Employee Stock Option Exercise and Firm Cost

We develop an empirical model of employee stock option exercise that is suitable for valuation and allows for behavioral channels. We estimate exercise rates as functions of option, stock, and employee characteristics using all employee exercises at 88 public firms, 27 of them in the S&P 500. Increasing vesting frequency from annual to monthly reduces option value by 11% to 16%. Men exercise faster, reducing value by 2% to 4%, while top employees exercise slower, increasing value by 2% to 7%. Finally, we develop an analytic valuation approximation that is more accurate than methods used in practice.     

A Reexamination of the Persistence of Accruals and Cash Flows

We reexamine prior studies' conclusion that accruals are less persistent than cash, focusing on two aspects of persistence that are crucial to determining its properties. The first (time specificity) refers to the fact that persistence describes how current‐period shocks to income translate into next‐period income. Traditional measures of accruals are, however, functions of current‐ and non‐current‐period transactions. We show that the inclusion of non‐current‐period transactions leads to a downward (upward) bias on the persistence of accruals (cash flows). We develop alternative measures of accruals and cash flows that are not misaligned and show that the differential persistence of cash flows over accruals is more than 70% smaller using these measures. The second aspect of persistence is firm‐specificity. Specifically, we evaluate persistence using firm‐specific estimations and find that more than 85% of firms show no evidence that accruals are less persistent than cash flows.     

The effectiveness of selected barrier fabrics in minimizing the light-induced colour change of textile objects in storage

A relatively inexpensive method for the temporary or permanent storage of textile objects is to place them inside fabric covers (e.g. rolled storage and garment-bag storage), under fabric covers (e.g. flat storage), or behind fabric curtains (e.g. hanger storage behind a curtain). These barrier fabrics can minimize the harmful effects of light on textile objects in storage. This exploratory study examined the effectiveness of muslin, duck, and Gore-Tex^TM barrier fabrics in minimizing the light-induced colour change of textile objects in storage. The results indicated that muslin, duck, and Gore-Tex^TM barrier fabrics significantly differ in their effectiveness in minimizing the light-induced colour change of textile objects in storage. Several recommendations are provided for future investigations on this topic.     

Gender, Race, and Promotions within a Private-Sector Firm

This article empirically tests the proposition that the gender-race composition of an employee's occupation significantly affects the likelihood of promotion. Using data obtained from the personnel files of a financial services firm, we find that a high concentration of white females in an occupation adversely affects the probability of promotion, but only for white females and minorities in that occupation. A similar, attenuated pattern exists in occupations with either high concentrations of minority females or high concentrations of minority males. Additional empirical evidence suggests that the system of rules governing the promotion of white males differs significantly from that of the other three gender-race groups.     

Food choices and the younger generation

Food choice is influenced by many factors including physical, social and psychological ones. In this research, the food choices of young people in the 9–15 age group were investigated and the possible factors influencing them examined. Observations and questionnaires carried out in schools within Northern Ireland indicated that many young people are inclined to choose high-fat and high-sugar products and often dislike fresh fruit and vegetables. This raises concern, especially with the continued high incidence of coronary heart disease within the province. Further work has suggested that young people are aware of current nutrition policies and the importance of healthy eating, but still fail to put this knowledge into practice.     

Evidence That Management Discussion and Analysis (MD&A) is a Part of a Firm's Overall Disclosure Package*

The objective of this study is to investigate the role, if any, that management discussion and analysis (MD&A) plays in a firm's disclosure package. First, we present evidence regarding the usefulness of MD&A. Our evidence is uniformly supportive of the view that MD&A is a source of new and useful information and indicates that MD&A is used for financial analysis purposes by at least one significant user group, sell-side analysts, who are members of the Toronto Society of Financial Analysts. We then provide evidence on disclosure quality. The results reveal that, overall, MD&A disclosure quality varies with disclosure stimuli similar to those found to influence disclosure choice in other disclosure channels. However, a more refined analysis of the MD&A subcomponents reveals that different factors influence disclosure quality for those subcomponents. Taken together, our results are consistent with the notion that MD&A is a part of a firm's overall disclosure package.     

Effect of Thermal Improvements in Housing on Residential Energy Demand

Many estimates of the savings resulting from energy conserving modifications to a house do not take into account the role that such modifications play in the production of house warmth. Consumers can be expected to take some of these savings in increased house warmth as well as in lower demand for residential energy. The model estimated in this paper shows that when this effect is accounted for savings in energy due to energy conserving modifications are considerably less than anticipated without this effect.     

A Behavioral Science Assessment of Selected Principles of Consumer Education

This study examines the behavioral science support for a set of twenty food-buying principles that a content analysis revealed are the most commonly cited in consumer education textbooks in the 1980s. Three types of principles are found; they differ in the consumer behaviors they recommend as well as in the nature and strength of support they receive in the behavioral science literature. In addition, a Multiple Gatekeeping Model is developed to account for low consumer usage of many of the food-buying principles.     

Family Composition and Investment in Household Capital: Contrasts in the Behavior of the Husband-Wife and Female-Headed Households

This paper estimates a portfolio model that includes investment in human capital, as well as traditional investments of housing, financial assets, and automobiles, and that contrasts portfolios of husband-wife households with female-headed households. Female headed households adjust their portfolios to disequilibria in various stocks more slowly than husband-wife households.