They Would If They Could: Assessing the Bindingness of the Property Holding Constraints for REITs

This study examines the bindingness of the property holding constraints which Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) face on their portfolios (the dealer rule), and illustrates how these constraints hinder REITs from exploiting opportunities to time the property market. I first simulate a set of filter‐based market timing strategies, which outperform a buy‐and‐hold strategy out of sample, and show that imposing a four‐year (or even the newer two‐year) holding constraint significantly reduces the excess returns the strategies generate. I then analyze actual holding periods of properties in REIT portfolios and find that there seems to exist a large degree of demand for short property holding periods and that the trades generated by the filter strategy generally resemble actual REIT trading activity, validating the relevance of the simulation results. A direct test for the constraint reveals that REITs' propensity to hold a property beyond the minimum period increases, the higher the profit from the transaction, consistent with the asymmetric nature in which the rule is enforced. By contrast, this effect is insignificant for Umbrella‐Partnership REITs (UPREITs), which are not as affected by the constraint. I further show that UPREITs overall achieve significantly better ex‐post market timing performance than non‐UPREITs. I thus find that overall REITs are limited by the dealer rule.     

Half of Cotton Textile Firms Want to Quit Amid Rising Costs

Rising costs and an appreciation of the yuan currency are squeezing Chinese cotton textile companies,making nearly half of them wanting to quit,a new industry survey reveals.     

可变数据标准及其意义

印刷工业非常清楚使用标准化可变数据语言推动生产所带来的好处.关于PPML和VDX为了生产彩色可变数据印刷品而制订的两个标准,它们之间的差别素有争论.本文将着重介绍与标准相关的一些内容,以便让我们知道它们为什么那么重要,然后依次看看使用其中一种语言或者两者均采用或者都不采用的优缺点.     

The Pricing Structure of Legal Services: Do Lawyers Offer What Clients Want?

Review of Industrial Organization - We analyze clients’ contract choices in auctions where Dutch law firms compete for standard cases such as labor disputes for individuals and collecting...     

Why Do Non–union Employees Want to Unionize? Evidence from Britain

This paper assesses the determinants of the level of support for union membership among non–union employees. Using data from a representative sample of non–union employees in Great Britain, the research confirms the importance of job dissatisfaction, left–wing views and perceived union instrumentality as predictors of willingness to join a trade union, union instrumentality being the most significant.     

The Insolvent Thrifts of 1982: Where Are They Now?

In 1982, 237 thrifts were GAAP (Generally Accepted Accounting Principle) insolvent. By 1987, 92 of these were either merged or closed and 77 remained insolvent. The remaining 68 were GAAP solvent with an average GAAP-to-total-assets ratio of 5.6%. The purpose of this paper is to identify the factors that affected the probability of solvency for the 1982-insolvent thrifts over the period 1983–1987.
To identify these factors, the probability of insolvency is modeled in each year between 1983 and 1987 using logistic regression. Because a thrift can earn its way out of insolvency or raise outside capital, the probability of solvency is a function of the infusion of outside capital along with balance sheet and income statement ratios reflecting the thrifts earning ability. The only variable consistently significant in each year is the variable reflecting the raising of outside capital.     

做好企业新员工的入职管理

企业的发展需要有新生力量的加入,而对这些新生力量如何进行管理,如何把握他们的心理进行良好的沟通,使其迈出职业生涯第一步并保持工作热情,如何消除工作中的阻力以帮助他们取得长期稳定的进步,这些都是需要及时解决的问题。这些问题解决好了,既有助于充分发挥新员工的能力,同时对这些员工自身的职业生涯也是至关重要的。     

Large Non-Union Companies: How Do They Avoid a Catch 22?

Large non-union companies might be expected to enjoy extensive work-force flexibility deriving from their high-wage, high-involvement strategies. However, where there is a strong local union presence, this might be expected to exert a strong dampening effect on the levels of internal flexibility achieved. Such companies, fearful of union organization, could not then enjoy the freedoms that might be associated with a non-union strategy. Research conducted in the Republic of Ireland on large non-union US companies operating in the electronics industry suggests a conceptual framework indicating how a Catch-22 situation is avoided in these companies.     

国外油田服务公司的经营之道及启示

国外油田服务公司在激烈的市场竞争中不断发展壮大，得益于它们先进的经营理念和高效的管理体制：坚持技术创新，及时把新技术工程化、商业化，进而去占领市场、扩大市场，提高回报率；重视研究开发，不惜巨额科技投入，不断开发新枝术、新产品，改进老产品；通过横向扩展，实现一专多能；更新经营理念，树立“双赢”观念；建立独具特色的用人制度，注重人才管理；依靠杰出的企业家掌舵引航。我国油田技术服务公司面临严峻形势，应在充分借鉴国外服务公司经验的基础上，根据世界和中国石油油田服务市场发展的趋势、技术进步的趋势，认真研究制订本企业、本专业的发展战略；走集约化的道路，在自愿、平等和互利的基础上，打破地区分割，实行横向联合，增强整体实力；加快技术创新和新技术推广应用的步伐；增强自主创新的实力，从机制上积极鼓励倡导创新意，走新路；为适应市场需要，创造条件，物色、培养和造就成百上千的新时代油田技术服务的企业家。     

So What Do Parents Want and Expect from a Technology Education Programme? – An Exploration

Everyone seems to have a view on how and what should be taught in our schools and Technology Education is no exception. In New Zealand, as in the United Kingdom, recent legislation has encouraged parents to take a more active role and to voice their opinions (Banks 1994). Satchwell and Dugger (1996) observe that in the current context of educational reform, parents are questioning what students should be expected to know and be able to do. So what do parents want for their children? This investigation briefly documents a new partnership between a College of Education and a primary school in New Zealand. Parents were questioned over the course of the first year of this new partnership, in order to determine their expectations from the Technology programme.     

What Would They Do? Childcare under Parental Leave and Reduced Hours Options

Time diary data are used to simulate the effects of parental leave and reduced hours arrangements on childcare time among parents of infants. Estimates suggest that coupled fathers would apply approximately 70 percent of working time reductions under leave or reduced hours to childcare. Both coupled and single mothers translate working time reductions into childcare at higher rates. The analysis highlights inequalities across lines of gender, marital status, and socioeconomic status associated with existing policies and suggests policy innovations to both raise parental investments in childcare time and reduce levels of inequality.     

We Want Them All Covered! Collective Bargaining and Firm Heterogeneity: Theory and Evidence from Germany

This article establishes a link between the degree of productivity dispersion within an industry and collective bargaining coverage of the firms in the industry. In a stylized unionized oligopoly model, we show that differences in productivity levels can affect the design of collective wage contracts a sector‐union offers to heterogeneous firms. Using German linked employer–employee data, we test a range of our theoretical hypotheses and find empirical support for them. The dispersion of sector‐level labour productivity decreases the likelihood of firms being covered by a collective bargaining agreement on the industry level, but increases the likelihood of firms being covered by firm‐level agreements. The results hold for different subsamples and (panel) estimation techniques.     

What Customers Want: Using Outcome-Driven Innovation to Create Breakthrough Products and Services by Anthony W. Ulwick

Books reviewed in this issue:

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  What Customers Want: Using Outcome-Driven Innovation to Create Breakthrough Products and Services

       
  
  

Innovation: The Five Disciplines for Creating What Customers Want by Curtis R. Carlson and William W. Wilmot

Books reviewed in this issue:

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  Innovation: The Five Disciplines for Creating What Customers Want