On Efficiency of Decentralized Environmental Regulation

Contrary to conventional wisdom about an environmental race to the bottom, the theoretical literature as exemplified by Oates and Schwab [1988, Journal of Public Economics, 35:333–354] maintains that homogeneous jurisdictions’ decentralized choices are likely to be socially optimal because each locale sets capital tax rates to zero and sets optimal environmental standards. This paper shows the well-received Oates–Schwab-style efficiency result is not likely if allowed aggregate-emissions act as a firm-augmenting public input that benefits mobile firms.Thanks to participants at the University of Alberta and the reviewers and editors for their helpful comments     

Implied measures of relative fund performance

We evaluate the relative performance of funds by conditioning their returns on the cross-section of portfolio characteristics across fund managers. Our implied procedure circumvents the need to specify benchmark returns or peer funds. Instead, fund-specific benchmarks for measuring selection and market timing ability are constructed. This technique is robust to herding as well as window dressing and mitigates survivorship bias. Empirically, the conditional information contained in portfolio weights defined by industry sectors, assets, and geographical regions is important to the assessment of fund management. For each set of portfolio characteristics, we identify funds with success at either selecting securities or timing-the-market.

Anticipation of injurious consumption outcomes and its impact on consumer attributions of blame

The role of expectations in consumer evaluation of outcomes is widely applied in the study of consumers’ postpurchase evaluations. However, the evaluative consequence of relatively unexpected outcomes has received little attention. This study discusses the importance of infrequently occurring negative outcomes in consumer evaluations and then tests the role of their foreseeability in an attributional model. Results suggest that the extent to which a consumer anticipates negative product use outcomes plays an important role in mediating attributions for that outcome to the marketer. Specifically, the model results address determinants of consumer attributions of blame for negative consumption outcomes. Factors such as promoting safety, using warning labels, and providing service as well as consumer risk aversion, product experience, and perceived product danger influence blame both directly and indirectly through the extent to which an unlikely negative outcome is anticipated. His expertise is in the area of product safety and consumer reactions to negative information. His research has appeared in theJournal of Consumer Research, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Journal of Consumer Affairs, Advances in Consumer Research, and numerous other national and regional publications. His expertise is in the area of consumers’ affective reactions and research methodology. His work has appeared in theJournal of Consumer Research, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Journal of Retailing, Journal of Business Research, Advances in Consumer Research, and numerous other professional outlets. Her academic interests are focused on consumer behavior and retailing, and she has been recognized with both college and university teaching awards in these areas. Her research has appeared in theJournal of Consumer Satisfaction/Dissatisfaction and Complaining Behavior, Advances in Consumer Research, The Cutting Edge, and numerous other national and regional publications.     

Effectiveness of Severance Tax Incentives in the U.S. Oil Industry

This paper develops a dynamic empirical framework that can be used to test the effectiveness of state-level severance tax incentives in the U.S. oil industry. The framework embeds U.S. state-level panel data estimates into Pindyck's (1978) widely received theoretical model of exhaustible resource supply and can be applied to any of 20 states that produce significant quantities of oil. The model allows for interactions between taxes levied by different levels of government and for the first time addresses potential interstate differences in exploration costs, extraction costs, and reserve additions. In general, results show that severance tax incentives (in the form of tax rate reductions) substantially reduce state tax revenue collected, but yield moderate to little change in oil drilling and production activity. This outcome suggests that states should be wary of arguments asserting that large swings in oil field activity can be obtained from changes in severance tax rates.     

Does Corporate Lending by Banks and Finance Companies Differ? Evidence on Specialization in Private Debt Contracting

This paper establishes empirically the existence of specialization in private-market corporate lending, adding a new dimension to the public versus private debt distinctions now common in the literature. Comparing corporate loans made by banks and by finance companies, we find that the two types of intermediaries are equally likely to finance information-problematic firms. However, finance companies tend to serve observably riskier borrowers, particularly more leveraged borrowers. Evidence supports both regulatory and reputation-based explanations for this specialization. In passing, we shed light on various theories of debt contracting and intermediation and present facts about finance companies.     

Modelling the Crop Variety Demand of Semi‐Subsistence Households: Bananas in Uganda

We propose an approach to model the derived demand for crop varieties among semi‐subsistence farmers in a developing economy, and apply it to smallholder banana producers in Uganda. We model variety planting decisions as being composed of an extensive margin decision to grow a subset of locally available varieties (variety choice); and an intensive margin decision about the scale or extent of variety cultivation per farm (variety demand). We estimate variety demand equations using a more complete representation of the choice set upon which observed planting decisions are made. Computed elasticities of variety demand with respect to variety attributes indicate that the relative importance of consumption and production attributes varies by location and proximity to markets, from which we draw implications for the social and economic impact of crop improvement. The approach that we propose has broad appeal for analysing adoption decisions for modern or traditional varieties of both major and minor crops in developing countries.     

Efficient decentralized fiscal and environmental policy: A dual purpose Henry George tax

One consequence of decentralized responsibility to set tax policy and environmental standards is that local governments might try to attract industry and jobs by underproviding local public goods with lower taxes or lax environmental standards or both. But if local authorities exploit fixed property site (i.e., land) taxation to fund local public goods, affect firm migration, and internalize potential local emission rents, herein we find decentralized efficiency is supported. This result reflects a dual form of the classic Henry George theorem previously overlooked.     

Affiliation bias in the online market for rental accommodation

We find evidence of taste‐based discrimination against rival affiliations in the online market for rental accommodation. Airbnb hosts in college towns increase their listing prices more than hotels on home football games against rival teams. By setting listing prices too high as a result of their affiliation bias against rival fans, hosts experience a 30% reduction in rental income. The overestimation of demand, the cost (inconvenience) of temporary relocation, and the likelihood of incurring damage cannot explain the inverse relation between listing price increases, and rental incomes that is limited to games against rival teams. Instead, greater financial constraints are associated with smaller listing price increases, and higher rental incomes on rival games, suggesting that taste‐based discrimination is a luxury.