Do interventions in foreign exchange markets modify investors' expectations? The experience of Japan between 1992 and 2004

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the impact of the Bank of Japan's official interventions on the JPY/USD parity during the period 1992–2004. The novelty of our approach is to combine two recent advances of the empirical literature on foreign exchange interventions: (i) drawing on over-the-counter option prices to characterize more precisely the distribution of market expectations; (ii) redefining interventions in terms of events as they tend to come in clusters. Moreover, in order to deal with the features of the data (small sample size, non-standard distribution), we use bootstrap tests.We show that interventions have a significant impact on the mean expectation (the forward rate). The results are more ambiguous for variance. Additionally, we find that the effect of interventions on skewness is significant, robust to different definitions of skewness, and consistent with the direction of interventions. On the contrary, our results clearly show that kurtosis is not affected by interventions. We finally show that: (i) coordination increases effectiveness of interventions; (ii) results are not altered when controlling for other economic and political news.     

The valuation relevance of R&D expenditures: Time series evidence

The literature on the valuation relevance of R&D investments is based primarily on cross-sectional regressions or panel data regressions with time and firm (or industry) fixed effects such that the parameters relating R&D to market value are cross-sectionally constant. In an alternative approach, this paper investigates the value relevance of R&D investment using an earnings-based time series valuation model. Model parameters are estimated for each firm separately. In contradistinction to the results obtained from cross-sectional and fixed effects panel models, this study finds weak empirical support at best for the value relevance of R&D expenditures at the firm level.     

An analysis of the implications of discontinued operations for continuing income

We examine the extent to which changes in the accounting for discontinued operations affects the usefulness of disaggregated income components in predicting an entity’s future continuing income. Our study is motivated by the joint FASB/IASB convergence project which seeks to define the scope of transactions reported in discontinued operations. To examine our question, we compare the properties of continuing income and discontinued operations reported under SFAS 144 and APB 30, where APB 30 closely parallels IFRS 5. We find that the broader scope of the rule under SFAS 144 results in more persistent continuing income among firms reporting discontinued operations, and that this is concentrated among single-segment firms, which previously were less likely to fall within the scope of APB 30. Because we find no evidence of increased opportunism, we conclude that the broader scope of the rule results in a finer partitioning of recurring and nonrecurring income. Overall, our results support the broader scope of discontinued operations.     

Stock selection using a multi-factor model - empirical evidence from the French stock market

Using a Barra-type factor model, we have attempted to determine whether it is possible to beat the benchmark by taking advantage of anomalies established in the financial empirical literature. More specifically we have built an equity premium model based on three sets of factors (accounting variables, stock market characteristics and sector indicators) using a Bayesian method corrected for heteroscedasticity to estimate risk premiums, a technique that takes agents' learning into account. The results are encouraging: first, the factors that carried most weight on the equity premiums corroborated the results of empirical studies described in the financial literature, secondly, the portfolios constructed from our methodology and simulated outside our sample, returned higher performance than the benchmark and rewarded the supplement of volatility.     

Children's relationships with brands: “True love” or “one‐night” stand?

Group and individual interviews were conducted to examine relationships developed between children and brands in the family setting. Children's stories about brands suggest that they develop relationships with a wide range of brands and these relationships are imbedded in the social environment where children live and grow. Interpersonal relationship metaphors were utilized to describe different forms of child–brand relationships. The article concludes that children's relationships with brands serve important functions in their lives and have significant implications for marketers. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

The reaction of prices and of the balance of payments to revaluation of the Deutsche Mark

Zusammenfassung Die Reaktion der Preise und Zahlungsbilanz auf eine Aufwertung der Deutschen Mark. —Im ersten Teil des Aufsatzes werden die Wirkungen einer Aufwertung der Deutschen Mark und von Ver?nderungen der Weltm arktpreise auf Preise, L?hne und Einkommensverteilung in Westdeutschland berechnet unter Verwendung eines Preismodells, das auf dem skandinavischen Ansatz beruht, aber eine Unterscheidung zwischen kompetitiven und nichtkompetitiven Industrien enth?lt. Es wird dann gezeigt, da\ die Terms of trade und die Gewinnquoten im kompetitiven Sektor der Volkswirtschaft durch eine Aufwertung stark beeinflu\t werden, vor allem auf kürzere Sicht. Die Wirkungen sind zwar geringer, wenn die L?hne den Preis?nderungen angepa\t werden, bleiben aber bedeutend. Demnach scheint eine Aufwertung reale Wirkungen auf die Wirtschaft Westdeutschlands auszuüben. Au\erdem wird eine exogene Verschlechterung der Terms of trade analysiert, die, wie sich zeigt, durch die Existenz eines nichtkompetitiven Sektors verst?rkt wird. Die Gewinne im kompetitven Sektor steigen und ziehen dadurch Ressourcen aus den nichtkomptetitiven Industrien an, solange sich nur die Preise im kompetitiven Sektor erh?hen, unabh?ngig davon, ob die Terms of trade steigen oder fallen. Im zweiten Teil wird ein kleines Modell der deutschen Wirtschaft gesch?tzt und simuliert, um die Wirkung einer Aufwertung auf die Zahlungsbilanz zu illustrieren. Es wird gezeigt, da\ ein Handelsbilanzüberschu\ nach einer Aufwertung ansteigen kann.

