Agency Costs,Mispricing, and Ownership Structure

Standard theories of ownership assume insiders ultimately bear all agency costs and therefore act to minimize conflicts of interest. However, overvalued equity can offset these costs and induce listings associated with higher agency costs. We explore this possibility by examining a sample of public listings of Japanese subsidiaries. Subsidiaries in which the parent sells a larger stake and subsidiaries with greater scope for expropriation by the parent firm are more overpriced at listing, and minority shareholders fare poorly after listing as mispricing corrects. Parent firms often repurchase subsidiaries at large discounts to valuations at the time of listing and experience positive abnormal returns when repurchases are announced.     

Utilization-focused performance reporting

How best to define performance measures is a much-debated issue. Mismatches between goals and indicators can lead to distortions that undermine impact-oriented steering. This article presents a model of goal and indicator development and explains its applicability, benefits and limitations.     

Tourism expenditure model — a functional planning and policy-making tool

The Tourism Expenditures Model (TEM) is a short-run systems model which at both the national and regional level can provide a detailed analysis of the nature of tourism-related expenditures. The tourism-related sectors covered are transportation, accommodation, meals and beverages, recreation and entertainment and other purchases disaggregated with respect to time, region and economic subsector. The model is intended to help in the evaluation and planning of specific tourism proposals and in the development of the industry as a whole.     

Coal not becoming superfluous

The rapid change in the European energy sector has mainly affected the coal. It is more and more threatened to lose its importance. The importance of exploitation and transport means increasing competitivenes of non-European suppliers, and technical progress enables the economical use of new power categories. For the adjustment of coal demand to the present and future one, many-sided politico-economical measures and programmes are imperative. INTERECONOMICS had the occasion to talk with Dr Hellwig, Vice President of the Commission of the European Communities, about these questions.     

Gerechte Löhne und Arbeitslosengelder

Aufgrund der hohen Arbeitslosigkeit in Deutschland wird von Seiten der Unternehmer sowie vieler Ökonomen eine Senkung der Löhne bzw. eine Ausweitung der Arbeitszeit gefordert. Doch welcher Anteil der Löhne am erwirtschafteten Nettoertrag wird von den Tarifparteien als fair angesehen? Wie hoch sollte unter Fairnessgesichtspunkten die Sozialhilfe bzw. das Arbeitslosengeld II sein, und welchen Anteil sollte das Arbeitslosengeld I als Teil des früheren Gehalts erreichen?Prof. Dr. Fritz Helmedag, 51, lehrt Volkswirtschaftslehre, insbesondere Mikroökonomik, an der Technischen Universität Chemnitz.