A behavioral model of the adoption of protective activities

Considerable empirical evidence suggests that individuals are unwilling to protect themselves against low probability-high loss events even if the costs of protection are subsidized. This behavior has been difficult to rationalize using the traditional expected utility model. This paper proposes a model of adoption of protective activities which emphasizes the importance of interpersonal communication and past experience. The time path of adoption and an equilibrium rate is characterized. Properties of the model shed light on the reasons for low usage of seat belts and limited purchase of federally subsidized flood insurance.     

A new perspective on performance persistence: evidence using portfolio holdings

We investigate the existence and sources of performance persistence for Australian equity funds, using monthly portfolio holdings data. We find significant persistence among outperforming rather than underperforming funds, which is primarily related to security selection skill, and is associated with growth‐orientated funds. Meanwhile, the relation between persistence and momentum is secondary and nuanced. Further, persistence largely derives from existing holdings, while subsequent active trading contributes only moderately positive returns for both outperforming and underperforming funds. We also find that persistence fades beyond 6 months and vanishes after 24 months. Our findings differ from those for U.S. equity funds and previous Australian studies, implying that persistence may vary with market context and its identification may depend on data availability.     

The interrelations between legal and economic processes: a consideration of the reactions

The responses to my 1972 article on the interrelations between legal and economic processes are summarized and critiqued. The principal authors are James Buchanan, Peter Boettke, and William Fischell. My replies center on the normative character of their proposed alternative interpretations vis-à-vis my strictly positive approach. My positivist approach considers law as made rather than found; that law is not something transcendental and given but a matter of human social choice through pragmatic processes; that belief system and material interest influence law making and the law that is made influences belief system and material interests. The article thus is a defense of undertaking an objective, positivist analysis of law and government as they exist in actual political economies (legal-economic nexuses).

Emerging market multinational corporations' cross-border mergers and acquisitions and political distance: Does corporate political activity matter?

Due to rising anti-globalization sentiment, emerging market multinational corporations (EMNCs) face additional challenges in conducting cross-border mergers and acquisitions, particularly in the developed markets. Built on institutional theory, we specifically examine how political distance, representing host–home country differences in various attributes in the political environment, influences the speed of approval for EMNC acquisition in the United States. The findings suggest that a larger political distance between the United States and EMNCs home country reflects challenges for EMNCs to gain legitimacy in the United States, resulting in the longer time required for acquisition approval. The EMNCs' corporate political activity moderated this relationship in that more corporate political activity improves the legitimacy perception of EMNCs among political actors, decreasing the time required for acquisition approval.     

Population density,urbanisation and agricultural mechanisation in modern Ghana

Farmers' technological choices take place within farming systems that are shaped by population pressure, connectivity to urban markets and agro-ecological conditions. The relationship between these drivers and agricultural technology use is ambiguous. On the one hand, population growth can increase the supply of labour, driving down wage rates and reducing the incentives for mechanisation. On the other hand, rural–urban movements of people can reduce rural labour supply while simultaneously driving up the demand for food and hence the demand for mechanisation. Past theories of agricultural mechanisation have explained the low adoption of agricultural machinery in land-abundant cereal production systems of SSA in terms of these drivers. However, recent empirical observations find extensive adoption of mechanised ploughing technology by small, medium and large-scale farmers in Ghana. Examining the Ghanaian experience can thus shed new light on theories of mechanisation. A large household survey dataset covering eight districts is combined with geo-spatial data on population, urban proximity and agro-ecological factors to consider whether the existing theories are able to explain farm-level adoption decisions in this context. The analysis finds that a farmer's decision to use agricultural machinery is associated with lower population density and proximity to urban centres. In northern Ghana, these drivers of technological change are as important as farm household characteristics in understanding cross-sectional patterns of machinery adoption.     

CAPITAL ALLOCATION IN LESS DEVELOPED ECONOMIES

“European mining is done by companies, and company's money is almost like government money…. Machinery is bought, houses are built, in fact the capital of the company is spent…. After possibly a series of great hardships to the staff and disasters to the company, it is found that the tin raised is infinitesimal in value when compared with the rate of expenditure, and that the longer the work goes on the greater will be the losses. This is usually discovered when the paid-up capital is all but exhausted. The company is wound up and the State gets a bad name with investors, and the only people who really enjoy themselves are the neighbouring Chinese miners who buy the mine and the plant for an old song and make several large fortunes out of working on their own ridiculous and primitive methods.”