Transitional credit modelling and its relationship to market value at risk: an Australian sectoral perspective

Internal credit risk modelling is important for banks for the calculation of capital adequacy in terms of the Basel Accords, and for the management of sectoral exposure. We examine Credit Value at Risk (VaR), Conditional Credit Value at Risk (Credit CVaR) and the relationship between market and credit risk. Significant association is found between different Credit CVaR methods, and between market and credit risk. Simpler Credit CVaR methods are found to be viable alternatives to more complex methodology. The relationship between market and credit risk is used to develop a new model that allows banks to incorporate industry risk into transition modelling, without macroeconomic analysis.     

Prices, liquidity, and the information content of trades

We investigate the effect of asymmetric information on pricesand liquidity by analyzing trades, quotes, spreads, and depths.Information content should increase with trade size and theinformation asymmetry of the trading period. Results show thatprice and liquidity effects are significantly associated withinformation content as measured by both trade size and timingrelative to information events. Results are stronger for purchasesthan sales. Quoted prices are better measures of informationeffects than transaction prices, because they control for bid-askbounce. Finally, trades that a priori contain no informationhave no impact on prices and liquidity, despite their largesize.     

The relationship between corporate entrepreneurship and strategic management

This study examines the relationship between corporate entrepreneurship intensity and five specific strategic management practices in a sample of 169 U.S. manufacturing firms. The five strategic management practices include: scanning intensity, planning flexibility, planning horizon, locus of planning, and control attributes. The results of the study indicated a positive relationship between corporate entrepreneurship intensity and scanning intensity, planning flexibility, locus of planning, and strategic controls. The fine‐grained nature of these results may be of practical use to firms that are trying to become more entrepreneurial and may help researchers better understand the subtleties of the interface between strategic management and corporate entrepreneurship. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Antecedents and outcomes of promotion systems

This study tests the Ferris, Buckley, and Allen (Human Resource Planning, 15, 47–68) model of promotion systems in organizations assessing the promotion systems in Fortune 500 companies in six industry groups. Relationships were found between characteristics of organizations (e.g., the extent of their career planning and their affirmative action practices and organizational outcomes including numbers of grievances filed, industry rank on sales, and employee attitudes concerning promotion opportunities. These results suggest that the Ferris, Buckley, and Allen (1992) model provides a useful framework for the study and development of organizations' promotion systems. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

The genetic and economic impact of the CIMMYT wheat breeding program on local producers in the Yaqui Valley,Sonora Mexico

This article quantifies the productivity gain from CIMMYT‐released semidwarf bread wheat (Triticum aestivum) cultivars over time, using test plot data from Mexico's Yaqui Valley. Previous studies have shown a deceleration in irrigated wheat yield growth since the 1980s, which could be due to slowing increase in genetic potential. Our results suggest that CIMMYT cultivars contributed a 0.46% annual increase (about 38 kg/ha annually) to wheat yields in the Yaqui Valley, which raised local wheat producers’ revenue by an average of $4 million annually for the period 1990 to 2002, and by approximately $9 million in 2002.     

Vertical inequity in the tax assessment of lodging properties

Property taxes constitute a significant expense for owners of lodging properties. Both the real estate literature and the hospitality literature suggest that property tax inequities exist within various taxing jurisdictions and several models for measuring these inequities have been proposed. Measurement of vertical inequity can produce evidence of inequitable assessments that property owners may be able to use to challenge their properties’ assessed values. This study applies several statistical models to measure vertical inequity for hotel properties using sample data. The sample consists of 872 hotels sold between 1999 and 2004 in Florida. The results indicate that vertical inequities do exist in this sample, with lower valued properties being assessed at a higher proportion of market value than higher value properties. The results make the case that owners of properties in lower value ranges should carefully monitor the assessment process to minimize their property tax expense.     

Informal Sector Pollution Control: What Policy Options Do We Have?

In developing countries, urban clusters of informal firms such as brick kilns and leather tanneries can create severe pollution problems. These firms are, however, quite difficult to regulate for a variety of technical and political reasons. Drawing on the literature, this paper first develops a list of feasible environmental management policies. It then examines how these policies have fared in four independent efforts to control emissions from informal brick kilns in northern Mexico. The case studies suggest that: (a) conventional command and control process standards are generally only enforceable when buttressed by peer monitoring, (b) surprisingly, clean technologies can be successfully diffused even when they raise variable costs, in part because early adopters have an economic incentive to promote further adoption, (c) boycotts of “dirty” goods sold in informal markets are unenforceable, (d) well organized informal firms can block implementation of costly abatement strategies such as relocation and (e) private sector-led initiatives may be best suited for informal sector pollution control.     

Conservation Practices and the Growth of US Cash Rent Leases

Over the past 20 years the ratio of cash rent to cropshare land leases across the US has more than doubled. We test different theories that might explain this, and conclude that the shift is mostly the result of revolutionary changes in cultivation practices. The switch from conventional to conservation tillage brought about by changes in herbicide technologies, genetically modified seeds, increased fuel costs, and knowledge of the benefits of soil micro‐organisms, has reduced a tenant‐farmer's ability to exploit a landowner's soil. This removes a major incentive to cropshare and makes cash renting more attractive. Using USDA field‐level data from across the US, we find strong support for this hypothesis, and some evidence that increased corporate structure also influences cash renting. Alternatively, we cannot find evidence that changes in risk, risk‐aversion or insurance coverage explain the growth in cash renting.