The Influence of Environmental Pressures, Diversification Strategy, and Union/Nonunion Setting on Employee Participation

This study tests the hypotheses that environment, diversification strategy, and union/nonunion setting affect the number and variety of employee participation programs. A survey of large U.S. manufacturing firms measured the implementation of employee participation programs. Regression results suggest that environmental pressures exert a direct effect on participation in union settings. However, in nonunion settings, environment and diversification strategy both correlated directly with participation. These results suggest that unions could potentially affect participation program implementation.     

Binomial Option Pricing with Skewed Asset Returns

This research presents a method for estimating the parameters of the binomial option pricing model necessary to appropriately price calls on assets with asymmetric end-of-period return distributions. Parameters of the binomial model are shown to be a function of the mean, variance, and skewness of the underlying return distribution. It is also shown that failure to incorporate skewness results in the mispricing of the call.     

Odd lot trading and earnings announcements

This study investigates odd lot trading, both trades and orders, around quarterly earnings announcements to determine whether odd lot traders are informed regarding the information contained in earnings announcements. We find pre-announcement odd lot order imbalances are not positively correlated with post-announcement returns and odd lot traders do not earn excess returns. Portfolios long stocks highly bought by odd lot traders in the pre-announcement period and short stocks highly sold by odd lot traders do not outperform the market. We conclude that odd lot traders are not in possession of earnings announcement information prior to its release to the public.     

Core Requirements for the Economics Major

In this article, the authors are the first to describe the core economics curriculum requirements for economics majors at all American colleges and universities, as opposed to a sample of institutions. Not surprisingly, principles of economics is nearly universally required and implemented as a two-semester course in 85 percent of economics major programs. Most schools do not prescribe the order in which the principles sequence is taken. The intermediate courses are commonly required, although variation exists across institution types. While the quantitative requirement for the major has increased since 1980, significant differences exist among institutions and by academic rankings. As compared to 1950, there has been an increase in the number of required economics credit hours for the major.     

Secondary markets with changing preferences

If consumer valuations change over time, then secondary‐market frictions may raise monopoly profits and cause durability to be distorted away from the cost‐minimizing level. A monopolist who favors such frictions overinvests in durability, but planned obsolescence instead may be preferred when market frictions exist but a monopolist wishes they did not. Evidence from the book market is presented.     

Explaining Americans’ responses to dread epidemics: an illustration with Ebola in late 2014

Despite several surveys of Americans’ responses to Ebola as people were treated or died in the US in the late fall of 2014, little was published on factors that might affect these responses, despite their value for informing future management and communication regarding outbreaks of novel infectious diseases. This explanatory aim was the goal of a national quota online sample of Americans (n = 815) who reported their beliefs and attitudes about Ebola in early December, three weeks after the second US death. Responses were shaped particularly by risk judgments and concern, but also by available Ebola information (from news attention or residence in a state with Ebola experience), political cues (partisanship, ideology), and demographics. Judgments of personal risk and US/global risk were shaped by largely different factors; for example, knowledge of Ebola exposure routes exhibited negative and positive signs, respectively. News attention was associated with both positive (e.g. trust in US Centers for Disease Control & Prevention [CDC]; knowledge) and negative (e.g. US/global risk perception; concern about a US outbreak and family member infection) reactions. Findings suggest challenges for future health communication.     

Integration of and Deliveries among the World Zionist Organization,Israel, and Diaspora Countries: System Articulation with the Social Fabric Matrix

Abstract:

The religious economics (not economics of religion) concern here is the relationship between the World Zionist Organization (WZO) and Israel, which is known as a geopolitical power in its region and which is also known as an economic success story. Joseph Schumpeter and Karl Polanyi explained how the political economy of medieval Europe was influenced and guided by Christian morality. This paper extends the analysis of religious economics by using the social fabric matrix of original institutional economics to define and structure the integration of the WZO, Israel, and the Diaspora countries. This allows us to observe how to conduct such work and to learn how Israel is guided and influenced by the WZO. It also helps to explain Israel’s “risk of tearing itself apart” as noted in a recent article in the New York Times.     

Information Exchange and Transnational Environmental Problems

This paper analyzes information exchange in a model of transnational pollution control in which countries use private information in independently determining their domestic environmental policies. We show that countries may not always have an incentive to exchange their private information. However, for a sufficiently high degree of predictability of domestic environmental policy processes, the expected welfare from sharing information is greater than the expected welfare from keeping it private. The minimum degree of policy predictability for which information sharing occurs increases with the level of environmental risk. Intuitively, information exchange can help mitigate the perception of global uncertainty (both political and scientific) that surrounds transnational environmental problems and potentially improve welfare if policymaking processes are sufficiently aligned with evidence-based approaches (predictable).     

The effect of human resource practices on perceived organizational support in the People’s Republic of China

Using a sample of workers and managers employed by a hotel located in Southeastern People’s Republic of China, we investigated the relationship between various human resource management practices and the perceived organizational support (POS) experienced by the employees. We then investigated the effects of POS on employee satisfaction. Our data suggest that hiring practices, training, and compensation practices predict POS. These results are consistent with previous research. We also found that POS influences worker satisfaction and acts as a mediator between select HR practices and satisfaction. This study contributes to the literature by replicating Western-based findings with a Chinese sample and illustrating that the attitudes of Chinese employees can be influenced through the use of HR practices.