The Effect of Private-Debt-Underwriting Reputation on Bank Public-Debt Underwriting

We provide evidence that commercial banks extend their reputationin underwriting syndicated loans and private placements (privatedebt) to their bond-underwriting activities. In the absenceof bond market reputation, private-debt-market reputation enablescommercial banks to win underwriting mandates from their loanclients. Furthermore, it allows them to credibly commit to investorsagainst opportunistically using lending information and therebydeliver superior certification benefits in the form of higherissue prices relative to investment-bank underwriters. Thispricing benefit is not offset by higher underwriting fees andthus results in lower total issuance costs for borrowers.(JELG21, G28, L14, L15)     

Monetary policy and the behaviour of inflation in India: Is there a need for institutional reform?

Inflation rates in a number of developed countries follow a common trend over the past five decades: inflation starts out low in the 1950s, rises for a time before peaking in the 1970s, and then falls back to initial levels. Interestingly the behaviour of trend inflation in India broadly exhibits such a pattern. This similarity in the behaviour suggests that any explanation of inflation ought to apply across countries. To this end we construct a reduced-form inflation model for India that encompasses various well-known policy mistake theories as special cases. The restriction imposed by each of these theories on the behaviour of inflation is tested empirically. Reduced-form estimates lend support to all these theories. Although the reason for the inflation bias differs from one theory to the other, the mechanism at the heart of these theories are in fact quite similar. They all lay responsibility for inflation with the nature of monetary institutions. We use these results to interpret India's inflation experience over the past five decades and discuss the implications for institutional reform.     

Effects of job perceptions on job behaviors: Implications for sales performance

We investigate the relationship between salesperson job perception and job behaviors and their effects on sales performance. Hypotheses are tested using a sample of automobile salespeople. Generally, results show that job involvement is positively related to working hard, but no significant relationship existed with working smart. Job challenge is positively related to both working hard and working smart. Finally, both working hard and working smart are positively related to performance. Discussion of hypothesis support is presented and implications for sales managers, limitations of the study and future research opportunities are then discussed.     

Academic Dishonesty: An Exploratory Study Examining Whether Insurance Students Are Different From Other College Students

This exploratory study compares academic dishonesty scores for insurance students in one insurance program to those for other college students using survey data from business and nonbusiness students at two universities. Academic dishonesty was measured using a modified version of a scale developed by McCabe and Trevino , with a higher score indicating greater academic dishonesty. The average score on total academic dishonesty was significantly higher for insurance students than for other business students and lower, but not significantly so, than the scores for nonbusiness students. Regression analysis indicates that a significant predictor of academic dishonesty for both insurance students and other business students is the perceived relevance of the work to the student's major coursework. There were some differences, however, in the other significant predictors for insurance students versus other business students. Specifically, year in school was significant only for insurance majors, while membership in a Greek social organization and a belief that there was a low risk of getting caught were significant only for other business majors. Furthermore, the significant predictors of academic dishonesty were different for insurance students and nonbusiness students. Overall, the results indicate that insurance students are more likely to engage in academically dishonest behavior than other business students, and the motivation for academic dishonesty differs for insurance students and other students (both nonbusiness and other business). This suggests a need for insurance educators to address academic dishonesty using an approach that is somewhat different than that used for other students.     

The optimal choice of monetary policy instruments in a small open economy

Abstract.  This paper studies how the nature of shocks affects the optimal choice of monetary policy instruments in a small open economy. Three classic rules, fixed exchange rates, monetary targeting, and inflation targeting are studied and ranked by comparing with the optimal monetary policy under commitment. We find that the ranking of the simple rules can be mapped to the terms-of-trade variability that the rule allows relative to what a particular shock optimally calls for. It turns out that inflation targeting dominates the other two rules under productivity or velocity shocks, whereas monetary targeting is the best performer under fiscal shocks.     

A values approach to understanding ethical business relationships in the 21st century: A comparison between Germany,India, the People's Republic of China,and the United States

The purpose of this study was to examine howmanagerial values may differ between future managersfrom Germany, India, the People's Republic of China(PRC), and the United States (U.S.) and to considerhow these differences may influence current and futureethical business relationships. The results show thatthere are significant differences between countries onthe acceptance of authority with the exception of theU.S. and the PRC. All countries sampled were high onneed determined expression with nonsignificancebetween the means of the PRC/U.S. and Germany/U.S. Allcountries sampled were significantly high onequalitarianism and individualism was high for allcountries except the PRC and India, which were notsignificant. The results point to the increasedcommonality between future managers across the fourcountries as opposed to the traditional stereotypesassociated with each culture. Possible implicationsare discussed relative to the 21st century andorganizations that are involved in interculturalhiring.     

Black Box Engineering: Redefining the Role of Product Specifications

Original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) in numerous industries recognize the benefits of involving their suppliers in the product design process. Specifications play a central role in guiding that supplier-OEM relationship. For so-called “black-box” parts, the OEM specifies overall requirements for product function and performance, cost targets, and development lead time, and then communicates this information to suppliers, who perform detailed engineering and testing. Black-box engineering marks a fundamental change in the buyer-supplier relationship, and companies that use or plan to adopt this practice must understand the factors that contribute to its successful implementation. Using survey responses from more than 300 suppliers to a European automobile OEM, Christer Karlsson, Rajesh Nellore, and Klas Soderquist identify the problems those suppliers face in the specification process. To provide insight into the context and the causes of those problems, they also describe the results of case studies conducted in the OEM and two suppliers. In this way, they attempt to identify critical factors that can help to improve the specifications process both internally at an OEM and between the OEM and its suppliers. The respondents identified numerous problems that they face in the specifications process. Based on feedback from product development managers and design staff members in the case study companies, those problems are categorized as follows: technical content and the level of detail in requirements, changes of specifications, cost, interpretation and understanding, and supplier participation in the specification process. Black-box engineering redefines the role of specifications. Instead of a fixed document that dictates to the supplier, the specification becomes an open medium for communicating functional and performance requirements and necessary technical adjustments. In other words, black-box products require a highly interactive design process. Product development managers for suppliers and OEMs must understand that they cannot avoid changes in specifications during black-box engineering projects. Rather than view such changes as wastes of time and effort, they should approach the black-box engineering process as a learning opportunity. By working with several parallel sets of functional solutions, which they can validate with the customer before developing detailed dimensional definitions, suppliers can limit the amount of time they lose as a result of changes in specifications.