Pricing target NOLs in mergers and acquisitions from the participating firms' perspective

While prior research has extensively examined the market response to target net operating loss carryforwards (NOLs) in mergers and acquisitions (M&A) announcements, the question of whether target NOLs are priced by the participating firms during the price negotiation process has not been explicitly addressed. Answers to this question could provide direct measures to assist firms in pricing target NOLs in M&As. Our results show that the participating firms price target NOLs based on how long it will take the acquirer to use the acquired NOL in both nontaxable and taxable acquisitions under the Tax Reform Act of 1986. Also, we find a significant difference in the market pricing and the participant pricing of target short-lived NOLs before, and continuing well after, the announcement date. Our findings suggest that the importance of the differences between the market and the participating firms perspectives should be considered when conducting future research in this area.     

The Menace of Competition and Gambling Deregulation

The present article proposes a typology of the main varieties of uncertainty considered by economists and refines existing concepts. This typology combines three distinctions, between: substantive and procedural uncertainty; weak and strong uncertainty; and ambiguity and fundamental uncertainty. These concepts refer, or fail to refer, to factors such as: a lack of information; complexity; the (im)possibility of building probability distributions that are unique, additive and reliable; structural change; etc. When refining these concepts, the article pays special attention to the conception of social reality underlying each concept. It refers to what each concept may imply about the complexity and changeability of social reality and the limitations and creative potential of the individuals that inhabit this reality, in addition to, in some cases, the roles of institutions and the features of the process of technological change.     

Ecotourism and indigenous micro-enterprise formation in northern Australia opportunities and constraints

Indigenous Australians suffer considerable social and economic disadvantage. The challenge for Indigenous communities and policy makers is to discover or create opportunities that will provide sustainable development. Tourism is seen as one sector that could possibly provide such opportunities. Indigenous tourism enterprises are in most situations likely to be micro businesses. Micro businesses, Indigenous and non-Indigenous, have relatively high failure rates so it is important to undertake substantial planning to avoid failure. This paper presents the results of a planning process undertaken by an Indigenous clan planning to operate their own ecotourism micro-enterprise within Ngukurr, an Indigenous community in northern Australia. The study highlights the fact tourism does provide potential for economic development because Indigenous enterprises often have some competitive advantages. In addition, the study highlights the fact that communities often do not have the capacity to undertake all the tasks necessary to establish and operate a commercially successful ecotourism enterprise. Partnerships with other stakeholders within the region can help overcome this constraint. Finally, it is noted that the CDEP scheme has the potential to satisfy the need for funds that cannot be satisfied through normal channels.     

Why Some Firms Use Collar Offers in Mergers

Collar offers are merger offers using all stock as the method–of–payment that specify a range within which the bidder's price can fluctuate. In this paper the wealth effects associated with collar offers are determined, and cross–sectional regressions are employed to determine if this offer type is a significant determinant of abnormal returns. Results indicate that collar offers are associated with significantly positive abnormal returns for the target firm, even greater than those of firms receiving cash offers, but significantly negative returns for the bidder. These results raise an interesting question: why do some bidders make collar offers? Since the immediate wealth gains are strictly for the target and bidders making collar offers have returns insignificantly different than those making fixed stock offers, bidders must be utilizing collar offers for non–wealth related reasons. Using existing theories regarding the method–of–payment choice, various hypotheses for why firms may make collar offers are presented and tested using a multinomial logit analysis. The choice of collar offers seems to be significantly tied to the relative size of the merger, uncertainty regarding the bidder's value, and the target's and bidder's pre–merger insider ownership percentages.     

Resources in play: Bricolage in the Toy Store(y)

This paper analyzes the “Toy Store(y)” narrative by imagining the words and perspectives of several participants other than those from whose perspective the original story is told. By applying the lens of bricolage to a series of critical events and activities described in the Toy Store(y), I illustrate the theoretical and practical application of prior research findings on both bricolage and improvisation and extend these to make suggestions for useful future research and teaching in these areas.     

农村公共投资对农民收入影响地域差异的时变分析

以山东省、安徽省、陕西省作为研究对象,采用带有时变参数的状态空间模型分析1990—2010年间这三个省份农村公共投资对农民收入的影响,并通过卡尔曼滤波的求解方法得出农村公共投资对农民收入影响随着时间变动发生波动的曲线图。研究发现农村公共投资对农民收入的影响不仅因不同地区经济水平、社会环境、地理气候、人文背景等因素的不同而表现出不同的影响程度,而且这种影响关系随着时间变化产生波动。     

Evolution of the gender earnings gap among Canadian university graduates

This paper reports the results of an empirical analysis of the gender earnings gap among recent Canadian Bachelor's level university graduates. The overall gap as of two years leaving university narrowed significantly across successive cohorts of graduates, but widened significantly from two to five years out for all groups. Differences in the explanatory variables ‘explain’ account for between 40% and essentially the entire gap across the different periods, this portion rising from two to five years out and across cohorts. By the final group, all of the gap is thus ‘explained’ at the two-year point in time, and most of it is explained at the five-year mark, meaning that labour market returns (measured in this manner) are largely gender-neutral for the last group of graduates. Hours of work is the single most important influence, while past work experience, job characteristics, family status, and province of residence and language have smaller and more mixed effects.