A Toy Store(y)

This article was used as the starting point for a series of seven analyses that comprise a special issue on entrepreneurial narrative. This article was given to scholars with the title “A Toy Store(y)” with no other identifying characteristics. The story describes the founding and operation of a toy store in Rutland Vermont in 1965. The story describes the process of realizing an opportunity, identifying and acquiring resources to pursue this opportunity, involving and managing others, and adapting to unforeseen circumstances as new competitive conditions are encountered.     

The Effects of a Federal Flat Tax on Agriculture

This study examines the impact of a federal flat tax on agriculture by determining the tax liability under the current and flat tax systems using actual farm records. The study considers the linkages between agriculture and the rest of the economy by examining the impact of a flat tax on interest rates and capital investment and how those changes would affect agriculture. Results indicate that roughly 63% of agricultural producers would benefit from a flat tax in terms of lowering taxes paid. Under the flat tax, larger farms and more profitable farms would be relatively better off.     

Crossownership and media concentration

This paper investigates whether media concentration permits newspaper and group owners of television stations to charge higher advertising rates than other types of owners. The prior studies that have looked at this issue have had to rely on questionable data. This study focuses on more accurate data, i.e. selling prices. It is argued that the potential for higher advertising rates could cause newspaper and group owners to pay higher prices for television stations than other types of buyers. An empirical analysis was made of sales of television stations between 1960 and 1969. The results tend to show that newspaper owners were willing to pay higher prices. A second analysis was done to determine whether the higher prices were due to market power or economies of scale. The results tend to show that the higher prices were probably due to the market power possessed by newspaper owned stations, some of which spills over to the other stations in the market.     

Swiss inflation and the two versions of the monetary approaches to the balance of payments

Summary and Conclusion The paper has discussed the distinction between a strong and a weak version of the MBOP first made by Rabin and Yeager. Empirical evidence has been provided to refute the strong version of the MBOP and the closely related global monetarist school of thought contention that the law of one price is the major conduit through which worldwide inflation is transmitted. Switzerland provides a case of a country which imported inflation via both a direct price effect from abroad and continuous balance-of-payments surpluses. The evidence does not explicitly confirm the weak version of the MBOP because it is not a theory of worldwide inflation. The evidence does suggest that there are at least two transmission mechanisms for worldwide inflation. Economists should be careful not to interpret the MBOP as a unicausal theory of world inflation.     

Integration of family-owned business succession with turnover and life cycle models: Development of a successor retention process model

Family-owned businesses face a unique obstacle: continuation of the business through intergenerational transfer. Most family-owned businesses cease when the next generation does not enter the business. This paper develops parallels between failed intergenerational transfer and voluntary turnover. Based on past research, we develop a taxonomy of characteristics hypothesized to influence intergenerational transfer in family-owned businesses. We, then, integrate these dimensions with prominent turnover and socialization theories to propose a successor retention process model. Implications for research are described.     

TRUCKING DEREGULATION AND MOTOR-CARRIER PERFORMANCE: THE SHAREHOLDERS' PERSPECTIVE

This paper utilizes an event study methodology to investigate the effects of deregulation on carriers' shareholders. This methodology compares the expected returns during a time period surrounding a particular event with actual returns during the same time period. These differences are referred to as prediction errors. The study investigates the prediction errors associated with individual trucking firms, as well as those associated with groups composed of regional carriers, national carriers, and the aggregate sample of firms used in the study. The results suggest that the passage of the Motor Carrier Reform Act on July 1, 1980, halted a serious 18-month downward trend in the aggregate sample's cumulative prediction error. Nearly all firms showed significant gains in the 18 months subsequent to deregulation. Using two control groups, the authors show that a large portion of this gain from the industry sample can be explained by lower and more stable fuel prices and a sharp upturn in the economy. The results also indicate that due to deregulation, the large regional trucking firms were able to outperform the small regional firms and the national firms in the more favorable economic environment present after deregulation.