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Résumé La réaction des prix et de la balance des paiements sur la revalorisation de la Deutsche Mark. —Dans la première partie de cet article nous computons les effets d’une revalorisation de la Deutsche Mark et des changements des prix de marché mondial sur les prix, les salaires et les parts distributives en Allemagne de l’Ouest à l’aide d’un modèle de prix inspiré de l’école Scandinave mais faisant une distinction entre des industries compétitives et noncompétitives. Puis nous démontrons que les termes de l’échange aussi bien que les parts de profit dans le secteur compétitif de l’économie sont fortement affectuées par la revalorisation, particulièrement à court terme. Les effets deviennent plus faibles si les salaires sont ajustés par les changements des prix, mais restent encore importants. Donc une revalorisation semble produire des effets réels pour l’économie de l’Allemagne de l’Ouest. Une détérioration exogène des termes de l’échange est analysée qui est accentuée par l’existence d’un secteur noncompétitif. Les profits dans le secteur compétitif accro?t et c’est pourquoi attirent des ressources des industries noncompétitives, indépendamment d’un accroissement ou d’un déclin des termes de l’échange, tant que les prix dans le secteur compétitif s’augmentent. Dans la deuxième partie nous estimons un petit modèle de l’économie allemande pour illustrer l’effet de la revalorisation sur la balance des paiements. Nous démontrons que le surplus de la balance commerciale peut accro?tre apès la ravalorisation.

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Resumen La reactión de los precios y de las balanzas de pagos frente a la revaluaci?n del marco alemán. —En la primera parte de este estudio se computan por medio de un modelo de precios inspirado en la propuesta escandinava los efectos de la revaluaci?n del marco alemán y de cambios en los precios del mercado mundial sobre los precios, salarios y cuotas distributivas en Alemania Occidental, pero haciendo una distinción entre industrias competitivas y no competitivas. Se muestra en seguida que los términos del intercambio como también las tasas de beneficio en el sector competitivo de la economía se ven fuertemente afectadas por la revaluación, particularmente en el corto plazo. Los efectos son mas débiles pero aún importantes, cuando los salarios se ajustan por cambios en los precios. En consecuencia, una revaluación parece producir efectos reales sobre la economía de Alemania Occidental. En seguida se analiza un deterioro exógeno en los términos del intercambio, que se ve acentuado por la existencia de un sector nocompetitivo. Las ganancias en el sector competitivo aumentan, atrayendo de esta manera recursos de industrias no competitivas, independientemente de si los términos del intercambio mejoran o se deterioran, mientras los precios en el sector competitivo se mantengan en aumento. En la segunda parte se estima y simula un peque?o modelo de la economía alemana para ilustrar el efecto de la revaluación sobre la balanza de pagos. Se muestra que el superávit de la balanza comercial puede aumentar después de la revaluación.

     

Integrating benefits decision making

Integrated employee benefit decision making helps employees use their benefits more wisely and identify opportunities to balance their immediate benefits needs (such as health care) and future benefits needs (such as retirement). This article discusses how employers can overcome employees' behavioral barriers to making integrated employee benefit decisions by changing the ways benefits are communicated and employees are presented with action decisions. Undertaking these steps allows employers to not only improve their employees' overall financial perspectives, but also furthers plan sponsors' goals of actively promoting personal responsibility with respect to retirement funding and changing employee behavior with respect to controlling health care costs.     

Measuring price discovery between nearby and deferred contracts in storable and nonstorable commodity futures markets

Using price discovery measures, including Putniņš’ (2013) information leadership share and intraday data, we quantify the proportional contribution of nearby and deferred contracts in price discovery in the corn and live cattle futures markets. On average, nearby contracts reflect information more quickly than deferred contracts in the corn market, but have a relatively less dominant role in the live cattle market. In both markets, the nearby contract loses dominance when its relative volume share dips below 50%, which typically occurs when the nearby is close to maturity. Regression results indicate that the share of price discovery is mainly related to trading volume and time to expiration in both markets. In the corn market, price discovery share between nearby and deferred contracts is also related to inverse carrying charges, crop year differences, USDA announcements, market crashes, and commodity index position rolls. Differences between corn and live cattle markets are consistent with differences in the contracts’ liquidity and commodity storability.     

An event-based perspective on the development of commitment

This paper proposes a new perspective on the development of commitment. We propose that organizational events are evaluated relative to a person's values to determine whether the person fits or misfits the organization. The fit information is then organized into commitment elements, which reflect the extent to which workplace events fit (relative to misfit) a particular value across events over time. We propose that elements are organized around values, not events, such that values are the main effect and events are the moderators of said effect on elements. Elements are, in turn, formative indicators of the latent commitment construct. They are the proximal causes of commitment. Multiple elements contribute to a single commitment and they are weighted via the value hierarchy. Our perspective contributes to the literature by: (a) being developmental; (b) focusing on events; and, (c) having implications for both within-person and between-person questions about commitment development.     

Employee Movements from Audit Firms to Audit Clients

Regulators have expressed concerns about the “revolving door” between auditors and clients, whereby audit employees move directly from audit firms to audit clients (i.e., “direct alumni hires”). Regulators are concerned that these direct hires could compromise audit quality, partly because these employees could have previously audited their hiring company's financial statements. In contrast, we examine accounting and finance executives who move indirectly from audit firms to audit clients and who could not have previously audited the hiring company's financial statements (i.e., “indirect alumni hires”). We show that indirect hires occur more often than the direct hires that have concerned regulators. We predict and find that both direct and indirect alumni hires are associated with lower rates of executive turnover and audit firm turnover. However, there is no evidence that the reduced rates of executive turnover are explained by managerial entrenchment or that these hires are associated with lower audit quality. Overall, our findings suggest that direct and indirect employee movements from audit firms to audit clients are beneficial to executives, audit clients, and audit firms because they reduce the incidence of costly turnover.