Tiered Information Disclosure: An Empirical Analysis of the Advance Peek into the Michigan Index of Consumer Sentiment

This paper studies market microstructure implications of informed high‐frequency traders (HFTs) from two seconds of advance peek into the Michigan Index of Consumer Sentiment (ICS), provided by Thomson Reuters to its elite customers. Using individual stocks in the NASDAQ data set, we show how HFTs trade around ICS events. We find that liquidity demanders during two seconds of advance peek earn substantive profits, which are consistent with the notion that HFTs’ informational advantages may increase adverse selection costs for other market participants. This evidence elucidates the debate on regulatory oversight and its role in circumventing the potentially adverse effects from an advance peek into ICS.     

Present bias and corporate tax policies

Two major forms of corporate tax policies are dividend and profits taxes. Based on conventional corporate theory, these tax policies distort the firm's investment decisions and decrease firm value. However, this paper shows that under hyperbolically discounted preferences, dividend taxation is capable of boosting firm investment in a value‐enhancing way. The hyperbolically discounted present value can be interpreted as reflecting irrational myopic preferences or, as we demonstrate, reduced‐form implications of corporate agency issues. Both cases result in an underinvestment problem for the firm, but the firm valuation criteria differ. The optimal taxation issue is discussed under a Cobb–Douglas production function setting.     

Panel evidence on the impact of tourism growth on poverty,poverty gap and income inequality

Using a panel of 13 tourism-intensive economies for the period 1995–2012, this paper shows that rising growth in tourism which is proxied by tourism receipts to GDP ratio has an impact on poverty conditional on the poverty measure used. Using a panel Vector Autoregression method, there is little evidence to suggest that growth in tourism reduces headcount poverty. However, the poverty gap measure shows that the amount of money needed to help the poor out of poverty is significantly reduced. Based on different types of Gini coefficient, the results fail to find an improvement in income inequality resulting from tourism growth. Alternative measures such as relative poverty and poverty gap may be considered to better assess the impact of tourism on the poor.     

Does PIN affect equity prices around the world?

This study examines the empirical controversy over the pricing effect of the Easley, Hvidkjaer, and O?Hara (2002) probability of information-based trading, PIN, on a sample of 30,095 firms from 47 countries worldwide. Contrary to the empirical evidence of Easley, Hvidkjaer, and O?Hara, but consistent with that of Duarte and Young (2009), we do not find that PIN exhibits a positive effect on a cross section of expected stock returns in international markets. Alternative information-based trading measures also display no effect on expected stock returns, corroborating our finding that information risk proxied by PIN, in general, has no pricing effect in world markets.     

Freedom Net

As the Internet becomes ubiquitous, there is widespread anxiety that it is either a source of moral corruption or a threat to business. This anxiety stems from the fact that the Internet calls the most restrictive aspects of legislation into question. Because the Internet is intrinsically orientated towards freedom, it should be championed, but there is a danger of celebrating new technology as an end in itself rather than the uses to which it can be put. Those commentators who most zealously promote the Internet are often as deluded as those who are afraid of it.     

Representational predicaments at work: How they are experienced and why they may happen

Representational predicaments reflect unfavorable perceptual or attributional incongruence between subordinates and superiors about the employees’ work, and adversely affect morale. Critical incident interviews were held with 63 Hong Kong Chinese employees from over 50 organizations. Stories about undervaluation of contextual performance were compared with stories about duly appreciated contextual performance, and stories about negative spotlighting (disproportionate emphasis on shortcomings or mistakes) were compared with stories about fair treatment of mistakes. Subordinates attributed undervaluation of contextual performance to: the superior’s unfamiliarity with the employee’s work, the superior’s perception that the work was of marginal importance, the subordinate’s lack of empowerment to report contextual performance, the lack of considerate attention by the superior, and the subordinate’s felt need to keep a low profile. Underlying factors were inhibitions against employee voice, leadership styles characterized by lack of benevolence and lack of individualized consideration, and absence of close subordinate-superior relationships. Subordinates attributed negative spotlighting to: the superior’s abusive behavior, prejudicial and hostile attitudes, or insistence on one “right way”; rivalry between the superior and the subordinate; and the absence of legitimate channels for upward feedback. Underlying factors were absence of just grievance procedures, and leadership styles characterized by authoritarianism, which could be compounded by lack of benevolence and lack of moral restraint, leading to abusive supervision. Cross-cultural research could establish whether large power distance and other cultural and institutional factors render Asian employees especially vulnerable to representational predicaments.     

Marketing communications implications of children's new electronic media use: a survey of parental opinions and perceptions

Currently new electronic media, the Internet in particular, are poised to become a major part of the marketing and communications mix, not only for adults but also children. This poses challenges and heralds a new debate on both protection of the young vis‐à‐vis more equitable access and the need, nature and forms of regulation warranted. This paper reviews the literature on this debate and related issues. It reports on a New Zealand empirical study of parental perceptions of their children's electronic media use and examines the findings and the insights obtained on the use of the Internet and its role as a marketing communications medium. It also reports on what these parents consider to be the key concerns in this area and their Internet site preferences. The issues relating to children, the Internet and the link between violence and video games are examined and implications for marketing communications are discussed.