The hidden cost of smoking: Rent premia in the housing market

In this article, we provide novel evidence on the additional costs associated with smoking. While it may not be surprising that smokers pay a rent premium, we are the first to quantify the size of this premium. Our approach is innovative in that we use text mining methods that extract implicit information on landlords’ attitudes to smoking directly from Zoopla UK rental listings. Applying hedonic, matching, and machine-learning methods to the text-mined data, we find a positive smoking rent premium of around 6%. This translates into £14.40 of indirect costs, in addition to £40 of weekly spending on cigarettes estimated for an average smoker in the United Kingdom.     

Value investing in credit markets

We outline a parsimonious empirical model to assess the relative usefulness of accounting- and equity market-based information to explain corporate credit spreads. The primary determinant of corporate credit spreads is the physical default probability. We compare existing accounting-based and market-based models to forecast default. We then assess whether the credit market completely incorporates this default information into credit spreads. We find that credit spreads reflect information about forecasted default rates with a significant lag. This unique evidence suggests a role for value investing in credit markets.     

The effect of ethical leadership on service sabotage

ABSTRACT

This study aims at examining the impact of ethical leadership activities on service sabotage, and the mediating role of service climate and corporate ethical values (CEV) on this impact. The study was completed via 384 acceptable questionnaires in total. The research findings show that ethical leadership affects the service climate and the CEV in a positive way whereas it has a negative effect on the service sabotage. In addition, it is observed that the CEV have a positive effect on the service climate. In the light of the research findings, managers’ ethical personal and managerial characteristics affect the service climate in a positive way and play a significant role for the ethical values to become more common within the organization. Furthermore, the ethical leadership is effective for decreasing the service sabotage which is referred as the undesirable and harming behaviors within the organization.     

Law,Property and Ambiguity: The Uses and Abuses of Legal Ambiguity in Remaking Istanbul's Informal Settlements

What is the role of legal ambiguity in the creation and institutionalization of private property regimes? In what ways does the (ab)use of legal ambiguities affect market‐making processes? I address these questions through a detailed analysis of two large‐scale urban renewal projects in Istanbul that impose a formal private property regime on informal settlements. My research reveals that without the strategic utilization of legal ambiguities and administrative arbitrariness by public and private actors, private property cannot be easily created and hence capitalist markets cannot function efficiently. My findings challenge the assumptions of several social science traditions such as neoclassical and neoinstitutionalist economics, as well as most works within the law and economics tradition regarding the relationship between law, property and economic development. These approaches to economic development are underpinned by the legal certainty that private property entails as the most important element for an efficient economic order. However, in their unconditional support for private ownership, they fail to realize the degree of legal ambiguity and administrative arbitrariness needed to create the private property regime in the first place. As such their arguments remain theoretically and empirically incomplete. A more complete analysis of the relationship between law and economic dynamics must focus on how private property is constructed, and the extent to which legal ambiguities and loopholes are utilized in this process.     

Chief technology officer roles and performance

This paper assesses the impact of Chief Technology Officers (CTO) on firm performance using upper-echelon theory, human capital theory and social capital theory. The upper-echelon theory is used to investigate how CTO roles are realised within a company regardless of the individual who carries them out, i.e. through a formal CTO position or not. Human and social capital theories are employed to assess how certain features of CTO influences his/her effect on company performance. Thus, this explorative study investigates two questions: (1) do CTO roles affect a firm's performance?, and (2) which features of the senior manager in charge of technology influence performance? To answer these questions the study first develops a conceptual model and subsequently tests the model based on a survey of 49 firms in electronics and machinery industries in Turkey. Two findings emerge: (1) the fulfilment of CTO roles increases a firm's profitability and (2) the existence of a distinct managerial technology position further improves profitability. Moreover, the study clearly shows the role of social capital theory in explaining how the company performance is likely to increase when the CTO/CTO-proxy manager is placed on a higher rung on the organisational ladder.     

