Greenwash: Corporate Environmental Disclosure under Threat of Audit

We develop an economic model of “greenwash,” in which a firm strategically discloses environmental information and an activist may audit and penalize the firm for disclosing positive but not negative aspects of its environmental profile. We fully characterize the model's equilibria, and derive a variety of predictions about disclosure behavior. We rationalize conflicting results in the empirical literature, finding a nonmonotonic relationship between a firm's expected environmental performance and its environmental disclosures. Greater activist pressure deters greenwash, but induces some firms to disclose less about their environmental performance. Environmental management systems discourage firms with poor expected environmental performance from greenwashing, which may justify public policies encouraging firms to adopt them.     

Correlated equilibrium existence for infinite games with type-dependent strategies

Under study are games in which players receive private signals and then simultaneously choose actions from compact sets. Payoffs are measurable in signals and jointly continuous in actions. This paper gives a counter-example to the main step in Cotter?s [K. Cotter, Correlated equilibrium in games with type-dependent strategies, J. Econ. Theory 54 (1991) 48-69] argument for correlated equilibrium existence for this class of games, and supplies an alternative proof.     

Divas of the Wassoulou Sound: Transformations in the Matrix of Cultural Production,Globalization, and Identity

This paper examines the role of popular music performance in a context of urban change, globalization, and gender. Through an in-depth examination of the Malian music style Wassoulou and its reigning star Oumou Sangaré, issues of gender, interpretation, and cultural production are discussed. Ethnographic data presented indicate that wassoulou performance provides much needed space for Malian youth to negotiate changing notions of identity and community without openly challenging the status quo of women and youth in traditional Mande social hierarchy. These new identities convey multiple and sometimes paradoxical symbolic meaning for Malian and world-music listeners. Viewing vocal performance in Mali as a verbal mode of communication and social display, wassoulou divas are particularly excellent sites for the study of emergent identities in the context of globalization.     

Analyst forecast characteristics and the cost of debt

We examine the relation between analyst forecast characteristics and the cost of debt financing. Consistent with the view that the information contained in analysts’ forecasts is economically significant across asset classes, we find that analyst activity reduces bond yield spreads. We also find that the economic impact of analysts is most pronounced when uncertainty about firm value is highest (that is, when firms have high idiosyncratic risk). Our findings are robust to controls for private information in equity prices and level of corporate disclosures. Overall, the results indicate that the information contained in analyst forecasts is valued outside the equity market and provide an additional channel in which better information is associated with a lower cost of capital.     

Astroturf: Interest Group Lobbying and Corporate Strategy

We study three corporate nonmarket strategies designed to influence the lobbying behavior of other special interest groups: (1) astroturf , in which the firm covertly subsidizes a group with similar views to lobby when it normally would not; (2) the bear hug , in which the firm overtly pays a group to alter its lobbying activities; and (3) self-regulation , in which the firm voluntarily limits the potential social harm from its activities. All three strategies reduce the informativeness of lobbying, and all reduce the payoff of the public decision-maker. We show that the decision-maker would benefit by requiring the public disclosure of funds spent on astroturf lobbying but that the availability of alternative influence strategies limits the impact of such a policy.     

The Impact of Consumers’ Need for Uniqueness and Nationality on Generation Y's Retail Patronage Behaviors: Investigating American and Taiwanese Consumers

ABSTRACT

Generation Y (Gen Y) consumers are now one of the most influential buying segments in U.S. history. This article empirically assesses the extent to which American Gen Y consumers and same-aged Taiwanese consumers’ need for uniqueness serves as a meaningful discriminant across retail patronage behaviors for branded apparel products. Results indicate a great deal of similarity between the two cultures’ need for uniqueness. Empirical findings reveal that consumers’ need for uniqueness does influence retail patronage behaviors. The implications of the similarities and differences between American Gen Y consumers and their Taiwanese counterparts serve as potential managerial mechanisms for building and sustaining retail patronage in a globalization era.     

A point optimal test for heteroscedastic disturbances

A new test for additive heteroscedasticity in the disturbances of the linear regression model is proposed. Power functions of various forms of the new test are compared empirically with those of currently favoured tests for a range of heteroscedastic models. The results highlight the power advantage of a test which is MP1 at a central point in the alternative hypothesis parameter space. The main conclusion is that the recommended version of the new test is generally more powerful than existing tests against medium and severe heteroscedasticity, whereas the King and Szroeter tests perform better against weak heteroscedasticity.