Demographic Factors and Price Distortions in Insurance

Few papers have analyzed the potential linkages between price distortions and the specific demographic and political traits of customers. The existence of price distortions may have adverse and potentially unintended impacts on certain demographic groups, leading to significant public policy concerns. The current study uses census tract data and rating factors to examine age, income, and race demographics in an effort to determine if any subgroups of the population are adversely impacted by the price distortions of property insurance. The results suggest that Hispanics, lower income households, and specific age groups pay relatively more for insurance coverage than comparison groups.     

Pre‐commercial procurement: a demand or supply policy instrument in relation to innovation?

In 2006, the European Commission introduced the concept of ‘pre‐commercial procurement’ (PCP) as an instrument to promote innovation and to mitigate grand challenges. One of the main motives for the support of PCP schemes was to use public needs as a driver for innovation. This concept was also introduced as a response to the need to reinforce the innovation capabilities of the European Union while improving the quality and efficiency of public services. But what is meant by PCP? Is it a demand‐ or a supply‐side instrument in relation to innovation? This is the research question addressed in this paper, the goal being motivated by the lack of academic discussion in this direction. The paper is based on three cases, one from the Netherlands, one from the United Kingdom and one from Australia. These cases provide evidence that PCP is a matter of research and development (R&D) funding of a targeted kind, geared toward very specific goals and in a focused way. This leads the authors to conclude that PCP is a supply‐side policy instrument in relation to innovation. In this sense, they would like to raise a flag for going back to the origins of the PCP program and calling it a ‘precompetitive R&D program’, rather than labeling it as an innovation procurement instrument.     

Foreclosure Discount: Definition and Dynamic Patterns

The lack of a consistent definition of foreclosure discount gives rise to discount rates that vary from nonexistent to sizeable across locations and time. We define the foreclosure discount as the discount of the real estate owned (REO) sale price relative to a normal‐sale estimated market value. With a dataset of 1.34 million REO sale transactions, across 16 CBSAs between 2000 and 2012, we find three noteworthy empirical findings. First, a high REO sale concentration in a market increases the foreclosure discount. Second, foreclosure discount is negatively related to recent house‐price appreciation. Third, the often reported high foreclosure discount for lower value properties is likely due to property condition.     

The efficiency of earnings forecast pricing

Prior research has suggested that the information content associated with analysts’ forecast revisions is not immediately incorporated into a firm’s stock price. We find that the apparent anomaly is concentrated in low-priced firms that receive favorable earnings revisions. Variables (such as analyst coverage and celebrity status) cannot reliably explain variations in price formations. Finally, we find that the magnitude of the post-forecast revision drift has decreased after 2002. Overall, our results suggest that the analysts’ forecast revisions anomaly can be explained by a combination of random statistical variations and transaction costs.     

Are CEOs expected utility maximizers?

Are individuals expected utility maximizers? This question represents much more than academic curiosity. In a normative sense, at stake are the fundamental underpinnings of the bulk of the last half-century’s models of choice under uncertainty. From a positive perspective, the ubiquitous use of benefit-cost analysis across government agencies renders the expected utility maximization paradigm literally the only game in town. In this study, we advance the literature by exploring CEO’s preferences over small probability, high loss lotteries. Using undergraduate students as our experimental control group, we find that both our CEO and student subject pools exhibit frequent and large departures from expected utility theory. In addition, as the extreme payoffs become more likely CEOs exhibit greater aversion to risk. Our results suggest that use of the expected utility paradigm in decision making substantially underestimates society’s willingness to pay to reduce risk in small probability, high loss events.     

Market liquidity as dynamic factors

We use recent results on the Generalized Dynamic Factor Model (GDFM) with block structure to provide a data-driven definition of unobservable market liquidity and to assess the complementarity of two observed liquidity measures: daily close relative spreads and daily traded volumes for a sample of 426 S&P500 constituents recorded over the years 2004-2006. The advantage of defining market liquidity as a dynamic factor is that, contrary to other definitions, it tackles time dependence and commonness at the same time, without making any restrictive assumptions. Both relative spread and volume in the dataset under study appear to be driven by the same one-dimensional common shocks, which therefore naturally qualify as the unobservable market liquidity shocks.     

Combating the effects of turnover: Military lessons learned from project teams rebuilding Iraq

The literature concerning turnover has traditionally been composed of studies and analyses which assume that turnover rates are malleable, and can be reduced. We take the opposite position and contend that turnover rates for certain organizations are not variable, but rather remain fixed. Is it possible, then, to reduce the deleterious effects of turnover without reducing the actual churn of individuals? To answer this question, we draw from experiences of the U.S. military during Operation Iraqi Freedom, in order to learn from its methods of dealing with high personnel turnover during the management of projects. Specifically, we offer four best practices that reduce the negative effects of turnover, while allowing the rate itself to remain constant. These best practices aim toward sharing the knowledge and mental models critical for sustained operations, to insulate the organization against the departure of key personnel. Herein, we demonstrate how efficient operations can be maintained amidst high churn rates.     

Has the likelihood of appointing a CEO with an accounting/finance background changed in the post-Sarbanes Oxley era?

Congress passed the Sarbanes–Oxley Act (SOX) in July 2002 to improve the accuracy and reliability of financial reporting. The Act increased boards of directors’ responsibilities for financial reporting and control. Did it consequently increase boards’ preferences for a CEO with financial experience to protect against the potential reputational and/or legal losses that directors incur when financial scandals happen? We investigated whether newly appointed CEOs in the post-SOX period were more likely to have accounting or finance experience than in the pre-SOX period. Using a sample of 264 CEO changes from 2001 to 2004, we found that the percentage of newly-appointed CEOs with accounting/finance backgrounds significantly increased in the post-SOX period compared to the pre-SOX period. Our results suggest that the events surrounding the passage of the Sarbanes–Oxley Act may have affected the CEO background experience preferred by boards of directors.     

Inter-temporal inventory competition and the effects of capacity constraints

This paper addresses an intertemporal inventory competition between a supplier (a provider, manufacturer) and a retailer engaged in a supply chain. The paper's focus is on the effect of capacity constraints on both parties when demands are seasonal. The paper provides a comparative study of two solution approaches, one is based on supply chain competition and the other is based on system wide optimization. Our results demonstrate that with dynamic inventory competition, the retailer reduces inventory costs by reducing the response period to higher demands while increasing the supply requests compared to the system-wide optimal approach. As a result, the supplier's inventory costs increase. An example illustrating these particular facets of the problem and its application is presented and discussed in light of the supplier and the retailer coordinating policies.