A model of evidence production and optimal standard of proof and penalty in criminal trials

The defendant is either innocent or guilty, which she, not the court or prosecutor, knows. The court convicts the defendant whenever its posterior probability of her guilt – which depends on the evidence presented – is greater than the standard of proof. Evidence production by litigating parties is a costly stochastic process. Subsequently, the optimal choice of standard of proof and penalty is analysed. The optimal standard of proof is increasing in the cost of convicting an innocent defendant and decreasing in the cost of acquitting a guilty defendant. Higher penalties may increase probabilities of both false conviction and false acquittal. Un modèle de production de la preuve et la norme optimale de la preuve et de la punition dans les procès criminels. On développe un modèle de production de la preuve par les parties en litige dans un contexte criminel. L’accusé peut être de deux types – innocent ou coupable – et il sait de quel type il est. Mais ni le tribunal ni le procureur n’ont cette information. Le tribunal ne va condamner l’accusé que si la probabilité a posteriori de culpabilité de l’accusé est plus grande qu’une certaine valeur seuil – la norme de la preuve. Cette probabilité dépend des preuves présentées par les parties au tribunal. La production de la preuve est un processus stochastique coûteux. Ce modèle de production de la preuve est utilisé pour analyser le choix optimal de la preuve et de la punition. Comme on pouvait s’y attendre, on peut montrer que la norme optimale de la preuve s’accroît à proportion que s’accroît le coût de condamner un innocent et décroît à proportion que s’accroît le coût de l’acquittement d’un coupable. Ce qui est plus surprenant, on peut montrer que l’accroissement de la punition infligée à un accusé trouvé coupable peut accroître les probabilités à la fois de condamnation et d’acquittement non fondés.     

Understanding the Recent Growth in Consumer Loans and Credit Cards in Emerging Markets: Evidence from Turkey

In recent years, the surge in household indebtedness to historical heights has become a significant concern for developed economies. A similar trend has been witnessed in emerging market countries including Turkey. Our objective is to help further understand the dynamics of the recent growth in consumer loans and credit cards (CLCC) in Turkey. For this purpose, we investigate the long-term equilibrating relationships and short-term deviations from the equilibrium, and explore the determinants, directions, and strengths of causality relationships between CLCC and the selected macroeconomic variables, and analyze the dynamic interactions among the variables in the post-sample period by analyzing how CLCC responds to the shocks given to other macroeconomic variables and the contribution of each variable on the forecast variability of CLCC. We use monthly data for the period of January 2004—December 2013 of seven macroeconomic variables of money supply, interest rate, income, consumer confidence, inflation, stock market, and consumer goods imports. On empirical findings, we make suggestions about which policy tools should be used to influence, and if necessary to manage, the growth in CLCC.     

Multi-layer quality function deployment (QFD) approach for improving the compromised quality satisfaction under the agency problem: A 3D QFD design for the asset selection problem in the shipping industry

The aim of this paper is to improve the quality function deployment (QFD) method by utilizing requirements of both the major customer and the service provider. The QFD method was first applied to the shipbuilding industry and the main goal of the method is to improve the production processes by using customer requirements in connection with the related technical measures of the product. However, one of the critical criticisms of the QFD is based on the lack of proper budget assessment and the satisfaction of the producer (or service provider). The multi-layer QFD design is proposed to collect responses from both customer and the service provider so as to ensure satisfaction of all parties including financial feasibility of the intended improvements. Hence, the agency problem between parties will be eliminated.     

The Impact of Paternalistic Leadership on Ethical Climate: The Moderating Role of Trust in Leader

The purpose of this empirical study is to investigate the effect of paternalistic leadership (PL) on ethical climate and the moderating role of trust in leader. Convenience sampling is used as a sampling procedure and the data were obtained from 227 Turkish employees. The findings indicated that PL had some effect on ethical climate. Furthermore, partial support was found for the moderating effect of trust in leader on the relationship between PL and ethical climate. The results of the study showed the importance of PL on employees in following company rules and procedures and showing a sense of responsibility and care to customers, community, and others in the organization.     

Peritoneal mesothelioma: Sonographic findings in nine cases

Ultrasonographic findings in nine cases of peritoneal mesothelioma are presented. The most common findings were sheetlike or nodular peritoneal thickening, soft tissue masses, fixation of the intestinal loops, mesenteric thickening, and minimal ascites which was disproportional to the degree of tumor dissemination. The authors found that abdominal sonography, using 3.75–7.5 MHz transducers, is a useful imaging method for diagnosis of peritoneal mesothelioma in high-risk groups.