Capital Structure and the Cost of Capital for Untaxed Firms: The Case of REITs

REITs offer the opportunity to examine the relationship between capital structure and cost of capital in the absence of corporate earnings taxes. The evidence supports the leverage clientele effect as the motivation for the use of financial leverage by REITs.     

The Finances of Major U.S. Unions

Financial resources have a significant impact on labor's current attempt to reassert itself. We examine the total assets, net worth, and income of unions in (1) a cross-sectional analysis of the distribution of financial resources across national, intermediate, and local levels of unions and (2) a longitudinal analysis of trends in a variety of financial measures. We observe considerable decentralization of financial resources across levels, substantial concentration of resources, and differences across and within union sectors. These results are discussed with regard to current merger activity.     

Research Note: A Comparison of the Financial Characteristics of U.S. and Japanese Electronics Firms

The growing U.S. trade deficit with Japan has provided the motivation for a number of comparative studies of U.S. and Japanese business firms in recent years. In this study, the financial characteristics of U.S. and Japanese electronics firms are compared using multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) method. The findings indicate that the financial characteristics of U.S. and Japanese electronics firms are significantly different.     

Interpartner Fit and Its Performance Implications: A Four-Case Study of U.S.-China Joint Ventures

In previous research on international joint ventures, a commonly accepted conceptualization and operationalization of interpartner fit is lacking. As a result, empirical studies have either failed to confirm theoretical predictions or produced inconsistent findings that are difficult to reconcile. Using a multiple-case method, this study developed a model in which interpartner fit is conceptualized as a multidimensional construct consisting of the compatibility between the partners strategic objectives, contribution and joint management of critical resources, consensus on the venture's operating culture and strategy, and structure of relative bargaining power and control over the venture's operation. The longitudinal case studies demonstrated the relationship between interpartner fit and joint venture performance and also revealed the rich dynamics and changes in interpartner fit'misfit over time.     

Capital Investment and Amortization Policies in the U.S.S.R.

This article deals with the two major problems in depreciation: how to determine actual wear and tear and, thus, life of equipment; and how to treat depreciation and its associated expenses in the accounting records. With regard to the first, the author recognizes that a certain amount of arbitrary action is probably inevitable. Industry in the USSR is evidently bound by its own equivalent of “Bulletin F”, which sets “amortization norms” or depreciation allowances for each class of machinery; and it is found that these often do not correspond to actual operating experience. The machine may be scrapped either before its allocated life span, or survive fully depreciated. This fact is, of course, quite familiar, and the author has no suggestions to offer beyond pointing out the problem. He also questions, for technical reasons, the straight line method which is now generally used. Yet it is almost impossible to justify, on functional grounds, any regulated alternative method, such as declining balance or sum-of-the-years-digits.     

Success Through Customer-Driven New Product Development: A Comparison of U.S. and New Zealand Small Entrepreneurial High Technology Firms

Although high-tech, entrepreneurial firms may be small in size, they often play a large role in developing innovative products and thus spurring economic growth. Managers from firms of all sizes may gain useful insights by examining the new-product development (NPD) practices of these small, technology-based firms. And in an era of increasingly global competition, those managers can benefit from understanding the NPD practices of firms from various countries. William Souder, David Buisson, and Tony Garrett contribute to that understanding by describing the results of a study that compares the relative NPD proficiency of small, technology-based firms in the United States and New Zealand. The firms participating in the study (26 from the U.S. and 29 from N.Z.) operate in rapidly growing, highly competitive markets characterized by evolving customer needs. The participating companies share similar goals: creating technically superior products with unique features for emerging markets, with the ultimate goal of becoming the product and market leaders within their respective industries. Despite these similarities, the study reveals several important differences between the U.S. and N.Z. participants. Overall, the N.Z. respondents had higher levels of NPD performance than those of their U.S. counterparts. In particular, the relationship marketing and customer-focused NPD practices of the N.Z. firms set them apart from the U.S. firms. Top-level managers from the N.Z. participants report higher levels of satisfaction than their U.S. counterparts with the results of their NPD efforts. The results of the study indicate that repondents from the two countries differ in terms of the focus of their NPD mangement systems and the manner in which they strive to achieve success. For the U.S. firms in the study, their NPD management systems focus on the characteristics of the project manager. The N.Z. respondents place greater emphasis on marketing skills and NPD proficiencies. The results suggest that the higher levels of NPD performance acheived by the N.Z. firms in the study arise from greater insights into their users' needs, together with better capabilities for acting on those insights.     

Do U.S. Firms Invest Less in Human Resources?: Training in the World Auto Industry

We investigate the common assertion that U.S. firms invest less in human resources than key international competitors, testing four alternative explanations for differences in training effort found in survey data from an international sample of fifty-seven automobile assembly plants. We find the strongest support for the view that the level of training is derived from the requirements of the business/production strategy and the overall “bundle” of human resource policies—beyond training—adopted by the firm.     

