Spillovers in Space: Does Geography Matter?

Using U.S. firm level panel data we simultaneously assess the contributions to productivity of three potential sources of research and development spillovers: geographic, technological, and product market (“horizontal”). To do so, we construct new measures of geographic proximity based on the distribution of a firm's inventor locations as well as its headquarters. We find that geographic location is important for productivity, as are technology (but not product) spillovers, and that both intra and inter–regional (counties) spillovers matter. The geographic location of a firm's researchers is more important than its headquarters. These benefits may be the reason why local policy makers compete so hard for the location of local R&D labs and high tech workers.     

Rushing to Overpay: Modeling and Measuring the REIT Premium

We explore the questions of why Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) pay more for real estate than non-REIT buyers and by how much. First, we develop a search model where REITs optimally pay more for property because (1) they are willing, due to cost of capital advantages and, (2) they are occasionally rushed, due to external regulatory time constraints and internal incentives to deploy capital quickly. Second, using commercial real estate transactions, we find that the extant hedonic pricing models contain an unobserved explanatory variables bias leading to inflated estimates of the REIT premium. Third, using a repeat-sales methodology that controls for unobserved property characteristics, we derive more plausible estimates of the REIT premium. Consistent with our model, we also find the REIT-buyer premium depends on the size of the REIT advantage, the rush to deploy, and the relative presence of REITs in the market.     

Beer and the Tie: Did Divestiture of Brewer-owned Public Houses Lead to Higher Beer Prices?

In 1989, the United Kingdom Monopolies and Mergers Commission (MMC) recommended measures that eventually led brewers to divest themselves of 14,000 public houses. The MMC claimed that their recommendations would lower retail prices and increase consumer choice. Since that time, however, retail prices have risen. This paper contains an econometric analysis of the transition period. The analysis is based on a model of the relationship between retail price and retail-organisational form that emphasises how exclusive-dealing clauses and strategic factors interact     

Perceived human resource system strength and employee reactions toward change: Revisiting human resource's remit as change agent

Although scholars have highlighted human resource's (HR's) important role as a change agent, we know little about the extent to which HR influences the change context to foster positive employee responses and support organizational changes. This study positions perceived HR system strength as an important internal context factor that influences employees' reactions toward change. Drawing on emotion theory and social exchange theory, we analyze the mechanisms through which employees' perceptions of HR system strength lead to positive employee responses to organizational change. Data from 704 employees in a UK police force showed that employees' perceptions of HR system strength were positively related to their ability to cope with organizational change and that this relationship was simultaneously mediated by state positive affect and perceived organizational support. Moreover, our findings demonstrated that coping with organizational change was positively related to employees' change‐supportive behavior. This study is important because it broadens the remit of HR's role as change agent and provides valuable insight into how HR positively influences employee outcomes during organizational change.     

Wheat stocks and the cointegration of wheat prices

We examine the effect of wheat stocks on the relationship between port and inland wheat prices in western Canada after the dissolution of the Canadian Wheat Board in 2012. Standard statistical tests find no evidence that the port price is cointegrated with inland prices. We argue that large harvests in 2013–2014 and 2014–2015 are responsible for this lack of cointegration. A simple theoretical model demonstrates how wheat stocks drive a wedge between inland and port prices. After including wheat stocks in the cointegrating vector, we find the expected cointegrating relationships between the port and inland prices. Using an error correction model, we show that a 10% increase in the wheat stocks reduces producer prices in Alberta and Manitoba by 6% and 4%, respectively. We conclude by discussing policy options for reducing the size of wheat stocks on the prairies.     

The Leverage Theory of Tying Revisited: Evidence from Newspaper Advertising

Data from the Canadian newspaper-advertising industry is used to assess the private profitability of tying in a market where the standard efficiency motives (e.g., price discrimination, cost saving, and quality control) are unlikely to apply. The empirical assessment is based on a model of leveraging in which suppliers of the tied good are paid a commission rather than a fee for service. This model demonstrates that tying is profitable under a wide range of circumstances. Furthermore, it is found that, with newspapers, tying and monopoly power go hand in hand.     

Housing Regulation,Externalities and Residential Property Prices

This article examines the effects of quantity restrictions on residential property prices in the presence of neighborhood externalities. A Brigham Young University policy limiting students’ location choices provides a natural experiment for studying the externality and quantity restriction effects on property values. A flexible hedonic model is used to control for nonstudent population spatial sorting by type. The estimates show significant positive quantity restriction and student agglomeration effects on student housing prices. There are also significant differences in the negative student externality across nonstudent neighborhoods, with the quantity restriction reinforcing (offsetting) the student price premium (discount) at the boundary.     

THE IMPACT OF AGRICULTURAL EXTENSION: THE TRAINING AND VISIT SYSTEM IN INDIA

This article reviews the rationale for public sector involvementin the dissemination of technological information to farmers,concluding that free markets do not fully satisfy farmers' informationneeds, and that government support is justified. Agriculturalextension is a principal way that governments can disseminateinformation, and the World Bank is financing many extensionprojects throughout the developing world. One specific approachto extension adopted in many Bank extension projects is theTraining and Visit (T&V) system. Data from a Bank-sponsoredsurvey in northwest India and from monitoring and evaluationreports issued by several Indian states are used in this articleto evaluate T&V extension operations and their impact. Extensionagents' interaction with farmers is found to be more intensiveand more significant as a source of information in areas coveredby T&V extension than in areas with a different extensionsystem. The yield levels of farmers whose main source of informationwas the T&V extension agent are also shown to be higher.In one case study, the incremental investment in T&V extensionis shown to be likely to generate at least a 15 to 20 percentrate of return.      

Product Rivalry with multiple Strategic weapons: an Analysis of price and advertising Competition

A dynamic model of product rivalry is developed for a market in which firms choose price and advertising intensity. The model, a state-space game, is implemented using data that consist of weekly price, sales, and promotional activity for four brands of saltine crackers sold by four chains of grocery stores in a small town. A number of questions can be asked of this data. First, is advertising predatory (merely changing market shares) or cooperative (shifting out market demand)? Second, are price and advertising own and cross-strategic complements or substitutes? And finally, do investments in stocks of goodwill and in price reductions make firms tough and aggressive or soft and accommodating?     

Some Loans Are More Equal than Others: Third–Party Originations and Defaults in the Subprime Mortgage Industry

We show how agency problems between lenders (principals) and third–party originators (TPO; agents) imply that TPO–originated loans are more likely to default than similar retail–originated loans. The nature of the agency problem is that TPOs are compensated for writing loans, but are not completely held accountable for the subsequent performance of those loans. Using a hazard model with jointly estimated competing risks and unobserved heterogeneity, we find empirical support for the TPO/default prediction using individual fixed–rate subprime loans with first liens secured by residential real estate originated between January 1, 1996, and December 31, 1998. We find that apparently equal loans (similar ability to pay, option incentives and term) can have unequal default probabilities. We also find that, initially, the agency–cost risk was not priced. At first, the market did not recognize the higher channel risk, since TPO and retail loans received similar interest rates even though the TPO loans were more likely to default. We also show that this inefficiency was short–lived. As the difference in default rates became apparent, interest rates on TPO loans rose about 50 basis points above otherwise similar retail loans.