Local property tax differences and business real estate values

This article posits a model of the effect of differences in changes in local property tax rates on changes in the business real estate tax base. It is also hypothesized that changes in the tax base influence changes in the property tax rate. Empirical findings for metropolitan Chicago are that both differences in property tax changes and levels have large effects on the growth of the value of business real estate. Also, changes in the property tax rate are found to depend upon changes in the tax base as well as the property tax level and its previous change.     

Bank risk taking and changes in the financial condition of banks' small and midsized commercial customers, 1978–1988 and 1988–1991

This study examines the pattern of bank risk taking through the 1980s and early 1990s, as reflected in the reported financial condition of banks' small and midsized customer firms. Using industry data published in Robert Morris Associates'Annual Statement Studies, we examine the ten-year period 1978–1988 to ascertain changes in the financial condition of banks' commerical customers during the 1980s, and the following three-year period 1988–1991, to determine financial condition changes in customer firms during the early 1990s. Empirical results suggest banks' small and midsized commercial clientele shifted toward riskier organizations From 1988 to 1988, confirming the popularized notion of banks' increased tolerance for risk during the 1980s. From 1988 to 1991, however, banks' client firms evidenced a pattern of risk reduction, which is consistent with the argument that banks have retrenched in their risk taking in recent years, shifting back toward a more financially sound customer base.     

Multiperiod hedging in the presence of stochastic volatility

In this paper, we characterize the multiperiod minimum-risk hedge strategy within the stochastic volatility (SV) framework and compare it to other hedge strategies on the basis of hedging performance. Using crude oil markets as an example, we demonstrate that the SV model is appropriate in depicting price behaviour. However, ex ante and ex post comparisons indicate that the SV strategy is inferior to conventional hedging strategies. There is also evidence that the Generalized Autoregressive Conditional Heteroskedasticity (GARCH) strategy may be better than the SV strategy, at least in terms of variance reduction.     

Market Power,Efficiency and the Dispersion of Systematic Risk

A number of studies have used the Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM) to integrate product market and financial theories of the firm. We reexamine the relationship between product market structure and systematic risk at the firm and industry level. We show that theory yields no testable implications at the firm level. We show, however, that there is a relationship between the intraindustry dispersion of systematic risk and industry concentration which depends on the causes and consequences of concentration. Estimates of the relationship between the intraindustry variance of and concentration for a 1987 cross-section of U.S. industries suggest that concentration allows larger firms to exercise market power.     

An Examination of Entrepreneurship Centers in the United States: A National Survey

This study fills a gap in previous research by performing an in-depth analysis of 146 entrepreneurship centers in the United States. This two-part study looks at the characteristics of the entire sample of entrepreneurship centers and then examines the differences between top-ranked centers and nonranked centers. The findings indicate that top-ranked centers have three times as many endowed chairs as nonranked centers. Top-ranked centers also offer more comprehensive graduate programs. Overall, top-ranked centers have more resources and personnel. The findings of this study will assist students, faculty, staff, administrators, directors, and other stakeholders of entrepreneurship centers.     

Measuring and testing change in strategic management research

This paper reviews some critical issues associated with measuring and testing change and then reports on how strategy researchers have addressed those matters. We first discuss three key methodological requirements: reliability assumptions of change variables, correlations between the change variable and its initial measure, and selection of unbiased measurement alternatives. Next, we present data from a content analysis of 126 change studies which suggest that strategy researchers tend not to recognize those requirements. Indeed, the typical approach used to measure and test change (as a simple difference between two measures of the same variable) is usually inappropriate and could lead to inaccurate findings and flawed conclusions. We conclude by offering suggestions for how change can be studied more rigorously. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Brand Name Audit Pricing,Industry Specialization,and Leadership Premiums post‐Big 8 and Big 6 Mergers*

This paper investigates brand name, industry specialization, and leadership audit pricing in the wake of the mergers that created the Big 6 and the Big 5 accounting firms. For samples of Australian listed public companies in each of the postmerger years 1990, 1992, 1994, and 1998, we estimate national audit fee premiums for the Big 6/5 auditors and the industry specialists and leaders. We find limited support for the ability of the Big 6/5 to obtain fee premiums over non‐Big 6/5 for those industries not having specialist auditors. Nonspecialist Big 6/5 auditors are able to obtain fee premiums over nonspecialist non‐Big 6/5 auditors for those industries having specialist auditors. However, this result only holds among the smaller half of our sample. We do not find strong support for the presence of industry specialist premiums in the postmerger years, especially after 1990, using various definitions of industry specialist. We find, at best, limited support for the presence of industry leadership premiums. The evidence suggests that after the Big 8/6 audit firm mergers, some caution is required in generalizing the Craswell, Francis, and Taylor 1995 finding of national market industry specialist premiums. More generally, the study raises questions about the tenuous link between the concept of specialization and national market‐share statistics.     

Safety-critical and securtiy-critical computing in britain: an exploration

This paper explores the development and assessment, in the UK, of computer systems which are critical to human safety (focusing promarily on railways, civil aviation, offshore oil and defence), and also of those critical to national security are identified, ranging from ad hoc and unsystematic pratices, through good software engineering to the use of formal, mathematical methods. We discuss whether the resultant systems are safe and secure, and highlight two key problems: how to demonstrate safety and security, in advance of use; and how to ensure safe human computer interaction.