Crops and Livestock Productivity Growth in the Prairies: The Impacts of Technical Change and Scale

This study undertakes a comprehensive analysis of productivity growth in Canadian Prairie primary agriculture from 1940 to 2004. Total factor productivity (TFP) is measured using Törnqvist‐Theil indexing procedures for the Prairie provinces (Alberta, Manitoba, and Saskatchewan). During the 1940–2004 period, productivity growth in Prairie agriculture grew at a rate of 1.56% a year. This aggregate measure does not indicate the substantial variations in productivity growth that have occurred between crops and livestock, between the provinces, and over time: productivity growth in crops is considerably higher than productivity growth in livestock; Manitoba and Saskatchewan display consistently higher productivity growth than Alberta; and from 1980 to 2004 livestock productivity growth increased considerably in Manitoba and Saskatchewan. The productivity growth estimates are decomposed econometrically using a translog cost function to indicate the relative roles of technical change and scale effects. Productivity growth in crops has largely been the result of technical change while economies of scale have played a critical role in generating productivity growth in the livestock sector. La présente étude est une analyse approfondie de la croissance de la productivité du secteur de l’agriculture primaire dans les provinces des Prairies (Alberta, Manitoba et Saskatchewan), de 1940 à 2004. Nous avons mesuré la productivité totale des facteurs (PTF) à l’aide de l’indice Törnqvist‐Theil. De 1940 à 2004, la productivité de l’agriculture dans les provinces des Prairies a cru au rythme annuel de 1,56 p. 100. Cette mesure globale n’indique pas les variations substantielles de la croissance de la productivité entre le secteur des cultures et le secteur de l’élevage, entre les provinces, et au fil du temps. La croissance de la productivité dans le secteur des cultures a été considérablement plus élevée que celle observée dans le secteur de l’élevage. La croissance de la productivité au Manitoba et en Saskatchewan a été supérieure à celle observée en Alberta. De 1980 à 2004, la croissance de la productivité du secteur de l’élevage a enregistré une hausse considérable au Manitoba et en Saskatchewan. Nous avons décomposé la croissance de la productivité de façon économétrique à l’aide d’une fonction de coût de type translog afin de faire ressortir le rôle des changements technologiques et des économies d’échelle. Les changements technologiques ont joué un rôle important dans la croissance de la productivité du secteur des cultures, tandis que les économies d’échelle ont joué un rôle primordial dans la croissance de la productivité du secteur de l’élevage.     

Development, Productivity, and Sustaining Natural Capital

The elimination of hunger, the reduction of poverty, and the wiser management of natural capital remain as critical, but elusive, objectives of society worldwide. In this Address, the issues of development, productivity, and the use of natural capital are explored and important linkages among these three areas are drawn. A special challenge is the identification of the conditions under which the productive base of a nation or region would increase on a sustainable basis, enhancing well-being of its citizens over time. Policy reforms are identified, which would help to ensure that development is more sustainable, that productivity growth is adequate and appropriate, and that natural capital, particularly its critical components, is managed more wisely.
L'élimination de la faim, la réduction de la pauvreté et la gestion judicieuse du capital naturel demeurent, pour les sociétés de partout dans le monde, des objectifs extrêmement importants, mais difficiles à atteindre. Le présent exposé analyse les questions liées au développement, à la productivité et à l'utilisation du capital naturel, et établit d'importants liens entre ces trois domaines. La détermination des conditions qui contribueraient à augmenter de façon viable la base productive d'une nation ou d'une région, et ainsi accroître le bien-être de tous ses citoyens au fil du temps, pose un défi de taille. Les réformes politiques qui aideraient à assurer un développement durable, une croissance de la productivité adéquate et appropriée ainsi qu'une gestion judicieuse du capital naturel, particulièrement des éléments essentiels, sont mises en lumière.     

Are CEOs’ purchases more profitable than they appear?

Little is known about why CEOs voluntarily purchase shares of their firm other than to earn direct profits. Since CEOs are risk-averse, undiversified, and face litigation costs from trading on private information, direct profits are unlikely to be the sole motive—especially since many purchases are ultimately unprofitable. We find that CEOs who have recently purchased shares are less likely to be terminated following poor performance and that this relation varies predictably with (i) their cost of purchasing shares, (ii) the profitability of their prior purchases, and (iii) their board's access to alternative sources of information about them. We find that some CEOs voluntarily purchase shares despite the cost of foregone diversification—and, sometimes outright unprofitability—to indirectly benefit by prolonging their tenure. Our estimates imply that the average abnormal returns that CEOs earn from their purchases increases from 3% to 58% after incorporating the indirect benefit of prolonged tenure.     

The Effects of Product Placement in Fictitious Literature on Consumer Purchase Intention

Three experiments tested whether brand‐name products placed in a short story would be more often selected when two identical products with different brand names were presented in either a picture or text format in forced choice purchase intention and placement recognition tests. In Experiments 1a and 1b, there was no significant influence of product placement in a pictorial purchase intention task. However, in Experiments 2a and 2b, a reliable and equal level of recognition memory was observed, regardless of whether the products were presented in a picture (Exp. 2a) or text (Exp. 2b) format. In Experiment 3, the products were presented in a text format in the purchase intention task and participants more often and more quickly chose the brand‐name product from the story. At a practical level, these results suggest some limits to the usefulness of product placement in text.     

Contrarian investment strategies work better for dually-traded stocks: Evidence from Hong Kong

We investigate the profitability of contrarian investment strategies for equities listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange (HKEX), which are separated into cross-listed firms and firms listed only in Hong Kong. We also investigate the relationship between stock returns and past trading volume for these equities. We report significantly higher contrarian profits for the period investigated and find that this is a persistent feature of stock returns for cross-listed companies. We also document that contrarian portfolios earn returns as high as 8.01% per month for the dually-traded companies and just 1.83% for only HKEX-listed firms. We find that volume has only a limited ability to explain contrarian profits. All extreme profits disappeared after adjusting for the Fama and French three-factor model.     

Fortune Favours the Bold? Exploring Tournament Behavior among Australian Superannuation Funds

In this paper we investigate the tournament induced risk-shifting behavior of Australian “multi-sector growth funds”. We apply a regression-based methodology and examine tournaments based on the calendar year and the financial year. In our core analysis we find evidence in favor of Taylor’s (J Econ Behav Organ 1455:1–11, 2003) risk shifting tournament hypothesis for financial year-end tournaments. Apart from the standard tournament hypothesis we also report a range of findings regarding stability; fund age; and fund size. Support for the Taylor hypothesis generally continues across these variations as well.