Mission Power and Firm Financial Performance

We estimate the effect of the mission statement on firm financial performance. The mission power, a latent construct, is included in a structural equation model to compute its impact across two channels: the profit margin and the assets turnover. Our estimates, based on a sample of Colombian companies, show that the non-significant impact of mission statement documented in the literature may be caused by the opposite effect that the amount of sales induces on both channels. We disentangle both effects and show that the effect on assets turnover dominates when mission statement compels good assets management practices.     

The Attractiveness of Wellness Destinations: An Importance–Performance–Satisfaction Approach

The attractiveness of tourism destinations is a topic of great interest to researchers and professionals wishing to understand the ability of destinations to attract and satisfy tourists. However, there is a lack of consensus on the attributes that could explain the attractiveness of destinations, attributes that can also vary according to the tourist product under analysis. An importance–performance–satisfaction approach is adopted, to identify the attributes that are important for tourists travelling to enjoy wellness vacations, assess the performance of Gran Canaria in those attributes and analyze the possible association between the performance of Gran Canaria and tourist satisfaction. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Valuation structure in first-price and least-revenue auctions: an experimental investigation

In many auctions the valuation structure involves both private and common value elements. Existing experimental evidence (e.g. Goeree and Offerman in Am. Econ. Rev. 92(3):625–643, 2002) demonstrates that first-price auctions with this valuation structure tend to be inefficient, and inexperienced subjects tend to bid above the break-even bidding threshold. In this paper, we compare first-price auctions with an alternative auction mechanism: the least-revenue auction. This auction mechanism shifts the risk regarding the common value of the good to the auctioneer. Such a shift is desirable when ex post negative payoffs for the winning bidder results in unfulfilled contracts, as is often the case in infrastructure concessions contracts. We directly compare these two auction formats within two valuation structures: (1) pure common value and (2) common value with a private cost. We find that, relative to first-price auctions, bidding above the break-even bidding threshold is significantly less prevalent in least-revenue auctions regardless of valuation structure. As a result, revenue in first-price auctions is higher than in least-revenue auctions, contrary to theory. Further, when there are private and common value components, least-revenue auctions are significantly more efficient than first-price auctions.     

Monetary policy and macroeconomic stability in Latin America: The cases of Brazil, Chile, Colombia and Mexico

In 1999, new monetary policy regimes were adopted in Brazil, Chile, Colombia and Mexico, combining inflation targeting with floating exchange rates. These regime changes have been accompanied by lower volatility in the monetary stance in Brazil, Colombia and Mexico, despite higher inflation volatility in Brazil and Colombia. This paper estimates a conventional New Keynesian model for these four countries and shows that: i) the post-1999 regime has been associated with greater responsiveness by the monetary authority to changes in expected inflation in Brazil and Chile, while in Colombia and Mexico monetary policy has become less counter-cyclical, ii) lower interest-rate volatility in the post-1999 period owes more to a benign economic environment than to a change in the policy setting, and iii) the change in the monetary regime has not yet resulted in a reduction in output volatility in these countries.     

Auctions with heterogeneous entry costs

If bidders have independent private values and homogeneous entry costs, a first‐ or second‐price auction with a reserve price equal to the seller’s value maximizes social surplus and seller revenue. We show that if entry costs are heterogeneous and private information, then the revenue‐maximizing reserve price is above the seller’s value, a positive admission fee (and a reserve price equal to the seller’s value) generates more revenue, and an entry cap combined with an admission fee generates even more revenue. Social surplus and seller revenue may either increase or decrease in the number of bidders, but they coincide asymptotically.     

Extension services,product quality and yields: the case of grapes in Argentina

This article studies the impact of publicly subsidized agricultural extension services on yields and product quality. We use panel data from grape producers in Mendoza, Argentina to estimate the impacts of farmer trainings. We find a negative overall impact on yields and evidence of a positive average impact on the adoption of higher‐quality grape varieties. By analyzing the dynamic pattern of the estimated effects, we find evidence of a temporary decrease in yields suggesting the existence of an adjustment process following the introduction of higher‐quality grapes. The overall negative effect on yield is driven by a sharp drop in the year of participation. This fades after year one, and two to three years after treatment we observe increases in higher‐quality grape production. Findings reinforce the importance of temporal dimension of extension services.     

A PANIC analysis on regional and sectoral inflation: the Spanish case

This article studies the stochastic properties of several inflation rates for the Spanish economy using the consumer price index (CPI) for the 17 regions and 12 groups of goods and services, and the producer price index (PPI) for 26 industrial sectors. To this end, we employ the panel analysis of nonstationarity in idiosyncratic and common components (PANIC) approach proposed by Bai and Ng (2004, 2010). This methodology enables us to decompose the observed inflation rate series into a common and an idiosyncratic component, thus allowing us to identify the exact source of nonstationarity. Our analysis provides strong evidence of the presence of a common stochastic trend driving the observed series forming the panel of CPI-based inflation rates for the regions. This, coupled with the presence of a jointly stationary idiosyncratic component, implies the existence of pairwise cointegration across the regional CPI-based inflation rates, which show a clear pattern of convergence over time. This gives an indication of increased geographical homogeneity in consumption patterns. The evidence for the panels of CPI-based inflation of groups of goods and services and PPI-based inflation of industrial sectors indicates the existence of four independent common stochastic trends. This, combined with jointly stationary idiosyncratic series, provides much weaker evidence of cross-cointegration for these two panels.     

Product-level estimation of import demand: Simulating the effects of tariff harmonisation

Developing countries have traditionally used import tariffs to protect infant industries and raise revenues to finance government expenditure plans. This approach, however, has tended to protect inefficient industries and to some extent hindered economic development. A disaggregated import demand model is estimated using monthly observations on 91 of the most frequently imported product items in Barbados. The results are then employed to evaluate the feasibility of harmonising tariff rates to some single rate across product categories. The results suggest that the estimation of aggregate import demand equations is not accepted by the data and therefore could result in misleading inferences. The policy simulation exercise indicates that a single applied tariff at the 30% level would essentially be revenue neutral, while rates above this level would lead to reductions in tax receipts.     

Unit roots and persistence in the nominal interest rate: a confirmatory analysis applied to the OECD

Abstract.  This paper investigates the stochastic properties of long-term and short-term nominal interest rates for the OECD over the post-war era. For that purpose, we employ univariate unit root tests as well as panel unit root and stationarity tests that explicitly allow for cross-sectional dependence. Overall, we find overwhelming evidence that the nominal interest rate contains a unit root, which may be driven by a stochastic common factor. The computation of half-lives through impulse-response functions also points to a high degree of persistence. This has important implications for the cointegration analysis of the Fisher equation, the uncovered interest parity, and the term structure.     

Architecture Billings as a Leading Indicator of Construction

Due to the size and cyclicality of construction, a premium is placed on accurately predicting nonresidential construction trends, particularly at turning points in the construction cycle. Given that construction decisions are made by hundreds of thousands of businesses, nonprofit institutions, and government organizations, it is extremely difficult to get comprehensive information on building plans. However, since architects design the overwhelming majority of nonresidential construction projects, gathering information on billings at architecture firms provides leading information on future construction trends. Statistical analysis demonstrates that information provided by architecture firms on trends in their billings is highly correlated with the eventual nonresidential construction activity, with leads of up to one year. JEL Classification C430, L700