Abolish the Mortgage Subsidy

Ian Gow, Minister of Housing, is faced with a market massively distorted by subsidies and controls imposed at the whim of earlier politicians. Mortgage subsidies, coupled with rent controls, have virtually abolished the rented sector, and have encouraged (at the taxpayer's expense) owner-occupancy among groups which would probably have preferred to rent. Tom Taylor, of the University of Wales Institute of Science and Technology, argues that the current system reduces choice in housing and that the mortgage subsidy should be abolished, replaced for the less well-off by a housing voucher.     

Indirect Damages from Price Fixing: The Alabama Lysine Case

Indirect damages to broiler and pork producers fromsupra-competitive pricing of synthetic lysine, whichis an important feed additive, are discussed in thisarticle. Indirect damages occur in fundamentallydifferent ways in the two industries because thebroiler industry is vertically integrated while thepork industry was dominated by independent producersduring the 1992–1995 time period. Pass-through ofhigher lysine prices to hog feed purchasers isdemonstrated with regression analysis of purchasesof a feed premix containing synthetic lysine and aregression analysis of purchases of synthetic lysinefrom feed dealers.     

Risk,efficiency and speculation in the 1920s foreign exchange market: An overlapping data analysis

Zusammenfassung Risiko, Effizienz und Spekulation auf dem Devisenmarkt der 20er Jahre: Eine Analyse mit überlappenden Daten. — Die Autoren überprüfen die Hypothese der effizienten M?rkte für die Zwischenkriegszeit mit ihren floatenden Wechselkursen und benutzen dabei w?chentliche Daten für Kassakurse sowie Terminkurse der Ein-Monats- und Drei-Monats-Frist. Im Gegensatz zu einer Anzahl anderer Forscher zeigen sie unter Verwendung sowohl von Standard-Orthogonalit?ts-Tests als auch einer Vektor-Autoregressionstechnik, da\ die Hypothese effizienter M?rkte für die betrachtete Periode strikt zurückzuweisen ist. Da diese Hypothese auf die Hypothese der Risiko-Neutralit?t und der Rationalit?t zurückgeht, versuchen die Autoren zu ermitteln, ob die Hypothese deshalb zurückgewiesen werden mu\te, weil die Akteure auf den Devisenm?rkten eine Risikoscheu zeigten. Dabei verwenden sie ein spezielles Risikopr?mien-Modell.

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Résumé Risque, efficience et spéculation au marché des changes dans les années {dy1920}: Une analyse avec des données croisées. — Les auteurs examinent la validité de l’hypothèse des marchés efficients concernant l’expérience avec les cours de change flottants entre les guerres en utilisant des données hebdomadaires du marché au comptant et des marchés à terme (un mois et trois mois). Contrairement à d’autres chercheurs, les auteurs démontrent, en utilisant des tests standardisés d’orthogonalité et une technique d’autoregression de vecteur que l’hypothèse des marchés efficients doit être rejetée pour cette période. Comme cette hypothèse reste sur les hypothèses combinées de la neutralité de risque et de la rationalité, les auteurs essaient de trouver, en utilisant un modèle spécifique pour la prime de risque, si la rejection est due aux transacteurs qui reculent devant le risque au marché des changes.

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Resumen Riesgo, eficiencia y especulación en el mercado de cambios de los anos 20: un análisis de datos sobrepuestos. — En este trabajo se reexamina la validez de la hipótesis de mercados eficientes para la experiencia con tasas de cambio flotantes en el periodo de entreguerra, utilizando datos semanales del mercado spot y de las tasas a término para uno y tres meses. A diferencia de una serie de otros investigadores, se demuestra que la hipótesis de mercados eficientes es rechazada para el periodo estudiado, utilizando tests estándar de ortogonalidad y una técnica de autoregresión vectorial. Como esta hipótesis es una hipótesis conjunta de neutralidad frente al riesgo y de racionalidad, utilizando un modelo especial de sobretasa por riesgo, se intenta determinar si el rechazo se debe a la actitud adversa al riesgo por parte de los participantes en el mercado de cambios.

     

Police management, office automation and organizational change

Police forces, in common with much of the UK system of public administration, continue to come under pressure to engage in managerial and administrative modernisation. This article looks at the role office automation systems play in these processes and at the case for organizational change to accompany the adoption of these systems.     

Exchange rate indeterminacy in portfolio balance, Mundell-Fleming and uncovered interest rate parity models

With full stock/flow accounting respected, the two-country openeconomy portfolio balance model has just two independent equationsfor asset market clearing. It can determine home and foreigninterest rates but not the exchange rate. If asset market equilibriavary smoothly over time, the balance of payments equation inthe Mundell–Fleming model is not independent and cannotset the exchange rate either. The familiar fixed reserves/‘floatingrate’ vs endogenous reserves/‘fixed rate’dichotomy does not exist, and ‘fundamentals-based’econometric models of the exchange rate are bound to fail. Analternative is a two-country IS/LM model with exchange ratedynamics added. Its dynamic properties under uncovered interestrate parity are briefly explored.     

THE SIMPLE ANALYTICS OF IMPLICIT LABOUR CONTRACTS

This paper outlines the development and exposits some of the central ideas of implicit contract theory using only basic mathematics (mainly Lagrangeans) and diagrams.     

EXPLAINING INTRAPERIOD ACCOUNTING CHOICES: THE REPORTING OF CURRENCY TRANSLATION GAINS AND LOSSES

Prior to the introduction of an Australian Accounting Standard relating to the treatment of foreign currency items, we find agreement among firms on the method of translating foreign subsidiaries' assets and liabilities, but no such agreement on the method of reporting the resulting gain or loss. The reporting choice represents an intraperiod accounting decision. We show that this choice is a function of the demand for ex ante optimal risk sharing agreements between management and shareholders, although auditor identity and firm size are also found to influence the choice of reporting method. We model the policy choice as both a dichotomous and a more finely graded three-way problem, introducing to the accounting literature an experimental technique designed to test for the existence of any mutual dependence between alternatives.