Modeling team performance

This study of 3366 Bundesliga-match results aims at a considerable extension of previous analyses of football teams?? performance on the playground. On the one hand, this extension is rooted in a comprehensive consideration of theoretical aspects that, so far, have been neglected in the literature on football teams: Team composition and institutionalization processes. The empirical results indicate that teams that are heterogeneous on several relevant traits perform significantly worse than more homogeneous teams. Moreover, even though the Flat Back lineup (??Abwehrkette??) became tremendously popular within the 1992?C2003 observation period??thereby representing a prime example of an institutionalized practice??substantial regression analyses do not indicate any performance advantages of this innovative defense system. Thus, we are unable to reject the new institutionalism??s view that novel organizational procedures might successfully diffuse without possessing any practical added value for the adopting organizations! On the other hand, we provide a novel suggestion to control for regression-to-the-mean-phenomena in statistical models of football match results: Team ranking covariates prove as elegant and powerful controls for regression-to-the-mean effects within the fixed effects regression setup.     

Periodicals Received

Chapter 7 is designed for debtors who do not have the ability to pay their existing debts and many times leads to a legal release of most debt. Chapter 13 is designed for debtors who have the ability to pay all or part of their debts in installments over a period of time. Bankruptcy research finds that the southern region of the USA has a significantly higher portion of Chapter 13 filings than the rest of the country, unexplainable by quantifiable demographic, legal, or economic differences. Our results suggest that religion is the driving force behind the abnormally high Chapter 13 filings in the southern USA.     

Editorial

Ohne Zusammenfassung     

Taxpayer Disclosure and Penalty Laws

The consequences of a penalty exemption available to U.S. taxpayers who disclose aggressive reporting positions is examined via a game theoretic model. Results indicate that (i) the tax agency's expected revenue collections (net of audit costs) decline under the disclosure exemption, and (ii) the impact of disclosure regulations depends on the taxpayer's type. Of particular interest, we find that taxpayers who are likely to prevail on an uncertain issue decrease their expected payments although they do not disclose in equilibrium. The impact on the amount of resources absorbed by the tax collection process is also examined.     

Legal Theories of Financial Development

This paper examines legal theories of international differencesin financial development. The law and finance theory stressesthat legal traditions differ in terms of (i) their emphasison the rights of private property owners vis-à-vis thestate and (ii) their ability to adapt to changing commercialand financial conditions, so that historically determined legaltraditions shape financial development today. Other theoriesreject the centrality of legal tradition in accounting for cross-countrydifferences in financial development. The results are broadlyconsistent with legal theories of financial development, thoughit is difficult to identify the precise channel through whichlegal tradition influences financial development.     

Lessons from Japan: American and Japanese strategies and goals in the 1990s

This article recounts various Japanese business approaches touted in the 1980s as “Lessons from Japan” for U.S. managers. The logical expectation, given the sheer bulk of the literature, was that U.S. managers would become more “Japanese” in their business strategies and goals while the Japanese would have become more entrenched in their approaches. Questionnaire responses from 95 Japanese and 70 American firms suggest, however, that U.S. managers tend to make few shifts from the strategies and goals they emphasized in the 1980s. Meanwhile Japanese managers report that they expect to move toward more “American” business practices. © 1993 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

The regulation of health and safety in Britain: from old Labour to new Labour

The Health and Safety at Work Act (HSWA 1974), passed twenty‐five years ago, has been hailed as a significant advance for organised labour and a model for modern work‐place regulation. This article argues that, contrary to conventional interpretations, the making of the Act was dominated by business interests. We suggest that the Act’s emphasis on self‐regulation and goal‐setting made it vulnerable to deregu‐latory initiatives, which are unlikely to be reversed by new Labour in the foreseeable future.