Crossownership and media concentration

This paper investigates whether media concentration permits newspaper and group owners of television stations to charge higher advertising rates than other types of owners. The prior studies that have looked at this issue have had to rely on questionable data. This study focuses on more accurate data, i.e. selling prices. It is argued that the potential for higher advertising rates could cause newspaper and group owners to pay higher prices for television stations than other types of buyers. An empirical analysis was made of sales of television stations between 1960 and 1969. The results tend to show that newspaper owners were willing to pay higher prices. A second analysis was done to determine whether the higher prices were due to market power or economies of scale. The results tend to show that the higher prices were probably due to the market power possessed by newspaper owned stations, some of which spills over to the other stations in the market.     

Swiss inflation and the two versions of the monetary approaches to the balance of payments

Summary and Conclusion The paper has discussed the distinction between a strong and a weak version of the MBOP first made by Rabin and Yeager. Empirical evidence has been provided to refute the strong version of the MBOP and the closely related global monetarist school of thought contention that the law of one price is the major conduit through which worldwide inflation is transmitted. Switzerland provides a case of a country which imported inflation via both a direct price effect from abroad and continuous balance-of-payments surpluses. The evidence does not explicitly confirm the weak version of the MBOP because it is not a theory of worldwide inflation. The evidence does suggest that there are at least two transmission mechanisms for worldwide inflation. Economists should be careful not to interpret the MBOP as a unicausal theory of world inflation.     

Hedonic prices, price indices and housing markets

This paper extends hedonic price analysis to the formation of housing price indices measuring variation within a metropolitan area. In forming these indices fifteen submarkets, heterogeneous across time and space, are described within a short-run equilibrium model. Linear functional forms are generally rejected using a method proposed by Box and Cox. Aggregation of hedonic price coefficients into standardized units yields significantly higher housing prices in the central city than in its suburbs, as well as differential effects of structural and neighborhood improvements among submarkets.     

Integration of family-owned business succession with turnover and life cycle models: Development of a successor retention process model

Family-owned businesses face a unique obstacle: continuation of the business through intergenerational transfer. Most family-owned businesses cease when the next generation does not enter the business. This paper develops parallels between failed intergenerational transfer and voluntary turnover. Based on past research, we develop a taxonomy of characteristics hypothesized to influence intergenerational transfer in family-owned businesses. We, then, integrate these dimensions with prominent turnover and socialization theories to propose a successor retention process model. Implications for research are described.     

TRUCKING DEREGULATION AND MOTOR-CARRIER PERFORMANCE: THE SHAREHOLDERS' PERSPECTIVE

This paper utilizes an event study methodology to investigate the effects of deregulation on carriers' shareholders. This methodology compares the expected returns during a time period surrounding a particular event with actual returns during the same time period. These differences are referred to as prediction errors. The study investigates the prediction errors associated with individual trucking firms, as well as those associated with groups composed of regional carriers, national carriers, and the aggregate sample of firms used in the study. The results suggest that the passage of the Motor Carrier Reform Act on July 1, 1980, halted a serious 18-month downward trend in the aggregate sample's cumulative prediction error. Nearly all firms showed significant gains in the 18 months subsequent to deregulation. Using two control groups, the authors show that a large portion of this gain from the industry sample can be explained by lower and more stable fuel prices and a sharp upturn in the economy. The results also indicate that due to deregulation, the large regional trucking firms were able to outperform the small regional firms and the national firms in the more favorable economic environment present after deregulation.     

Interstate banking and the payments system

Interstate banking will improve the efficiency of the payments system. This will occur because the number of handlings for multiple-bank payments (transit items) will fall and because some multiple-bank payments will be transformed into single-bank payments (on-us items). These effects are simulated using data on the current cross-section relationship between banking structure and check clearing patterns in a multinomial logit model. The Federal Reserve, which currently processes almost one-third of all checks, is predicted to lose 43 to 60 percent of its market share. The annual impact is expected to be gradual, however, since interstate banking will be phased in and because of offsetting growth in the total check clearing market.