The Role of Target Termination Fees in REIT Mergers

The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics - Target termination fee provisions are widely used in merger agreements and require the target firm to pay the bidder a fixed cash fee in the event...     

Inflation and Default Dynamics

Changes in inflation, particularly if they are sharp, can have important consequences for nominal contracts, especially debt instruments such as fixed-rate bonds. This paper examines the intricate dynamics of inflation and defaults. The experience of the United States during the past four decades is subjected to empirical analysis to examine how the nature of the relationship changed as we shifted from a high inflation to a low inflation regime. The paper is organized as a three-part study. We initially examine the U.S. default experience, as summarized in Moody's speculative grade default rate, along with industry differences. The paper then scrutinizes U.S. inflation dynamics as seen in different summary measures of the general price level and delves into pricing power issues. The study proceeds to examine co-movements in the inflation and default series from a theoretical and empirical standpoint and the results confirm the intuitive postulate: higher the inflation rate, the more pricing power companies have; greater pricing power leads to, better earnings and repayment abilities for firms and a lower incidence of defaults.     

The Impact of Strategic Investment Choices on Post-Issue Operating Performance and Survival of US IPO Firms

Abstract:  We examine the impact of strategic investment choices at the time of the IPO on: (i) the post-issue operating performance and (ii) the likelihood of failure and time-to-failure of newly public US firms. Our post-issue operating performance analysis uses various performance metrics, benchmarks, and expectation models. Overall, our evidence indicates that the extent of diversification and industry-adjusted capital expenditures intensity are generally positively related to changes in operating performance. We do not, however, document a consistent relation between industry-adjusted R&D expenditures and changes in operating performance. The results from our survival analysis suggest that pre-issue managerial commitment to R&D spending and developing diversified product lines enhance the ability of IPO issuing firms to remain viable for longer periods of time. Our study highlights the impact of various managerial investment decisions on the subsequent performance of newly public firms.     

The Rise of Digital Financialisation: The Case of India

ABSTRACT

Traditional notions of financialisation require updating to study the reorganisation of finance around digital infrastructures. We introduce the concept of digital financialisation, defined as the often-coerced merging of two hitherto separate aspects of citizens’ lives – interactions using digital technologies and financial transactions – into a new hybrid realm. This realm is undergirded by an infrastructure that harvests citizens’ data, which companies can monetise and governments can use for political surveillance. In developing countries, the state plays a key role in creating surveillance infrastructures, often using coercive means in the name of financial inclusion, as the demonetisation and Aadhaar projects in India show. Unlike the industry-finance conflict in ‘analogue’ financialisation, digital financialisation involves domestic and cross-border conflicts between tech and finance companies for control of the hybrid realm. The state mediates these conflicts. In India, it deploys a narrative of technocultural nationalism to cultivate its domestic political constituencies and downplay its reliance on foreign technology.     

Healthcare resource utilization among commercially insured patients with cold agglutinin disease in the United States

Abstract

Aims: Cold agglutinin disease (CAD) is a rare subtype of autoimmune hemolytic anemia associated with increased thromboembolism risk and early mortality. Healthcare resource utilization (HRU) in CAD has not been reported. We aimed to compare HRU of patients with CAD with a matched non-CAD cohort in the United States.

Materials and methods: Patients with CAD were identified from 2006 to 2016 in the Optum-Humedica database using CAD terms in clinical notes and hematologist review. Patients were required to have Integrated Delivery Network records and ≥6 months’ follow-up before and after the first CAD mention date (index date). Patients with CAD were matched to a non-CAD cohort based on demographics. Multivariate analyses assessed inpatient hospitalizations, outpatient visits, emergency room visits, and transfusion use between cohorts 6 months before and 12 months after the index date.

