The Effects of NAFTA/CUSFTA on Agricultural Trade Flows: An Empirical Investigation

This paper examines the effects of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and its predecessor, the Canada‐United States Free Trade Agreement (CUSFTA), on agricultural trade flows at disaggregated product categories. The empirical analysis is implemented through gravity models using different econometric methods. It accounts for the baseline NAFTA/CUSFTA‐unrelated magnitudes of trade between member countries throughout the assessment of the NAFTA/CUSFTA trade effects. The benchmark estimates show considerable differences across agricultural product categories. The net post‐NAFTA/CUSFTA magnitudes of trade between member countries are found to be markedly low in some cases, underlining missed regional trade opportunities. The empirical analysis proceeds to estimate the NAFTA/CUSFTA trade effects by time period and by bilateral trading partnership, revealing important variations. Cet article examine les effets de l'Accord de Libre‐Échange Nord‐Américain (ALÉNA) et de son prédécesseur, l'Accord de Libre‐Échange entre le Canada et les États‐Unis (ALÉCÉU), sur les flux commerciaux agricoles au niveau des catégories ventilées. L'analyse empirique est mise en ?uvre grâce à des modèles de gravité en utilisant une variété de méthodes économétriques. Elle compte pour la ligne de base des magnitudes non‐reliées à l'ALÉNA/ALÉCÉU du commerce entre les pays membres à travers l′évaluation des effets de l'ALÉNA/ALÉCÉU sur le commerce. Les estimations de référence montrent des différences considérables entre les catégories de produits agricoles. Les magnitudes post‐ALÉNA/ALÉCÉU nettes du commerce entre les pays membres se trouvent d′être considérablement faibles dans certains cas. Ces résultats soulignent des opportunités commerciales régionales manquées. L'analyse empirique procède à estimer les effets de l'ALÉNA/ALÉCÉU sur le commerce par période et par partenariat commercial bilatéral, et elle montre des variations importantes.     

Predicting uncertainty: the impact of risk measurement on value of real estate portfolios

This paper presents a theoretical framework for an assessment and valuation of real estate assets and funds, based on modern stochastic discounted cash flow (DCF) models, which accurately captures the nature of related risks. We show that an accurate risk-adjusted valuation is particularly difficult for real estate investments, due to practical limits to diversification and difficulties in approximating total risk with systematic risk. We develop a risk assessment framework that includes idiosyncratic risk but focuses on insolvency risk related to a specific cash flow profile. We also present a methodology of rating this risk, using forecasts and simulations. We conclude that simulation techniques are a valuable tool in property risk assessment. Further, we show that cost of capital and value of assets depend on diversification of specific risks, investors can achieve in their portfolios.     

Professional Accountants’ Identity Formation: An Integrative Framework

Previous studies in Western contexts have examined the relationships between various board characteristics and CSR, yet the relationships need to be re-examined in non-Western contexts given differential theoretical premises across contexts. We specifically propose that the effects of board characteristics on CSR in Korea should be patterned distinctively from Western-based existing literature, focusing on three important board characteristics, such as a board’s independence, social ties, and diversity. Using a panel dataset from large Korean firms, we found that various relationships between board characteristics and CSR were non-linear, whereas most of the previous research on Western contexts found that the same relationships were linear. Specifically, curvilinear relationships were found between CSR and board independence (i.e., exponentially growing shape), CEO-outside director social ties (i.e., inverted U-shape), and educational diversity (i.e., U-shape). Our findings suggest that there is no universal feature of CSR-supportive board characteristics due to the unique characteristics of various institutional contexts.     

Guilty by Association: The Perils of Celebrity Endorsement for Endorsed Brands and their Direct Competitors

The objective of the research presented in this article is to examine the possibility that the adverse effects on consumer brand attitudes engendered by the involvement of a celebrity endorser in a negative event may spill over brands of the same product category (i.e., competitors). The results of an experimental study with 165 adult consumers showed that a scandal involving an athlete endorser had a negative impact not only on the attitude toward the endorsed brand, but also on the attitude toward competitor brands. This suggests that brands strongly associated with one sport may be vulnerable in the context of a scandal falling upon a celebrity athlete endorsing one of their direct competitors.     

Accounting earnings and firm valuation: the French case

Considering that the level of the association between stock returns and accounting earnings provides a measure of the extent to which earnings summarize the information which is useful for firm valuation, this paper analyses the contemporaneous association between stock returns and earnings changes or earnings level of individual French stocks and portfolios for periods of one, two and five years between 1981 and 1990. The empirical findings are as follows. (a) Stock returns are more linked to earnings changes than to earnings levels indicating that earnings provide more information about changes in firm value than about firm value. (b) Earnings prepared in accordance with the French accounting principles are not less value-relevant than those prepared in accordance with US or UK GAAP. (c) A cross-sectionally and time-aggregated data procedure provides a large increase in the explanatory power of earnings for returns which is consistent with a noise-in-earnings effect probably induced by accounting measurement and valuation principles and with a recognition lag effect due to the fact that value-relevant events are not integrated into earnings exactly when they occur. These two effects are shown to be the major causes of the low association between earnings and returns generally observed in studies based on short period data for individual stocks.     

‘Free actors’ and organizations: critical remarks about the new career literature,based on French insights

What is the reality of contemporary careers? Have individuals become masters of their professional destiny? While the ‘new career literature’ puts forward the figure of an individual free to invent his/her career (the ‘free actor model’), this article shows that the changes purported to affect careers are less radical than they seem. Despite a weakening of environments, discriminating career mechanisms are still imposed on cadres, at least in France. Because individuals do not always have the means or the will to escape those mechanisms, ‘external clues’ continue to mark careers more than the new career literature supposes. To account for the realities observed in France, this paper proposes a specific view on careers, which highlights why career rules still exist in the country.     

Are Occupations Paid What They are Worth? An Econometric Study of Occupational Wage Inequality and Productivity

Labour economists typically assume that pay differences between occupations can be explained with variations in productivity. The empirical evidence on the validity of this assumption is surprisingly thin and subject to various potential biases. The authors use matched employer-employee panel data from Belgium for the years 1999–2006 to examine occupational productivity-wage gaps. They find that occupations play distinct roles for remuneration and productivity: while the estimations indicate a significant upward-sloping occupational wage-profile, the hypothesis of a flat productivity-profile cannot be rejected. The corresponding pattern of over- and underpayment stands up to a series of robustness tests.     

Markets as communication systems

As the information relative to endowments, costs and preferences is dispersed among many agents, the quality of resource allocation depends on the ability of markets to communicate information inside the economic system. Because information is transferred through negotiation and transaction behaviors, the network of trading relations defines the channels through which it flows. In the present study, we use new computational tools to analyze the performance of two wholesale trade institutions widely used around the world: network trading and marketplace trading. Whilst network trading and marketplace trading disseminate far fewer bits of information than a perfectly transparent benchmark market, they often manage to generate an allocation of resources that is almost as good. In many cases, network trading proves more effective than marketplace trading (contrary to a common preconception). This surprising performance of network trading is linked to a form of indirect arbitrage induced by connections between networks. Implications for market design and public policy making are presented, along with prospects for further research.