ARE LONGER SCHOOL SESSIONS A GOOD INVESTMENT?

Educational reform for elementary and secondary schools has become a major industry in the past three years. At the national and state levels, commissions and legislatures have begun to act (e.g., National Commission on Excellence in Education 1983; Task Force on Education for Economic Growth 1983; Griesemer and Butler 1983; U.S. Department of Education 1984). One central recommendation of these reports is to adopt longer school days and longer school years. The most publicized of the reports, "A Nation at Risk," called for seven-hour school days in place of the present five to six hours, and 200-to-220-day school years in place of the typical 180 days at present (National Commission on Excellence in Education 1983, 29). In response, some states have increased already both daily and annual school sessions (U.S. Department of Education 1984). For example, California appropriated $257 billion in 1984 to increase the amount of instruction by about 5 percent.     

The Boys from Bothaville, or the Rise and Fall of King Maize: A South African Story

This paper tells the story, for the first time, of a maverick maize farmers' association in South Africa during the period of apartheid. NAMPO (National Maize Producers' Organization), that grew out of SAMPI (South African Maize Producers' Institute), ultimately achieved a unique, if short-lived, breach in the normal operations of 'organized agriculture': a set of relations and practices that bound together white farmers, the National Party and the state. The paper provides an account of SAMPI/NAMPO's project of 'King Maize' and an explanation of its fall after a brief period of victory from 1981 to 1985. This explanation draws on broader patterns of agrarian change in contemporary capitalism combined with the fracturing of the original agrarian bloc of apartheid in the 1980s, marking the end of a 'second moment' of South Africa's version of a Prussian path of capitalist development.     

Ex‐Dividend Profitability and Institutional Trading Skill

We use institutional trading data to examine whether skilled institutions exploit positive abnormal ex‐dividend returns. Results show that institutions concentrate trading around certain ex‐dates, and earn higher profits around these events. Dividend capture trades represent 6% of all institutional buy trades but contribute 15% of overall abnormal returns. Institutional dividend capture trading is persistent. Institutional ex‐day profitability is also strongly cross‐sectionally related to trade execution skill. The relation between execution skill and profits disappears around placebo non‐ex‐days. Results suggest that skilled institutions target certain opportunities rather than benefiting uniformly over time. Furthermore, only skilled institutions can profit from dividend capture.