Moses—Henry George's Inspiration

Abstract . Henry George delivered his famous “Moses” lecture in 1878, just one year prior to the publication of his masterwork. Progress and Poverty. The many parallels in the thinking of both George and Moses suggest that George may have been greatly inspired by Moses. George appreciated Moses’concern with improving this world rather than the hereafter. Moses, like George, advocated a minimum role for government. Moses proposed a thoroughly equitable distribution of the land which would generate fair taxes and avoid the exploitation so denounced by George. Land accumulation by the few would be prevented by requiring the return of ownership to the original owners every fifty years. George, the humanitarian, is also sympathetic with Mosaic reforms restoring human dignity such as the cancellation of oppressive debt every seventh year, and relief from drudgery every sabbath day and sabbatical year.     

The Incidence of Taxes on Casino Gambling: Exploiting the Tired and Poor

A bstract . The equity of taxes on casino gambling in Las Vegas and Atlantic City using recent survey data is examined. Daniel B. Suits (1977) study of the tax on casino gambling concluded that the tax was progressive when he used a national sample to estimate tax incidence. This result is challenged. Tax incidence is estimated using survey data obtained from people who either live in or have traveled to Las Vegas or Atlantic City. On the basis of the sample of people who have given themselves access to casino gambling , the tax is regressive; in fact, it is extremely regressive in Las Vegas. Therefore, in this time of easier access to casino gambling, policy-makers should be aware that the taxes on casino gambling place a proportionately heavier burden on low income groups.     

The Information Content of Environmental Performance of the Companies Listed on Indonesia Stock Exchange Period 2010-2011

Information content is a meaningful information for users to make decision. If the information is effecting to users＇ decison. One of the information is the announcement of the environmental performance. This information is effecting to investor reaction. Indonesia experience many problems of environmental damage. Program Penilaian Peringkat Kinerja Perusahaan （PROPER） or Company Performance Rank Program as an environmental control tool released by Kementerian Lingkungan Hidup （KLH） or Environmental Ministry and government received good response from several parties. However, some research studied about the relationship of environmental performance and economic performance found unexpected result. This research attempts to analyze the effect of environmental performance to abnormal return by event study analysis technique before and after PROPER announcement. The observation period is 2010 and 2011. The sample used in 2010 is 30 companies; while in 2011 are 41 companies. Hypothesis used Wilcoxon Rank test with selected window is five days before and five days after the announcement. The result shows that, without rank categorization, there is no significant difference of abnormal retum before and after PROPER announcement in 2010, while there is a significant difference of abnormal return before and after PROPER announcement in 2011. By the rank categorization, in both of observation period, there is a significant different of abnormal retum before and after the company received good rank, while there is no significant difference of abnormal return before and after the company received bad rank. Hence, it is recommended to KLH and government to announce louder the PROPER result, mainly for the companies which received bad rank and make this program to be mandatory due to its urgencies.     

Judicial Response to the 2010 Horizontal Merger Guidelines

Review of Industrial Organization - We study how the courts have responded to the 2010 Horizontal Merger Guidelines issued by the U.S. Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission....     

Lincoln Staffens and the McNamara Case: A Progressive Response to Class Conflict

A bstract . Lincoln Stevens' involvement with the McNamara case was one of the major concerns of his life. His Autobiography is not fully dependable regarding this incident; churches were not uniformly hostile to the settlement that ended the case and the Los Angeles Times , ignoring commitments to meet labor grievances, maintained its antiunion position. Steffens' experimentation with "Golden Rule" Christian love as an alternative to class conflict reflected his divergent allegiances to Progressives who sought reform and to radicals , basically opposed to corporate capitalism. It also reflected his own rejection of class partisanship. Although the pledges made in the settlement were broken, Steffens remained loyal to the McNamaras and continued to argue it is futile to punish individuals for acts rooted in social conflict.     

Are OECD-prescribed “good corporate governance practices” really good in an emerging economy?

This paper examines whether adopting OECD-prescribed corporate governance principles can solve the major corporate governance problem in an emerging economy—controlling-shareholder expropriation. We argue that “good governance practices” in OECD countries (e.g., an active board of directors, separation of chairperson and the CEO, significant presence of outside directors, and a two-tier board) cannot mitigate the negative effect of controlling-shareholder expropriation on corporate performance for two main reasons. First, most good governance practices are mainly designed to resolve conflicts between shareholders and the management but not conflicts between controlling and minority shareholders. Second, board directors are typically not independent to controlling shareholders, and supervisory directors often have low status and weak power in a firm. Using a panel of over 1,100 Chinese listed firms between 2001 and 2003, we find supportive evidence for our arguments. We discuss the implication of our study for public policy and strategies of investors.     

The 2010 Horizontal Merger Guidelines After 10 Years

Review of Industrial Organization - This paper introduces the Special Issue of the Review of Industrial Organization that studies the impact of the 2010 Horizontal Merger Guidelines after 10 years...