Transport subsidies, system choice, and urban sprawl

This paper analyzes the effect of transport subsidies on the spatial expansion of cities, asking whether such subsidies are a source of undesirable urban sprawl. Even though the cost-reducing effect of transport subsidies is offset by a higher general tax burden (which reduces the demand for space), the analysis shows that subsidies nevertheless lead to spatial expansion of cities. If the transport system exhibits constant returns to scale, the subsidies are inefficient, making the urban expansion they entail undesirable. The paper also studies transport “system choice,” with the city portrayed as selecting its transport system from along a continuum of money cost/time cost choices. The analysis shows that subsidies inefficiently bias choice in the direction of a high money cost/low time cost option. Lastly, the paper considers system choice in a city with rich and poor groups, showing that the rich favor a system with a high money cost and low time cost, but that their choice, if implemented, leads to a city whose spatial size is smaller than optimal. Thus, rich control of system choice does not lead to urban sprawl.     

SOCIALLY ENGAGED MUNICIPAL STATECRAFT IN URBAN CHINA? The Shenzhen Biennale as Situated Planning Experiment

In this article I build on scholarship that calls for attention to the interventionist role of the municipality in steering development beyond growth to introduce the situated planning experiment as a mechanism through which municipalities practice socially engaged statecraft. The situated planning experiment foregrounds place-based innovative planning practices that incorporate the participation of citizen intellectuals who act as advocates for marginalized groups in China. I frame the Shenzhen UrbanismArchitecture Biennale (UABB) as a situated planning experiment, tracing its influence on the municipality's shift in approach to planning for urban village redevelopment. I show how the UABB is leveraged as an instrument for the municipality to connect social and economic objectives in development and how it presents differentiated opportunities for migrant residents to make viable urban lives. The article offers one possibility for theorizing the changing relationship between municipal entrepreneurialism and urban planning and critically evaluates the potential for socially engaged municipal statecraft, considering the Xi regime's focus on people-oriented urbanization. It represents one way in which studies of municipal statecraft can consider the variegated logics and forms of emerging post-growth state programmes and politics.     

Politics, stock markets, and model uncertainty

The available evidence on the effects of political variables on both returns and volatility of aggregate stock indices is scant and mixed. Applying Bayesian Model Averaging to a panel dataset of 17 parliamentary democracies spanning the post-war period until 1995, we test the robustness of political variables in explaining stock returns and stock return volatility. While we find that the influence of political variables on excess returns is weak, there is evidence of some political variables explaining return volatility.     

Order Flows,Investor Sentiments and Feedback Trade in Index Futures Market

This paper examines the presence of feedback trading, and investor sentiment drove feedback trading by traders in the Nifty 50 index futures contract in India. The results of the study using high-frequency data sampled at 10 min interval using VAR and contemporaneous VAR model as applied to market microstructure settings reveals negative evidence of feedback trade and investor sentiment-driven feedback trade in Nifty 50 futures contract. Further, consistency with noise trading hypothesis, order flows in Nifty 50 futures contract is less informative when traders are overly optimistic.

     

Death is not an option, how you die is--reflections from a career in oncology nursing

With a combined career of over 60 years in oncology nursing, the authors reflect on the critical elements in the question, "How can we afford to die?" Three high-profile patient scenarios in three different decades promised to improve use of advance directives but did not. Recent societal events, including the debates about health care reform, have brought attention again to end-of-life issues and care. Quickly approaching a "perfect storm" of an aging population, an inefficient and costly illness-oriented health care system, and health care profession shortages, the United States will not be able to afford delivering futile interventions. Nurses, who are consistently seen as the most trusted professionals, must take action in strategies the authors present.     

Natural conjugate priors for the instrumental variables regression model applied to the Angrist–Krueger data

We propose a natural conjugate prior for the instrumental variables regression model. The prior is a natural conjugate one since the marginal prior and posterior of the structural parameter have the same functional expressions which directly reveal the update from prior to posterior. The Jeffreys prior results from a specific setting of the prior parameters and results in a marginal posterior of the structural parameter that has an identical functional form as the sampling density of the limited information maximum likelihood estimator. We construct informative priors for the Angrist–Krueger [1991. Does compulsory school attendance affect schooling and earnings? Quarterly Journal of Economics 106, 979–1014] data and show that the marginal posterior of the return on education in the US coincides with the marginal posterior from the Southern region when we use the Jeffreys prior. This result occurs since the instruments are the strongest in the Southern region and the posterior using the Jeffreys prior, identical to maximum likelihood, focusses on the strongest available instruments. We construct informative priors for the other regions that make their posteriors of the return on education similar to that of the US and the Southern region. These priors show the amount of prior information needed to obtain comparable results for all regions.     

Interpartner Legitimacy in the Alliance Development Process*

abstract We propose a framework to understand interpartner legitimacy in strategic alliances. Interpartner legitimacy is the mutual acknowledgment by the alliance partners that their actions are proper in the developmental processes of the alliance. We argue that interpartner legitimacy is needed for cooperation to achieve alliance objectives. We propose three types of interpartner legitimacy – pragmatic, moral, and cognitive legitimacy – and discuss the dynamics of these three types in the formation, operation, and outcome stages of alliance development. Further, we discuss the salience of interpartner legitimacy in different alliance types. Finally, we derive propositions for further research, and discuss strategies that alliance managers can adopt to develop interpartner legitimacy.     

The ABCs of effective communication

Communication is affected by the aim of the communicators, their bias, and the climate in which they are communicating. It is also affected by their attitudes, their behaviors, and their self-concepts. Finally, before communicating, they should assess the communication situation, create a blueprint for the communication, and choose a communication style. In other words, they should practice the ABCs of communication.     

Corporate Lobbying of the International Accounting Standards Committee

The paper investigates corporate lobbyists of the International Accounting Standards Committee (IASC). This exploratory study was done in order to better understand the characteristics of corporations that lobby the IASC and to empirically test the applicability of U.S.-based lobbying theories in this international context. Corporations that submitted comment letters about 17 Exposure Drafts and three Draft Statements of Position from 1989 to 1994 were analyzed. Overall, the 100 lobbying corporations were quite large. In the U.S. and in 10 of the 12 other countries examined, lobbying corporations were larger than nonlobbying firms in terms of revenue, income, and assets. Eighty-four percent of all lobbying corporations were listed on at least one foreign stock exchange, and 78% of non-U.S. lobbying corporations had equity securities traded in the U.S. Finally, in 10 of the 12 non-U.S. countries, a higher percentage of lobbying firms than nonlobbying firms had their stock traded in the U.S. Overall, corporations lobbying the IASC tend to be very large both globally and in terms of their country of domicile, listed on at least one foreign exchange, and traded in the U.S. Support is found in this international context for ideas originating in the U.S.-based lobbying literature.