Good News and Bad News about Firm‐Level Stock Returns of Internationally Exposed Firms

We examine stock returns of firms with international exposure. Our empirical work relies on Campbell's variance decomposition framework. Not surprisingly, we find that the volatility of discount rate and cash flow news increase with the degree of international exposure. As firms globalize, the cash flow effect is good news, while the discount rate effect amounts to bad news. The surprising result is that the covariance between the news terms increases with international exposure. This finding provides indirect evidence for the proposition that foreign exchange (FX) risk is a priced factor in the cross‐section of risk‐adjusted expected returns. JEL Classifications: G12, G15; EFM Classification Code: 330     

Genetically Modified Crops, Corporate Pricing Strategies, and Farmers' Adoption: The Case of Bt Cotton in Argentina

This article analyzes adoption and impacts of Bt cotton in Argentina against the background of monopoly pricing. Based on survey data, it is shown that the technology significantly reduces insecticide applications and increases yields; however, these advantages are curbed by the high price charged for genetically modified seeds. Using the contingent valuation method, it is shown that farmers' average willingness to pay is less than half the actual technology price. A lower price would not only increase benefits for growers, but could also multiply company profits, thus, resulting in a Pareto improvement. Implications of the sub-optimal pricing strategy are discussed.     

Buchanan’s constitutional political economy: exchange vs. choice in economics and in politics

This article discusses the methodological foundations of Buchanan’s constitutional political economy. We argue that Buchanan is a constitutional economist because he is an economist or a political economist. In other words, Buchanan is a constitutional economist—he insists on the necessity of focusing on constitutions and to analyze the “rules of the social game”—because he defines economics as a science of exchange. Buchanan’s definition of economics is not only specific, it is also opposed to the definition of economics that other economists retain and, above all, opposed to the definition of economics that many public choice theorists use. The latter have, in effect, adopted the Robbins 1932 definition of economics as a science of choice that Buchanan criticizes and rejects. Buchanan’s constitutional economics can be a branch of public choice only under certain conditions.

The physical Properties of marine sediments as inferred from Wavelet Correlation Analysis

Seismic waves traveling in the water/sediment or sub-bottom sediment interface have been the subject of considerable interest in underwater acoustics in recent years. Some progress has been made in understanding the propagation and attenuation characteristics of interface waves in different geological environments. However, the generating mechanisms are poorly understood. In particular, what is the acoustic-seismic energy conversion process? As seismic waves involve both time and space parameters it should be able to relate directly the propagation characteristics of the ocean bottom interface waves to the shear properties of the sediments over the propagation area. To address these problems we have applied the wavelet correlation method (WCR) to examine the variations of bottom characteristics and their role in coupling waterborne sound into the sea bottom. To confirm the validity of the developed modeling technique, we applied the wavelet correlation analysis for synthetic seismograms and field data. In this discussion paper we present images of the first and second shear modes and the interface wave component as a function of arrival time and frequency. We also discuss the possibility of inverting phase and group velocity information directly from the wavelet cross-correlation function and propose the way of using the WCR method to predict physical dynamic parameters of marine sediments.     

Does organizational culture play a role in the development of psychological distress?

The aim of this article is to analyze the extent to which organizational culture contributes to the symptoms of psychological distress in the workforce. Integrating organizational culture and work organization conditions makes it possible to examine how culture is associated with the various components of work organization conditions, and how these conditions might relate to symptoms of psychological distress in employees. Data from the SALVEO study were collected in 2009–2012 from a sample of 1824 individuals nested in 60 Canadian workplaces. Multilevel regression models were used to analyze the data. After controlling for individual and family characteristics, only group and rational cultures were associated with psychological distress, but both type of organization cultures were mediated by work organization conditions. Group culture is indirectly associated with lower levels of psychological distress since it favors lower levels of psychological demands and job insecurity. Rational culture is indirectly associated with higher levels of psychological distress because it favors higher psychological demand levels. The results obtained highlighted the importance of including variables relating to broader organizational context in models examining stress in the workplace.     

The relationship between supply chain factors and adoption of e-Collaboration tools: An empirical examination

We consider minimum-cost scheduling of different vehicle types on a predetermined set of one-way trips. Trips have predetermined ready times, deadlines and associated demands. All trips must be performed. The total time of operations on any vehicle is limited. We develop a mixed integer model to find the optimal number of vehicles at a minimum cost. Based on the hard nature of the problem, we propose six heuristics. Computational results reveal that heuristics return exceptionally good solutions for problem instances with up to 100 jobs in very small computation times, and are likely to perform well for larger instances.     

Bargaining over an uncertain outcome:¶the role of beliefs

We study the Nash bargaining solution of a problem in which two agents bargain over an uncertain outcome. Under the assumptions of risk neutrality and of constant absolute risk aversion, we study the way that the solution varies, ex ante, when we vary the beliefs of one agent. Changing an agent's beliefs in a way that makes them “more distant” from the other agent's beliefs makes the second agent better off. Received: 10 May 2001 / Accepted: 22 August 2001