THE RISK OF FIRE SALES IN THE TRI‐PARTY REPO MARKET

This paper studies the risk of “fire sales” in the tri‐party repo market, a large and important market where securities dealers find short‐term funding for a substantial portion of their own and their clients' assets. We distinguish between fire sales of assets by a dealer who, facing a run that could lead to default, sells securities to generate liquidity, and fire sales of assets by repo investors after a dealer's default has occurred. While fire sales do cause damage no matter how they arise, the tools available to lessen the harm from the two types of fire sales are different. We find that limited tools are available to mitigate the risk of predefault fire sales and that no established tools currently exist to mitigate the risk of postdefault sales. (JEL G01, G18)     

Use of social media by university accounting students and its impact on learning outcomes

The proliferation in the use of social media, such as Facebook and Twitter, among university students is well documented. With many universities providing student resources in formats suitable for iPad, laptop, and mobile phone use, the use of social media for university activities has become easier. This study explores the use of social media by university accounting degree students to support their academic activities in an informal setting. It explores the impact these media have on learning outcomes. Our findings suggest that university accounting degree students use social media for a number of academic-related purposes. Students establish and maintain fluid mentor/mentee relationships around academic activities related interactions through the social media. We have found that the use of Social Media is significantly associated with students’ grades.     

The Effects of Executive,Firm, and Board Characteristics on Executive Exit

We estimate a hazard model of the probability of top corporate executives exiting their firms over the period 1996–2010. Our main findings are that: (1) female executives have greater likelihoods of exit than males, (2) the likelihood of exit increases with the independence of the board and decreases with the fraction of the board that is female and the average age of board members, and (3) a higher percentage of independent directors on the board lowers the probability of exit more for females than for males. Further, controlling for exit risk reduces the well‐documented compensation differential between men and women.     

The debt-equity financing decisions of U.S. startup firms

We examine the debt-equity decisions of startup firms using the Kauffman Firm Survey, the largest database of U.S. startups launched in 2004. To control for sample selection bias and the correlation among financing decisions, we employ a Bivariate Probit-Tobit model. Our results show that several firm characteristics such as growth prospects, firm size, tangible assets, and selling products, as well as owner characteristics such as net worth, experience, education and ethnicity explain the debt-equity decisions in the startup year. In addition, for firms that use debt, we document traits that explain the use of a particular type of business versus personal debt. Larger firms use more business debt, whereas home-based and growth firms use more personal sources of debt. Immigrants, owners who lack work experience and those who invest more time in the business tend to rely more on personal sources of debt.     

Dimensions of International Negotiation: A Test of Iklé's Typology

Results from statistical analyses of 30 cases of international negotiations supported Iklé's typology of negotiating objectives. The cases, sampled from the collection of Pew Case Studies in International Affairs, were distinguished in terms of five objectives: innovation, redistribution, extension, normalization, and side effects. In addition, a sixth objective was identified: negotiations concerning the creation of multilateral regimes. These cases focused on issues that surfaced on the international agenda during the 1980s. Each type had a relatively distinct profile based on such aspects of negotiation as the number of parties and issues, bargaining strategies, media exposure, stability of the process, and types of outcomes. The methodology contributes to the state-of-the art in comparative analysis and the results have implications for the development of middle-range theories of negotiation. They also contribute to practice, by enabling negotiators to evaluate future cases in terms of knowledge about past cases.     

Mortgage Put Options and Real Estate Markets

In this paper we offer direct evidence that financial intermediation does impact underlying asset markets. We develop a specific observable symptom of a banking system that underprices the put option imbedded in non-recourse asset-backed lending. Using a dataset for 19 countries and over 500 real estate investment trusts, we find that, following a negative demand shock, the “underpricing” economies experience far deeper asset market crashes than economies in which the put option is correctly priced.

The impact of cultural environment on entry-level auditors’ abilities to perform analytical procedures

We focus on the impact of three of Hofstede’s cultural dimensions, power distance, uncertainty avoidance, and individualism, on the results of analytical procedures conducted by entry-level auditors in Mexico and the U.S. Analytical procedures are ideal for this research as they require auditors to use professional judgment and appropriate levels of professional skepticism, abilities related to all three cultural characteristics. We find no other study investigating the impact of culture on the application of auditing procedures similar across the studied cultures.We find cultural characteristics do not affect the participants’ abilities to predict income statement balances, but they may influence the ability to predict changes in balance sheet accounts. We also find culture is associated with differences in risk assessments. Our results indicate that participants rarely differentiate accounts that change according to expectation from those that change contrary to expectation, but rather alter their risk assessments to match the direction of balances that increase or decrease.     

Strategic management training and commitment to planning: critical partners in stimulating firm performance

Few studies to date have been able to establish a clear link between training activities and firm performance. This study shows a relationship between a firm’s level of commitment to planning, management development and training activities and firm performance. The relationship is demonstrated by a higher return on equity for investors. Data from 157 small financial firms in the US were collected and analysed to find out if there was a relationship between the frequency and type of strategic management training, commitment to a strategic planning process, and firm performance. Findings from this study show that there is a significant relationship, resulting in greater return on tockholders’ equity, between the frequency that senior managers attend strategic management training and a firm’s level of commitment to the planning process.     

基于可持续景观设计的园林植物需水量评估——以美国加州庭院景观为例

随着中国经济社会的不断发展和城市化进程的快速推进,为了满足市民对美丽环境日益增长的需求,国家设计并建造了越来越多的城市公园和街头绿地。而面对我国普遍缺水的现状,科学有效地评价、设计、管理景观用水显得十分重要,但国内却鲜有对此关注。特别是园林植物养护用水,即园林植物需水量,直接关系着可持续景观建设的实现。美国加州很早开始了相关领域的研究,并将园林植物需水量评估方法强制应用于实际景观设计中,可快速量化计算设计场地未来的用水量,具有现实的借鉴和指导意义。分析了国内对于可持续景观用水的相关现状和问题,依据WUCOLS项目的研究与实践,详细介绍了美国加州现行应用于景观设计中的园林植物需水量量化评估方法,并基于某加州庭院景观设计项目展示园林植物需水量估算的实际应用,讨论美国加州园林植物需水量估算的优劣与意义,进而分析其借鉴的可能性和方法。以期在未来建立一个符合中国特色的园林植物用水量评估体系,从而推进今后的可持续景观设计与建设。