Neighborhood effects of concentrated mortgage foreclosures

As the national mortgage crisis has worsened, an increasing number of communities are facing declining housing prices and high rates of foreclosure. Central to the call for government intervention in this crisis is the claim that foreclosures not only hurt those who are losing their homes to foreclosure, but also harm neighbors by reducing the value of nearby properties and in turn, reducing local governments’ tax bases. The extent to which foreclosures do in fact drive down neighboring property values has become a crucial question for policy-makers. In this paper, we use a unique dataset on property sales and foreclosure filings in New York City from 2000 to 2005 to identify the effects of foreclosure starts on housing prices in the surrounding neighborhood. Regression results suggest that above some threshold, proximity to properties in foreclosure is associated with lower sales prices. The magnitude of the price discount increases with the number of properties in foreclosure, but not in a linear relationship.     

Economic freedom at metropolitan statistical area borders

This paper applies a variation on differences-in-differences to the effects of economic freedom in matched bordering metropolitan statistical areas using the Metropolitan Economic Freedom Index. While a great deal of research has explored the relationship between economic freedom and economic performance, less has been done at the local level. We find that economic freedom has a positive effect on several measures of economic performance, but no effect on population.     

Rating Expatriate Leader Effectiveness in Multisource Feedback Systems: Cultural Distance and Hierarchical Effects

A critical challenge for global firms is to implement assessment tools to develop expatriate leaders who can effectively manage role relationships across different directions (upward, laterally, downward) in cross‐national contexts. Drawing on social categorization and relational demography theories and a data set of 360‐degree ratings of expatriates from 36 countries, we use multilevel modeling to investigate relationships between cultural distance and ratings of leadership effectiveness in task and contextual performance by colleagues with different hierarchical vantage points (subordinates, supervisors, peers). Cultural distance refers to the overall degree of difference in key cultural values identified in the GLOBE study between an expatriate's and coworkers’ countries of origin. Unlike supervisors as a rating group, results show that peer and subordinate raters as a group may be more likely to have their ratings negatively influenced by cultural distance, an effect that may be exacerbated for peer ratings from countries higher in power distance and lower in humane orientation. This study contributes to the understanding of multisource feedback systems to assess expatriate leadership effectiveness by identifying likely group ratings tendencies linked to cultural distance and hierarchical perspectives. Organizations should develop strategies to mitigate possible effects of cultural distance on subordinate and peer ratings of expatriates. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Brothers and Breadwinners: Legislating Living Wages in the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938

Attention to the implicit and explicit wage theories articulated by economic actors and embedded in public policy reveals the underlying social norms and values in specific historical and industrial contexts. The Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 (FLSA), the first federal minimum wage legislation in the United States, legitimated and institutionalized the idea that living standards and workers' needs matter in setting wages. They matter not simply in generating labor supply, but as the basis for government intervention in market mechanisms. Rather than viewing market mechanisms and government regulations dichotomously, economic actors debating the FLSA treated both market mechanisms and socially defined living standards as legitimate elements of wage-setting. Wage regulations also, by necessity, must grapple with issues of identity, that is, which workers (especially as defined by class, gender, and race?–?ethnicity) are deserving of particular living standards. Debates over the language in the FLSA reveal the contested nature of masculinity during the period of economic crisis in the 1930s. Advocates responded by defining a multiplicity of living wages corresponding with different living standards, as well as a multiplicity of strategies for achieving them.     

An Approach to Examining Relative Efficiency in the Canadian Livestock Slaughtering Industry

In order to identify possibilities for enhancing economic efficiency, levels of relative performance in subsectors of the Canadian livestock slaughtering industry are examined. A variant of the transcendental logarithmic profit function is used to compare relative economic, technical and allocative efficiency between groups of plants of different size, and groups of plants with different degrees of product specialization. Large plants are found to be more technically efficient than small plants, and plants producing both fresh and processed products are found to be more technically efficient than those producing only fresh products. All categories of meat processing plants are found to be relatively and absolutely allocatively efficient. Further research is necessary at an individual firm level to establish specific efficiency characteristics. Afin ?identifier les possibilités ?accroissement de ?efficacité économique dans ?industrie canadienne de ?abattage, les niveaux de performances relatives des sous-secteurs sont analysés. Une variante de la forme logarithmique transcendantale de la fonction de profit est utilisée afin de comparer ?efficacité relative, technique et allocative entre groupes ?abattoirs de différentes tailles et de différents degrés de spécialisation. Cette comparaison montre que les abattoirs de grande taille sont techniquement plus efficaces que ceux de taille modeste. Les abattoirs mettant en marché à la fois des produits frais et transformés sont techniquement plus efficients comparativement aux abattoirs spécialisés dans le produit frais. Toutes les catégories de transformateurs sont relativement et de façon absolue allocativement efficients. Une recherche plus poussée est nécessaire afin ?établir les caractéristiques ?efficience individuelles.     

The impact of prevention versus promotion hope on CSR activities

In order to benefit from CSR (corporate social responsibility) activities, companies need to adopt appropriate advertising strategies that can positively influence consumers’ purchase decisions while generating favorable attitudes toward the company. Advertising certain products or services triggers the feeling of hope and creates specific goals that consumers aim to achieve. In this study, we distinguish between two types of hope—promotion hope versus prevention hope, and examine their impact in the context of CSR. Results from an experimental study reveal that the impact of CSR activities on consumer attitudes and behavioral intentions depends on the type of hope. When the ad portrayed a message inducing prevention hope, an altruistic CSR activity was more effective than a strategic CSR activity. Conversely, the impact of the two CSR activities did not differ in the promotion ad context.     

The electoral college: diversification and the election process

The basic financial principle of diversification is applied to the U.S. Presidential election process. Applying this principle shows that the current Electoral College system may offer significant advantages over a direct voting system. Calls for an abolishment of the Electoral College may be premature if the goal of the election process is to ensure accurate results.      

Biblical Safeguards and Traditions as Potential Guidance for the Lending of Monies

Some individuals and businesses have become increasingly dependent upon multiple financing sources for economic survival. Certain currently used lending policies, such as interest-only loans and revolving credit lines, may encourage borrower dependency on the lender. The paper reviews religious teachings, specifically religious safeguards on lending identified in primary Jewish sources including the Tanach and rabbinic teachings, and finds that the safeguards in place centuries ago may still be relevant for lending practices today to both protect the borrower while still providing a profitable means to help borrowers. Ellen J. Lippman is an Associate Professor of Accounting at the Robert B. Pamplin School of Business Administration, University of Portland. She is a past fellowship recipient, awarded by the Wexner Heritage Foundation. She has published in Transportation Law Journal, The Logistics and Transportation Review, AICPA Professor-Practitioner Cases, and the Journal of Accounting & Business Research. Her recent accounting research considers accountant culpability during the Holocaust.     

Economic and Financial Climate Change: A Business Economist's Perspective

Over the past 50 years, one of the key elements of the evolution of the world economy has been the increasing complexity of financial transactions. This complexity is manifested in financial layering and disintermediation that has increased risk in the real as well as the financial sectors. The consequences of an adverse outcome of this risk are obvious in the current economic situation. This paper analyzes the imbalances that have arisen between the real and financial sectors and the consequences of the ballooning of the financial sector without producing positive contributions to the real sector and increasing risk to both. It calls for restraint on excesses of financial innovation and risk taking that cannot be held in check by market forces alone.     

中国投资者着眼应对股市寒流

那些对中国股市有疑心的人预计今年大市会进一步走淡，而投资者对去年那种“来者不拒”的心态也产生了动摇。