ASEE-EED Revised Bylaws

Moon and Yun justified the optimality of solutions derived from the first order conditions in Kim, Philippatos and Chung. With that optimality of solutions, bounds for the optimal cycle time are derived. Then, using those bounds, a simple algorithm to compute the optimal cycle time is developed.     

TECHNICAL NOTE A MODIFIED EOQ MODEL WITH TEMPORARY SALE PRICE DERIVED WITHOUT DERIVATIVES

Most previous works applied differential calculus to derive optimal solutions for economic ordering policy. The formulations are suggested in this short note to show that optimal solutions can be derived algebraically without using differential calculus to treat the EOQ model with a temporary sale price.     

Credit Losses in Australasian Banking

We analyse the determinants of bank credit losses in Australasia. Despite sizeable credit losses over the past two decades, ours is the first systematic study to do so. Analysis is based on a comprehensive dataset retrieved from original financial reports of 32 Australasian banks (1980–2005). Credit losses rise when the macro economy is weak. Asset markets, particularly the equity market, are also important. Larger banks provide more for credit losses while banks with high cost-income-ratios show greater loan loss provisions. Strong loan growth translates into significantly higher credit losses with a lag of 2–4 years. Finally, the results show strong evidence of income smoothing activities by banks.     

Poverty status and expenditure patterns: comparison between elderly and non-elderly households

The purpose of this study was to find out if significant differences exist in patterns of expenditures between elderly and non-elderly consumers, taking poverty status into account. Cluster analysis was used to identify expenditure patterns. Four different expenditure patterns were found. Elderly middle-income and affluent households were more likely to belong to service-using cluster than non-elderly poor households. Nonelderly households were more likely to belong to shelter-dominated cluster than elderly households. Poor households were more likely to belong to homebound cluster, while non-poor households were more likely to belong to car-centred cluster.     

International Transmission Channels of U.S. Quantitative Easing: Evidence from Canada

The U.S. Federal Reserve responded to the great recession by implementing quantitative easing, or large‐scale asset purchases, when its conventional policy rate reached the zero lower bound. We assess the international spillover effects of this quantitative easing program on the Canadian economy in a factor‐augmented vector autoregression (FAVAR) framework, by considering a counterfactual scenario in which the Federal Reserve's long‐term asset holdings do not rise in response to the recession. We find that U.S. quantitative easing boosted Canadian output, mainly through the financial channel.     

Foundations of Dominant-Strategy Mechanisms

Robert Wilson criticizes applied game theory's reliance on common-knowledge assumptions. In reaction to Wilson's critique, the recent literature of mechanism design has adopted the goal of finding detail-free mechanisms in order to eliminate this reliance. In practice this has meant restricting attention to simple mechanisms such as dominant-strategy mechanisms. However, there has been little theoretical foundation for this approach. In particular it is not clear the search for an optimal mechanism that does not rely on common-knowledge assumption would lead to simpler mechanisms rather than more complicated ones. This paper tries to fill the void. In the context of an expected revenue maximizing auctioneer, we investigate some foundations for using simple, dominant-strategy auctions.     

Why Option Prices Lag Stock Prices: A Trading-based Explanation

While many studies find that option prices lead stock prices, Stephan and Whaley (1990) find that stocks lead options. We find no evidence that options, even deep out-of-the-money options, lead stocks. After confirming Stephan and Whaley's results, we show their results can be explained as spurious leads induced by infrequent trading of options. We show that the stock lead disappears when the average of the bid and ask prices is used instead of transaction prices. Hence, we find no evidence of arbitrage opportunities associated with the stock lead.     

Patterns of Productivity in the Finance Literature: A Study of the Bibliometric Distributions

This study finds a bibliometric regularity in the finance literature that the number of authors publishing n papers is about $1/n^c$ of those publishing one paper. We find that the finance literature conforms very well to the inverse square law $(c=2)$ if data are taken from a large collection of journals. When applied to individual finance journals, we find that values of c range from 1.95 to 3.26. We also find that top-rated journals have higher concentrations among their contributors. This implies that the phenomenon “success breeds success” is more common in higher quality publications.     

Have We Underestimated the Likelihood and Severity of Zero Lower Bound Events?

Prior to the financial crisis, most economists probably did not view the zero lower bound (ZLB) as a major problem for central banks. Using a range of structural and statistical models, we find that previous research understated the ZLB threat by ignoring uncertainty about model parameters and latent variables, focusing too much on the Great Moderation experience, and relying on structural models whose dynamics cannot generate sustained ZLB episodes. Our analysis also suggests that the Federal Reserve's asset purchases, while materially improving macroeconomic conditions, did not prevent the ZLB constraint from having first‐order adverse effects on real activity and inflation.