Have SFAS 166 and SFAS 167 improved the financial reporting for securitizations?

Critics have alleged that securitization accounting prior to 2010 was among the causes of the recent financial crisis. In response to this criticism, the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) implemented two new accounting standards, SFAS 166 and SFAS 167, to improve the financial reporting for securitizations. Bank regulators have stated their belief that SFAS 166/167 will result in a consolidated balance sheet (and risk-based capital ratios based thereupon) that better reflects a bank's exposure to risk related to securitized assets. We document that, by ceding retained power or influence through the servicing/special servicing functions to third parties, SFAS 166/167 resulted in real effects to the extent that banks (particularly those that were weakly capitalized) achieved their accounting objectives in the post-SFAS 166/167 period through legitimate transaction structuring in line with the intent of the new rules. Further, we use capital market participants’ assessments of risk retention by sponsoring banks as a benchmark, and provide evidence consistent with bank regulators’ beliefs. In particular, following SFAS 166/167, equity investors of sponsoring banks do not consider (consider) as risk relevant securitized assets that receive off-balance sheet (on-balance sheet) treatment. Securitized assets that are consolidated under SFAS 166/167 exhibit the same risk relevance as assets that are not securitized, despite contractual provisions that would seem to imply substantial risk transfer.     

Reward for organ donation: is it effective or not as a promotion strategy?

This study aims to investigate the effects of the rewards for organ donation as a promotion strategy, which is part of a campaign to promote organ donation in Korea by the non‐profit organization Korean Network for Organ Sharing. This study examines how the effects of rewards for organ donation differ in terms of reward types, public self‐consciousness, and stages of change. An interaction effect between types of reward, stage of change, and the degree of public self‐consciousness was found. Reward type and stage of change were found to function as moderators of the effect of public self‐consciousness on the intention to register for organ donation. The effect of public self‐consciousness on the intention for organ donation was positive and statistically significant among those who were in the contemplation stage and exposed to non‐material types of reward. On the other hand, the effect of public self‐consciousness on the intention for organ donation was negative among those in the pre‐contemplation stage and exposed to material types of reward. Practical implications for organ donation organizations are suggested. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Positive psychological capital and emotional labor in Korea: the job demands-resources approach

This study examined the effect of organizational justice perception on service employees' positive psychological capital and the influence of positive psychological capital on surface and deep acting. Drawing on the job demands-resources (JD-R) model and the literature on positive work environment, the indirect effects of perceived distributive and procedural justice on surface and deep acting through service employees' psychological capital were hypothesized. Using data from 263 flight attendants of the largest airline company in South Korea, the results indicated that perceived distributive and procedural justice were positively related to service employees' psychological capital, which, in turn, fostered deep acting but not surface acting. Deep acting was negatively related to emotional exhaustion, while surface acting showed a positive relationship. Emotional exhaustion, in turn, increased turnover intention. This study offers contributions to our understanding of positive psychological capital and implications for emotional labor in service management. Limitations and future research directions are discussed.     

Socially responsible investment fund performance: the impact of screening intensity

Perhaps the most common criticism of socially responsible investment funds is that imposing non‐financial screens restricts investment opportunities, reduces diversification efficiencies and thereby adversely impacts performance. In this study we investigate this proposition and test whether the number of screens employed has a linear or curvilinear relation with return. Moreover, we analyse the link between screening intensity and risk. Screening intensity has no effect on unadjusted (raw) returns or idiosyncratic risk. However, we find a significant reduction in α of 70 basis points per screen using the Carhart performance model. Increased screening results in lower systematic risk – in line with managers choosing lower β stocks to minimize overall risk.     

Price convergence in US cities: a cointegration approach with two structural breaks

This article investigates how the price indices of major cities of the US respond to the shock from a city and from monetary policy. We find that the crisis of Bretton Woods system in 1968 and the oil crisis in 1974 should be incorporated as structural breaks in monetary policy variables and price indices. Using cointegration technique with structural break in our aggregated data, we find that the average half-life is 1.75 years, which is closer to what some of others found in disaggregated data, and that the interest rate is an effective tool for controlling cities’ price in short run.     

