The Limits of Statutory Trade Union Recognition

The paper assesses the prospects for Britain's new statutory trade union recognition procedure in the light of empirical evidence concerning union derecognition practice in the 1990s. It draws on 15 cases of union derecognition across a broad spread of employment, matched with comparable cases where recognition was retained. Inter alia it was found that a move towards more cooperative workplace arrangements, associated with a ‘partnership’ model of industrial relations, was common to employers in both categories. Against this background, we argue that it is far from clear that the current legislative strategy, in focusing on statutory recognition, is the best way of promoting partnership at work.     

Uniqueness of equilibrium for smooth multistage concave games

Smooth, noncooperative, multistage, concave games are formulated so that a new uniqueness condition—based on the Poincaré-Hopf theorem—can be applied. The new condition is the weakest to appear in the uniqueness literature. The uniqueness subgame perfect equilibrium is obtained and examples are given.     

An Experiment Testing the Determinants of Non-Compliance with Insider Trading Laws

Recent stories of corporate insiders avoiding losses and, in some cases, generating enormous personal profits as their companies crumbled have led investors to question the integrity of American business and the fairness of the United States stock markets. The SEC tries to ensure the fairness of the stock markets by making and enforcing laws against unfair practices such as insider trading. In the United States, when insiders trade stock based on non-public information, they have broken the law and betrayed the trust that has been placed in them.This study used student subjects to test the relationship between the likelihood of trading based on insider information and subjective probabilities of deterrents and motivations for insider trading. Expected gain, guilt, cynicism, and fairness of laws were the determinants that had a significant relationship with the intent to trade based on insider information. This study also found support for prospect theory with regard to insider trading. The results indicate that subjects are more likely to trade based on insider information to avoid a loss than to achieve an abnormal gain. The study also finds evidence of social desirability response bias.Additional findings of the study were that subjects did not view the determinants for themselves in a manner consistent with how they viewed those same deterrents and motivations for other people. Also, a test of the effects of gender found that certainty and social stigma were significantly higher for female respondents than for male respondents.     

Diffusion of a durable good innovation: The case of high bypass turbojet engines

Jackson and Kaserman (1991) model diffusion of an innovation an investment decision where the time of adoption is motivated by cost-minimization. This paper tests this model, using the adoption by American major airlines of jet aircraft embodying high bypass turbojet engine technology.The results support the Jackson-Kaserman model. The effect of aircraft age has the appropriate and significant sign. Likewise, average stage length measuring relative variable cost performance of the old and new technology is appropriately signed.     

Comparing the Value Relevance of Two Operating Income Measures

Prior research has shown that pro-forma (recurring operating) earnings reported by managers and analysts are more value relevant than GAAP net income. Since GAAP net income contains many non-operating items that reduce its value relevance compared to operating earnings, comparing the value relevance of GAAP net income with operating earnings unduly favors operating earnings. We show that operating earnings reported by managers and analysts are more value relevant than a measure of operating earnings derived from firms' financial statements, as reported by Standard and Poor's. Our evidence is important because it indicates that operating earnings reported by managers and analysts contain value relevant information beyond that provided by operating earnings obtained by sophisticated users from firms' financial statements.