Efficiency and technological change at US research universities

This article investigates the determinants of efficiency and technological progress at US research universities. It relies on a unique panel data set of multiple outputs and inputs from 92 universities covering the period 1981–1998. Over that time span, US universities experienced large increases in industry funding and in academic patenting activity. In this context, the directional distance function and a nonparametric representation of the underlying production technology are combined to obtain estimates of productivity growth and technical efficiency. An econometric analysis is then presented to examine the determinants of technical efficiency and the rate of technological progress. The results show how changes in funding sources for US research universities affects research performance.     

Time to re-think engineering design standards in a changing climate: the role of risk-based approaches

The design and construction of the built environment requires explicitly addressing the risk-resilience tradeoff – too weak and the structure may fail, too strong and it will result in excess capacity, cost and embodied energy. This tradeoff is generally managed through the establishment of, and compliance with building standards and codes that often specify the exact methodology by which design parameters shall be calculated from environmental measurements of wind speeds, wave heights, flood levels and other environmental variables. Furthermore, these standards commonly legislate that historical data be used to calculate these design parameters. However, climate science has revealed that in some, if not many cases, these historical datasets may not be representative of future conditions and thus using historical data to develop design parameters for future long-lived infrastructure may increase the likelihood that the risk-resilience tradeoff becomes inadvertently skewed. Hence we now have a conundrum in that engineers are directed to design structures using standards that are based on time series on environmental parameters that we believe in some cases may be unrepresentative of the conditions which structures may face.     

The impact of institutional sources of capital upon the minority-oriented venture capital industry

Venture capital (VC) funds specializing in investing equity capital in minority-owned businesses have grown rapidly over the past decade, fueled by the willingness of major institutional investors to support this traditionally neglected niche. We investigate impacts of public pension funds upon the minority VC sector. These funds, providing over half of all capital invested in minority VCs, selectively invest, seeking to fund only those VCs likely to generate high returns. Although they attempt to pick the winners, our findings indicate that they have failed to do so. The influence of public pension funds upon the minority VCs is nonetheless real, skewing investing away from traditional practices and toward those of the venture capital mainstream. In the process, minority VCs funded by pension fund money invest in high-tech fields more than other minority-oriented VC funds do. Further, they are less likely to fund minority-owned small firms, focusing increasingly upon firms owned by nonminority Whites. Neither of these trends has resulted in increased returns. Rather, diverting minority-oriented VCs away from their traditional mission of investing in minority firms operating in a broad range of industries has resulted in lower returns over the years studied.     

The embedded sales force: Connecting buying and selling organizations

Business-to-business firms are increasingly focusing on building long-term partnering relationships with key customers. Salespeople are often responsible for managing these relationships. To be effective as relationship managers, salespeople need to be embedded in both their firm’s and customers’ organizations. They need to have extensive knowledge of their customers’ business and also know and be able to leverage their firm’s resources to develop offerings tailored to their customers’ needs. Their companies and sales managers need to use different approaches to manage and support salespeople in this new role. In this paper, we examine some issues affecting the interfaces between elements of the embedded sales force and suggest some directions for future research and methods for examining these issues.     

Smoothing Income against Crop Flood Losses in Amazonia: Rain Forest or Rivers as a Safety Net?

This article examines the role of ex post labor supply in smoothing income in response to crop losses caused by large floods among riverine households in the Peruvian Amazon, where rich environmental endowments permit a variety of resource extractive activities and coping responses. The paper finds that households respond to crop losses primarily by intensifying fishing effort, not by relying on gathering of nontimber forest products, hunting, or asset liquidation. This ex post labor adjustment helps to smooth total income against small crop losses but less well against large crop losses. Both relatively nonpoor households with better fishing capital and poor young households with a physical labor advantage employ this natural insurance in rivers.     

A COMPREHENSIVE EXAMINATION OF VOLUME EFFECTS AND SEASONALITY IN DAILY SECURITY RETURNS

In this study, an integrated model of return seasonality is developed and the hypothesis that seasonality is associated with changes in relative trading volume is examined. Return regularities associated with the turn of the month, the week of the month, and holiday closings are documented. Beyond these effects, neither the turn of the year nor the January effect is significant for large firms. Relative volume is shown to display calendar regularities similar to those in returns, and tests indicate a causal relationship flowing from volume to returns.     

Preliminary Evaluation of the HECM Reverse Mortgage Program

This paper describes and evaluates the Home Equity Conversion Mortgage (HECM) insurance demonstration, designed to encourage the development of private reverse mortgage programs by insuring lenders against the risks associated with new mortgage lending programs and with reverse mortgages in particular. The paper evaluates demand for the program by analyzing the attributes of participating borrowers, their properties and the types of payment options chosen. It also presents several observations regarding participation by the financial community in the HECM demonstration, required counseling and legal and regulatory issues that may hamper the growth and development of reverse mortgage programs in general.
The findings suggest strong demand for reverse mortgages among "house-rich, cash-poor" elderly homeowners, either to supplement inadequate current incomes or to provide a reserve against unexpected lump-sum expenses. The flexible design of the HECM program addresses a wide variety of borrower financial needs, even though it imposes higher costs on lenders and servicers. The continued growth of the program, however, is hindered by a shortage of qualified housing counselors in some areas, as well as by a variety of legal and regulatory barriers.