An account of the Washington Lend Lease negotiations 1944 by E. A. G. Robinson

In September 1944, John Maynard Keynes set sail for Washingtonwhere Keynes was to be a key negotiator in the talks leadingup to Stage II of Lend Lease. Accompanying him and his wifewas Keynes's colleague and friend, E. A. G. (Austin) Robinson.Robinson's role was to be Head of Programmes Division for theMinistry of Production. While Keynes would deal with Harry Whiteand Henry Morgenthau, Robinson was involved with the underlyingproduction of a case for the urgent financial needs of war-timeBritain. Robinson saw the tensions at all levels of daily lifeand he recorded his demanding times in a series of letters hometo his wife, Joan Robinson. These letters are published herefor the first time.     

Biotechnology Piracy: Rethinking the International Protection of Intellectual Property

Access to international markets will be an important factor in investment decisions for firms engaging in the research and development of agricultural biotechnology. International market access can be restricted in two ways: the imposition of trade barriers and intellectual property piracy. This paper develops a model of the enforcement game between a developing country=s government and a foreign biotechnology firm to examine the efficacy of the World Trade Organization=s Agreement on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) agreement for the protection of intellectual property in agricultural biotechnology. The conclusion is that the TRIPS is unlikely to provide sufficient protection and, thus, will lead to suboptimal levels of investment.
L'accès aux marchés étrangers jouera un rôle capital dans les décisions des entreprises qui souhaitent investir dans la recherche et le développement en biotechnologie agricole. Deux éléments peuvent entraver l'accès au marché international: les barrières commerciales et le piratage de la propriété intellectuelle. Dans cet article, les auteurs modélisent les interactions entre le gouvernement d'un pays en développement et une entreprise de biotechnologie étrangère en vue d'établir dans quelle mesure l'Accord sur les ADPIC de l'OMC protège la propriété intellectuelle dans le secteur de la biotechnologie agricole. De cet exercice, ils concluent que la protection assurée par l'Accord sur les ADPIC est insuffisante, donc qu'on assistera à des investissements inférieurs aux investissements optimaux.     

Effects of cash flow statement reclassifications pursuant to the SEC’s one-time allowance

In February 2006, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced a one-time opportunity for firms with misclassified cash flow items to correct these errors without issuing an official restatement. To assess the impact of these reclassifications, we determine the types of firms affected by this allowance and the types of reclassifications in the operating, investing, and financing categories of the cash flow statement. We find that, consistent with the SEC’s concerns, firms overstated net operating cash flows and understated net investing cash flows, thereby misrepresenting cash flows. In addition, the most frequent line-item reclassifications echo the SEC’s concerns about the presentation of discontinued operations and dealer floor plan financing arrangements. Insurance claim proceeds and beneficial interests in securitized loans, however, appear less problematic than the SEC expected. Overall, our findings indicate that the SEC’s plan was relatively successful and, for firms that took advantage of the allowance period, these cash flow restatements only exerted a marginally negative effect in the capital market.     

SEASONED EQUITY OFFERINGS FOR NEW INVESTMENT AND THE INFORMATION CONTENT OF INSIDER TRADES

Significant negative valuation effects are widely acknowledged for firms announcing seasoned equity offerings. This result is consistent with theoretical models linking new equity issues to increased adverse-selection costs, lower management ownership in the firm, misuse of free cash flow, or expectations for earnings declines. Also increasingly evident, insiders trade around corporate announcements. We test the hypothesis that insider trading and announcements of new equity issues serve as joint signals in the market's evaluation of prospective capital investment projects. Our findings are consistent with the hypothesis that insider trading is related to market reaction to announcements of new equity issues.     

Insights from the new conglomerates

Managers must reconsider their preconceptions about conglomerates, or multi-industry firms as they are now often called, because today's examples have much to teach us about successful corporate strategy. We examined the strategies of the largest conglomerates that have, for a sustained period, practiced the form. Four archetypes are available to managers for adding value to a broad portfolio of businesses. In top-performing firms, the bewildering diversity of end products can blind the casual observer to the intense focus of headquarters and the tight cohesion among the head office, the businesses, and the environment.     

Estimating the economic value of big game habitat production from prescribed fire using a time series approach

This paper demonstrates a time-series production technique to quantify the deer harvest and deer hunting benefits of controlled burns or prescribed fire. The time series regression model showed a statistically significant and positive effect of prescribed fire on deer harvest. The net economic value of the resulting additional deer hunting benefit was estimated using the Contingent Valuation Method at $ 98 per additional deer harvested. The initial deer hunting benefits of an additional 1,000 acres of prescribed burning are between $ 2,674 and $ 3,128 or $ 2-3 per acre. The costs of prescribed burning greatly exceed these benefits, suggesting that deer hunting benefits represent only a small part of the multiple use benefits of prescribed fire.     

Functional equivalence in cross-cultural consumer behavior: Gift giving in Japan and the United States

The functional equivalence of products and consumer activities across cultures is a largely unexplored area. Yet, the lack of functional equivalence that exists may suggest the need for modification of some concepts and theories of consumer behavior. The study reported in this paper explores the functional equivalence that exists between U.S. and Japanese consumers in an important consumer activity—gift giving. The results suggest a lack of functional equivalence of this activity and illustrate how researchers should give explicit consideration to this issue in the development and testing of consumer concepts and models.