IQ and corporate insiders’ decisions to time insider and outsider trading

We examine how corporate insiders’ cognitive ability (IQ) affects their decisions to time insider and outsider trading before abnormal stock price changes. Our analysis of archival data on male corporate insiders in Sweden shows they are less prone to time their insider selling and to sell in larger amounts, before abnormal stock price declines as IQ increases. We also find that insiders with a higher IQ are better at timing their outsider buying. Taken together, our results show that corporate insiders’ IQ affects their trading decisions differently, depending on whether they are trading in their insider or outsider stocks.     

Ambivalent statements in contingent valuation studies: inclusive response formats and giving respondents time to think

A recent concern in the valuation literature is the uncertainty respondents feel when posed with willingness-to-pay questions for environmental amenities in hypothetical market scenarios. Using a multiple-bounded discrete-choice format, the results indicate that respondents become less ambivalent when allowed considerable time to think about the valuation task before a response is elicited. In particular they tend to reduce the reported willingness to pay associated with low certainty of paying, hence resulting in more conservative welfare estimates. Implications for the application of environmental valuation techniques are discussed.     

Identifying root causes of inefficiencies in road haulage: case studies from Sweden,Switzerland and Germany

ABSTRACT

Road haulage operations in general, and distribution in particular, are inefficient. Given the societal importance of road haulage and the low efficiency of the sector, road hauliers need to improve their operations and systematically tackle inefficiencies. However, the real causes of these inefficiencies, the ‘root causes’, have not been sufficiently examined in previous studies. This paper expands on prior research by adapting existing models that can be used to identify the root causes of inefficiencies, and to enable systematic improvements in road transport operations. Our research is based on a lean approach and an adapted version of Ishikawa’s model. It is shown as a matrix based on transport processes and the Ishikawa categories to identify the root causes of inefficiencies in road haulage that influence performance. The adapted model was tested in three road haulage case studies. Our findings suggest that most efficiency problems appear in the actual transport execution.     

Do auditors constrain intertemporal income shifting in private companies?*

This study investigates the association between private company auditing and intertemporal income shifting. Using a large reduction in the Finnish corporate tax rate as a strong incentive for income shifting and financial statement data coupled with proprietary information from the tax authorities, we analyse accruals and cost stickiness of small private companies. Our results reveal significant differences in accrual income shifting between audited and unaudited companies, but only among companies that on average could anticipate the tax reduction the most. Further, we find auditors to restrict sticky selling, general, and administrative cost behaviour that we hypothesise is associated with illegal actions. Additional tests expose a nontrivial number of incorrectly unaudited companies which are the ones mostly associated with income shifting. Taken together, our study highlights the effects of audit exemption and the importance of enforcement while also suggesting that the audit process is value adding for the tax authorities.     

Keeping others in our mind or in our heart? Distribution games under cognitive load

It has recently been argued that giving is spontaneous while greed is calculated (Rand et al., in Nature 489:427–430, 2012). If greed is calculated we would expect that cognitive load, which is assumed to reduce the influence of cognitive processes, should affect greed. In this paper we study both charitable giving and the behavior of dictators under high and low cognitive load to test if greed is affected by the load. This is tested in three different dictator game experiments. In the dictator games we use both a give frame, where the dictators are given an amount that they may share with a partner, and a take frame, where dictators may take from an amount initially allocated to the partner. The results from all three experiments show that the behavioral effect in terms of allocated money of the induced load is small if at all existent. At the same time, follow-up questions indicate that the subjects’ decisions are more impulsive and less driven by their thoughts under cognitive load.     

Relations between communist and third world countries

Despite the unproportionately low level of Soviet economic assistance, Soviet influence in the Third World is quite considerable at present. Taking this fact as a starting point the following article examines the principles guiding relations between communist and developing countries.     

Urban Citizenship and Right to the City: The Fragmentation of Claims

In this symposium, we explore how urban citizenship is about expressing, if not producing, difference, and how fragmentation of claims affects urban citizenship and right to the city movements with their universal, all‐inclusive ideals. Investigating social movements, political participation and conflicting diversities in public space in Tel Aviv and Berlin, we see a trend towards a diversification of interests, a weakening of movements, and even a competition over rights and resources rather than a development of mutual support and solidarities among various groups on the pathway to a livable city. This tension, we argue, deserves attention. Radical urban scholarship and politics need to better understand the historical and place‐specific contexts that structure the formation of citizenship claims and the courses that citizenship struggles take. Celebrations of urban citizenship as a more contextualized, community oriented, and bottom‐up framework (in comparison to national citizenship) should therefore be complemented by a careful investigation of their fragmented and fragmenting practices.     

Packaging logistics in supply chain practice – current state,trade-offs and improvement potential

Packaging affects the logistical and environmental efficiency of supply chains. The purpose is to increase knowledge of the current state, trade-offs and improvement potential of packaging logistics in supply chain practice. The research is based on 22 cases, each of which consists of supply chain mapping and structured interviews with three supply chain actors (manufacturer, distributor and retailer). The paper identifies and explains improvement areas, trade-offs and gaps in packaging systems from a supply chain perspective for the whole packaging system, each packaging level and each actor. The results highlight a supply chain potential of better incorporating the packaging system requirements from actors not responsible for developing or selecting packaging. The paper discusses models for cost and benefit sharing and for identification and decision-making about trade-offs in packaging systems. Companies should collaborate, apply an integrated approach and find new approaches to integrate customers and suppliers into the packaging development process.