The implications of the ‘learning curve’ for firm strategy and public policy

The objective of this paper is to examine the relationships between costs and cumulative output, and to explore the implications of these relationships for firm strategy and public policy.     

Overriding consumer preferences with energy regulations

The recent wave of enacted and proposed U.S. energy regulations imposes energy efficiency standards on light bulbs, appliances, and motor vehicles based on the unsupported assumption that consumers and firms are irrational and that energy efficiency should be the paramount concern. The regulatory analyses do not document these purported failures in consumer choices or firms’ energy utilization decisions with any empirical evidence. The preponderance of the benefits that agencies claim for the regulations is derived from private benefits to consumers and firms attributable to lower energy costs. Without these benefits, the regulatory costs would greatly exceed the benefits. The regulatory analyses consider only mandates as a means of achieving energy-efficiency improvements and ignore other policy options.     

The Productive Tension of Trust and Distrust: The Coexistence and Relative Role of Trust and Distrust in Online Banking

This study examines the effects of trustworthiness perceptions and trustor dispositions on trust and distrust as well as the downstream influence of trust and distrust on intention to use online banking. More than 500 college students located across two universities completed a survey to provide data for the study. The findings from this study suggest that the “blind trust” and “blind distrust” perspectives used in isolation are incomplete and that a more comprehensive model of trust requires the inclusion of both perspectives. As hypothesized, results also support the assertion that trust and distrust are distinct constructs and that the established e-retailing trust nomological network holds in an online banking context. The study also contributes to the literature by establishing several distrust antecedents, as well as illustrating distrust's negative effect on intention to use online banking. Finally, the study illustrates how the influence of trust can overwhelm the effect of distrust in an online banking context.     

Consumer Valuation of Alternative Meat Origin Labels

Results from a split‐sample survey of the US population reveal consumers prefer meat products carrying origin information to unlabelled alternatives. Consumers are largely unaware of origin labelling laws and are indifferent to an important aspect of the implementation of current mandatory country of origin information rules in the US. In particular, consumers value meat products labelled ‘Product of North America’ approximately the same as ‘Product of United States’. Despite the similarity of these two labels, they have vastly different implications in terms of trade and segregation costs. Our results suggest that a transition from one label to the other is equally satisfying for the consumer while being less costly for processors and more acceptable to trade partners.     

Codes of Ethics as Signals for Ethical Behavior

This study investigated effects of codes of ethics on perceptions of ethical behavior. Respondents from companies with codes of ethics (n = 465) rated role set members (top management, supervisors, peers, subordinates, self) as more ethical and felt more encouraged and supported for ethical behavior than respondents from companies without codes (n = 301). Key aspects of the organizational climate, such as supportiveness for ethical behavior, freedom to act ethically, and satisfaction with the outcome of ethical problems were impacted by the presence of an ethics code. The mere presence of a code of ethics appears to have a positive impact on perceptions of ethical behavior in organizations, even when respondents cannot recall specific content of the code.     

What does the timing of dividend reductions signal?

Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting - Dividend reduction theory suggests that during an economy-wide shock, a relatively early dividend reduction indicates that a firm reduces its cash...     

Alchian on Keynes

The Review of Austrian Economics - This paper examines Armen Alchian’s work on Keynes’s marginal efficiency of capital. Alchian is correct to assert that Keynes’s theory of...     

Estimating the relationship between labour market tightness,unemployment insurance benefits and union election activity

Using detailed data from the US National Labor Relations Board, we find labour market tightness, defined as the ratio of job vacancies to the number of unemployed, has a positive relationship with the likelihood of voting in favour of union representation. Specifically, a 1 SD increase in labour market tightness increases Vote Share in favour and the likelihood of union certification by roughly 1.5% and 3%, respectively. We also find that length of unemployment insurance benefits has a positive relationship with Vote Share in favour. Taken together, these results suggest that workers are more comfortable engaging in pro-union election behaviours when exogenous conditions, like labour market tightness and unemployment insurance benefit duration, shift in a way that more favourably insulates them from unemployment and income risk.     

Comparison of selective hedging and options strategies in cattle feedlot risk management

A cattle feedlot marketing simulation model was developed and used to evaluate the performance of various feedlot marketing strategies. The marketing analysis included corn, feeder cattle, and fed cattle integrated marketing alternatives. A variety of strategies were compared including hedging and put option purchasing as signaled via profit margins or price forecasts. The results indicate that cattle feeders could have historically increased profitability and decreased the variability of profits through selective marketing by using either profit margins or price forecasts to signal market positions as compared to cash marketing strategies. In addition, several strategies were found that stochastically dominated cash marketing.