Contagion or Competition: Going Concern Audit Opinions for Real Estate Firms

We examine whether intra–industry information transfers from going–concern audit opinion announcements create contagion or competitive stock price reactions for other real estate firms operating in the same line of business. Using returns from publicly-traded land subdivision/development firms and Real Estate Investment Trusts, we find modest evidence supporting a competitive effect among rival firms as a result of another real estate firm announcing the receipt of a Going Concern Opinion (GCO) from its independent auditors.     

Eurobond underwriter spreads

We examine the determinants of underwriter spreads on straight/fixed rate Eurobonds issued by US firms between 1990 and 1998. We find that underwriter spreads are influenced by: (i) the governing law as it influences the timely and orderly renegotiation of contract terms, with bonds governed by English law having significantly lower spreads; (ii) the distribution mechanism, with spreads higher on public issues than private placements; (iii) underwriter reputation, with more reputable underwriters charging higher spreads; and (iv) the choice of currency, with spreads higher in the less frequently used currencies and/or in currencies where underwriting activities are more concentrated.     

Incentives and Information Exchange in International Taxation

The exchange of taxpayer-specific information between national tax authorities has recently emerged as a key and controversial topic in international tax policy discussions, most notably with the OECD's harmful tax practices project and the EU's savings tax initiative. This paper analyzes the effects of information exchange and withholding taxes, recognizing that countries which agree to exchange information do not forfeit the ability to levy withholding taxes, and also focusing in particular on the effects of innovative revenue-sharing arrangements. Amongst the findings are that: (i) the transfer of withholding tax receipts to the residence country, as planned in the European Union, has no effect on equilibrium tax rates, but acts purely as a lump-sum transfer; (ii) in contrast, allocating some of the revenue from information exchange to the source country—counter to usual practice (though no less so than the EU agreement)—would have adverse strategic effects on total revenue; (iii) nevertheless, any withholding tax regime is Pareto dominated by information exchange combined with appropriate revenue sharing; and, in particular, (iv) sharing of the additional revenues raised from information provided, while efficiency-reducing, could be in the interests of large countries as a means of persuading small countries to provide that information voluntarily. JEL Code: H77, H87, F42     

Optimal portfolio choice in the bond market

We consider the Merton problem of optimal portfolio choice when the traded instruments are the set of zero-coupon bonds. Working within a Markovian Heath–Jarrow–Morton model of the interest rate term structure driven by an infinite-dimensional Wiener process, we give sufficient conditions for the existence and uniqueness of an optimal trading strategy. When there is uniqueness, we provide a characterization of the optimal portfolio as a sum of mutual funds. Furthermore, we show that a Gauss–Markov random field model proposed by Kennedy [Math. Financ. 4, 247–258(1994)] can be treated in this framework, and explicitly calculate the optimal portfolio. We show that the optimal portfolio in this case can be identified with the discontinuities of a certain function of the market parameters.     

IOSCO《证券监管目标和原则》述评

在评估监管机构效率的标准上，《目标和原则》为新兴市场和发达市场的监管均提出了应当达到的最佳实践标准，并且还为新兴市场监管提供了与国内相关各方特别是和政府谈判的筹码。     

The Institutions of Industrial Restructuring in Southeast Asia

The expected restructuring of Asian corporations in the aftermath of the 1997 financial crisis has not materialized. This paper argues that restructuring in Asia will depend upon two institutional changes. First, the creation of high quality institutions that promotes the growth of new entrants and provides incentives to incumbents to restructure and or exit. Second, that the market scope of dominant incumbents be confronted and limited. The first condition creates pathways for new organizational populations to enter the economy and the second ensures room for their growth. The current debate emphasizes the former but neglects the latter. The absence of either inhibits the rate and direction of restructuring for two reasons. First, incumbents may lack the incentive and ability to exit or transform their structures and, secondly, incumbents can create a ‘blocking coalition’ to diminish competition from new entrants.     

Wer wird Professor für Kommunikationswissenschaft und Journalistik?

Der vorliegende Beitrag fragt nach der demographischen Struktur der zentralen akademischen Akteure der Kommunikationswissenschaft in Deutschland und nach m?glichen Ver?nderungen dieser Struktur in den letzten 50 Jahren. Die Analyse zeigt zum einen, dass von einem einheitlichen Zugang zum Hochschullehrerberuf nach wie vor keine Rede sein kann, und zum anderen, dass das Fach vor einer demographischen Herausforderung steht. Die Kommunikationswissenschaft hat sich durch Akademisierung und ?Versozialwissenschaftlichung? von ihren Wurzeln gel?st. War Berufserfahrung im Medienbereich bis in die 1960er Jahre Voraussetzung für eine Berufung, verfügt heute nur noch eine Minderheit über solche Erfahrungen. Da die Existenz des Faches im Rahmen der Universit?t auch von der Nachfrage der Studierenden abh?ngt, kann man über die Folgen des anstehenden Generationswechsels nur spekulieren. In jedem Fall fehlt es an formal für die Hochschullehrerlaufbahn qualifiziertem Nachwuchs. Deshalb sind erhebliche Anstrengungen erforderlich, wenn der Boom im letzten Drittel des 20. Jahrhunderts sich nicht als Seifenblase erweisen soll.     

Bank Lending to Native American Applicants: An Investigation of Mortgage Flows and Government Guarantee Programs on Native American Lands

We investigate the efficacy of government guarantee programs for mortgage loans made on tribal lands by comparing lending outcomes for White applicants and Native Americans (NAs) living on- and off reservation lands. Simultaneous equations models with the loan-to-income ratio endogenous indicate both on- and off-reservation NA applicants experience higher conditional denial rates compared with otherwise similar White applicants. NAs living on-reservation are equally as likely to be approved for mortgage loans as off-reservation NAs. On-reservation applicants self-select lower loan-to-income ratios, and are held to a higher standard for this credit variable, likely because lower housing values and other economic variables challenge on-reservation applicants. Our findings suggest lack of financial resources, lack of applicant education about and experience with the mortgage process, low creditworthiness, and lender reluctance to confront burdensome bureaucracy limit on-reservation guarantee program success.     

Reorganizing Two-Tier Local Government for Regional Assemblies

The Government has decided that referenda will be held in three northern regions of England regarding the establishment of elected regional assemblies. If these are established, the areas with two-tier local government would be converted to unitary structures. The Government asserts that this would be necessary because the retention of the two tiers would be the retention of one tier too many, but offers no evidence to back up this assertion. This assertion has been tested by an analysis of the Audit Commission's Comprehensive Performance Assessment (CPA) ratings for the single tier and county councils, which shows that the counties have achieved better assessments than the other principal authorities. In addition, the Boundary Committee has been advised by the Government to use a costing model which is seriously inadequate: transition costs are ignored and the basis for assessing on-going costs is extremely narrow. Transition costs would be at least £110 per resident in the two-tier areas if there were to be three unitary councils for each county area, and there is no reasonable prospect that there would in fact be on-going savings except with unitary counties.     

Determinants of business cycle comovement: a robust analysis

This paper investigates the determinants of business cycle comovement between countries. Our dataset includes over 100 countries, both developed and developing. We search for variables that are “robust” in explaining comovement, using the approach of Leamer (Amer. Econom. Rev. 73 (1983) 31). Variables considered are (i) bilateral trade between countries; (ii) total trade in each country; (iii) sectoral structure; (iv) similarity in export and import baskets; (v) factor endowments; and (vi) gravity variables. We find that bilateral trade is robust. However, two variables that the literature has argued are important for business cycles—industrial structure and currency unions—are found not to be robust.