Ranking opportunity sets in a simple intertemporal framework

We extend the problem of ranking subsets (opportunity sets) of a set of alternatives to an intertemporal setting, whereby the agent makes a sequence of choice decisions over time. In particular, we show in a simple two-period model that an agent who satisfies five plausible axioms ranks opportunity sets in a lexicographic fashion. That is, the agent ranks opportunity sets based solely on the relative desirability of their first-period alternatives, and only if the first-period alternatives are thought equally desirable does the agent consider the second-period alternatives. We discuss this strong time-discounting result and the role of the axioms, and also show that the popular “independence” axioms employed in the existing “static” literature are inconsistent with some reasonable axioms regarding intertemporal choice.      

Bank demand for central bank liquidity and its impact on interbank markets

Journal of Economic Interaction and Coordination - We develop a model of monetary policy implementation in which banks bid for liquidity provided by the central bank in fixed rate auctions,...     

Reservation wages of first- and second-generation migrants

We analyse the reservation wages of first- and second-generation migrants, based on rich survey data of the unemployed in Germany. Our results confirm the hypothesis that reservation wages increase over migrant generations and over time, suggesting that the mobility benefit of immigration may be limited in time.     

The association between the length of the QT interval and mortality in the Cardiovascular Health Study: a mortality analysis

Prolonged QT interval was found to be associated with increased cardiac and all-cause mortality in a subgroup of the Cardiovascular Health Study (CHS). A mortality analysis is presented of this study, underscoring the need to use the appropriate expected group.     

A monotonicity law for relative prices

Summary It is shown that relative prices of production, which depend on the rate of profit in a complicated manner, satisfy nevertheless a simple monotonicity law when the Hilbert's projective metric is used as a measure.     

Empirical evidence on the long-run neutrality hypothesis using low-frequency international data

We use the Backus and Kehoe (American Economic Review, 1992, 82, 864–888) long, low-frequency data on real GNP/GDP, prices, and money for Australia, Canada, Denmark, Germany, Italy, Japan, Norway, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the United States to examine the long-run neutrality proposition. In doing so, we apply the Fisher and Seater (American Economic Review, 1993, 83, 402–415) non-structural methodology, paying explicit attention to the univariate time-series properties of the variables. We conclude that the data are generally supportive of the quantity-theoretic proposition that money is long-run neutral.     

That special someone: When the board views its chair as a resource

Research summary: Many boards view their chairs as valuable resources. We predict that whether a board adopts such a view depends on the board chair's human and social capital. Data from S&P 500 firms suggest that while a board chair's human capital increases the probability that the board views him or her as a resource, social capital has no overall effect. In a post‐hoc investigation, however, we find the board chair's independence to be an important boundary condition for the effect of social capital. With this exploratory research, we aim to spur research devoted specifically to board chairs. Such research will become increasingly important over time as firms continue to separate their CEO and board chair positions. Managerial summary: The purpose of this research was to determine the factors that lead a board of directors to view its chair as a valuable resource. We expected that board chairs with high human and social capital would be more likely to be viewed as a resource by their colleagues. Surprisingly, only human capital exhibited such an effect overall. Social capital increases the likelihood a chair is viewed as a resource when the chair is independent, but actually decreases the likelihood a chair is viewed as a resource when the chair is either the current or former CEO. These results suggest that boards generally value human capital in their chairs, but view social capital through a somewhat more complex lens. We explore the possible implications of these findings in the article. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Regression toward the mean in effectiveness studies: theoretically possible,not mathematically inevitable

Regression Toward the Mean (RTM) in extreme-group quasi-experiments is a thoroughly theoretical matter, not a simple mathematical necessity, so results of extreme-group before-and-after treatment effectiveness studies should not be doubted simply because of the theoretical possibility of RTM. The estimation of RTM, wherever one has a treatment group with a pretreatment mean off to one side of its population’s mean, requires knowledge of the population mean, standard deviation, and regression slope. RTM ought not be presumed to be operative in studies unless its several theoretical assumptions have been justified and its implications for sample data have been corroborated on that data. RTM can properly be adjusted for only when it has been adequately estimated from the relevant population data.     

The tax advantage of public firms over private firms in the German household solid waste disposal industry

We measure the tax advantage of public firms over private firms, which operate at municipality level in the German household solid waste disposal industry. Public firms with sovereign duties pay no taxes, but equivalent private firms have to. In a simple risk-free setting, we develop a measure of the percentage difference of the charges of both types of firms demanded under their respective tax treatments. We model a cost-covering public firm and a net present value maximizing private firm. For sensible model parameters from the German waste disposal industry the private firm has to demand an about 16% to 18% higher charge. The by far biggest impact on the measure has the value added tax, with revenues as a much larger tax base than profits. Tax savings, which directly affect pre-tax profits, only alleviate the disadvantage bit. There is some evidence that at least one type of private firms—that is, private law firms that are also majority privately owned, are productive enough to overcome the tax advantage of public firms and be able to charge a lower price than public firms.     

Reviewing the intellectual structure of product modularization: Toward a common view and future research agenda

Product modularization in new product development has attracted considerable interest among scholars and practitioners from diverse fields of specialization. This has resulted in cross-disciplinary diversity in the field, diverting attention from its overall intellectual structure and hindering the development of a common view and shared concepts. Extant research lacks an integrative review, transcending a focal discipline that could identify gaps and ambiguities while making recommendations to advance the field. Considering a period of 30 years (1990–2020), we generate a data set of 2988 citing publications to which we apply a co-citation analysis. Thereby, we uncover the intellectual structure of the field and find three research perspectives that represent key knowledge bases: (1) product system, (2) production system, and (3) organizational system. Delimiting the data set into four periods, we can track developments over time, where we notice an increasing disintegration of the product system perspective, which is rooted in the discipline of engineering design. Within the two other perspectives, we document extensive dynamism in terms of publications, especially in the two most recent periods, indicating an active discussion and a potential receptivity to new trends. For these periods, we also identify an emerging cluster of fundamental publications and an increasing emphasis on the concept of system architecture. Leveraging the synthesis of these results, we forge links between neighboring disciplines and recommend avenues for further research, ideally to develop a more common view.