‘Market failure’ arguments are a poor guide to policy

‘Market failure’ is frequently offered as a justification for government intervention in the economy. Proponents of interventions can point to almost limitless examples of markets which do not meet all the criteria for Pareto optimality and argue that government taxation, subsidies or regulation can perfect them, maximising social welfare. But comparing market outcomes with an unattainable and unidentifiable ideal is not useful in a world of imperfect knowledge and government failure. It is better to compare market outcomes against realistic alternatives. Furthermore, even within the market failure paradigm, concepts such as ‘public goods’ and ‘negative externalities’ are routinely misunderstood and inconsistently applied. This leads to predictably poor policy outcomes.     

The Information Content of NAV Estimates

The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics - This paper investigates whether analysts’ estimates of firm fundamental value transmit unique information to security markets. Previous work...     

Size and information revelation in securities trading

We examine differences in information content between order submission sizes and trade sizes by U.S. equity traders. Increasing (decreasing) order submission (trade) size is reflective of information. The result suggests that better-informed traders want to trade in a large size, but that they engage in stealth trading practices or break larger orders into smaller sizes in order to conceal information. While prior studies tend to narrowly focus on trade executions at the market-centre level, our findings indicate that order submission size varies significantly from trade size and that both sizes are informative about future prices, albeit in an inverse manner.     

Private School Usage in Australia 1975–2010: Evidence from the Household Expenditure Surveys

The use of private schools in Australia has increased greatly since the 1970s. This article shows that most of the growth has been concentrated in attendance at low-fee schools, while the growth in using high-fee schools has been modest. Furthermore, the increase has occurred for households at all income levels, for both single-parent and two-parent households, for households of all sizes, and irrespective of whether the household reference person is born in Australia or elsewhere. However, increasing income and changes in household composition can account only for a small part of the trend.     

Is faster or slower trading better? An examination of order type execution speed and costs

We examine order type execution speed and costs for US equity traders. Marketable orders that execute slower exhibit lower execution costs. Those who remove liquidity faster and pay higher trading costs transact in smaller size, spread trading across more venues, take more liquidity, and are better informed. Nonmarketable limit orders that execute slower exhibit greater adverse selection; and larger, uninformed traders who concentrate their trading in fewer venues submit them. Our findings suggest that slowing down the trading process, when faster options exist, can benefit certain market participants who seek to cross the bid–ask spread.     

Rethinking the new corporate philanthropy

More than ever, corporations are expected to practice “citizenship” by engaging in various community or social philanthropy programs. These corporate social responsibility (CSR) programs have broad appeal among business scholars, business executives, and the public. After first setting some theoretical boundaries for CSR as it relates to the legal and strategic management fields, the authors examine how CSR (both its implementation and expectations) can lead to unintended results, compromising the distinct roles business and government play in market-driven, democratic systems.     

Carving and tourism: A maori perspective

Maori retained high levels of self determination under the Treaty of Waitangi in 1840, although much of the subsequent history of the 19th century involved attempts both formal and informal by the colonial powers to subvert the Act. Therefore, while tourism has brought significant economic advantages for some tribes (iwi), and promises economic returns for others, Maori are insistent that they retain control over the process. The paper describes some of the significant impacts of tourism on Maori culture, but it is concluded that the truths of tourist impacts are plural, and can only be understood within an understanding of Maori cosmology. As such, Maori are adept at distinguishing between the signs and symbols of tourist artifacts.