Underpricing of Newly Issued Bonds: Evidence from the Swiss Capital Market

The pricing of newly issued bonds on the Swiss capital market is investigated over the years 1980–1982. The results reveal a slight underpricing of new bonds at the issue date that is roughly equal to the difference in transactions costs between the markets for new and seasoned bonds. Underpricing is no longer observed when the new bonds start to be traded on the stock exchange, that is, after about two days. Tests of several hypotheses show that unexpected changes in interest rates over the offering period explain part of the underpricing.     

The Impact of the Definition of Inflation on the Effectiveness of Inflation Accounting Adjustments

In tests of inflation accounting methods, inflation is generally seen as a simple phenomenon: the prices of all elements change at the same rate. The example presented here deals with a different case: inflation is characterized by changes in the structure of prices. In particular, prices of articles bought and articles sold do not vary at the same rates.
In this context, it is observed that three types of adjustments are not effective, i.e. they do not have the potential to report real or nominal rates of return. This result should be considered as a criticism of the coherence of inflation accounting methods.     

An Analysis of the Impact of Interest Rate Ceilings

The first aim of this study is to estimate the interest rates paid for motor vehicle loans. The second aim is to identify those potential borrowers most likely to be rationed out of the market by the imposition of rate ceilings. Rate ceilings constrain the rates paid by successful loan applicants to be no greater than the applicable ceiling level. These constraints are dealt with by treating the interest rate paid as a variable truncated at the ceiling level. Assuming the dependent variable is truncated normal, consistent estimates are obtained by employing the maximum likelihood method of Hausman and Wise.     

THE DUNLOP COMMISSION'S OMISSIONS ON AMERICAN LABOR MARKET POLICY

In 1994 and 1995, a U.S. presidential task force called the "Dunlop Commission" issued reports on the labor market and made various public policy recommendations. The commission's fact-finding report identified a variety of problems, primarily economic, such as widening wage inequality, lagging productivity, and unemployment. However, the commission's recommendation report limited its focus primarily to collective bargaining labor law and proposed solutions that appeared unlikely to have a significant impact on the problems identified in the first report. The commission's narrow charge, its insistence on maintaining a consensus among its members, and the limited range of views represented by its membership explain these inconsistencies.     

Before an Analyst Becomes an Analyst: Does Industry Experience Matter?

Using hand‐collected biographical information on financial analysts from 1983 to 2011, we find that analysts making forecasts on firms in industries related to their preanalyst experience have better forecast accuracy, evoke stronger market reactions to earning revisions, and are more likely to be named Institutional Investor all‐stars. Plausibly exogenous losses of analysts with related industry experience have real financial market implications—changes in firms’ information asymmetry and price reactions are significantly larger than those of other analysts. Overall, industry expertise acquired from preanalyst work experience is valuable to analysts, consistent with the emphasis placed on their industry knowledge by institutional investors.     

Information Provision in Procurement Auctions

We study the optimal provision of information in a procurement auction with horizontally differentiated goods. The buyer has private information about her preferred location on the product space and has access to a costless communication device. A seller who pays the entry cost may submit a bid comprising a location and a minimum price. We characterize the optimal information structure and show that the buyer prefers to attract only two bids. Further, additional sellers are inefficient since they reduce total and consumer surplus, gross of entry costs. We show that the buyer will not find it optimal to send public information to all sellers. On the other hand, she may profit from setting a minimum price and that a severe hold‐up problem arises if she lacks commitment to set up the rules of the auction ex ante.     

United States Trade in Consumer Products

The United States has experienced a large trade deficit in consumer products. This paper argues that the deficit is due in part to the institutional and behavioral frameworks in which consumer products are marketed. The existence of an effective mass distribution system, a large market relative to promotion expenditures and the change-orientation of the consumer can influence greatly the ability of nations to expand markets and stimulate sales of consumer products. These factors prevalent in the American economy have attracted imports. In contrast, their absence in the economies of our trading partners has limited our access to foreign markets. Policy implications of this situation and areas for further research are identified and discussed.     

Evidence on Attitudes Toward Alternative Sharing Arrangements

Attitudes of undergraduates toward a range of alternative organizational forms are surveyed. Results show that students prefer firms where employees have significant ownership and control. Our findings strongly support the hypothesis of a strong gender effect influencing undergraduates' preferences for different tyes of firms. Results also indicate the importance of political orientation in influencing respondents' preferences.