Does Membership Homogeneity Matter for Group-based Financial Services? Evidence from the Gambia

This paper examines the effect of membership composition on the components of group design to provide financial services, and on the performance of these groups. Regression results based on data from RoSCAs in the Gambia show that gender homogeneity is less likely to affect components of group design than is homogeneity in income generating capacity of members. Membership homogeniety does not directly affect the repayment performance of the members but only indirectly through the components of the group design. — Cet article examine l’incidence de la composition sur les composantes et la performance des groupes constitués en vue de la fourniture de services financiers. Selon les résultats d’une analyse de régression basée sur les données de “RoSCA” en Gambie, il apparaît que l’homogénéité du genre influe moins sur les composantes de la conception des groupes que l’homogénéité de la capacité des groupes à générer des revenus. En ce qui concerne la performance en matière de remboursement, l’incidence de l’homogénéité de la composition n’est pas directe mais indirecte au travers des composantes de la conception des groupes.     

A new perspective on performance persistence: evidence using portfolio holdings

We investigate the existence and sources of performance persistence for Australian equity funds, using monthly portfolio holdings data. We find significant persistence among outperforming rather than underperforming funds, which is primarily related to security selection skill, and is associated with growth‐orientated funds. Meanwhile, the relation between persistence and momentum is secondary and nuanced. Further, persistence largely derives from existing holdings, while subsequent active trading contributes only moderately positive returns for both outperforming and underperforming funds. We also find that persistence fades beyond 6 months and vanishes after 24 months. Our findings differ from those for U.S. equity funds and previous Australian studies, implying that persistence may vary with market context and its identification may depend on data availability.     

Megaw and the public sector: A union response

One Civil Service union ‐ the Institute of Professional Civil Servants ‐ welcomed the Megaw Report on the grounds that it would help restore internal relativities. Unions representing the great majority of civil servants, however, came out strongly against it. The general secretaries of the Civil and Public Servants Association and the Society of Civil and Public Servants prepared a note for the TUC's public service committee on the implications of Megaw for the public sector as a whole. The following is based on that note.     

The influence of other comprehensive income on discretionary expenditures

Other comprehensive income items (OCI) increase and decrease book value and therefore indicate more or less firm value. It follows that OCI items, albeit transitory, may contribute to a wealth effect that influences expenditure decisions. In support, our regression results indicate an association between current year OCI and future discretionary financing, investing, and operating expenditures. However, we also find that OCI‐influenced expenditures are not associated with future profitability, suggesting such expenditures are not value creating. In further tests, we find that future discretionary expenditures are associated with both positive OCI and negative OCI for higher leveraged firms but only associated with positive OCI for lower leveraged firms. These results suggest that, for highly leveraged firms, positive OCI loosens debt constraints on future expenditures while negative OCI tightens debt constraints on future expenditures. For firms without debt constraints the results are suggestive of possible wealth transfers from debtholders to shareholders.     

Cost of capital equations under the Australian imputation tax system

Since the introduction of the Australian imputation tax system, there have been problems both in the measurement of the market value of franking (imputation tax) credits and in their application to estimating cash flows and the cost of capital. In the present paper, we provide a convenient and robust resolution to the above problems in the context of an internally consistent set of equations for the cost of capital, asset valuation and the capital asset pricing model (CAPM). The equations apply under both classical and imputation tax systems and under differential taxation of dividends, capital gains and interest. The simple form of the CAPM presented here is shown to encompass more complex versions of the CAPM, which attempt to accommodate the effect of personal taxes. The valuation equations require an estimate of the market value of $1 of the firm's dividends, within which is embedded the market value of the imputation tax credits. Separate estimates of the value of imputation tax credits, or Officer's gamma factor, are not required.     

Visual performance management in housing associations: a crisis of legitimation or the shape of things to come?

Housing associations in the UK are undergoing significant reform, potentially facing a crisis of legitimation with respect to their values. The latest reforms have included further deregulation and limiting the availability of bank finance at fixed low interest rates. These are challenging times for housing associations; forcing leaders to effectively manage organizational business performance, becoming less reliant on regulatory bodies for guidance and legitimation.     

Strategic groups,competitive groups and performance within the U.K. pharmaceutical industry: Improving our understanding of the competitive process

Strategic group research originated in the 1970s and a number of notable studies centered on the U.S. pharmaceutical industry. Results were, however, conflicting. This paper explores the nature of strategic groups in the U.K. pharmaceutical industry. The study confirms the presence of between six and eight strategic groups across the period studied, 1998–2002. The study also demonstrates a statistically significant relationship between these strategic groups and performance using three performance measures. The paper then compares strategic groups with competitive groups and concludes that the distinction is important and may explain the contradictory findings in earlier strategic group research. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

REGIONAL ECONOMIC ACCOUNTING IN THE U.S. OFFICE OF BUSINESS ECONOMICS–AN APPRAISAL*

This paper discusses the conceptual framework in which regional economic accounts in the United States are viewed and the functions which those accounts serve. It points out that the major differences between regional and national accounts relate to factor returns to capital. First, returns to capital are extremely difficult, if not impossible, to measure meaningfully on a geographic basis. Secondly, because the capital market in the United States is a reasonably perfect one geographically, the return to capital that originates in a given region has little significance as either a stimulant or a constraint to production in that region. In terms of the functions of regional accounts, the point is made that whereas national economic accounts can aid economic decision-making in three general areas of policyallocation, distribution and stabilization—with perhaps greatest emphasis now placed on the last of these, regional accounts are most useful in matters relating to allocation and distribution. Information needed for the use of regional accounts in decision-making with regard to allocation and distribution problems is examined. Against these needs are placed an inventory of regional accounts which are available in the Regional Economics Division, Office of Business Economics. The available accounts are found to fall considerably short of those needed for allocation decisions. In contrast, regional accounts as presently constituted have much to offer as tools for analyzing the problems of regional economic distribution, although here too, much additional information is needed.     

Rebalancing and Regional Economic Performance: Northern Ireland in A Nordic Mirror

Northern Ireland has been characterised as having an excessively large public sector. This characterisation has led some to explain poor regional economic performance in terms of ‘crowding out’. This diagnosis has been used to justify a policy of ‘rebalancing’ and the region copying its southern neighbour's lower rate of corporation tax. The experience of large public sectors in the Nordic economies seems however to suggest that higher public spending is not necessarily damaging. This argument is examined critically. Rodrik's comparative institutional analysis indicates that in the Nordics a large public sector was the result of building a successful tradable private sector rather than its cause. In terms of the possible ‘economic dividend’ from devolution we suggest that a Hayekian insight is better: no ‘silver bullets’ exist.