How Comprehensive is Comprehensive Income? The Value Relevance of Foreign Currency Translation Adjustments

Prior empirical research has been unable to forge an unambiguous link between foreign currency translation adjustments, which are an element of “other items of comprehensive income,” and firm valuation. This study adds to the existing literature by empirically testing the value relevance of foreign currency translation adjustments in an earnings and book value model. Interaction terms, which serve as proxies for the theoretical sources of exchange rate exposure, are included in the estimating equation. The main finding of this study is that foreign currency translation adjustments are significantly value relevant when their parameter estimates are allowed to vary in the cross‐section.     

Federal banking regulators' competition in laxity: Evidence from CRA audits

The U.S. banking industry has three federal regulators in addition to the 50 state regulators. Through choices regarding its chartering source, joining the Federal Reserve System, and having deposit insurance, a bank also selects which office or agency serves as its primary regulator. Federal regulators gain status and authority from the number of banks over which they have primary supervision. It has long been suspected, therefore, that they compete with each other to entice banks to make choices that increase the number of banks reporting to them. This competition which includes less stringent enforcement and broad interpretation of the laws as favored by the banks is known as competition in laxity. The Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) is enforced by each of the three federal banking regulators. Since 1990, their ratings of banks' CRA performance have been published. This published data provides an opportunity to test accuracy of the competition in laxity theory.     

Is Trade Good for Your Health?*

We use a panel of 219 countries to examine the relationship between a country’s openness to international trade and several health outcomes and find that, in general, increased openness is associated with lower rates of infant mortality and higher life expectancies, especially in developing countries. We find evidence suggesting that some of the positive correlation between trade and health can be attributed to knowledge spillovers. In addition, openness is associated with sound economic policies which themselves are related to better health outcomes.     

EDA的低功耗游戏

随着芯片设计转移到90nm和65nm制程,芯片制造商面临着新的挑战,包括温度、稳定性及电源可靠性或电源效率的差异性等方面的挑战.业界试图通过几种途径努力来解决这些问题.这些努力之一就是PFI(电源前向初始化),由EDA市场领袖Cadence设计系统公司开始,通过通用的电源格式(UPF)进一步促进Accellera产业标准体系的加速形成.     

Trends in residential segregation by race: 1960–1980

This article uses census tract data to examine recent trends in residential segregation by race. We find that the growing tendency toward more segregated living patterns, which characterized most of the postwar period, has been reversed. The redistribution of the white population toward more integrated neighborhoods gathered steam in the 1970s and a significant proportion of the black population shifted away from established ghetto areas. As a result, residential segregation by race was lower in 1980 than it was in 1970. Furthermore, it was lower in 1980 than it was in 1960 for the nation as a whole and for each of the census regions. But despite this progress, the majority of housing markets remain highly segregated today.     

THE GRAMM‐LEACH‐BLILEY ACT OF 1999: RISK IMPLICATIONS FOR THE FINANCIAL SERVICES INDUSTRY

We document significant risk changes in the financial services industry following the passage of the Gramm‐Leach‐Bliley Act of 1999. Banks experience an increase in risk regardless of whether they have taken steps to participate actively in the investment banking business. Insurance companies also experience an increase in risk, whereas securities firms experience a decrease in risk. We attribute the increase in risk for banks and insurance companies to the fact that the securities business is relatively more risky, and the decline in risk for securities firms to the fact that they can now diversify into relatively less risky banking and insurance businesses.     

Title Assurance and Settlement Charges

The assurance that a seller of real estate has the right to transfer property free and clear of any encumbrances is important to potential purchasers and lenders. In the vast majority of cases in which real property is transferred, title insurance is used for this purpose. Consumer ignorance, coupled with a price structure based on the sales price of the property being insured, has led to an industry in which it is theoretically possible for the total charges by the primary supplier of the services to be indefinitely above a competitive level.