Are New Homes Special?

This article describes alternative ways of identifying new homes and, using a large dataset of property sales in Las Vegas, Nevada, tests for the extent to which new homes sell at a price premium relative to otherwise similar existing homes. We also investigate whether the results differ across time and location, including before and after the housing bust. Our results suggest that price premia for new homes arise primarily in circumstances in which the supply of new houses is relatively low. In some cases rising to over 20% relative to otherwise similar existing homes. When new homes are plentiful, they are not special and the premium disappears.     

RANKING MUTUALLY EXCLUSIVE PROJECTS: THE ROLE OF DURATION

This paper develops a new measure of cash-flow timing called “return duration.” Numerically quite close to Macaulay duration, return duration is a straightforward function of a project's net present value (NPV) and internal rate of return (IRR). When comparing mutually exclusive projects, differences in return duration can explain ranking conflicts between NPV and IRR. The paper also clarifies the conditions under which a manager should consider duration or generalized NPV before making investment decisions when faced with such ranking conflicts.     

The ‘post-bureaucratic’ public sector organization. New organizational forms and HRM in ten UK public sector organizations

This paper evaluates the extent to which ‘post-bureaucratic’ organizational forms have been introduced to the UK public sector and the implications for human resource management policies and practices in the sector. The study draws from interview data at ten public sector organizations including local authorities, the National Health Service, the Civil Service, police authorities, broadcasting and transport. It concludes that certain structural changes have been made, but that older functional lines of authority still exist and thus post-bureaucratic claims are misleading. However, a harsher working environment has arisen for managers in these public sector organizations, with longer hours and a more complex working environment. Older certainties such as job security, a safe career path and seniority-based pay have all been eroded.     

Depth of knowledge and the effect of higher order uncertainty

Summary A number of recent papers have highlighted the importance of uncertainty about others' information in models of asymmetric information. We introduce a notion that reflects the depth of knowledge in an information system. We show how the depth of knowledge can be used to bound the effect of higher order uncertainty in certain problems. We further provide bounds on the size of bubbles in finite horizon rational expectations models where the bounds depend on the depth of knowledge.We thank Dov Samet for pointing out an error in an earlier version.     

A revisionist view of the economic implications of child labor regulations

The conventional neoclassical wisdom predicts that banning, restricting, or improving the working conditions of child labor will increase the costs of production, thereby diminishing the competitiveness of those jurisdictions that legislate against child labor. However, from a behavioral theoretical perspective this need not be the case when a productivity differential favoring adult labor exists which at least compensates for the pay differential between child and adult labor, and where the increased cost of child labor is compensated for by their increased productivity. In this case, legislating against child labor will not have the negative economic consequences predicted by the conventional wisdom. The cost of such restrictions, however, will then fall largely on the family income of affected families unless compensated for by sufficient increases in real adult wages, increases in the adult labor force participation rate, or other sources of income. This paper was revised while the author was Visiting Scholar with the Center for North American Studies, Duke University. Thanks go to two anonymous referees and Louise Lamontagne for their comments and suggestions. The standard caveat applies.     

British Factory, Japanese Factory and Mexican Factory: An International Comparison of Front-Line Management and Supervision

This paper presents a case study of a Japanese-owned electronics firm, presenting a comparative analysis of the company's supervisory systems in three of its plants located in different countries – Japan, Mexico and Britain. Comparative analysis is enabled through use of the concept of a supervisory system of control, which allows us to match the relative positions of managers, supervisors and workers across the three sites. The case study data enables us systematically to examine questions of the transferability of a Japanese supervisory system – a central component of Japanese manufacturing – outside of Japan. The results suggest that 'Japanese' supervisory systems have been established with more success in Mexico than in Britain, and the main factors that explain this are varying local labour market conditions, limits to managerial control on the shopfloor, the relationship between the product market and the organization of production, and local and expatriate management commitment to a Japanese system.     

A new approach in psychiatric care delivery

A unique approach for service in psychiatric care delivery has been used in a psychiatric setting at two sequentially tested inpatient locations. The patients in one setting were children and adolescents and in the other adolescents and adults. The approach used a psychiatric team comprising a psychiatrist, registered nurses, social workers, and a nurse practitioner. An overview of the psychiatric care delivery approach as it affects staff and patients is provided. The goal of this team-based model of service delivery is to provide quality care to patients in a caring and cost-effective manner.