“We Ought to Eat in Order to Work,Not Vice Versa”: MacIntyre,Practices, and the Best Work for Humankind

Journal of Business Ethics - This paper draws a distinction between ‘right MacIntyreans’ who are relatively optimistic that MacIntyre’s vision of ethics can be realised in...     

Mergers and marginal costs: New evidence on hospital buyer power

We estimate the effects of hospital mergers, using detailed data containing medical supply transactions (representing 23% of operating costs) from a sample of US hospitals, 2009–2015. Pre‐merger price variation across hospitals (Gini coefficient 7%) suggests significant opportunities for cost decreases. However, we observe limited evidence of actual savings. In this retrospective study, targets realized 1.9% savings; acquirers realized no significant savings. Examining treatment effect heterogeneity to shed light on theories of “buyer power,” we find that savings, when they occur, tend to be local, and potential benefits of savings may be offset by managerial costs of merging.     

Analysts’ role in shaping non-GAAP reporting: evidence from a natural experiment

Review of Accounting Studies - We examine how exogenous changes in analyst coverage influence (1) the likelihood that managers will voluntarily disclose customized (non-GAAP) performance metrics...     

Measuring the Connectedness of the Global Economy

We develop a technique to exploit forecast error variance decompositions to evaluate the macroeconomic connectedness embedded in any multi-country macroeconomic model with an approximate vector autoregressive (VAR) representation. We apply our technique to a large global VAR model covering 25 countries and derive vivid representations of macroeconomic connectedness. We find that the US exerts a dominant influence in the global economy and that Brazil, China, and the Eurozone are also globally significant. Recursive analysis over the period of the global financial crisis shows that shocks to global equity markets are transmitted rapidly and forcefully to real trade flows and real GDP.     

Consumption Responses to a Large Shock to Financial Wealth: Evidence from Italy

We estimate marginal propensities to consume from wealth shocks. We exploit large asset-price shocks in 2007–2008 and household-level panel data to implement instrumental variables. A fall of one euro in risky financial wealth resulted in cuts to annual total (non-durable) consumption of 8.5–9 (5.5–5.7) cents, with small effects on food spending. Effects seem stronger for lower-wealth or indebted households, but significant responses from wealthier households and those without mortgages are important for our baseline results. Counterfactuals indicate financial-wealth effects were relatively important for consumption falls in Italy in 2007–2008. The estimated effects are consistent with a simulated life-cycle model capturing the wealth shock.     

Why is China a Reluctant Leader of the World Trade Organization?

ABSTRACT

China has drawn massive benefits via expanded trade since it acceded to the WTO in 2001. We might therefore reasonably expect it to have taken a more assertive lead in trying to rectify the travails in which the organisation finds itself mired, attendant with its rising power status, its active trade diplomacy elsewhere, the high levels of relative gains it has enjoyed since becoming a member, and its broader trade dependency. That China has not done so represents a puzzle, which is usually answered with reference to the international picture: i.e. that global trade has appeared to be holding up reasonably well throughout and beyond the global crisis, and, despite some inchoate protectionism, there generally exists a broad commitment to an open trading regime. Yet this only tells part of the story: China’s approach cannot simply be ‘read off’ from the structural context and there are, in fact, a series of interesting domestic explanations for why China has remained a ‘reluctant leader’ of the WTO too. On the basis of a series of interviews with Chinese experts, we offer a more complete account of these processes that better recognises patterns of agency, and how China navigates a contingent international order.     

Is pharmaceutical detailing informative? Evidence from contraindicated drug prescriptions

Quantitative Marketing and Economics - Crestor, an important but controversial cholesterol-lowering drug, is contraindicated for use by senior and Asian patients. In this paper, we exploit this...     

Keeping it private: financial reporting by large proprietary companies in Australia

Since 2010, proprietary companies have had a choice of preparing three types of financial reports that vary in scope. We find that between 2010 and 2015, most proprietary companies in our random sample chose the lowest scope option, with very low quality financial reports. Few adopted the new option provided by AASB 1053 Application of Tiers of Australian Accounting Standards. The characteristics of the firms that adopted each type of report are consistent with the regulator's intention. Our findings should provide a better understanding of how accounting standards impact practice, and should assist regulators to reform private company financial reporting.     

Skin in the game: personal stock holdings and investors’ response to stock analysis on social media

Review of Accounting Studies - Motivated by concerns that financial positions impair analyst objectivity, we examine investor perceptions of the financial positions of nonprofessional analysts...