Corporate tax avoidance and high-powered incentives

This paper analyzes the links between corporate tax avoidance and the growth of high-powered incentives for managers. A simple model demonstrates the role of feedback effects between tax sheltering and managerial diversion in determining how high-powered incentives influence tax sheltering decisions. A novel measure of corporate tax avoidance (the component of the book-tax gap not attributable to accounting accruals) allows for an investigation of the link between tax avoidance and incentive compensation. Increases in incentive compensation tend to reduce the level of tax sheltering, in a manner consistent with a complementary relationship between diversion and sheltering. In addition, this negative effect is driven primarily by firms with relatively weak governance arrangements, confirming a central prediction of the model. These results can help explain the growing cross-sectional variation among firms in their levels of tax avoidance, the undersheltering puzzle, and why large book-tax gaps are associated with subsequent negative abnormal returns.     

The influence of self-construal and materialism on social media intensity: a study of China and the United States

This study investigated the potential influence of self-construal and materialism on intensity of usage for three social media platforms: social networking sites (SNSs), microblogging sites (MBSs), and video sharing sites (VSSs). Data were collected from China and the United States – two countries with the highest advertising expenditures and Internet populations. Drawing from the social comparison theory (SCT) and the framework of independent and interdependent self-construal, results of the hierarchical multiple regressions indicated that both independent and interdependent self-construal were positively related to SNS intensity among Chinese and American users. However, interdependent self-construal had a significant, negative relationship with the intensity of MBS use among users in the two countries. Materialism was found to positively relate to SNS intensity, MBS intensity, and VSS intensity among Chinese and American users. These results provide evidence that self-construal and materialism contribute to social media use independent of nationality. Theoretical and managerial implications for international advertising strategies are discussed.     

The Economics Olympics: Ranking U.S. Economics Departments Based on Prizes,Medals, and Other Awards

This study ranks the top 25 U.S. economics departments on the basis of four prestigious awards won/held by these departments' current faculty: the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences, the John Bates Clark Medal, the American Economic Association's (AEA's) Distinguished Fellow Award, and the American Economic Association's Richard T. Ely Lecturer. Based on our methodology, the top economics department is affiliated with the University of Chicago. This distinction stems from its affiliation with six Nobel Prize winners, four Clark Medal winners, and two participants each in the AEA Distinguished Fellow and Richard T. Ely Lecturer categories.     

Intellectual property rights and foreign direct investment

This paper develops a product cycle model with endogenous innovation, imitation, and foreign direct investment (FDI). We use this model to determine how stronger intellectual property rights (IPR) protection in the South affects innovation, imitation and FDI. We find that stronger IPR protection keeps multinationals safer from imitation, but no more so than Northern firms. Instead, the increased difficulty of imitation generates resource wasting and imitation disincentive effects that reduce both FDI and innovation. The greater resources absorbed in imitation crowd out FDI. Reduced FDI then transmits resource scarcity in the South back to the North and consequently contracts innovation.     

(En-)‘lightening’ children: Assessing the impacts of access to electricity on learning achievement levels

The welfare impacts of electrification are well documented in the literature, including the effects of electricity on school enrolment. However, the spillover effects of electrification on children's achievement levels are scarce. We use three complementary but distinct econometric models to establish a causal relationship between electrification and test scores using nationally representative household panel data from India. We find positive results irrespective of the choice of econometric model, and these results seem to be mediated by changing time-use patterns of children with access to electricity. We first exploit the plausibly exogenous variation in access to electricity due to a universal electrification program in the state of West Bengal in India and we find positive effects of electrification on children's test scores. By age group, we find that younger cohorts benefit more in terms of their reading scores than older cohorts. Then, to ascertain external validity of these results, we replicate them over a nationally representative sample using fixed effects and instrumental variables estimation and find similar results. At the intensive margin, we find that access to more hours of electricity positively affects test scores. We identify an increase in time spent by children on study-related activities as the potential channel for these results.     

Advertising as special service provision under non-price vertical restraints: exclusive territories in beer distribution

This article presents statistical evidence which supports Lester Telser's 1960 hypothesis, that when vertical restraints are made illegal, intrabrand competition results which diminishes the provision of point-of-sale, special services. This results because of the public goods problem exhibited by the special services. Increased special service provision by the national manufacturer must then substitute for the special service provision left unfilled by the wholesaler. Evidence relating to the efficacy of such substitution is also presented.     

Employee age and voluntary development activity

It is known that older workers undertake less formal training than younger ones, but little information is available about age-patterns in voluntary development activities undertaken in an employee’s own time. In a study of 1798 manufacturing workers, age and ten other factors were examined in relation to four types of activity: participation in a tuition refund scheme, learning in an employee development programme, attendance at an employee development centre, and use of a personal development record. Significant age- differences were found, and key influential factors were identified as older workers’ lower educational qualifications (representing both cognitive and affective differences) and their more limited learning motivation (linked to lower learning confidence and greater perceived time constraints). However, older individuals who had previously undertaken each form of development were as positive about that previous activity as were younger participants. Possible interventions to increase voluntary development at older ages include rewards for participation, enhancement of basic skills, pretraining in appropriate learning strategies, sequential exposure to graded learning demands, and steps to change organisational stereotypes of older staff.     

Engineering controls to minimize worker exposure to ethylene oxide at sterilization facilities

Gas sterilizers, using either pure ethylene oxide (EtO) or an admixture with an inert diluent, are typically utilized for treating products which cannot withstand heat sterilization. Due to the highly toxic nature of ethylene oxide and its classification as a suspect carcinogen, special precautions must be taken to ensure safe exposure levels to human receptors. This paper discusses the various engineering controls that can be implemented at EtO sterilization facilities to minimize ethylene oxide ambient concentrations and worker exposure levels.     

Recognizing and Resolving Social Dilemmas in Supply Chain Public–Private Partnerships

The public–private partnership (PPP) is a popular strategy for creating global sustainable value. However, many PPPs struggle to realize their value‐added potential. Why do some public–private partnerships succeed while others fail, and how may those struggling succeed? Combining supply‐chain integration and social dilemma perspectives into the conversation of PPPs, we examine the dynamics and psychology of cooperation necessary for PPP success. Addressing the first part of our research question, we recognize three social dilemmas that can manifest while managing PPP supply chains: a give‐some dilemma, a take‐some dilemma, and a give‐or‐take‐some dilemma. To address the second part of our research question, we present a taxonomy of strategies resolving these PPP social dilemmas through the enhancement of trust, self‐efficacy, and social responsibility. We discuss implications for PPPs, supply‐chain, and social dilemma literatures.