The contractual and value relevance of reported earnings in a dividend-focused environment

This study investigates the relevance of reported earnings in the context of an institutional environment, i.e., Switzerland, in which investors focus on dividends. In conjunction with a dividend focus, the financial reporting environment faced by Swiss firms provides their managers with more accounting discretion than managers of Anglo-Saxon firms typically have. From a contractual perspective, dividendbased earnings management is expected since Swiss corporate law explicitly states that dividends, which must be voted on by stockholders, are to be based upon a firm's reported earnings. From a value perspective, thin trading conditions and a long-term investment horizon are expected to increase the importance of dividend payments and to influence the informativeness of reported earnings. Results indicate that Swiss managers do engage in dividend-based earnings management, that earnings quality signals are used by managers to voluntarily constrain their accounting choices and that the value relevance of earnings is conditional upon dividend payments.     

Consumption smoothing in Russia1

Using a panel from the Russian Longitudinal Monitoring Survey (1994–2004), this paper investigates to what extent Russian households have been able to maintain their living standards while suffering income shocks. Consumption smoothing is modelled by means of an equilibrium correction mechanism, which disentangles short‐run dynamics and long‐run equilibrium adjustments. GMM estimation is used to control for individual household effects in the presence of dynamics. Additionally, we differentiate between food and non‐food consumption, positive and negative shocks, rural and urban areas, and several levels of poverty risk. We find that dynamics are important in the consumption equation, and that estimates are sensitive to imputation errors in home food production. No strong claims can be made regarding heterogeneity in smoothing behaviour.     

ESTIMATION OF VALUE AT RISK AND RUIN PROBABILITY FOR DIFFUSION PROCESSES WITH JUMPS

In this paper we give upper bounds for both the Value at Risk   VaR _α,  0 < α < 1  , and for ruin probabilities associated with the supremum of a process driven by a Brownian motion and a compound Poisson process. We obtain lower bounds for the same Value at Risk, and for different cases we discuss the behavior of the bounds for small α. We prove our bounds are "asymptotically" optimal, as α tends to zero. The ruin probabilities obtained are related to other bounds found in recent literature.     

Efficient local IV estimation of an empirical auction model

In this paper we examine semiparametric efficiency bounds and efficient estimators for the case of a linear local instrument variable (LIV) model under the assumptions studied in Abadie et al. (2002). We apply the semiparametrically efficient estimation method to analyze the relation between bid dispersion and early bidding in an online auction dataset, which is collected from a natural experiment conducted in Nekipelov (2007). The results confirm the theoretical findings developed in Nekipelov (2007). The semiparametric efficient estimation procedure substantially improves the statistical significance of the effect of jump bidding on bid dispersion.     

Analysis and design of focused demand chains

The paper describes the evolution of focused demand chains over an extended period of time as a major UK lighting manufacturer has sought to remain an international player in a fast changing business environment. Analysis and design procedures make use of the concepts of Wickham Skinner and Marshall Fisher to answer the strategic questions “what facilities are required and how should they be laid out to enable the necessary focused demand chains?” and to answer the tactical question “which focused demand chain is appropriate for this product?” The case study then details how the company has been transformed from operating within a traditional supply chain to driving change via the engineering of four focused demand chains. The paper concludes with a comparison of operations enablers, customer choice, and business performance metrics covering the transition period culminating in the current focused demand chain scenario. By matching products to the appropriate value stream there is a consequential reduction in product development time of 75%; manufacturing costs reduction of up to 27%; and up to 95% reduction in delivery lead times.     

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Becoming A Leader In A Complex Organization

For a new leader, the process of entering and establishing a position of leadership in a complex organization presents a major challenge. This challenge seems particularly acute when authority, goals and technology are ambiguous, as in many professional service organizations. In this paper, we integrate ideas from the literature on socialization and role theory as well as that on executive succession processes to view new leader integration as a mutual adjustment process between two trajectories – that of the organization and that of the new leader. It is argued that this may lead to four possible types of integration outcomes: assimilation, transformation, accommodation and parallelism. Drawing on a case study of a large hospital, the paper identifies several mechanisms that can be mobilized by the new leader to enhance his or her room for manœuvre as the integration process evolves. The mechanisms can be classified as collaborative or affirmative, with each type having different risks and advantages. The case analysis further reveals that leader integration processes may be differentiated between different activity domains, dynamic over time (as the use of one type of integration approach alters the potential for another later), and interactive across different activity domains (as events in one part of the organization have consequences for those occurring in another).     

Gender and ethnic differences in factors that influence food intake

Abstract The objective of this research was to ascertain the gender-and ethnic-related factors that influence what one eats. This survey was conducted using a validated, pilot-tested questionnaire in 11 states and the District of Columbia, which were participating in the W-182 Western Regional Research project. The results indicated that the factors that influence what one eats differ by gender and ethnicity. Men were very much influenced by likes and dislikes, and by their spouse or significant other. Women were influenced by likes and dislikes, and health. Food likes/dislikes and concerns about health and weight were among the leading four factors for all ethnic groups. Food likes/dislikes were the top factor influencing what is eaten by 51% or more of Asians, Pacific Islanders, Caucasians and Hispanics. Concern about health was the top factor for 62% and 58%, respectively, of African Americans and Native Americans.