Properties that Sell at or above Listing Price: Strategic Pricing,Better Broker or Just Dumb Luck?

The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics - A surprisingly large number of houses sell above listing prices in a wide range of markets and in all market conditions. The question is: why do...     

Asymmetric impact of earnings news on investor uncertainty

We describe a model that predicts an asymmetric impact of disclosure on investor uncertainty. We show that good news tends to resolve more uncertainty than bad news, and that uncertainty can be revised upwards if the investors' prior belief is sufficiently strong and the signal is sufficiently bad. This result is in contrast to classical disclosure models, where new information always resolves uncertainty and the change in uncertainty depends only on the relative precision of the news. Using option-implied volatility as a proxy for uncertainty, we find strong support for our predictions. We also show that our results are robust to competing explanations, notably to the leverage effect and volatility feedback, as well as to the jump risk induced in anticipation of the earnings announcements.     

The European Union preventive restructuring framework: A hole in one?

While traditionally (Continental) Europe has not been known for an in particular debtor‐ or restructuring‐friendly insolvency practice, in recent decades, important reforms were implemented that would foster restructurings in Europe. In this article, we comparatively look a the status quo of insolvency and restructuring practice in five different European countries (Denmark, France, Germany, Netherlands, UK). We place our observations into the context of the preventive restructuring directive, to be implemented within the next two years after its publication on 26 June 2019. The directive leaves quite some room implementation, from a watered‐down restructuring tool with high access threshold to a pre‐insolvency debtor‐friendly US‐style restructuring procedure.     

Trade in intermediate inputs,customs unions,and global free trade

In a three‐country customs union (CU) formation game, I introduce international trade in intermediate inputs and rules of origin (RoO) restrictions. In the case of symmetric countries, I show that as countries become more involved in global supply chains, global free trade is less likely to be a stable equilibrium outcome. RoO can help solve this problem. In the case of asymmetry, depending on the degree of the globalization, free riding (for high degree) or exclusion motive (for low degree) prevents global free trade. Correspondingly, I show that RoO can have helpful or detrimental effects on attaining global free trade.     

Tax Reporting Behavior Under Audit Certainty

This study uses a confidential data set of firms assigned to the Internal Revenue Service's Coordinated Industry Case (CIC) program to examine the effect of audit certainty on firms' tax reporting behavior. We first model the determinants of assignment to the program. Although the ability and incentive to avoid taxes are related to CIC assignment, we find that the IRS assigns firms primarily based on size and complexity. We then test whether audit certainty has a detectable effect on tax payments. Our results show that tax payments do not change when firms enter the CIC program, suggesting the CIC program does not have higher deterrence or enforcement effects relative to the IRS's standard selection and audit process for large corporations not included in the CIC program. However, supplemental analysis suggests that audit certainty does alter managers' expectations regarding future tax payments. Our paper provides new empirical evidence on the strategic game between the taxpayer and the tax authority and has important implications for tax authorities as they consider the costs and benefits of certain audit programs.     

省域尺度下不同时序景观指数集与粒度效应分析

[目的]景观格局变化是景观生态学中的热点问题。研究省域尺度下不同时序景观指数的粒度效应、选取计算景观指数所需的适宜粒度范围并筛选出代表性景观指数集对分析景观格局变化具有重要意义。[方法]以安徽省土地覆被为研究对象,以2000年、2005年、2010年的Landsat TM遥感影像为主要数据源,采用土地利用转移矩阵对安徽省土地覆被的转移数量与方向进行研究;通过设置不同的栅格大小研究景观指数的粒度效应并选取合适的粒度范围;基于相关性分析、因子分析与敏感性分析,筛选出代表性景观指数集。[结果](1) 2000—2010年安徽省的土地覆被始终以耕地为主,其次是林地与人工表面;人工表面的增加是建立在耕地面积减少基础之上的,在10年间共有超过3 200km2的耕地转化为人工表面;(2)景观指数存在粒度效应,粒度变化会对景观指数的计算结果产生影响;省域尺度下计算景观指数所需的合适粒度范围为100～125m;(3)研究安徽省景观格局变化的代表性景观指数有4个,分别为最大斑块指数、景观形状指数、平均斑块面积、香农多样性指数。[结论]计算安徽省景观指数的适宜粒度范围为100～125m,安徽省的代表性景观指数集为最大斑块指数、景观形状指数、平均斑块面积、香农多样性指数,为进一步研究景观格局变化及驱动机制提供了依据。     

SheBelieves,but does she? Complicating white women’s understandings of the postfeminist-neoliberal empowerment discourse

Abstract

Though the academic literature focused on postfeminism, neoliberalism, and the relationship between the two is considerable, there is little exploration of these conjoined discourses as they relate to leisure culture in general, and women’s sporting lives in particular. At the level of lived experience, scholars have yet to empirically examine how women engage and are affected by the empowerment discourse punctuating many aspects of postfeminism. This study uses the U.S. Soccer Federation’s 2015 SheBelieves Campaign as an empirical site for critically examining women’s attitudes toward, and experiences of, issues of empowerment, feminism, and sexism associated with what scholars have labelled the postfeminist-neoliberal moment (McRobbie, 2009 McRobbie, A. (2009). The aftermath of feminism; gender, culture and social change. London, England: Sage. [Google Scholar]; Rottenberg, 2014 Rottenberg, C. (2014). The rise of neoliberal feminism. Cultural Studies, 28(3), 418–437. https://doi.org/10.1080/09502386.2013.857361[Taylor & Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). Working at the intersection of leisure studies, feminism, and physical cultural studies, this research provides a window into the complicated, and sometimes contradictory, ways women view and experience neoliberal empowerment discourses within and through sporting elements of their leisure lifestyles.     

Was It Possible to Stabilise the Price of Wool? Organised Wool Marketing 1916 to 1970

Wool is the only Australian commodity for which there has been an attempt to organise price stability through a buffer stock scheme (1970–91). Growers pressed for the introduction of a scheme since the early 1920s. We test the veracity of claims that the sale of the stockpiles optimised growers' returns. We also simulate the likely outcomes of the reserve price schemes (RPS) proposed in 1925 and 1952, respectively. Our findings are that post-war stockpile disposals did not optimise wool growers' incomes, the undercapitalised proposed RPS of the 1920s would have collapsed in the depression, and that the post-1952 RPS would have been in considerable difficulty.     

Attention Platforms,the Value of Content,and Public Policy

This paper shows that two related aspects of attention platforms are important for the sound economic analysis of public policy including antitrust: first, attention platforms generate valuable content. Even though people often don’t pay for content, we know from revealed preference that content is valuable because people spend a considerable amount of time—which has an opportunity cost—consuming it. Second, demand for advertising and the supply of content are interdependent. A decrease in the demand for advertising reduces the returns to supplying content and therefore the amount of content that is provided. Accounting for the value of content and these positive feedbacks cannot determine optimal interventions; but failing to do so can result in policies that reduce consumer—as well as advertiser—welfare. The paper then considers the implications of these considerations for public policy: particularly privacy regulation and antitrust enforcement. From the standpoint of promoting consumer welfare, the failure to account for the value of content and the ad-content interdependencies increases the chances that authorities do not intervene when they should and do intervene when they should not.