Development of Scale to Measure Objectives-Oriented Investment Behavior

Abstract

While planning for personal finances, researchers recommend investors adapting systematically planned investment behaviors that align investments with their financial objectives; however, they fail to provide a scale for the measurement of such behaviors. Therefore, this study develops a scale, conducts exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis, and provides evidence of the reliability of the scale measuring objectives-oriented investment behaviors. Examining a cross-sectional data of 448 investors collected through the new scale, the study finds that a majority of the investors’ do not follow objectives-oriented behavior. The results inform that the selection of investment avenues and allocation of funds were not aligned with investors’ financial objectives.     

IPO research symposium review

The primary areas of IPO research are briefly reviewed. The five articles of this research symposium are placed within this body of research. The JEF editors indicate issues of particular interest for future IPO research submissions.     

EFFICIENCY AND LABOR MARKET DYNAMICS IN A MODEL OF LABOR SELECTION

This article characterizes efficient labor market allocations in a labor selection model. The model's crucial aspect is cross‐sectional heterogeneity for new job contacts, which leads to an endogenous selection threshold for new hires. With cross‐sectional dispersion calibrated to microeconomic data, 40% of empirically relevant fluctuations in the job‐finding rate arise, which contrasts with results in an efficient search and matching economy. The efficient selection model's results hold in partial and general equilibrium, as well as with sequential search.     

Tobacco policy and tobacco use: differences across tobacco types,gender and age

Using state-level data for 1997, this paper studies the effectiveness of tobacco policies at reducing tobacco use across different population groups in the USA. The effectiveness of tax (price)-based and non-price tobacco policies are examined on tobacco prevalence (including cigarettes and smokeless tobacco) across gender and age. Besides shedding light on the efficacy of sub-national tobacco policies, the results also examine the extent of spillovers of policy actions across tobacco types. Significant differences in tobacco use are found across gender, age, policies, and between smoking and smokeless tobacco. Policy implications are discussed.     

Development aid and economic growth: A positive long-run relation

We analyze the growth impact of official development assistance to developing countries. Our approach is different from that of previous studies in two major ways. First, we disentangle the effects of two kinds of aid: developmental and non-developmental. Second, our specifications allow for the effect of aid on economic growth to occur over long periods. Our results indicate that developmental aid promotes long-run growth. The effect is significant, large and robust to different specifications and estimation techniques.     

International patterns of cigarette smoking and global antismoking policies

This paper provides a recent look at global smoking trends across population subgroups for a large sample of countries. Attention to international aspects has been scarce in the literature. The prevalence of various smoking control policies across different country groups is discussed. The level of economic development in a country and the demographic characteristics of the population appear to be crucial determinants of smoking prevalence. Among four categories of smoking control policies—advertising restrictions, sales restrictions, territorial restrictions, and packaging requirements—territorial restrictions on tobacco use seem most popular across countries, while sales restrictions are least popular. Price (tax)-based policies to control smoking are not effectively being used in many countries, especially developing countries.     

An inquiry into the economic fundamentals of the Fama and French equity factors

This study investigates the economic underpinnings of the Fama and French three-factor (FF3) model. We evaluate the impact of surprises in 23 different types of macroeconomic announcements on stock returns in the framework of the CAPM and the FF3 model. The relative merit of the FF3 model is demonstrated whenever macroeconomic surprises have a smaller impact on the returns within an FF3 model versus their impact within the CAPM. In general, there is strong evidence to suggest that the FF3 model outperforms the CAPM. The relative merit of the FF3 model is highlighted by its ability to capture information related to Personal Consumption, Retail Sales, CPI, PPI, Factory Orders, Leading Indicators, Construction Spending, Housing Starts, and New Home Sales. An attribution analysis of the relative performance of SMB and HML equity factors indicate that both factors, in isolation, equally account for macroeconomic surprises. Lastly, there is evidence that the FF3 model can be marginally improved by incorporating credit variables.