Cost-Effectiveness Analysis Combining Medical and Mental Health Services for Older Adults with HIV in New York City

Atlantic Economic Journal - Older adults with the human immunodeficiency virus or HIV (OAWH), people 50 years and older, are aging with the disease and experience low quality of life....     

An empirical assessment of proposed solutions for resolving scale problems in value relevance accounting research

We implement the most common empirical specifications, with different approaches to control for scale problems, used in studies on the value relevance of accounting information. We study whether the results offered by these specifications are consistent with the residual income valuation model and with the Burgstahler and Dichev option-style valuation framework. Undeflated and per-share specifications offer results that are more in line with both benchmarks. Other deflated specifications and approaches deviate, to different extents, from the expectations of both frameworks. We interpret these deviations as signs of misspecification.     

Idiosyncratic volatility puzzle: influence of macro-finance factors

Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting - We analyze the cross-sectional relation between expected idiosyncratic volatility and stock returns. The expected idiosyncratic volatility is...     

Investigation of current perspectives for NHS Wales sustainable development through procurement policies

Public sector procurement has to operate under the pressure of policies and strict budgets. This paper examines the current perspectives of the NHS Wales Shared Services Partnership (NWSSP) on sustainable procurement policies. In particular, it investigates the adoption levels of the sustainable procurement policies of buyers (NHS Wales), examines the level of engagement of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) with NHS Wales, and explores the support for the existing sustainable procurement function through order processing analysis of catalogue coverage.     

Does Firing a CEO Pay Off?

We examine whether involuntary chief executive officer (CEO) replacements pay off by improving firm prospects. We find CEO successors’ acquisition investments to be associated with significantly higher shareholder gains relative to their predecessors and the average CEO. This improvement in postturnover acquisition performance appears to be a function of board independence, hedge fund ownership, and the new CEO's relative experience. CEO successors also create sizable shareholder value by reversing prior investments through asset disposals and discontinuing operations and by employing more efficient investment strategies. Our evidence suggests that firing a CEO pays off.     

Bucking the Trend: The Informativeness of Analyst Contrarian Recommendations

This paper examines price reactions to analysts’ recommendations issued in the opposite direction of recent stock price movements. We find that upgrade and downgrade contrarian recommendations induce larger market reactions than noncontrarian recommendations, consistent with the view that they are more informative. These results are strongest in the period before Regulation Fair Disclosure, consistent with the view that private information was likely curbed after its implementation. Contrarian downgrades are more likely to be issued by all‐star analysts, but less likely by experienced and busy analysts suggesting that contrarian recommendations are subject to career concerns.     

Technical efficiency of alternative farming systems: the case of Greek organic and conventional olive-growing farms

Olive-growing is a major farming activity in Greek agriculture. This paper analyzes empirically the technical efficiency of organic and conventional olive-growing farms using a stochastic production frontier methodology and a translog functional specification. Findings indicate that the organic olive-growing farms examined exhibit a higher degree of technical efficiency (relative to their production frontier) than do conventional olive-growing farms. Reasons may include lower profit margins and restrictions on inputs permitted, thus forcing organic farmers to be more cautious with input use. However, both input- and output-oriented technical efficiency scores are still relatively low for both types of olive-farming. Thus there is considerable scope for cost reducing and farm income improvement in both farming modes. This could prove crucial for the long-run viability and the future course of the sector.     

A test of stability in a linear altruism model

Linear altruism predicts the estimated preferences to be independent of the subject’s position in the game, if the role allocation is randomly determined, because subjects, in each role, have the same preferences ex ante. We test and reject this hypothesis.     

Chained,exact and superlative hedonic price changes: estimates from microdata

Scanner data are used to calculate chained, exact (and superlative) hedonic price indexes for television sets. The data source is available for a wide range of goods, the application providing an example of how this method can be more widely applied. The indexes correspond to constant utility, hedonic cost-of-living indexes. The approach improves on the existing direct method, which takes its estimates directly from the coefficients on time dummies in a hedonic regression. It also improves on the matched model method used by statistical agencies. The differences between actual price changes and exact hedonic quality-adjusted price changes are found to be substantial. Base-period and current-period weighted exact hedonic indexes are similar, thus providing good approximations to a superlative index. Estimates from the direct, dummy variable approach were compared to the superlative indexes. The disparities between the results argue for caution in the use of the direct, dummy variable approach to estimating quality-adjusted price changes.     

Did the euro give us a break in inflation?

The introduction of the euro was accompanied by promises of lower inflation rates; however, the public feels that inflation increased when the euro was introduced. Officials admit that certain sectors experienced substantial price increases, but they claim that the overall inflation rate did not increase. This paper investigates whether inflation in 15 European countries experienced a structural break after the euro was introduced using new powerful and serial correlation robust test statistics. We find evidence that the European Monetary Union (EMU) countries experienced a positive break in inflation after 1999. Our results demonstrate that inflation just after the introduction of the euro was higher relative to the inflation just prior to the introduction of the euro. Additionally, we find no evidence of positive breaks for the non-EMU countries when the euro was introduced.