Results: Of 814 patients with CAD, 410 met inclusion criteria and were matched to 3,390 patients without CAD. Mean age of patients with CAD was 68.0 years; approximately 62% were female. In the 12 months after the index date, mean inpatient hospitalizations (0.83 vs. 0.25), outpatient visits (17.26 vs. 6.77), emergency room visits (0.55 vs. 0.32), and transfusion days (1.05 vs. 0.05) were higher for patients with CAD than the matched non-CAD cohort (all p?<?.0001). Similarly, in the 6 months before the index date, patients with CAD had higher HRU than matched patients without CAD for all measures evaluated.

Limitations: Results of this study are based on patient information from the Optum-Humedica database, which is limited to commercially insured patients and may not represent the overall CAD population.

Conclusions: CAD places a substantial burden on patients and healthcare systems. In addition, the high HRU for patients with CAD observed in the 6 months before diagnosis indicates that disease awareness and better diagnostic practices may be needed.     

Employment equity in Canada and South Africa: progress and propositions

In 1998 the South African government attempted to redress historical workplace discrimination through the introduction of the Employment Equity Act, largely modelled on the Canadian legislation. This paper provides a background to the rationale for employment equity and related practices in both Canada and South Africa. Policies and practices are compared and progress achieved thus far in both countries is discussed. Suggestions for future consideration by South African policy makers and business leaders are proposed that include issues that are more difficult to legislate, yet which will determine the optimal progress of employment equity in South Africa. The issues highlighted in this regard pertain to top management commitment, the development of holistic human resources policies and practices, the appreciation and management of employee diversity and the creation of inclusive organizational cultures that address historical systemic discrimination.     

The determinants and consequences of across-the-board trade restrictions in the U.S. economy

This paper examines the effect of macroeconomic fluctuations in the determination of across-the-board trade restrictions in the U.S. economy.

The empirical results reported show that generalized trade intervention is most immediately affected by wealth transfer abroad through the trade balance and not by a slowing in employment growth. Furthermore, trade restrictions are associated with a decline in the stock market and aggregate employment.     

Multichannel Shopping Through Nontraditional Retail Formats: Variety-Seeking Behavior With Hedonic and Utilitarian Motivations

Understanding motivations of multichannel shoppers is critical for retailers, especially in terms of how retailers can best attract shoppers to and orient shoppers across different channel options. Our study thus seeks to understand multichannel shopping through nontraditional retail formats by studying the effects of shoppers' hedonic and utilitarian motives. We used the theory of variety-seeking behavior for conceptualization, and analyzed data from a large-scale U.S. consumer survey. Our findings suggest that both hedonic and utilitarian factors are important predictors of multichannel shopping. Hedonic motivations have more explanatory power for high-level multichannel shopping than for moderate-level multichannel shopping, as compared to non-multichannel shopping.     

Categories of university-level entrepreneurship: a literature survey

Research into the nature, antecedents and effects of university-level entrepreneurship has grown due to the emergence of the university technology transfer phenomenon and the evolution of university's role in national innovation systems and economic development. From the literature survey, three research categories for university-level entrepreneurship are identified and examined namely entrepreneurial university, academic entrepreneurship and university technology transfer. Then, a framework depicting the relationship of the three research categories is developed and discussed. Lastly, recommendations are made for future research and analysis.     

The Life Cycle of Initial Public Offering Firms

This study uses an integrated and comprehensive approach to study the evolution of IPO issuing firms to the three basic post-IPO states: survive as an independent firm, get acquired, or fail. We develop multinomial logit models that utilize information available at or prior to the IPO to predict the probability of subsequent transition to the three post-IPO states. We find that lower risk, larger firm size, higher investment banker prestige, higher pre-IPO operating performance, and higher industry R&D intensity increase the probability of survival relative to failure. We also find that higher firm size, higher industry R&D intensity, and industry concentration increase the probability of survival relative to being acquired. Finally, lower risk and higher investment banker prestige increase the probability of being acquired relative to failure. Overall, we identify several factors that influence the probability of subsequent transition to one of the three basic post-IPO states.