美国研究小组调查DEHP的健康隐患

美国联邦政府的一个研究小组对在PV C医疗器材中应用最广泛的增塑剂D EH P的安全性进行了再次调查,该调查再次引发了人们对某些儿童和孕妇接触该物质的忧虑,但健康的成年人似乎不会受到危害。由于新的研究和公众不断质疑的推动,由全国毒物研究计划组织召集的独立科学家研究小组     

U.S. Multinational Activity Abroad and U.S. Jobs: Substitutes or Complements?

Critics of globalization claim that firms are being driven by the prospects of cheaper labor and lower labor standards to shift employment abroad. Yet the evidence, beyond anecdotes, is slim. This paper reports stylized facts on the activities of U.S. multinationals at home and abroad for the years 1977 to 1999. We focus on firms in manufacturing and services, two sectors that have received extensive media attention for supposedly exporting jobs. Using firm‐level data collected by the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) in Washington, D.C., we report correlations between U.S. multinational employment at home and abroad. Preliminary evidence based on the operations of these multinationals suggests that the sign of the correlation depends on the crucial distinction between affiliates in high‐income and low‐income countries. For affiliates in high‐income countries there is a positive correlation between jobs at home and abroad, suggesting that foreign employment of U.S. multinationals is complementary to domestic employment. For firms that operate in developing countries, employment has been cut in the United States, and affiliate employment has increased. To account for firm size, substitution across firms and entry and exit, we aggregate our data to the industry level. This exercise reveals that the observed “complementarity” between U.S. and foreign jobs has been driven largely by a contraction across all manufacturing sectors. It also reveals that foreign employment in developing countries has substituted for U.S. employment in several highly visible industries, including computers, electronics, and transportation. The fact that there were U.S. jobs lost to foreign affiliates in key sectors, despite broad complementarity in hiring and firing decisions between U.S. parents and their affiliates, helps explain why economists view the impact of globalization on U.S. jobs as benign despite negative news coverage for declining industries.     

人力资本所有者承担风险的模型及其应用研究

从时间的特性出发,通过模型说明了时间是人力资本所有者的风险承担者,即人力资本所有者是用其投入在企业中的时间作为其风险的承担者。文章的分析回答了一个基本的问题：人力资本所有者是用什么来承担企业的风险;其政策含义是人力资本所有者可以享有部分企业剩余索取权,这从理论上肯定了现在许多企业实行的分享制、股票期权的合理性。     

U.S. national security export controls: Implications for global competitiveness of U.S. high-tech firms

U.S. exporters of high-technology, ‘dual-use’ products are competitively disadvantaged in global markets by the complexity, range, and stringency of U.S. national security export controls. This paper demonstrates that fungibility of high technology and lax interpretation of multilateral export control agreements by other advanced countries have made the existing control regime ineffective. It further shows that persistent U.S. restrictiveness of exports in non-critical, widely available goods and technologies may needlessly and permanently erode U.S. firms' competitive position in existing as well as rapidly-opening markets worldwide. The need to revise the notion of national security to include not only military security, but also its complement, economic security, is discussed. The pivotal issue of enforceability of multilateral controls is explored, and corporate strategies for U.S. high-tech firms to achieve export control policy change are suggested.     

A comparative analysis of net neutrality: Insights gained by juxtaposing the U.S. and Korea

This study compares and contrasts the U.S. and Korea in the context of network neutrality, focusing on debates among stakeholders and regulatory approaches. Similarities and differences are highlighted by comparisons within the broadband ecosystem framework: government functions, histories, people׳s perceptions, regulatory approaches, legislative initiatives, and implementation. In Korea, a regulatory framework with suggested guidelines exists, and it can be used to address net neutrality in a case-by-case fashion. The U.S. follows a regulatory approach by creating enforceable non-discrimination rules. The findings in this study suggest that the issue is not only complicated because it is embedded contextually, but also because the respective parties׳ diverse interests are multifaceted and vague. It is concluded, therefore, that a coherent and consistent approach is an effective way to govern neutrality.     

Use of Joint Consultation Committees by Large Japanese Firms

In Japanese union-employer relations, managers of large firms often make use of the Joint Consultation Committee (JCC) system in order to avoid disputes with labour. This study first describes two such uses of the system, namely information-sharing and pre-Shunto (Spring Offensive) wage discussions. It then examines several economic, institutional and operational correlates of these uses. The results indicate that information-sharing is a function of firms' operational structure, whereas the likelihood of pre-Shunto wage discussions responds to short-term changes in firms' economic performances as well as to institutional and operational factors.     

美国养老保险制度改革及其对我国的启示

养老保障制度已有上百年的历史,在众多的养老保障制度中,美国的养老保险制度经过长期发展和不断调整,已被公认为国际典范之一。为了应对老龄化危机,完善我国养老保障制度,提高全民养老保障水平,有必要根据我国现有的养老保障制度和社会经济发展状况,合理地借鉴美国养老保障制度的成功经验。     

U.S. Union Membership in Future Decades: A Trade Unionist's Perspective

Slower workforce growth, more gradual industrial restructuring, a tighter labor market, and the gradual emergence of a more efficient organizing capability will help to stem the projected decline in private-sector union membership. A broad array of consumer benefits and the development of new form of union membership, such as those that do not necessarily result in exclusive recognition, should also help stem that decline