The Impact of Ambiguity on Managerial Investment and Cash Holdings

Standard finance theory suggests that managers invest in projects that, in expectation, produce returns that justify the use of capital. An underlying assumption is that managers have the information necessary to understand the distributional properties of the pay‐offs underlying the decision. This paper examines firm investment behavior when managers are likely to find it more challenging to develop expectations of pay‐offs, namely during periods of increased macroeconomic ambiguity. In particular, we examine how macroeconomic ambiguity – proxied by the variance premium (Drechsler, 2010 ) and the dispersion in forecasts of corporate profits from the Survey of Professional Forecasters (Anderson et al., 2009 ) – impacts managerial capital investment and cash holdings. Consistent with ambiguity theory, we find that macroeconomic ambiguity is negatively associated with capital investment and positively associated with cash holdings. These results are robust to alternative explanations related to risk, investor sentiment and economic conditions. Moreover, consistent with recent theoretical real options literature, we find that ambiguity reduces the value of investment opportunities, while risk increases the value of such opportunities. Overall, these findings provide initial empirical evidence on the economic distinction between ambiguity and risk with respect to managerial investment and cash holdings.     

The breakdown of the workplace ‘family’ and the rise of personnel management within an Australian financial institution 1950–1980

The management of its people defines the way in which an organisation develops the capabilities to successfully compete in the market environment. Since the 1950s, approaches to staff management have evolved from traditional bureaucratic foundations to strategic planning exercises. This article uses a case study approach to investigate the way in which the process of organisational learning evolved in the development of personnel management practices. It suggests that although old and new practices were often overlaid on each other, ‘bridges’ developed which allowed the progressive development of new managerial processes.     

The effect of latency variables on repeated measures inference applied to the measurement of risk-taking as a function of psychopathy

In numerous psychology studies, subjects are asked to perform some task a number of times, T. The effect of the choice of T on the associated inference, however, is usually not assessed. We investigate the appropriate choice of T empirically by using data collected in a study on the relationship between psychopathy and risk-taking in 90 inner city drug users enrolled in a residential treatment program. We show that, when studying this relationship, the latency variable usually discarded from the analysis behaves exponentially allowing a natural division of the study period 1, . . . , T into two distinct subperiods. These subperiods yield significantly different results—in the early period only (which we call “reactive”), subjects with high psychopathy scores exhibit lower sensitivity to reward and punishment in our risk taking experiment. The later period (which we call “stable”) shows no relationship between sensitivity to reward and punishment and psychopathic tendencies.     

The demand for and the supply of distribution services: A basis for the analysis of customer satisfaction in retailing

This paper brings together two bodies of literature. One of them is a literature on the special role of the consumer in retailing. The other one is the literature on customer satisfaction. This joining of literatures is accomplished by identifying distribution services as outputs of retail firms and fixed inputs into the production functions of consumers and relaxing the standard assumption that the demand for these services is always equal to the supply of these services. The result is a new conceptual framework for the analysis of customer satisfaction in retailing. This framework extends the basic ideas on customer satisfaction developed for manufacturing in a homogeneous single product setting to the heterogeneous multi-product setting relevant for many retailers. The paper illustrates one approach to the implementation of this framework with data for a set of supermarkets in Pamplona, Spain, that measure distribution services by asking consumers questions explicitly identifying these services. The five main categories of distribution services identified by the conceptual framework and measured in the data are economically important and statistically robust determinants of customer satisfaction with supermarkets. These results are obtained controlling for other variables typical of the customer satisfaction literature and measuring customer satisfaction in a manner consistent with that literature. The results are robust to corrections for sample selection and alternative estimation methods. Perhaps our most interesting novel result is that the effect of the determinants of customer satisfaction on future purchase intentions in the supermarket case is different when measured directly in a one stage process than when measured indirectly in a two stage process through the attributes/satisfaction/ purchase intentions chain.

The Zonal and Seasonal CO2 Marginal Emissions Factors for the Italian Power Market

Environmental and Resource Economics - This paper estimates the seasonal and zonal $${\mathrm{CO}}_{2}$$ marginal emissions factors (MEFs) from electricity production in the Italian electricity...     

Participation in Community Leisure Programs: Experiences and Perspectives of Children with Developmental Difficulties and Their Parents

Children with developmental disabilities participate in more solitary, sedentary, and home-based leisure activities than active physical pursuits or community-based activities. Clinical experience suggests that children with less well-recognized developmental difficulties also have compromised leisure experiences; however, this has not been fully investigated. This study engaged 20 school-age children with developmental difficulties in a community-based circus program, designed in collaboration with occupational therapists. The program included activities such as trampolining, trapeze, and acrobatics. Semi-structured interviews with children and parents explored children's leisure experiences both at circus and more broadly. Qualitative content analysis revealed that friendships, having fun, and being physically active were highly valued aspects of leisure. The coaching style and “just right” level of challenge within programs were identified as central to children's engagement and sense of competence. Participating in a supported leisure program such as circus appeared to promote children's engagement in community leisure, at least in the short term.     

ARTISTS' BELONGINGS-Luo Yongjin Photography Exhibition

Essay:Monica Dematté Opening: 16:00 - 18:00 / 22. 10. 2011 Duration: 10:00 - 18:00 / 23. 10. 2011- 16. 12. 2011 Venue: OFOTO Gallery. 2F, Building 13, 50 Moganshan Rd, Shanghai. Tel: 86 - 21 - 6298 5416 www.ofoto-gallery.comTo See the World in an Artist’s Studio - Luo Yongjin’s Sharp Eyes     

Combining forecasts: some results on exchange and interest rates

The aim of this work is to investigate whether the combination of forecasts plays an important role in the improvement of forecast accuracy Particular attention is paid to: (a) the methods of forecasting (the methods compared are neural networks, fuzzy logic, GARCH models, switching regime and chaotic dynamics); (b) combining the forecasts provided by the different methods. This work has also the aim of revising a short-term econometric forecast using a longer-term forecast. The revision process usually runs the opposite way (revision is made on a longer-term forecast using a short-term one to reflect the current available information, but it is not excluded that it is possible to proceed as described above. Daily data from the financial market is used. Some empirical applications on exchange and interest rates are given.