An Overview of Normal Theory Structural Measurement Error Models

This paper gives an introduction and overview to the often under‐used measurement error model. The purpose is to provide a simple summary of problems that arise from measurement error and of the solutions that have been proposed. We start by describing how measurement error models occur in real‐world situations. Then we proceed with defining the measurement error model, initially introducing the multivariate form of the model, and then, starting with the simplest form of the model thoroughly discuss its features and solutions to the problems introduced due to measurement error. We discuss higher‐dimensional and more advanced forms of the model and give a brief numerical illustration.     

The effect of supplier industry competition on pay-for-performance incentive intensity

We examine how supplier industry competition affects CEO incentive intensity in procuring firms. Using Bureau of Economic Analysis data to compute a weighted supplier industry competition measure, we predict and find that higher supplier competition is associated with stronger CEO pay-for-performance incentive intensity. This effect is incremental to that of the firm's own industry competition previously documented and is robust to alternative measures of supplier competition and to exogenous shocks to competition. Importantly, we show that performance risk and product margin act as mediating variables in the relation between supplier competition and CEO incentive intensity providing support for the theory underpinning our finding. We document that CEO compensation contracts are used as a mechanism to exploit the market dynamics of upstream industries to a firm's benefit. Our findings are economically important as suppliers provide, on average, 45 percent of the value delivered by procuring firms to the market (BEA, 2016).     

Examining the unintended outcomes of NPM reforms in Indonesia

This paper argues that despite Indonesia’s implementation of public sector reforms, the impact of these reforms has yet to achieve the goal of improving governance and preventing corruption. The obvious place to lay blame would be a lack of state capacity, but this study presents evidence to argue that the legacy of General Suharto’s authoritarian regime and the cultural ecology of Indonesian bureaucracy has compromised the government’s capacity to implement these public sector reforms in a meaningful way.

IMPACT

This paper highlights some fundamental points for public policy-makers using NPM techniques to improve accountability and to counter fraud. First, the cultural context and costs of reforms should be taken into account before implementing new accounting technology. Second, policy-makers should consult academic work on the implementation of new reporting systems and other NPM policies. Finally, the powers of local politicians (for example mayors or district heads) need to be controlled to ensure they do not undermine the role of accounting and auditing for better transparency, governance and corruption eradication.     

The ineffectiveness of entrepreneurship policy: is policy formulation to blame?

Entrepreneurship policy has been criticised for its lack of effectiveness. Some scholars, such as Scott Shane in this journal, have argued that it is ‘bad’ public policy. But this simply begs the question why the legislative process should generate bad policy? To answer this question this study examines the UK’s enterprise policy process in the 2009–2010 period. It suggests that a key factor for the ineffectiveness of policy is how it is formulated. This stage in the policy process is seldom visible to those outside of government departments and has been largely ignored by prior research. The application of institutional theory provides a detailed theoretical understanding of the actors and the process by which enterprise policy is formulated. We find that by opening up the ‘black box’ of enterprise policy formulation, the process is dominated by powerful actors who govern the process with their interests.     

Consumption versus asset smoothing: testing the implications of poverty trap theory in Burkina Faso

Despite solid theoretical foundations for the notion that poor, borrowing-constrained households will intertemporally manage assets to smooth consumption, the consumption-smoothing hypothesis has not always withstood empirical scrutiny. This paper reassesses the intertemporal asset management problem with a poverty trap model and shows that we would expect to see asset smoothing, not consumption smoothing, in the neighborhood of critical asset levels at which optimal accumulation behavior bifurcates. We then employ threshold estimation techniques to empirically confirm the co-existence of consumption and asset smoothing regimes using a household panel data set from West Africa. Households above the estimated threshold almost completely insulate their consumption from weather shocks, whereas those below the threshold do not. These results not only indirectly provide evidence of the existence of poverty traps but also speak to the level and incidence of the costs of uninsured risk.     

The Ex‐Day Price Behavior of REITs: Taxes or Ticks?

Taxes and microstructure constraints are often cited as possible explanations for why stock prices drop by less than the dividend on their ex‐dates. Using a sample of real estate investment trusts, which have no significant correlation between dividend size and yield, we find that close‐to‐open ex‐dividend price drops are related to dividend size as suggested by the microstructure models, but close‐to‐close price drops are related to dividend yield as predicted by the tax theory. These results imply that overnight price drops are primarily determined by microstructure, but that trading during the ex‐day causes prices to adjust to reflect individual tax preferences.