Current issues and future directions in simulation-based training in North America

A number of emerging challenges including globalization, economic pressures and the changing nature of work has combined to create a business environment that demands innovative, flexible training solutions. Simulations are a promising tool for creating more realistic, experiential learning environments to meet these challenges. Unfortunately, the current literature on simulation-based training paints a mixed picture as to the effectiveness of simulations as training tools, with most of the previous research focusing on the specific technologies used in simulation design and little theory-based research focusing on the instructional capabilities or learning processes underlying these technologies. This article examines the promise and perils of simulation-based training, reviews research that has examined the effectiveness of simulations as training tools, identifies pressing research needs, and presents an agenda for future theory-driven research aimed at addressing those needs.     

The parent company puzzle: when is the whole worth less than one of the parts?

This paper examines seven instances in which the market value of a parent company was less than the market value of its publicly traded subsidiary. Efforts are made to explain this “parent company puzzle” in terms of taxes, agency costs, liquidity effects and noise trader risk. None of them work. The only explanation consistent with the evidence is a mispricing of the subsidiary shares associated with noise trader demand and impediments to arbitrage. As further evidence in support of this view, five corporate control transactions, all designed to exploit the apparent mispricing, were initiated while this research was in progress.     

Synergies or Trade-Offs in University Life Sciences Research

Major legislative, legal, and technological changes paved the way for a period of remarkable growth in the patenting of life science research by U.S. universities in the 1980s and 1990s. Using a multiple-output cost framework and two decades of panel data on ninety-six universities, this article examines whether economies of scope and/or scale are present in university production of three major life science research outputs: journal articles, patents, and doctorates. The results show strong evidence of economies of scale in life science research production with mixed evidence of economies of scope between articles and patents.     

The Impact of Analysts' Forecast Errors and Forecast Revisions on Stock Prices

Abstract:  We present a comprehensive analysis of the association between stock returns, quarterly earnings forecast errors, and quarter-ahead and year-ahead earnings forecast revisions. We find that forecast errors and the two forecast revisions have significant effects on stock prices, indicating each conveys information content. Findings also show that the fourth quarter differs from other quarters—the relative importance of the forecast error (quarter-ahead forecast revision) is lower (higher). We also find a marked upward shift over time in the forecast error and forecast revision coefficients, consistent with the I/B/E/S database reflecting an improved quality of both earnings forecasts and actual earnings.     

When Is Bad News Really Bad News?

We examine whether the price response to bad and good earnings shocks changes as the relative level of the market changes. The study is based on a complete sample of annual earnings announcements during the period 1988 to 1998. The relative level of the market is based on the difference between the current market P/E and the average market P/E over the prior 12 months. We find that the stock price response to negative earnings surprises increases as the relative level of the market rises. Furthermore, the difference between bad news and good news earnings response coefficients rises with the market.     

Changes in Well-being in Zimbabwe, 1990-6: Evidence Using Semi-parametric Density Estimates

Semi-parametric density reweighting techniques are used to examinesources of change in well-being in Zimbabwe during the first-halfof the 1990s. Changes in urban well-being are decomposed intochanges in employment propensities, changes in human capitalattainment and changes in the structure of urban employmentchoice. Declines in national well-being are decomposed intochanges resulting from urban–rural residence choice andchanges in the structure of residential location. Finally, worseningrural conditions are decomposed into that part due to droughtand that due to improved educational attainment. Results showthat despite improvements in human capital attainment duringthe 1990s, well-being has worsened in all employment states.Investments in human capital only partially offset the generalworsening of the economy. Likewise, decisions to migrate tourban areas from rural Zimbabwe helped offset worsening ruralconditions. Drought explains a small amount of the general ruraldecline, but the bigger part of the worsening was due to generalequilibrium effects associated with a deteriorating economy.     

Government debt,national income and causality

The concept of Granger causality is applied to assess the validity of the Ricardian Equivalence Hypothesis. The analysis is conducted using a multivariate approach with a US data set consisting of annual observations for the 1919–1981 period. The empirical evidence generated by this investigation does not support the strict debt neutrality position.