A Comment on the Relationship between Coefficient Alpha and Scale Characteristics

To date, three major articles have analyzed the use of coefficient alpha on scales published in the marketing literature. These studies have improved our understanding of the scale development process and the behavior of coefficient alpha. One consistent result is that coefficient alpha produces an R-square of approximately .10 when regressed against scale length. In the most recent of these three meta-analyses, Peterson (1994) suggested that alpha does not behave as suggested by theory. We reexamine the behavior of alpha in relation to scale length, scale width, and response centrality. Our results suggest different conclusions from those previously reached.     

The Prince and the Pauper? CEO Pay in the United States and United Kingdom

We document differences in CEO pay and incentives in the United States and the United Kingdom for 1997. After controlling for size, sector and other firm and executive characteristics, CEOs in the US earn 45% higher cash compensation and 190% higher total compensation. The calculated effective ownership percentage in the US implies that the median CEO receives 1.48% of any increase in shareholder wealth compared to 0.25% in the UK. The differences, can be largely attributed to greater share option awards in the US arising from institutional and cultural differences between the two countries.     

A Fundamental Analysis Approach to Oil and Gas Firm Valuation

Most fundamental analysis studies have focused on fundamentals selected by a data-driven approach on large samples of firms from numerous industries. This paper reports the results of a fundamental analysis of a single industry, the US oil and gas exploration and production industry, using variables identified by industry financial analysts. The results demonstrate a significant relationship between a number of the fundamentals with both the market value of equity and cumulative stock return. The results also suggest that the fundamentals provide incremental information beyond earnings, change in earnings, and book value of equity when explaining equity values and stock returns.     

企业的坚持与转换

设想这样一个场景:你正在拐过弯道,前面的终点线就是闪闪发光的拱形门.观众正在旁边欢呼,但你所能专注的就是最终目标.你的肺在燃烧,汗水不断流入眼睛,你的腿随着最后加速变得更加紧张,猛然扑向终点线,超过最后的对手,完成精疲力竭的竞赛,但非常兴奋.这时,你的能量已经全部耗尽.     

A City without Slums: Urban Renewal, Public Housing, and Downtown Revitalization in Kansas City, Missouri

Most scholarly efforts to understand the political economy of postwar urban redevelopment have typically viewed urban renewal and public housing as "housing" programs that originated with the "federal" government. Yet this view is problematic for two reasons. First, it fails to specify the key actors and organized interests, especially real estate officials and downtown business elites, in the programmatic design and implementation of urban renewal and public housing. Second, this view does not fully acknowledge the dislocating and segregative effects of urban renewal and public housing on central city neighborhoods and the role these private-public initiatives played in shaping demographic and population patterns in the postwar era. I draw upon archival data and newspaper articles, real estate industry documents, government reports, and interviews to examine the origin, local implementation, and segregative effects of urban renewal and public housing in Kansas City, Missouri. I explore the role of the ideology of privatism—the underlying commitment by the public sector to enhancing the growth and prosperity of private institutions—in shaping the postwar "system" of urban economic development in which urban renewal and public housing were formulated and implemented. Focusing on the interlocking nature of race and class, I identify the critical links between urban renewal and public housing, and the long-term impact of these programs on metropolitan development in the decades after World War II.     

Welfare reform: A game theoretic perspective

Traditionally, the debate over welfare reform has been infused with passion and driven by ideology, but reform itself has proceeded in careful steps. In recent years, however, the status quo has been dramatically altered as the need for fundamental change has become apparent as the starting point for reform. Using the state of Wisconsin’s aggressive approach to welfare reform as a model of what is administratively possible, we portray reform as an n-person iterated coordination game in order to examine potential outcomes under the larger rubric of ratinal decision-making and utility maximization. In so doing, we demonstrate that game theory offers an alternative framework for dissecting and discussing complex social issues such as welfare reform.     

Corporate governance in the post Sarbanes-Oxley period: Compensation disclosure and analysis (CD&A)

In recent years, the entire fabric of corporate governance, certainly in the United States, has dramatically changed. With the passage of what has colloquially become known as SOX (the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002), US-based corporations have operated under stricter governance guidelines than at any previous time, especially as regards the structure of boards of directors and financial oversight of the corporation. A now perennial governance “hot button” issue not addressed by SOX is concern over continually rising executive compensation. Until the 2006 adoption of new compensation disclosure guidelines by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), it had been nearly 15 years since federal attention had been devoted to compensation guidelines or regulations. Beginning with 2007 filings, US corporations must now include a Compensation Disclosure and Analysis (CD&A) section. The intent behind the CD&A is to provide investors access to clear explanations of executive compensation and the philosophy that underlies compensation. As often happens, this good intent is accompanied by several unintended risks that may mitigate the effectiveness of the CD&A.