CEOs who have COOs: contingency analysis of an unexplored structural form

We use contingency theory to examine, for the first time, the incidence and effectiveness of CEO/COO duos. We argue that industry dynamism, extraordinary organizational task demands, and the CEO's own professional limitations will influence the decision to have a COO, as well as its effect on performance. Based on a large 10‐year sample, we find some support for the contingency view in explaining the presence of COOs; we particularly find that CEOs who lack experience in operational activities and in managing the focal firm are relatively likely to have COOs. We find, however, essentially no support for the contingency view in explaining when COOs are most beneficial. Instead, we find strong evidence of a very substantial negative main effect: CEOs who have COOs deliver lower organizational performance than those who do not. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The Voluntary (Private) Production of Public Goods,the Gains From Trade,and Comparative Advantage*

Any (finite) number of privately produced public goods are incorporated into a general trade-theory model of private goods and factors. Postulating Cournot-Nash behavior, a necessary condition for gainful trade is derived. Potential trade gains are related to the law of comparative advantage in private goods and the change in the underproduction of public goods. A sufficient condition is also proven. Trade gains/losses are compared for more or less populous economies. All the results have analogues in the literature on imperfect competition and/or increasing returns to scale.     

An economic analysis of cooperative research

The U.S. government's most recent policy initiative to increase industrial research activity is the National Cooperative Research Act of 1984. Since its passage much attention has been given to this new organizational research form, but to date there has not been any systematic investigation of the participants in cooperative research. This paper is an initial attempt to fill that void. First, a classification scheme is presented to describe the research activity of firms currently engaged in cooperative endeavors, as evidenced by mandated filings reported in the Federal Register. Then, a model of inter-firm differences in cooperative research activity is posited and tested using survey-based data for a sample of R&D active firms in the U.S. manufacturing sector. We conclude that market power is the principal determinant of involvement in cooperative research.     

Mechanical detrending by Hodrick-Prescott filtering: A note

The Hodrick-Prescott filter is widely used to extract cyclical movements about trend in macroeconomic time series. The filter is based on the assumption that nonstationary movements in time series are captured by smooth and slowly changing trends. This note shows that applying the Hodrick-Prescott filter to time series with stochastic trends may extract cyclical movements which are entirely spurious.     

Executives and shareholders: A shift in the relationship

This article suggests that a shift has developed in the ongoing relationship between executives and shareholders with shareholders gaining more power over executives. The power shift has been driven by institutional investors and hostile takeovers and is visible in changing patterns of succession. More executives are being dismissed for poor performance and are being dismissed more quickly following the onset of poor performance. Two potential negative outcomes are a decreased willingness of executives to undertake risky strategies and a decreased ability of executives to build long-term, trusting relationships with stakeholders, even when these actions would be beneficial to shareholders. © 1995 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Life cycle and bequest savings A study of Japanese and U.S. households based on data from the 1984 NSFIE and the 1983 survey of consumer finances

This paper investigates whether the elderly save or dissave in light of two newly available sets of cross-section micro data, the 1983 “Survey of Consumer Finance” for the United States and the 1984 “National Survey of Family Income and Expenditure” for Japan. Contrary to dominant earlier findings we find for the United States that families after retirement dissave on average about a third of their peak wealth by the time of death, leaving the rest (mostly their homes) as bequests. For Japan, special handling is made to eliminate possible sample selection bias due to the different economic characteristics of the elderly forming independent households and those living with children. We find that the elderly belonging to both groups continue to save, and moreover, there appear to be significant signs of ongoing wealth transfer between the generations. The data in both countries also show that the elasticity of saving with respect to a life time income measure is significantly greater than unity, and more strongly so within higher age groups. J. Japan. Int. Econ., December 1988, 2(4), pp. 450–491. Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104-6297, and National Bureau of Economic Research.     

Zur Frage der wissenschaftlichen Fundierung wirtschaftspolitischer Maßnahmen

Ohne ZusammenfassungXI, 115 S. Basel: Kyklos-Verlag, Tübingen: J. C. B. Mohr (Paul Siebeck). 1961. Ln. DM 15,—, Fr. 16,80, brosch. DM 12,—, Fr. 13,60.     

The effect of business taxation on the location of industry

A theoretical and econometric model is specified which permits the estimation of the effect of local taxes on economic activity in a locality. A location elasticity of ?0.35 is found for manufacturing activity in New York City with respect to business taxes, while no significant elasticity is found for nonmanufacturing activity. The deadweight losses and revenue effects of the tax are analyzed and calculated, as are the optimal second-best taxes for a locality.