DEALER BID-ASK SPREADS AND OPTIONS TRADING ON OVER-THE-COUNTER STOCKS

In this study the impact of option listings on bid-ask spreads for over-the-counter stocks is examined. Option listings are hypothesized to impact spreads by affecting the inventory-holding cost and/or the informed risk component of spreads. Univariate tests reveal that the commencement of options trading is accompanied by a statistically significant decline in percentage spreads. In addition, it is found that there is a significant rise in the average daily stock trading volume in the post-option-listing period, while there is no significant change in variance of the underlying stock returns in the short term. Regression results indicate that some stocks experience a decline in spreads even after controlling for changes in inventory-holding costs. The univariate and regression results taken in conjunction indicate a favorable impact of option listings on both the inventory-holding cost and informed-trading risk components of spread determinants. The combined evidence suggests that initiation of options trading enhances the overall liquidity of the underlying stock.     

Financial Distress Costs and Delayed Calls of Convertible Bonds: An Empirical Analysis

Theoretical analysis implies that optimal call policy would be to call the bonds as soon as the conversion value equals the call price. Empirical studies, however, report that firms appear to systematically delay the call and the difference between the conversion value and the call price is large at the time of the call. This study examines convertible bond calls between 1977 and 1993, with a view to explain the large difference between the conversion value and the call-price at the time of the call. A large majority of the firms calling the bonds have cash-flow incentive to call the bonds in that the after-tax interest payments are higher than the dividends on the converted shares. The large difference between the conversion value and the call price is positively related to the risk characteristics of the firm. Evidence seems to support the view that risk aversion and fear of potential financial distress may explain the large difference at the time of call between the conversion value and the call price.     

Leverage-reducing exchange offers and bondholder–stockholder wealth transfers: A re-evaluation

This paper re-examines the intersecurity wealth effects of leverage-reducing exchange offer (LREO) announcements. We show that previous studies may have been confounded by not distinguishing between two types of LREOs – swaps and exchange offers – and by the limited availability of bond data to properly test the wealth transfer effect. Contrary to extant research, we find evidence supportive of the wealth transfer hypothesis in the case of exchange offers but not swap offers. More detailed analysis of LREO exchange offers reveals a systematic relationship between bond returns and certain attributes that capture managerial inclination to accede to bondholder interests, consistent with a wealth transfer effect.     

Information Asymmetry about Investment Risk and Financing Choice

Though it is generally accepted that information asymmetry has an impact on capital structure policy, the nature of the information asymmetry is not well understood. Recent theoretical work and empirical evidence suggests that financing choice depends upon the information asymmetry associated with the investment risk of the particular use of proceeds. Consistent with this view, using the sources and uses of funds framework, we find that equity is used to fund projects with greater information asymmetry about their risk such as research and development expenditure, while debt is used to fund investments with lower information asymmetry about their risk such as liquidity enhancement.     

Cities,slums, and child nutrition in Bangladesh

This study uses novel household survey data that are representative of Bangladesh's large cities, and of slum and nonslum areas within the cities, to investigate the effects of demographic and socioeconomic factors on child nutrition status in 2013. The study also decomposes the difference in mean child nutrition status between slum and nonslum areas in 2013, and the increase in mean child nutrition status in slum and nonslum areas from 2006 to 2013. Mother's education attainment and household wealth largely explain the cross‐sectional difference and intertemporal change in mean child nutrition status. Although positive in some cases, the effects of maternal and child health services, and potential health‐protective household amenities, on child nutrition status differ by the type of health facility, household amenity, and urban area (slum or nonslum). Focusing on nutrition‐sensitive programs for slum residents and the urban poor is consistent with the results.     

Nicholas Kaldor on Adam Smith and Allyn Young

ABSTRACT

Nicholas Kaldor was much influenced by the Smith-Young view of increasing returns. The objective of this paper is to critically examine Kaldor’s interpretation of Smith and Young. In particular, five questions are addressed: (1) Does Smith’s Wealth of Nations have nothing much to contribute in terms of disequilibrium theory or increasing returns after the middle of chapter four? (2) Did Smith and Young have a sectoral view of increasing returns in the sense that they saw increasing returns being confined to manufacturing only? (3) Does the Youngian growth mechanism need to be supplemented with Keynesian aggregate demand so that growth does not fizzle out? (4) What are the important policy differences between Kaldor and the Smith-Young analysis of increasing returns? (5) Finally, what explains Kaldor’s interventionist bent of mind and his dirigiste approach to policy making?     

On the Anthropological Study of Economies: A Comment

This paper deals with the moral justification behind policy positions. Squeezed between the inevitability of having a welfare ideology and the mantra of value-neutrality (depoliticization), neoclassical policy economists tend to disguise their normative positions on policy matters as common sense. This attitude is particularly pronounced in what I will call "the rhetoric of worthiness," whereby the neoclassical approach justifies its advocacy that certain people should not be helped. This normative position is disguised by a vocabulary (e.g., moral hazard) claimed to be politically neutral. The present paper criticizes this neoclassical mode of policy evaluation in favor of a more socially conscious and innovative policy approach.     

Economies of scale in school operation–a reply

In addition to pointing out that Kumar (1983) omits Hough (1981) and Knight (1983) from its list of reference, Hough (1983) raises two issues of largely statistical nature. ^{1 1} Omissions are clearly inadvertant. The time lag between publication and the general availability makes ther reference list look more subjective than it actually is. These are:

1. the use of an average (AC) rather than a total (TC) cost curve as the correct statistical device for examining economies of scale, and

2. estimation problems arising from possible heteroscedasticity of the error term in the estimating relation.

Exactly the same issues are also raised in Hough (1981). Notwithstanding our earlier disclaimer (p. 324) that ‘no new grounds are broken on the methodological front’ as well as a clear mention of both problems (Footnotes 1 and 2), Hough is quite correct that the implications of these issues for our results were not spelled out. We take this opportunity to offer some clarifications with respect to the results in Kumar (1983).