The effect of differential shift costs on capital utilization

This paper presents the results of a micro study of the influence of the shift differential factor on utilization rates in Kenyan manufacturing. Qualitative information about the nature of technology and of shift differentials is incorporated into models of the choice of utilization rate under the alternative assumptions of constant returns to scale and increasing returns to scale. Econometric tests are then used to show that 1971 data is consistent with the theoretical predictions, although the results suggest that the quantitative significance of the shift differential factor in causing excess capacity should not be overstated.     

A tax-based motive for the underpricing of initial public offerings

This paper presents a model of entrepreneurial wealth maximization for the pricing of initial public offerings (IPOs). It is an extension of one previously presented in the literature. The model shows that personal tax rates on ordinary income and capital gains may, in part, determine IPO pricing: an increase in the capital gains tax rate should lower the degree of underpricing. An empirical analysis of the effect of the Tax Reform Act of 1986, which raised the capital gains tax rate, shows that the average degree of underpricing did decrease as predicted, and that this occurs after controlling for other possible influences.     

Isomorphism Without Legitimacy? The Case of the Business Excellence Model in Local Government

The White Paper 'Modern Local Government: In Touch with the People' suggested the Business Excellence Model as a way for local authorities to demonstrate Best Value in service delivery. The author uses the concept of isomorphism, developed within institutional theory, to explain the progress of the Model in local government. She draws out some important lessons: first, central government needs to be beware of its ability to create coercive isomorphic forces, which can lead to unintended consequences. Second, local authorities should embark on new initiatives only if they are convinced of a practical benefit to the organization. Alternatively, where conferment of legitimacy is the desired result, they should wait until the bandwagon is well and truly rolling towards a named destination before they join it.     

Winners, Losers, and the Nuclear-Waste Dilemma

This paper explores how property-right assignment affects social efficiency when a public program has both “public good” and “public bad” components. We show that when willingness to accept a public bad exceeds the willingness to pay, the net benefit is unambiguously lower when the property right supports the status quo institutional structure. Thus, Kaldor–Hicks efficiency tests tend to favor public programs and mitigation over the status quo even when mitigation negatively affects another group. To illustrate the result, we develop social-cost estimates for moving nuclear waste from current temporary-storage facilities to a permanent central repository at Yucca Mountain, NV, USA. For a representative city with a population of 226,195, the present value of the external cost of shipping waste is $1.42 billion when those living near temporary nuclear-waste storage facilities are assigned the property right to “health and safety.” That number swells to $5.95 billion when those living near the transport route are assigned the property right. Thus, property-right assignment affects the efficient level of nuclear-waste, and thus nuclear energy, produced.     

Postauditing capital assets and firm performance: An empirical investigation

The argument presented in this paper is that the adoption of sophisticated postaudit procedures should be associated with improved firm performance. Based on a matched-pair experimental design, utilizing the Wilcoxon matched-pairs signed-ranks test and a newly developed statistic to test for a change point, empirical evidence is provided to support this argument.     

POSTSCHOOL LEARNING AND HUMAN RESOURCE ACCOUNTING

The central concern of this paper is with the treatment of human resources in dynamic applications of capital and growth accounting. Despite many advances, national accounting conventions still give biased profiles of the economy, but the time is ripe for experimentation with measures that can correct those biases and provide a more adequate base for assessment of long-term economic performance and prospects.
In the first section, the logic and feasibility of forward and backward measures of formation of human capital in the simplest case (of full-time schooling) is examined in parallel with physical capital. In a dynamic economy, which is rarely if ever in equilibrium, these approaches complement each other; they are poor substitutes. In section two a number of conceptual and measurement issues are considered with particular reference to human-capital investment periods and the treatment of appreciation, depreciation and obsolescence of human versus physical capital. Here special attention is given to the extended periods of investments in human resources, which overlap with realization of returns, and to the processes and agencies through which postschool investments are made. The last section presents a brief statement concerning asymmetries in disequilibrium biases with respect to the formation of human relative to physical capital. Drawing upon section 1 with regard to forward and backward measures and section 2 with regard to the critical importance of postschool learning, new possibilities in contributions of national accounting to a dynamic analysis of economic development are suggested.