A Practical Framework for the Analysis of Social Security Reform

‘When I use a word’, Humpty Dumpty said in a rather scornful tone, ‘it means just what I choose it lo mean — neither more nor less’. (Through the Looking Glass, Ch. 6)     

The Trades of Market Makers: An Empirical Analysis of NYSE Specialists

This paper presents a transaction-level empirical analysis of the trading activities of New York Stock Exchange specialists. The main findings of the analysis are the following. Adjustment lags in inventories vary across stocks, and are in some cases as long as one or two months. Decomposition of specialist trading profits by trading horizon shows that the principal source of these profits is short term. An analysis of the dynamic relations among inventories, signed order flow, and quote changes suggests that trades in which the specialist participates have a higher immediate impact on the quotes than trades with no specialist participation.     

Is the New Deal System Collapsing? With What Might It Be Replaced?

The prevailing “New Deal” system of industrial relations laws and practices is working poorly, especially since private-sector union density has declined. Both law and practice have failed to adjust to changing economic and technological conditions. The modest reforms recommended by the Dunlop Commission might have made some slight difference; however, these will not be enacted. The future may see more nonunion forms of representation and greater government regulation of employment conditions.     

Rational Pessimism, Rational Exuberance, and Asset Pricing Models

The paper estimates and examines the empirical plausibility of asset pricing models that attempt to explain features of financial markets such as the size of the equity premium and the volatility of the stock market. In one model, the long-run risks (LRR) model of Bansal and Yaron, low-frequency movements, and time-varying uncertainty in aggregate consumption growth are the key channels for understanding asset prices. In another, as typified by Campbell and Cochrane, habit formation, which generates time-varying risk aversion and consequently time variation in risk premia, is the key channel. These models are fitted to data using simulation estimators. Both models are found to fit the data equally well at conventional significance levels, and they can track quite closely a new measure of realized annual volatility. Further, scrutiny using a rich array of diagnostics suggests that the LRR model is preferred.     

ON MEASURING THE EFFECT OF INFLATION UNCERTAINTY ON REAL GNP GROWTH

In this paper we re-examine the relationship between inflationuncertainty and total output. To properly specify an estimatingequation, we investigate the time series properties of two frequentlyused measures of inflation uncertainty. We fail to reject thehypothysis that each series has a unit root. However, the uncertaintymeasures are not cointegrated with output and relative oil prices.This means that the proper specification is in terms of differences.With this specification we find that an increase in inflationuncertainty growth reduces real GNP growth but, unlike earlierwork, we find that this effect is temporary. It is also unlikelythat an inflation uncertainty shock on its own could producea recession.     

A Conceptual Stress‐Coping Model of Factors Influencing Marketplace Engagement of Visually Impaired Consumers

Visually impaired consumers often suffer one of the worst marketplace stresses when processing product information. Despite there being around 314 million blind or visually impaired people worldwide, today's marketplace does not yet adequately address these stresses. This study develops and tests a theoretical model of how visually impaired consumers cope in marketplace engagement and discusses how companies and policymakers can help to increase marketplace engagement.