Taxation and Wage Bargaining*

The paper analyzes the effects of personal taxes on wage bargaining It concludes that an increase in tax progressivity will normally increase union wage-bargaining pressure and so raise the equilibrium wage This is the opposite result to that recently derived by Creedy and McDonald (1990).     

Capital Structure Theory and REIT Security Offerings

In this paper, we examine the stock price reactions to announcements of new security offerings by Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs). REITs offer a unique setting in which to study these events because they do not pay taxes at the firm level. Theory suggests that the net tax gain to corporate borrowing is unambiguously negative for a REIT. Contrary to some recent studies, however, we find a positive stock price reaction to debt offerings, while the negative equity-issuance effect is preserved. Further empirical evidence lends support to signalling as the explanation for the positive significant debt-issuance effect.     

The Relevance of Varieties of Accounting Information: A U.S.A. Survey

Diverse kinds of financial information have been claimed to be relevant, for one purpose or another. A survey by mailed questionnaire over seven professional groups in five large U.S. cities sought to discover whether certain valuation rules yielded serviceable amounts in specific problem settings or in representations of financial position and income. Most of the questions were posed in the form of simple problem situations. To questions relating to wealth, spending power and financial position, large majority responses rejected conventional accounting values and endorsed market selling prices. To questions on income calculation, majorities favouring use of the same principle were smaller. Cross-tabulations of answers on financial position and income showed substantial inconsistencies; a hypothetical explanation is given. A comparison is given of responses to some questions in similar surveys in Australia and South Africa.     

An Analysis of Bank Loan Rate Indexation

This paper examines the economic rationale for the use of bank loan commitments and the effect on the allocation of bank credit of indexing the loan rate offered through the commitment to the prime. A simple model of the loan market is constructed and used to examine the effect changes in loan demand and the cost of bank funds have on the allocation of bank credit under indexation. It is shown that indexing implies changes in the relative cost of borrowing for certain groups of bank customers. For nonprime customers, an increase in the cost of bank funds results in a decline in the relative cost of borrowing under commitments. The pattern of commitment use is found to be consistent with the predictions of the model.     

The Distribution of Foreign Exchange Price Changes: Trading Day Effects and Risk Measurement

This study investigates the nature of price changes in a variety of major and minor foreign exchange markets. The results suggest that the log of price changes over one (trading) day intervals seems to follow a non-normal stable distribution function. Different measures of location (and to lesser extent scale) are present for different days of the week. Dollar denominated price changes are high on Mondays and Wednesdays and low on Thursdays and Fridays for all currencies. The Wednesday-Thursday result is consistent with the settlement procedures used in foreign exchange transactions in the dollar. The Friday-Monday result is consistent with an increase in demand for the dollar prior to the weekend.