What Does CEOs’ Pay-for-Performance Reveal About Shareholders’ Attitude Toward Earnings Overstatements?

If overstatements were a symptom of the agency conflict, pay-for-performance sensitivities should have increased in response to the additional penalties for misreporting imposed by SOX. Our finding of their decrease is inconsistent with the view that overstatements were an unintended consequence of incentive pay prior to 2002. To corroborate our interpretation, we show that (i) CEO pay-for-performance sensitivities are higher among firms whose shareholders stand to benefit from overstatements; (ii) this cross-sectional relationship weakens significantly after SOX; and (iii) the within-firm decrease in pay-for-performance sensitivity is most pronounced among firms with high pre-SOX shareholder benefits from overstatements.     

Equity in Financing Primary and Secondary Education

Abstract . Per pupil educational costs for Kansas counties are analyzed according to degree to which the county is rural. The loss or gain due to migration of educated young people is then added into the costs. Those costs are then compared to ability to pay according to a number of indicators in each category of the county. The impact of various forms of taxation to support schools is analyzed. Rural counties spend more per pupil and pay higher per capita property taxes. The differences in cost between rural and urban areas is even greater when the effects of migration are included. Household incomes tend to be lower in more rural counties. The effects of a court-ordered change in school finance will increase the inequalities between rural and urban areas. It is contended that reliance on the property tax contributes highly to this inequality.     

Measuring Lifetime Redistribution in Dutch Occupational Pensions

Summary  This paper assesses how the Dutch system of occupational pensions redistributes between and within generations. The approach in this paper deviates from the usual approach by incorporating the full life cycle in the measurements, rather than only the annual effects. In order to quantify redistribution, we use the level of educational attainment, gender and age to classify the pension fund population. For all groups distinguished, we measure in present value terms the average net benefit from participating in occupational pensions. The results indicate a sizable redistribution from males to females and from low educated to higher educated workers. On a lifetime basis, the impact of intergenerational transfers is modest. I am grateful to the two anonymous referees, Ed Westerhout, Casper van Ewijk, Lex Meijdam, Yvonne Adema and Peter Kooiman for their helpful comments on earlier drafts of this paper, and to Andre Nibbelink for his valuable computational assistance.     

New Belgian Stock Market Returns: 1832–1914

The limited availability of high quality and computer readable data seriously impedes research in history and finance. We introduce a new monthly return series for Belgian owned equity based on Brussels Stock Market data for the period 1832–1914 as an improvement to the popular Drappier index. Over this period, our dataset includes 446,374 prices, 23,976 dividends, 371 stock and reverse splits (or other capital operations) on 2037 stocks of 1387 (foreign and Belgian) companies. Our dataset includes all shares and bonds but also high-quality information on prices, dividends, shares outstanding and market capitalization. In addition, company, country and sector information is available. We construct value weighted, price weighted and equally weighted indices as well as dividend yields. We find three important results. First, total nominal returns hover between 3.29% and 5.35% per annum, depending on how individual stocks are aggregated into the index. Second, dividend income constitutes the major part of total return and dividend distributions have a clear seasonal pattern. Third, the results highlight several drawbacks of the Drappier indices, especially an upward bias in expected equity performance.     

Weiter behandeln oder nicht?

Ein Fallbeispiel - Frau Schneider erkrankte im Alter von 73 Jahren an einer akuten myeloischen Leuk?mie (AML). Die eingeleiteten Therapien griffen nicht. Schlie?lich stimmte sie der Therapiebegrenzung zu. Vor welchen klinischen und normativen Herausforderungen stand das Behandlungsteam? Welche L?sungsans?tze für das praktische Vorgehen k?nnen aus diesem Fall geschlussfolgert werden?     

» Mehrwertkommunikation erfordert nach vollziehbare Kriterien für den Kunden «

Schweizer Konsumenten setzen sich sehr kritisch mit Lebensmitteln auseinander und sch?tzen Produkte, die über einen erkennbaren und relevanten Mehrwert verfügen. Mit einer innovativen Produktpalette an hochwertigen Frischeprodukten ist es Emmi gelungen, im In- und Ausland zu einem führenden Anbieter von Mehrwertprodukten aufzusteigen. Urs Riedener erkl?rt diesen Mehrwert und wieso Authentizit?t eine unabdingbare Voraussetzung für Glaubwürdigkeit ist.