The Analytics of Performance Measurement Using a Security Market Line

Security market line (SML) analysis, while an important tool, has never been fully justified from a theoretical standpoint. Assuming symmetric information and an inefficient index, we show that SML analysis can be grossly misleading, since, in general, efficient and inefficient portfolios can plot above and below the SML. On a more positive note, if SML analysis uses the return on a marketed riskless asset for the zero-beta rate, efficient portfolios must plot above the SML. Nonetheless, arbitrarily inefficient portfolios also plot above the SML.     

Information and Volatility: The No-Arbitrage Martingale Approach to Timing and Resolution Irrelevancy

The no-arbitrage martingale analysis is used to study the effect on asset prices of changes in the rate of information flow. The analysis is first used to develop some simple tools for asset pricing in a continuous-time setting. These tools are then applied to determine the effect of information on prices and price volatility, to extend Samuelson's theorem on prices fluctuating randomly, and to study the impact on prices of the resolution of uncertainty. The conditions under which uncertainty resolution is irrelevant for asset pricing are shown to be similar to those which support the MM irrelevance theorems.     

Mineral Leasing Policy: Competitive Bidding and the Resource Rent Tax Given Various Responses to Risk*

This paper considers the choice between lump-sum bidding and a tax conditional on net present value (of which the Resource Rent Tax is a practical example) as methods of collecting rent from mining projects. It demonstrates that there is an optimal combination of the two methods and that the relative emphasis to be placed on each depends heavily on the manner in which investors take risk into account. Four stylized ways in which investors and governments respond to risk are examined and, in addition to the more familiar types of risk, sovereign risk is introduced. The paper argues for the placing of relatively heavy emphasis on the conditional tax.     

Japanese Business Practices and their Implications for the West

Toyohiro Kono, Strategy and Structure of Japanese Enterprises (Armonk, New York: Kazuo Sato and Yasuo Hoshino (eds), The Anatomy of Japanese Business (Armonk, New York: M. E. Sharpe, 1984; and London: Croom Helm, 1984) 378 pp., $35.00 and |SL25.00.     

On What States Do Prices Depend? Answers From Ecuador

The frequency of retail price adjustment differs across goods, both in low inflationary environments, such has the United States, and in high inflationary environments typical of less developed countries. We develop a multishock menu cost model in which retailers intermediate trade between producers and consumers. Since the cost share of intermediate inputs varies across goods, the model produces a cross-sectional distribution of frequency of price adjustment even though firms face a common menu cost. The model is evaluated using a rich micropanel of retail prices in Ecuador in a period spanning a financial crisis and subsequent dollarization.     

THE INCOME TAX RESPONSIVENESS OF THE RICH: EVIDENCE FROM FREE AGENT MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL ALL-STARS

This paper examines the responsiveness of the rich to state income taxes. We use Major League Baseball free agents who were named All-Stars at some point in their career and who signed with a U.S. team for the 1991 through 2002 seasons. This data set overcomes some of the previous difficulties encountered in similar studies but also has limitations representing the general rich population. We find evidence that the wages of this subset of players do adjust to offset the burden of state income taxes, specifically a 1% decrease in net-of-tax rate leads to a 3.3% increase in salary. ( JEL H20, H24, H71, R23)