TAXATION IN MATCHING MARKETS

We analyze the effects of taxation in two-sided matching markets where agents have heterogeneous preferences over potential partners. Our model provides a continuous link between models of matching with and without transfers. Taxes generate inefficiency on the allocative margin, by changing who matches with whom. This allocative inefficiency can be nonmonotonic, but is weakly increasing in the tax rate under linear taxation if each worker has negative nonpecuniary utility of working. We adapt existing econometric methods for markets without taxes to our setting, and estimate preferences in the college-coach football market. We show through simulations that standard methods inaccurately measure deadweight loss.     

Assessing the Effect of Bilateral Collaborations on Learning Outcomes

Despite recent interest in the effects of student-driven collaborations on learning outcomes, little or no empirical investigations examine the potential benefits from collaboration between instructors of separate, but related, courses. This study proposes a learning intervention that explicitly accounts for interdependencies across courses and extends the traditional definition of collaborative learning to include the synthesis of teaching and learning in four courses through bilateral, group activities between instructors and among students. A student-performance measure assesses the intervention. Statistical results suggest that the collaborative learning intervention improved student-writing performance.     

The Causal Structure of Land Price Determinants

This paper investigates causation contemporaneously and dynamically to elucidate the persistent lack of agreement about what "causes" changes in farmland prices. The analysis synthesizes and extends previous investigations in this area by employing a combination of directed acyclic graphs (DAG), a recently developed modeling technique, and cointegrated VAR model. DAG theory and algorithms offer a powerful tool for analyzing contemporaneous causal relationships among economic variables. The results from this study confirm the importance of measures of return to farming, financial (credit market constraints) and/or macroeconomic activity as significant determinants of fluctuations in farmland prices.
Le présent article examine la causalité de façon contemporaine et dynamique pour élucider le manque persistant de consensus quant aux causes de variations du prix des terres. L'analyse est une synthèse des études antérieures de même qu'un prolongement effectuéà l'aide d'une combinaison de graphes acycliques orientés (DAG), technique de modélisation mise au point récemment, et du modèle VAR cointégré. La théorie des DAG et les algorithmes constituent un outil puissant pour analyser les liens causals contemporains des variables économiques. Les résultats confirment l'importance du rendement de l'activité agricole, des contraintes financières (contraintes du crédit) et/ou de l'activité macroéconomique comme déterminants significatifs des variations du prix des terres agricoles.     

Evaluating Constructive Lease Capitalization and Off‐Balance‐Sheet Financing: An Instructional Case with FedEx and UPS

This case illustrates the effects of the proposed new lease standard by the Financial Accounting Standards Board and the International Accounting Standards Board on existing outstanding operating leases. Specifically, the case examines the effects of the proposal that all firms report existing operating leases as capital leases upon the initial adoption of the proposed standard. By applying a constructive capitalization model to two firms who rely on operating leases for financing, FedEx and UPS, we found that both companies would have to record billions of dollars of liabilities that had only appeared in the footnotes of their financial statements under the current lease standards. In addition, the firms would experience a decline in retained earnings and key financial ratios, such as the debt‐to‐equity, return‐on‐assets, and interest coverage ratios, by reporting operating leases as capital leases under the new proposed standard. Furthermore, the magnitude of the lease capitalization impact is much smaller for UPS than for FedEx.     

A historical perspective on nonverbal communication in debates: Implications for elections and leadership

Nonverbal communication has been a focus in both the realms of politics and leadership. Since 1960 commentaries about political debates have led to the conclusion that inept nonverbal communication may have been a telling sign as to who lost the eventual election. This article will give a brief recount of the nonverbal ineptitude associated with several televised debates throughout history, a short research note about how nonverbal communication in a debate may predict the loser of an election, and a set of recommendations that may help leaders. In essence, as nonverbal communication may not necessarily help candidates in a debate and subsequent election, but rather hurt them, the same can be said for leaders in general: nonverbal communication may not necessarily help leaders become their very best, but it can definitely hurt them and their effectiveness as leaders.     

Socioeconomic adjustments and choice experiment benefit function transfer: Evaluating the common wisdom

It is often argued that attribute adjustments made possible within choice experiments have the potential to improve benefit transfer accuracy. These transfers, however, often omit socioeconomic adjustments; this reflects a limited presence of socioeconomic covariates in broader choice experiments. The lack of correspondence between common guidance that socioeconomic adjustments should be applied and simultaneous arguments for the advantages of choice experiment transfers leads to ambiguity for transfer practice. This paper contrasts the change in transfer performance resulting from an ability to adjust for policy attributes with that resulting from an ability to adjust for socioeconomic attributes. Results are illustrated for the case of agricultural land preservation. The goal is to provide evidence regarding the tradeoff faced by practitioners who seek to use choice experiments for benefit transfer but lack the ability to adjust for socioeconomic attributes.