The market reaction to bank regulatory reports

We investigate the role of bank regulatory reports in the information environments of banks. Our findings are as follows. (1) Call Reports but not FR Y-9Cs elicit economically significant stock price and volume reactions when they are publicly released, despite the fact that Call Reports usually follow earnings announcements. (2) Some of the reaction is traceable to a schedule dealing with mortgage lending and servicing. (3) The release of the Call Reports is tightly clustered around the 30th day after quarter-end. (4) After bank regulators undertook a “modernization project” to speed the processing and public dissemination of regulatory reports, the banking industry routinely experiences abnormal stock price volatility and trading volume on the 30th day of the quarter. (5) The market reaction increased after media coverage of this study. Our findings are of interest to regulators who require and monitor the reports, banks that prepare the reports, investors who may use the reports, and academics who can base research designs on the timing patterns we uncover.     

Analysis of the development of eco-labelling and energy labelling in the European union

In November 1993, the first European Union eco-labelled product went on sale in the UK The development ofthe eco-label has been much delayed by a variety affactors. Some of these reflect the normal difficulties in developing a new regulatoly mechankm, but others point to a lack of strategies as to the purpose and operation of the eco-label. Other consumer labelling measures are also being introduced, notably the energy star labels. Little thought appears to have been given to the effectiveness of labelling or to how thg integrate into environmental policy and policy-making structures. Eco-labels are voluntary with some important products (notab& cars) omitted, while eco-labels are being developed for products with little by way of environmental impacts (such as cat letter). The energy star has perhaps the clearest rationale, to identify selectiveb energv-saving technologies. Energy labelling is compulsoly for all products (although cars are again excluded). It is argued that, on its own, labelling is a weak fown of regulation. To be effective, Product labelling needs to be intepated with other environmental policy instruments, and to be part of a coherent policymaking structure.     

CONSERVATION THROUGH LAND DIVERSION: A SURVEY OF FARMERS‘ ATTITUDES

The need to take land out of intensive arable production offers possibilities for conservation. Assuming that such schemes will operate on a voluntary basis, farmers' reactions to incentives encouraging them to divert land to other uses must be crucial. Samples of farmers in three areas of England were presented with hypothetical schemes to divert cereal land to fallow, permanent pasture and woodland. They were asked for a money ‘bid’ equivalent to the minimum sum to persuade them to enrol land in the scheme an the acreage they would enrol at that level of payment. On average the 147 farmers wanted £348/ha to fallow cereal land, £336/ha to divert arable land to permanent pasture and £437/ha to grow trees. The hypothesis that farmers' response to land diversion initiatives would depend on interaction of conservation attitudes and structural/financial constraints received some support, a result with implications for the design of future land diversion schemes.     

Surviving Chapter 11 Bankruptcies: Duration and Payoff?

Three of the authors previously developed a model to predict the duration of Chapter 11 bankruptcy and the payoff to shareholders ( Partington et al ., 2001 ). This work augments that study using a much larger sample to re-estimate the model and assess its stability. It also provides an opportunity for out-of-sample testing of predictive accuracy. The resulting models are based on Cox's proportional hazards model and the current article points to the need to test two important assumptions underlying the model. First, that the hazards are proportional and, second, that censoring is independent of the event studied. Using the extended data set, all the previously significant accounting variables drop out of the model and only two covariates of the original model remain significant. These are the market wide credit spread and the market capitalization of the firm, both measured immediately prior to the firm's entry to Chapter 11. Receiver operating characteristic curves are then used to assess the predictive accuracy of the original and extended models. The results show that Lachenbruch tests can provide a misleading indication of predictive ability out of sample. Using the Lachenbruch method of in-sample testing, both models show predictive power, but in a true out-of-sample test they fail dismally. The lessons of this work are relevant to better predicting the gains and losses likely to accrue to shareholders of companies in Chapter 11 bankruptcy and in similar administrative arrangements in other jurisdictions.     

Using scenarios to explore UK upland futures

Uplands around the world are facing significant social, economic and environmental changes, and decision-makers need to better understand what the future may hold if they are to adapt and maintain upland goods and services. This paper draws together all major research comprising eight studies that have used scenarios to describe possible futures for UK uplands. The paper evaluates which scenarios are perceived by stakeholders to be most likely and desirable, and assesses the benefits and drawbacks of the scenario methods used in UK uplands to date. Stakeholders agreed that the most desirable and likely scenario would be a continuation of hill farming (albeit at reduced levels) based on cross-compliance with environmental measures. The least desirable scenario is a withdrawal of government financial support for hill farming. Although this was deemed by stakeholders to be the least likely scenario, the loss of government support warrants close attention due to its potential implications for the local economy. Stakeholders noted that the environmental implications of this scenario are much less clear-cut. As such, there is an urgent need to understand the full implications of this scenario, so that upland stakeholders can adequately prepare, and policy-makers can better evaluate the likely implications of different policy options. The paper concludes that in future, upland scenario research needs to: (1) better integrate in-depth and representative participation from stakeholders during both scenario development and evaluation; and (2) make more effective use of visualisation techniques and simulation models.     

Impact investing

We show that investors derive nonpecuniary utility from investing in dual-objective Venture Capital (VC) funds, thus sacrificing returns. Impact funds earn 4.7 percentage points (ppts) lower internal rates of return (IRRs) ex-post than traditional VC funds. In random utility/willingness-to-pay (WTP) models investors accept 2.5–3.7 ppts lower IRRs ex ante for impact funds. The positive WTP result is robust to fund access rationing and investor heterogeneity in fund expected returns. Development organizations, foundations, financial institutions, public pensions, Europeans, and United Nations Principles of Responsible Investment signatories have high WTP. Investors with mission objectives and/or facing political pressure exhibit high WTP; those subject to legal restrictions (e.g., Employee Retirement Income Security Act) exhibit low WTP.     

Exploring the pandemic's potential effects on workers' collectivist values,prosocial behaviors,and attitudes toward mistreatment

The global COVID-19 pandemic has fundamentally changed the way we live and work in the short-term, but history suggests that the crisis may also exert deeper, longer-lasting effects. With the aim of providing preliminary insight into this possibility, we theoretically construct and empirically test hypotheses for how exposure to COVID-19 stimuli (e.g., reading or watching media coverage, observing relief efforts) relates to the deep-seated values that guide workers' attitudes and behaviors. Specifically, we build from prior work to posit that exposure to COVID-19 stimuli is positively associated with workers' self-transcendent prosocial values, which motivate prosocial behaviors directed toward society as a whole (i.e., charitable donations) and coworkers (i.e., helping). Extend the extant literature, we further argue that exposure to COVID-19 stimuli will be positively associated with conservation values emphasizing self-restraint, submission, protection of order, and harmony in relations, which in turn influences workers' willingness to tolerate mistreatment by authorities (i.e., abusive supervision, authoritarian leadership, exploitation). Evidence from 2,929 full-time Chinese employees tracked for nearly 2 months and a diverse sample of 310 workers in the United States generally support our arguments, but also provide insight into potential cultural nuances.