The Effect of Historic District Designation on Single-Family Home Prices

The designation and regulation of local historic districts in Baltimore, Maryland started in 1964. Structures within these districts are required to maintain exteriors in the style of the historical significance of the neighborhoods. Prior studies in other cities have shown that the designation did not always lead to an increase in restoration activities in these areas. This paper analyzes the effect of the designation on transaction prices and finds historic districts do have higher prices than identical non-historic districts.     

Analysis of nonimmigrant visa waiver legislation in the USA

US visa requirements are among the most restrictive in the world. Three bills have been introduced into the US Congress which, if passed, would exempt nationals of some foreign countries from having to obtain a temporary visitor visa. This article examines the provisions, and conflicts between provisions, of these bills, and emphasizes the beneficial effects on the tourism industry which passage of nonimmigrant visa waiver legislation would have.     

Reward strategies for attracting,evaluating, and retaining professionals

A typology of the design of organizational reward systems that explicitly addresses attraction, evaluation, and retention of valued professionals is offered within four cultural contexts: the Apathetic Culture, the Caring Culture, the Exacting Culture, and the Integrative Culture. The strategic design of reward systems is one of the most critical but least understood phenomena in corporate America today. The special case of the autonomy-seeking professional is discussed and implications for strategic reward system change efforts are made.     

Entrepreneurs, Professionals, and Growth

We examine the implications for growth and development of the existence of two types of human capital: entrepreneurial and professional. Entrepreneurs accumulate human capital through a work-experience intensive process, whereas professionals human capital accumulation is education-intensive. Moreover, the return to entrepreneurship is uncertain. We show how skill-biased technological progress leads to changes in the composition of aggregate human capital; as technology improves, individuals devote less time to the accumulation of human capital through work experience and more to the accumulation of human capital through professional training. Thus, our model explains why entrepreneurs play a relatively more important role in intermediate-income countries and professionals are relatively more abundant in richer economies. It also shows that those countries that initially have too little of either entrepreneurial or professional human capital may end up in a development trap.     

Book Reviews

Louis T. Wells Jr., Third World Multinationals, Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press, 1983, pp. viii + 206. $17.50.

O van den Muizenberg, P. Streefland, and W. Wolters (eds), Focus on the Region in Asia, Rotterdam: Erasmus University Comparative Asian Studies Program, 1982, pp. 349.

Brian Wawn, The Economics of the ASEAN Countries: Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore and Thailand, London: Macmillan, 1982, pp. ix + 180. A$48.00.

Anthony H. Chisolm and Rodney Tyers (eds), Food Security: Theory, Policy, and Perspectives from Asia and the Pacific Rim, Toronto: Lexington Books, D. C. Heath and Co., pp. xx + 359. $39.50.

Marcel Bonneff. Françoise Cayrac-Blanchard, Pierre Labrousse, Jacques Leclere. Denys Lombard, Monique Zaini-Lajoubert, Pantjasila: Trente Années de Débats Politiques en Indonésie. Paris: Editions de la Maison des Sciences de I' Homme, Etudes insulin-diennes/Archipe1 2, 1980, pp. viii + 427, illustrations, index.

Hans P. Binswanger, Robert E. Evenson, Cecilia A. Florencio & Benjamin N. F. White (eds). Rural Houshold Studies in Asia, Singapore: Singapore University Press, 1980, pp. 369. US$28.00.

Ida Bagus Mantra, Population Movement in Wet Rice Communities, Yogyakarta: Gadjah Mada University Press, 1981.

A. Fujimoto (ed.), Socioeconomic Study of Rice Farming and Marketing in Indonesia: A Case Study of Gadingsari, Central Java, Tokyo: Nodai Research Institute, Tokyo University of Agriculture, 1982, pp. 139.

Wilbert Gooneratne (ed.), Labour Absorption in Rice-based Agriculture: Case Studies from South-east Asia, Bangkok: International Labour Office, Asian Regional Team for Employment Promotion, 1982. US$5.00.

