Efficiency Measurement in Network Industries: Application to the Swiss Railway Companies

The persistence of increasingly high government subsidies in Switzerland’s railroads has led the federal and cantonal authorities to discussing the possibility of high-powered incentive contracts such as those based on cost efficiency benchmarking. Railways are however, characterized by a high degree of unobserved heterogeneity that could bias the efficiency estimates. This paper examines the performance of several panel data models to measure cost efficiency in network industries. The unobserved firm-specific effects and the resulting biases are studied through a comparative study of several stochastic frontier models, applied to a panel of 50 railway companies operating over a 13-year period.* The authors wish to thank Michael Crew and two anonymous referees for their helpful suggestions. Aurelio Fetz provided an excellent assistance, which is gratefully acknowledged. Any remaining errors are the responsibility of the authors.This revised version was published in June 2005 with corrections in the author affiliations.     

Planung und Unternehmenserfolg: Stylized Facts aus der empirischen Controllingforschung im deutschsprachigen Raum von 1990–2007

Zusammenfassung Der vorliegende Beitrag untersucht, inwieweit die empirische Controllingforschung im deutschsprachigen Raum von 1990 bis 2007 belastbare Aussagen (“Stylized Facts”) zum Zusammenhang zwischen der Gestaltung der Planung als bedeutsamem Teil der Controllerarbeit und dem Controlling- bzw. Unternehmenserfolg erarbeitet hat. Insgesamt werden fünfzehn Studien analysiert, aus denen Stylized Facts zu Planungsintensit?t, Planungsrationalit?t, Planungsoffenheit, Planungsintegration und Planungsdauer sowie zu Opportunismus und Kompetenzgef?lle als soziale Gestaltungsfaktoren der Planung hergeleitet werden. Zum einen zeigen die Ergebnisse den Beitrag der empirischen Controllingforschung zum Verst?ndnis der Planung als Führungsteilfunktion. Zum anderen k?nnen verschiedenste Aussagen zur Gestaltung der Planung in handlungsleitender Form an die Unternehmenspraxis zurückgespielt werden.      

人民币和中国经济

中国存在着许多结构性问题,如社会保障制度不健全,金融体制不完善等.这些问题的根源都不在汇率制度.要在根本上解决问题,在实行人民币升值和改革人民币汇率制度,提高汇率制度灵活性的同时,还要抑制投资过热,控制银行贷款规模,发展银行存款以外的股票、债券等资本市场,推进国有企业改革,实施消除将来不安的社会保障政策,实现利率自由化,改革金融体制等.只有使这些政策措施互相配合,很好地联动,才能取得卓越的成效.     

External shocks, U.S. monetary policy and macroeconomic fluctuations in emerging markets

Estimated structural VARs show that external shocks are an important source of macroeconomic fluctuations in emerging markets. Furthermore, U.S. monetary policy shocks affect interest rates and the exchange rate in a typical emerging market quickly and strongly. The price level and real output in a typical emerging market respond to U.S. monetary policy shocks by more than the price level and real output in the U.S. itself. These findings are consistent with the idea that “when the U.S. sneezes, emerging markets catch a cold.” At the same time, U.S. monetary policy shocks are not important for emerging markets relative to other kinds of external shocks.     

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Asymmetric Risk Measures and Real Estate Returns

Rational investors distinguish between extremely high and extremely low returns. The measures of investment risk should reflect such asymmetric risk perception. This study presents six asymmetric risk metrics and empirically tests their abilities in explaining the cross-sectional variations of real estate returns. It finds strong evidence that systematic downside risk is associated with a risk premium, and skewness provides significant explanatory power to the variation of cross-sectional property returns. On the other hand, co-skewness does not explain real estate returns well and is not a good systematic risk measure.     

Real Estate Investment Trusts and Stock Price Reversals

A trigger value of –5% is used to identify a sample of real estate trusts (REITS) that experience substantial one-day price declines. Abnormal returns are then calculated for the subsequent two-day period. The results of this study suggest stock price reversals are associated with extreme stock price declines for REITS. Hence, it appears the market overreacts at the time unfavorable information about REITS is disseminated. The degree of reversal across the sample is assessed according to variables such as the initial price decline (day 0), pre-event leakage (day –1), size (capitalization), the type of real estate investment trust, and relative trading volume.     

Have Anti-Discrimination Housing Laws Worked? Evidence from Trends in Black Homeownership

This paper explores the hypothesis that anti-discrimination legislation has been an important factor in shaping the evolution of minority homeownership spatial trends. It does so by studying homeownership patterns of black and non-black households during the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s using Census data and data that proxies for the level of enforcement of the Fair Housing Act over time. The results provide unambiguous support for the view that enforcement has been a key factor for black homeownership since the 1970s, as we find a consistent positive relationship between fair housing policy enforcement and black homeownership growth. In addition, we find clear evidence that black homeowners gained access to more diverse and higher-income neighborhoods over time, with the shift occurring beginning in the 1980s and continuing in the 1990s. Importantly, both of these results are race-specific results, as there are no such patterns among non-black homeowners. Taken together, the results are consistent with the view that the housing-related civil rights legislation passed during the 1960s and 1970s helped alter, and reduce, the role that race played in housing markets.     

The Pricing of Lake Lots

This article reveals aspects of lakefront property pricing especially with respect to lot frontage and depth. A clearer understanding of how these lot dimensions affect price should be of interest to those engaged in lake development, land use control, valuation, and marketing. A data set with eighty observations of vacant Lake Michigan residential properties sales is used. The unique geography of northwest Michigan provides an opportunity to tackle empirical issues associated with zoning when zoning is correlated with lot attributes, such as lot topography.