Effects of sales promotion type and promotion depth on consumer perceptions: the moderating role of retailer reputation

This study uses a between-subjects experimental design to test the effect of two sales promotion formats (coupon versus markdown) with either high and low face values on consumer attitudes toward the deal, perceived product quality, and purchase intentions. The reputation of the retailer offering the deal is predicted to moderate the relationship between the promotional offer and consumer responses. Consumers perceive product quality to be higher when offered a high value coupon vs. markdown but there is no significant difference in perceived quality across promotion types when the promotion face value is low. When a deep price discount is offered by a retailer with a negative reputation, however, consumers have more favorable attitudes toward the deal and higher purchase intentions when provided with a markdown vs. coupon. Conversely, a high value coupon elicits more favorable evaluations than a markdown when the retailer has a positive reputation. When the value of the promotion is low and the retailer has a positive reputation, consumers have more positive deal attitudes and purchase intentions when offered a markdown vs. coupon. There is no significant difference in the effects of promotion type when the retailer has a negative reputation. The findings therefore establish retailer reputation as an important moderator of sales promotions effectiveness. This research is limited by the use of a single product category and a student sample. Process measures are also needed to validate the proposed theoretical conceptualization. The results provide managers insight into the type and value of the sales promotion to offer based on consumer perceptions of the retailer's reputation in the market.     

Financial Development,International Trade,and Economic Growth in Australia: New Evidence From Multivariate Framework Analysis

This study investigates the relationship between financial development, international trade and economic growth for Australia over the period of 1965 to 2010. The autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) bounds testing approach to cointegration is applied to examine the long-run relationship among the series, whereas stationarity properties of the variables are tested by applying two structural break tests. Results confirm the long-run relationship among the variables. Financial development, international trade, and capital appear as the drivers of economic growth in short and long runs. The feedback effect exists between international trade and economic growth. Financial development Granger causes economic growth validating supply-side hypothesis.     

The effects of exchange rate uncertainty on exports

We investigate the effects of exchange rate uncertainty on exports in the context of a multivariate framework in which a structural open economy vector autoregression is modified to accommodate multivariate GARCH-in-Mean errors, as detailed in Elder (Elder, J., 2004. Another perspective on the effects of inflation uncertainty. Journal of Money, Credit, and Banking 36, 912–928). Our measure of exchange rate uncertainty is the conditional standard deviation of the forecast error of the change in the exchange rate. We isolate the effects of exchange rate uncertainty on exports and also analyze how accounting for exchange rate uncertainty affects the response of exports to exchange rate shocks. We estimate the model using aggregate monthly data for the United States, over the flexible exchange rate period (since 1973). We use full information maximum likelihood estimation procedures and find that exchange rate uncertainty has a negative and significant effect on US exports. We also find that accounting for exchange rate uncertainty tends to strengthen the dynamic response of exports to shocks in the exchange rate and that exports respond asymmetrically to positive and negative exchange rate shocks of equal magnitude.     

Quarterly reporting in a voluntary disclosure environment: Its benefits, drawbacks and determinants

We primarily examine three issues pertaining to quarterly reporting; its benefits, drawbacks and determinants. This study is conducted in a voluntary-disclosure environment with respect to reporting quarterly earnings. On the benefits side, we find that quarterly reporting is associated with higher analyst following, and on the drawbacks side we find it is associated with high price volatility. If left to its own discretion, we find that a firm with high growth prospects, large size and a technology orientation is likely to disclose earnings on a quarterly basis.     

INVESTMENT OPPORTUNITIES AND MULTINATIONALITY: EVIDENCE FROM CAPITAL STRUCTURE CHANGES

I examine shareholder valuation effects of capital structure changes for multinational (MNC) and domestic (DC) corporations. The internalization theory of foreign direct investment posits that MNCs create value by internalizing the market for their assets across national borders. If the financing decision is related to the rents from future investments, MNCs may have differential valuation effects to capital structure changes vis-à-vis DCs. I find that MNCs have lower (greater) excess returns for debt-for-equity (equity-for-debt) exchanges than DCs. The cross-sectional analyses show that the valuation effects are differentially related to the investment opportunities of MNCs and DCs.     

The Subjective Valuation of Indexed Stock Options and Their Incentive Effects

We analyze the potential role of indexed stock options in future pay‐for‐performance executive compensation contracts. We present a unified framework for index‐linked stock options, discuss their incentive effects, argue that indexation schemes based on the capital‐asset pricing model (CAPM) are the most suitable for executive compensation, and derive a subjective pricing model for the class of CAPM‐based indexed stock options. Contrary to earlier work, executives would not be motivated to take on investment projects with high idiosyncratic risk once their lack of wealth diversification and degree of risk aversion are factored into the analysis.     

Determinants of Child Labour in Indian States: Some Empirical Explorations (19612–1991)

This paper attempts to examine the phenomenon of child labour in India by conducting a preliminary search for the factors which affect demand and supply of child labour. The incidence of child labour is firstly examined with respect to the socio economie characteristics including dernographic, educational and economie poverty variables. Factor analysis is then conducted to identify patterns of these variables with the incidence of child labour for Indian states using Census data. These possible relationships are formally modelled in an overlapping generations framework which derives two postulated models. The models are estimated using Kmenta’s pooled method which combines variations due to time and state specific factors. These results clearly indicate the presence of vicious and virtuous spirals consisting of the above factors for different states. The supply factors appear to dominate and their roles require further indepth examination

     

Mexican integration into the North American free trade zone

Mexican integration into the North American free trade zone is modeled as removing the tariff on Mexican imports of manufacturing goods. Using a theoretical model, it is shown that this increases welfare through production, consumption and employment gains. The results are derived by nesting the theory of customs unions, and the Harris-Todaro type intersectoral labor migration model into a unified framework.     

Engineering and labor specialization during the industrial revolution

This paper explores how technological changes affected labor allocations within the U.S. Navy. During the latter nineteenth century, the officer corps was highly specialized, split between groups of line and staff officers. Developments in general purpose technologies created a dilemma for the organization, as it balanced between the benefits of a specialized workforce implementing increasingly complex technologies with rising communication and coordination costs. We first document the nature and extent of labor specialization in the mid-nineteenth-century Navy—engineers worked more with newer and larger vessels, while line officers worked more with unskilled personnel. The Navy endeavored to destroy this distinction, forcing generalized training and tasks for all officers. We suggest that the Navy’s phased-in approach was an effective strategy, helping the U.S. to become a world-class naval power.     

Experience of Audit Committee Members and Audit Quality

Abstract

We investigate whether the experience of audit committee members is associated with audit quality. In order to comprehensively analyse the experience of audit committee members, we include audit committee member tenure, age and multiple-directorships in our analysis. Using observations from 2001 to 2012, we undertake analysis on 13,155 firm-year observations and find that all our proxies of audit committee member experience are positively associated with audit fees. A range of additional tests, including using discretionary accruals as an alternative measure of audit quality and differences-in-differences analysis, support our main findings and our results consequently make a number of contributions to both the literature and policy making. One possible policy contribution is that regulators may wish to consider audit committee characteristics representing experience when framing recommendations to improve audit quality and thereby, financial reporting by firms.