Zainab Bakir and Chris Manning (eds), Partisipasi Angkatan Kerja, Kesempatan Kerja dan Pengangguran di Indonesia (Labour Force Participation. Work Opportunities and Unemployment in Indonesia), Yogyakarta: Pusat Penelitian dan Studi Kependudukan, Universitas Gadjah Mada. 1983.

Soeharsono Soemantri, Study of Indonesia's Economically Active Population, 2nd edition, Yogyakarta: Gadjah Mada University Press, 1982.

Priyono Tjiptoherijanto, M. Yasin, Bakir Hasan, Djunaedi Hadisumarto (eds). Sumber Daya Manusia, Kesempatan Kerja dan Pembangunan Ekonomi (Human Resources, Job Opportunities and Economic Development), Jakarta: Lembaga Penerbit Fakultas Ekonomi Universitas Indonesia, 1982.     

Can Institutional Change Impact High-technology Firm Growth?: Evidence from Germany’s Neuer Markt

To facilitate the transformation of the German economy from the traditional manufacturing industries towards emerging new technologies, a new segment of the Frankfurt exchange was introduced in 1997 — the Neuer Markt. To examine whether the Neuer Markt was successful, we compare the relationship between firm size and growth for firms listed on the Neuer Markt and contrast the results with two benchmarks: (1) for German firms prior to the 1990s (to reflect the older traditional manufacturing sector) and (2) for the stylized results for the US. This study provides evidence that not only did many new firms obtain funding from the Neuer Markt; but that for the first time in recent history, Germany succeeded in enabling smaller firms to grow faster than larger firms. This suggests that the new policies were not only successful in promoting a new type of firm that otherwise might not exist, but in transforming the sources of growth and innovation within the German economy.     

Partial acquisitions,the acquisition probability hypothesis,and the abnormal returns to partial targets

The acquisition of a partial stake in a target firm has been positively linked to the likelihood that the target will be involved in a follow on full acquisition involving either the original bidder or a third party bidder. Existing studies provide only suggestive evidence of this linkage by comparing the abnormal returns to partial targets that are ultimately acquired to those that are not. Using a sample of partial acquisitions, we identify characteristics that impact the probability of a full acquisition and provide a tangible link between partial target gains and the ex ante probability of acquisition. Partial targets experience positive announcement effects, and the gains are greater for subsequently acquired targets. Partial bids initiated by corporate bidders are more likely to result in a full acquisition, and the size of the acquired stake and the level of institutional ownership are positively linked to the probability of acquisition. Further, the partial target gains are positively linked to the ex ante probability of acquisition even after controlling for any increased monitoring and discipline that the partial bidder is expected to impose. The findings are robust across various time horizons and model specifications.     

Economic Effects of Taxing Different Organizational Forms under the Nordic Dual Income Tax

This paper analyzes the economic effects of income splitting rules for closely held corporations and sole proprietorships/partnerships under the Nordic dual income tax. Income is split by imputing a return to capital, but the methods used for this differ between the Nordic countries. With a few notable exceptions, income splitting does well in the sense that the cost of capital is approximately the same in closely and widely held corporations. The special tax rules for sole proprietorships/partnerships manage to neutralize the impact of the high labor income tax on the cost of capital.     

Does trading volume detect information content in earnings reconciliations of foreign firms?

Currently, foreign firms trading securities on U.S. markets provide periodically a quantitative reconciliation of selected financial data consistent with U.S. GAAP (hereafter referred to as reconciled information) in Form 20-F. The SEC is examining whether users believe that this reconciliation process provides additional information above that provided by the foreign GAAP earning announcement and whether this incremental information enhances usefulness for market participants. We examine whether the reconciliation affects a primary indicator of information usefulness: the trading volume of capital markets participants.We use a regression model to examine the relation between a measure of abnormal trading volume and four firm-specific variables in the firm's information environment: similarities of accounting systems, analyst following, difference between reconciled earnings and foreign GAAP earnings, and dispersion of analysts’ expectations. We find a significant relation between abnormal volume and the reconciled earnings number and between abnormal volume and the dispersion of analysts forecasts. Our findings suggest that market participants may use the 20-F reconciliation in trading decisions.