Gender, Race, and Promotions within a Private-Sector Firm

This article empirically tests the proposition that the gender-race composition of an employee's occupation significantly affects the likelihood of promotion. Using data obtained from the personnel files of a financial services firm, we find that a high concentration of white females in an occupation adversely affects the probability of promotion, but only for white females and minorities in that occupation. A similar, attenuated pattern exists in occupations with either high concentrations of minority females or high concentrations of minority males. Additional empirical evidence suggests that the system of rules governing the promotion of white males differs significantly from that of the other three gender-race groups.     

Why Do Individual Investors Disregard Accounting Information? The Roles of Information Awareness and Acquisition Costs

We investigate the frictions that impede individual investors’ use of accounting information and, in particular, their costs of monitoring and acquiring accounting disclosures. We do so using an archival setting in which individuals are presented with automated media articles that report both current earnings news and past stock returns. Although these investors have earnings information readily available, we find no evidence that their trades incorporate it. Instead we find that their trading responds to the trailing stock returns presented in the articles. Our study raises questions about the efficacy of regulations that aim to aid less sophisticated investors by increasing their awareness of and access to accounting information.     

What Consumers Don't Know Can Hurt Them: Consumer Evaluations and Disease Risk Perceptions of Restaurant Menu Items

Legislation that mandates the provision of nutrition information on restaurant meanus has been proposed in several states. This research presents findings from an experiment that investigates how the provision of nutrition information and a health claim influence consumers’ attitudes towards the product, nutrition‐related attitudes, disease risk perceptions, source credibility judgements, and nutrient value estimates for restaurant menu items. In addition, how the nutrition frame (or context) within which a menu item is evaluated moderates these effects is examined. The results indicate that providing target item nutrition information, as well as a nutritional context, affects consumers’ attitudes, perceptions, and judgments. In addition, the context interacts with the provision of both a health claim and nutrition information for the target item. The theoretical, managerial, consumer welfare, and public policy implications of our research findings are discussed.     

Stock Exchange Disclosure and Market Development: An Analysis of 50 International Exchanges

This study examines associations between measures of stock exchange disclosure and market development at 50 of the member stock exchanges of the World Federation of Exchanges. We focus on stock exchange disclosure systems (rather than actual company disclosures) because this approach links stock exchange policy with desired outcomes related to market development (such as liquidity, trading activity, and market size relative to gross domestic product). We find strong support for the hypothesis that the strength of the disclosure system (disclosure rules, monitoring, and enforcement) is positively associated with market development, after controlling for legal system, legal protection of investors, market size, and several other potentially relevant explanatory variables.     

When Do Nutrient Content and Nutrient Content Claims Matter? Assessing Consumer Tradeoffs Between Carbohydrates and Fat

Substantial concern about the wide variety of carbohydrate‐related claims appearing on consumer packaged food products have been expressed by members of both the marketing and public policy communities. As a result, a number of petitions requesting the establishment of carbohydrate levels required for a low‐carbohydrate nutrient content claim have been submitted to the Food and Drug Administration, and the agency is considering the establishment of criteria for such a claim. This research examines the potential effects of a “low‐carbohydrate” claim, relative to the effects of a “low‐fat” claim, across selected product fat and carbohydrate levels. The study also considers whether consumers’ motivation to process nutrition information serves as a potential moderator of the effects of the nutrient content claims and nutrient levels on the dependent measures. As predicted, the results show key differences across consumer motivation levels. The policy implications of our findings are discussed.     

Playing With Food: Content Analysis of Food Advergames

This study examines how food marketers use advergames, custom‐built and branded online games, to promote food products to children and provides the nutritional content of the food products featured in the advergames. The results reveal that food marketers use advergames heavily, with candy and gum or food products high in sugar most frequently appearing in the analyzed games. Children are often invited to “play with” the foods integrated as active game components. Finally, despite the educational benefits of interactive games, fewer than 3% of the games analyzed in this study appear to educate children about nutritional and health issues.     

Labour Market Programs and the Australian Beveridge Curve: 1978 to 1997

Labour market programs are often advocated on the basis that by re-introducing unemployed people to the culture of the workplace, they will re-skill and motivate them enough to make them suitable employees to prospective employers. Accordingly, total employment should rise and vacancy rates fall. If programs work in this manner, we should be able to detect a systematic relationship between labour market program expenditure and the distance of the Beveridge curve from the origin ceteris paribus. There are few studies in the world that have directly tried to assess the impact of labour market program expenditure on the Beveridge curve. Our estimates for Australia over the last 19 years give limited support to the view that most labour market programs nave moved the Beveridge curve inwards.     

Trading Off Fish Health and Safety: Female Decision‐Making Processes toward the Risk of Methylmercury in Fish

This study takes a qualitative, point‐in‐time look at 26 females’ decision‐making processes toward trading off the risks of mercury and the health benefits of a seafood diet. The data revealed five different decision‐making processes, with 17 of the 26 participants indicating their fish consumption patterns did not change. Of the nine who changed their fish consumption in some way, six specifically reduced the amount of tuna they ate. Similarly, participants who were most at risk—women of childbearing age and those with young children—expressed fish consumption changes more frequently than others, especially in the amount of tuna they consumed.     

Perceptions and Price: Evidence from CEO Presentations at IPO Roadshows

This paper examines the relation between cognitive perceptions of management and firm valuation. We develop a composite measure of investor perception using 30‐second content‐filtered video clips of initial public offering (IPO) roadshow presentations. We show that this measure, designed to capture viewers’ overall perceptions of a CEO, is positively associated with pricing at all stages of the IPO (proposed price, offer price, and end of first day of trading). The result is robust to controls for traditional determinants of firm value. We also show that firms with highly perceived management are more likely to be matched to high‐quality underwriters. In further exploratory analyses, we find the impact is greater for firms with more uncertain language in their written S‐1. Taken together, our results provide evidence that investors’ instinctive perceptions of management are incorporated into their assessments of firm value.     

Does the Progressivity of Income Taxes Matter for Human Capital and Growth?

We develop a model with heterogeneity in skills to study the effect of tax progressivity on economic growth. The probability of becoming skilled depends positively on expenses on teacher time. We consider growth resulting from an externality due to skilled workers and from their employment in research and development. We show changes in the progressivity of taxes can have growth effects even when changes in flat rate taxes have none. The response is stronger with externality‐driven growth. Progressive taxation, often suggested to reduce inequality, can increase the long‐run skill premium and decrease the upward mobility of the poor.