How store format choices and market structure affect agglomeration economies and competition among chain stores in the US supermarket industry

This article studies how store format choices and market concentration affect agglomeration economies and competition among chain stores. Using data on supermarket chains in Arizona, Georgia and Illinois, we decompose a store’s sales into parts stemming from local market conditions, such as demographics, and parts stemming from competition measures, which can be of its own chain’s stores or of other chains’ stores. Our results show that local market conditions are still a key factor in generating store sales. In more concentrated markets of Georgia and Illinois, a supermarket chain suffers from business-stealing among its own stores – agglomeration economies not sufficient to offset competition among its stores – but ironically tolerates the presence of other chains’ stores. Can a retail chain favourably tip the balance of agglomeration economies and competition? We find the answer by looking at the two big corporations in Arizona – Bashas Markets Inc. and Kroger Co. – which own two and three store formats, respectively, catering to distinct consumer segments, and thus promoting agglomeration economies while minimizing competition among their own stores.     

Real Exchange Rate Dynamics in the Asian Economies: Can Regime Shifts Explain Purchasing Power Parity Puzzles?

Abstract

We show that the strong version of the purchasing power parity (PPP) hypothesis holds in most of the US dollar real exchange rates using cointegration method that accounts for breaks in the models. The break dates in seven of the Asian currencies coincide with the two rounds of currency depreciation recorded during the 1997–1998 financial crises. We obtain a mean half-life estimate of about 10 months for PPP to converge to its long-run equilibrium level. Our confidence intervals based on persistence profile approach for the half-lives is much narrower than previous evidence might indicate. Taken together, these results show that mean reversion is stronger than commonly thought.     

Reassessing the productivity gains from trade liberalization

This paper reassesses the impact of trade liberalization on productivity. We build a new, unique database of effective tariff rates at the country‐industry level for a broad range of countries over the past two decades. We then explore both the direct effect of liberalization in the sector considered, as well as its indirect impact in downstream industries via input linkages. Our findings point to a dominant role of the indirect input market channel in fostering productivity gains. A 1 percentage point decline in input tariffs is estimated to increase total factor productivity by about 2 percent in the sector considered. For advanced economies, the implied potential productivity gains from fully eliminating remaining tariffs are estimated at around 1 percent, on average, which do not factor in the presumably larger gains from removing existing non‐tariff barriers. Finally, we find suggestive evidence of complementarities between trade and FDI liberalization in boosting productivity. This calls for a broad liberalization agenda that cuts across different areas.     

Determinants of initial goodwill overstatement in affiliated and non-affiliated mergers

This study examines the determinants of goodwill overstatement at the time of mergers in a Korean setting. In the Korean M&A market, there are two types of mergers: mergers between independent companies (non-affiliated mergers) and mergers between companies under common control (affiliated mergers). This study extends the literature by examining the factors likely to cause goodwill overstatement in both types of mergers. The results reveal that in affiliated mergers, goodwill at the time of a merger tends to be overstated when controlling owners have higher equity ownership in the target than in the acquirer. By contrast, information uncertainty in the target value causes initial goodwill overstatement in non-affiliated mergers. We also find that monitoring of independent institutional investors with concentrated holdings against overpaying for the target is more pronounced when controlling owners in affiliated mergers have incentives to overpay for the target. In affiliated mergers, acquirers tend to write off goodwill more frequently when controlling owners have higher equity ownership in the target than in the acquirer. In non-affiliated mergers, information uncertainty in the target value is significantly associated with subsequent goodwill write-offs. These results suggest that the type of merger has important consequences for initial goodwill recognition and subsequent impairment.     

Shock amplification in financial networks with applications to the CCP feasibility

We find central clearing counterparty amplified shocks are due to financial institutions