Consumption Fluctuations and Expected Returns

This paper introduces a novel consumption-based variable, cyclical consumption, and examines its predictive properties for stock returns. Future expected stock returns are high (low) when aggregate consumption falls (rises) relative to its trend and marginal utility from current consumption is high (low). We show that the empirical evidence ties consumption decisions of agents to time variation in returns in a manner consistent with asset pricing models based on external habit formation. The predictive power of cyclical consumption is not confined to bad times and subsumes the predictability of many popular forecasting variables.     

FORECASTING WOMEN,INFANTS, AND CHILDREN CASELOADS: A COMPARISON OF VECTOR AUTOREGRESSION AND AUTOREGRESSIVE INTEGRATED MOVING AVERAGE APPROACHES

Under the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC), each state receives a fixed federal grant for the operation of WIC in the upcoming federal fiscal year. Accurate forecasting is vital because states have to bear the expenses of any underestimation of WIC expenditures. Using monthly data from 1997 through 2005, this paper examined the performance of two competing models, autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA) and vector autoregression (VAR), in forecasting New York WIC caseloads for women, infants, and children. VAR model predicted over $120,000 less per month in forecast errors in comparison to the ARIMA model. (JEL H7, C5)     

COMPETING EXPLANATIONS OF U.S. DEFENSE INDUSTRY CONSOLIDATION IN THE 1990s AND THEIR POLICY IMPLICATIONS

Was the consolidation of defense industry in the 1990s driven by U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) directives, or was it driven instead by the same forces that drove consolidation in many other sectors of the U.S. economy in the 1990s? To better understand the roles of DOD policy and economy‐wide forces in shaping the U.S. defense industry, we test for structural breaks in defense industry and spending data and compare our findings to those relating to other sectors and the general economy. We identify structural breaks in the defense‐related data in the early 1980s and throughout the 1990s, roughly consistent with changes in the U.S. economy, including broader merger trends. Overall, our results are more consistent with the view that economy‐wide factors drove defense industry consolidation, largely independent of the DOD policy changes that occurred early in the 1990s. (JEL E0, C2, H0)     

颠覆以得正道

狄更斯在《双城记》的开头写了这样的一段话:"这是最好的时代,这是最坏的时代,这是智慧的时代,这是愚蠢的时代;这是信仰的时期,这是怀疑的时期;这是光明的季节,这是黑暗的季节;这是希望之春,这是失望之冬;人们面前有各种事物,人们面前一无所有;人们正在直登天堂,人们正在直下地狱."     

MALE-FEMALE SALARY DIFFERENTIALS IN BRITISH UNIVERSITIES

The average salary differential between male and female academicsin Britain in 1992 exceeded 15%. Using individual data coveringall full-time academic staff in the old universities for theyears 1975, 1985, and 1992, we find that a significant partof the differential is explained by the fact that women areunder-represented in senior ranks. However, even after controllingfor rank, age, tenure, and faculty, a gender effect in the remunerationof British academics remains. Moreover, neither the averagesalary-gap nor that part attributable to an independent gendereffect have fallen since 1975.     

The Downside of Asset Screening for Market Liquidity

This paper explores the tension between asset quality and market liquidity. I model an originator who screens assets whose cash flows are later sold in secondary markets. Screening improves asset quality but gives rise to asymmetric information, hindering trade of the asset cash flows. In the optimal mechanism (second‐best), costly retention of cash flows is essential to implement asset screening. Market allocations can feature too much or too little screening relative to second‐best, where too much screening generates inefficiently illiquid markets. Furthermore, the economy is prone to multiple equilibria. The optimal mechanism is decentralized with two tools: retention rules and transfers.     

Securitization,Ratings, and Credit Supply

We develop a framework to explore the effect of credit ratings on loan origination. We show that ratings endogenously shift the economy from a signaling equilibrium, in which banks inefficiently retain loans to signal quality, toward an originate-to-distribute equilibrium with zero retention and inefficiently low lending standards. Ratings increase overall efficiency, provided that the reduction in costly retention more than compensates for the origination of some negative net present value loans. We study how banks' ability to screen loans affects these predictions and use the model to analyze commonly proposed policies such as mandatory “skin in the game.”     

On the Riskiness of Universal Banking: Evidence from Banks in the Investment Banking Business Pre- and Post-GLBA

We explore whether an economically significant differential exists in market-based risk measures between universal banks and traditional banks. Using a three-asset portfolio regression model, we find that between 1990 and 2007—a period of gradual deregulation culminating in passage of the Gramm–Leach–Bliley Act (GLBA) of 1999—an increased participation in investment banking was associated with higher total and unsystematic risks and no significant change in systematic risk. Small risk-reduction benefits emerged in the post-GLBA era, but such benefits were likely the result of the particular sample period rather than a fundamental change in bank structure following the GLBA. Our results cannot justify the GLBA on risk-reduction grounds, though the Act may be defensible for other reasons.