the auspices of the SSRC, on the use of information in individual company and plant level bargaining. The authors also attempt to develop a strategy for further investigation of this important topic which highlights the importance of variations in the nature of the domestic organisation in relation to the potential importance and usefulness of financial information for union negotiators.     

Labor supply over the life cycle: the long-term forecasting problem

Problems concerning the development of long-term forecasts of age variations in the labor supply are discussed. The author examines problems related to using the life cycle theory of labor supply to analyze such variations. An alternative theory, which suggests that the labor supply of younger and older groups is influenced by subsidies from prime-aged groups, is proposed and tested using U.S. data for the last 60 years.     

A menu of moral issues: One week in the life of The Wall Street Journal

A menu of twelve moral issues that seem to be common to all organizations is described and illustrated. This menu identifies some of the most prominent moral issues requiring individuals to decide where to draw the line between moral and immoral conduct. A review ofThe Wall Street Journal during just one week provided over sixty articles illustrating how moral issues are inherent in almost every business decision. The articles included several illustrations of stealing, lying, and fraud that are immoral, although in some cases not technically illegal. Other articles illustrated conflicts of interest, influence buying, hiding information, divulging personal information, taking unfair advantage, personal decadence, interpersonal abuse, organizational abuse, rule violations, being an accessory to unethical acts, and balancing ethical dilemmas. These illustrations are intended to help individuals identify moral issues and recognize the situations when they arise so they can avoid unwitting immoral behavior.Jay Owen Cherrington is the Coordinator of the Information Systems faculty of the Marriott School of Management at BYU. He is a CPA and participates as a member of the AICPA. He is the author of many research articles and four college textbooks. Dr. Cherrington serves as a consultant and instructor for several major organizations including Ernst & Young and IBM.David Jack Cherrington holds the Nyal D. and Bette McMullin professorship in Ethics and Entrepreneurship. He received a DBA and has taught at the University of Illinois, University of Wisconsin — Madison, Brigham Young University, and BYU — Hawaii. He is certified as a Senior Professional in Human Resources and serves on the HRCI Board. He is the author of over 40 research articles and five books, including two texts:Organizational Behavior, and The Management of Human Resources.     

Earnings and Expected Returns

The aggregate dividend payout ratio forecasts excess returns on both stocks and corporate bonds in postwar U.S. data. High dividends forecast high returns. High earnings forecast low returns. The correlation of earnings with business conditions gives them predictive power for returns; they contain information about future returns that is not captured by other variables. Dividends and earnings contribute substantial explanatory power at short horizons. For forecasting long-horizon returns, however, only (scaled) stock prices matter. Forecasts of low long-horizon stock returns in the mid-1990s are caused not by earnings or dividends, but by high stock prices.     

Imperfect competition and the optimal combination of ad valorem and specific taxation

While it has long been recognized that under imperfect competition ad valorem and specific taxation differ in their effects, the optimal combination of the two instruments has received little attention. This paper shows how combining the two taxes can eliminate the welfare loss due to imperfect competition by inducing profit-maximizing firms to charge the appropriate Ramsey price.     

Laboratory Behavior in Spot and Forward Auction Markets

Auctions that require advance production increase seller costs because inventories must be held. This cost does not exist in production-to-demand markets for which production follows trading, and sales exactly match quantities produced. Data from laboratory computerized double auction markets show that advance-production prices are significantly higher and quantities traded are significantly lower than they are in production-to-demand auctions. Price convergence patterns show advance-production sellers moving toward 9% higher prices and 22% greater earnings.     

Reconsidering social capital: a latent class approach

Social capital has proven to be a useful concept, but has not been well-measured in the economics literature. We motivate and demonstrate the application of latent class models to measure social capital, based on the idea that social capital is an unobservable multidimensional construct. We explain and show the construction of latent classes that measure an individual’s social capital using data from the General Social Survey. Our method generates meaningfully different conclusions about the accumulation of social capital than those obtained by previous research. We present evidence that higher income influences social capital accumulation because of a higher opportunity cost of time. We also find evidence of complementarities in social capital accumulation within an individual’s peer group. Finally, we show that community heterogeneity influences the likelihood that individuals adhere to certain social norms independent of their propensity to participate in voluntary organizations.