Managerial Entrenchment and Capital Structure Decisions

We study associations between managerial entrenchment and firms' capital structures, with results generally suggesting that entrenched CEOs seek to avoid debt. In a cross-sectional analysis, we find that leverage levels are lower when CEOs do not face pressure from either ownership and compensation incentives or active monitoring. In an analysis of leverage changes, we find that leverage increases in the aftermath of entrenchment-reducing shocks to managerial security, including unsuccessful tender offers, involuntary CEO replacements, and the addition to the board of major stockholders.     

Stimulating Housing Markets

We study temporary fiscal stimulus designed to support distressed housing markets by inducing demand from buyers in the private market. Using difference-in-differences and regression kink research designs, we find that the First-Time Homebuyer Credit increased home sales by 490,000 (9.8%), median home prices by $2,400 (1.1%) per standard deviation increase in program exposure, and the transition rate into homeownership by 53%. The policy response did not reverse immediately. Instead, demand comes from several years in the future: induced buyers were three years younger in 2009 than typical first-time buyers. The program's market-stabilizing benefits likely exceeded its direct stimulus effects.     

Entry into Banking Markets and the Early-Mover Advantage

Using a sample for 1972–2002 with over 10,000 bank entries into local markets, we find a market share advantage for early entrants. In particular, the earlier a bank enters, the larger is its market share relative to other banks, controlling for firm, market, and time effects, with a market share advantage for early movers between 1 and 15 percentage points, depending on the order of entry. The strongest early-mover advantage is for banks that were in our sample in 1972 and survive into the 1990s. Moreover, early entrants appear to have such hold in the market by strategically investing in larger branch networks. Even controlling for the potential survivorship bias, we find that a bank's share decreases by 0.1 percentage points for a change in its order of entry from n th to ( n + 1)th. High growth markets show a smaller difference between late and early movers, consistent with a larger fraction of consumers yet to be locked in with a bank in these markets.     

Predictors of consumption cutbacks in response to increased energy costs

Energy costs have increased at a more rapid rate than overall household costs in recent years. The effects of these increased costs upon families' consumption of goods and services, as measured by cutbacks in and across consumption categories and cutbacks in necessities, were studied in relation to three variables: (1) family income level; (2) perceived effect of energy cost changes upon life in the last five years (well-off); and (3) belief that energv consumption could be reduced by one-fourth in the next year. Family income level was significantly related in a negative direction to each measure of cutback in consumption. However, the well-off measure explained a greater percentage of the variation in consumption cutback measures than did income level.     

Preventing the “Abuses” of Democracy: Hayek,the “Military Usurper” and Transitional Dictatorship in Chile?

Hayek famously claimed that he would prefer a “liberal” dictator to “democratic government lacking in liberalism.” While Hayek's views of the Pinochet regime have generated much controversy, surprisingly little has been written about Hayek's defense of transitional dictatorship. Making use of previously un‐translated foreign language archival material, this paper helps shed light on Hayek's views of authoritarianism, totalitarianism, transitional dictatorship, and the Pinochet regime as well as helping to separate Hayekian ‘fact’ from Hayekian ‘fiction’.     

The Roles of Corporate Governance in Bank Failures during the Recent Financial Crisis

We analyze the roles of bank ownership, management, and compensation structures in bank failures during the recent financial crisis. Our results suggest that failures are strongly influenced by ownership structure: high shareholdings of lower‐level management and non‐chief executive officer (non‐CEO) higher‐level management increase failure risk significantly. In contrast, shareholdings of banks’ CEOs do not have a direct impact on bank failure. These findings suggest that high stakes in the bank induce non‐CEO managers to take high risks due to moral hazard incentives, which may result in bank failure. We identify tail risk in noninterest income as a primary risk‐taking channel of lower‐level managers.     

Competition from Large, Multimarket Firms and the Performance of Small, Single-Market Firms: Evidence from the Banking Industry

We offer and test two competing hypotheses for the consolidation trend in banking using U.S. banking industry data over the period 1982–2000. Under the efficiency hypothesis , technological progress improved the performance of large, multimarket firms relative to small, single-market firms, whereas under the hubris hypothesis , consolidation was largely driven by corporate hubris. Our results are consistent with an empirical dominance of the efficiency hypothesis over the hubris hypothesis—on net, technological progress allowed large, multimarket banks to compete more effectively against small, single-market banks in the 1990s than in the 1980s. We also isolate the extent to which technological progress occurred through scale versus geographic effects and how they affected the performance of small, single-market banks through revenues versus costs. The results may shed light as well on some of the research and policy issues related to community banking.     

MEXICAN-AMERICAN WIVES' SATISFACTION WITH RESOURCE USE AS INFLUENCED BY EMPLOYMENT STATUS

The employment status of 356 Mexican-American wives was examined in relation to availability and usage of family resources and to quality of life. More similarities than differences by employment status were found in satisfaction with resource management. Nevertheless, full-time homemakers were more satisfied with discretionary time, amount and quality of work accomplished at home, and friendships than were full- or part-time employed wives. Employed wives perceived their family income as more adequate than non-employed wives but were not significantly more satisfied with the standard of living resulting from this income. Wives were generally satisfied with their family life and overall quality of life regardless of employment status.     

A test of the accuracy of probability assessment techniques in auditing*

Abstract. Sixty-two practising auditors participated in an account balance estimation experiment. Having been provided with written and oral training material, they used four elicitation techniques (CDF, PDF, EPS, and HFS) to quantify their subjective beliefs regarding the accounts receivable balance of an audit case study. Their responses were compared to the results of a 600 sample simulation study, using the quadratic scoring rule. Their responses were also compared to the consensus distribution of all subjects using the Kolmogorov-Smirnov measure. The results indicated that PDF is the elicitation technique generating the most accurate prior probability distribution for use in Bayesian analysis. The other three elicitation techniques were about equal in the degree to which they were less accurate than the PDF technique.