On stochastic comparisons of minimum order statistics from the location–scale family of distributions

We consider stochastic comparisons of minimum order statistics from the location–scale family of distributions that contain most of the popular lifetime distributions. Under certain assumptions, we show that the minimum order statistic of one set of random variables dominates that of another set of random variables with respect to different stochastic orders. Furthermore, we illustrate our results using some well-known specific distributions.     

On economic and social policy

The end of busing of primary and secondary school students has been a major setback for integration of public schools in the USA. The purpose of this paper is not to offer an alternative to busing; regrettably, no obvious alternative stands out. Rather, it is to offer some social, legal and economic background to help the reader consider, and perhaps propose, realistic alternatives that would reduce both racial and economic segregation in our schools and society. The paper is divided into three sections. The first offers background information useful for better understanding and evaluating the end of busing and school resegregation. The second section focuses on an important parallel between racial and economic discrimination. The closing section introduces considerations important for anticipating reactions to, and the costs and benefits of, alternatives to busing for reintegrating schools, as well as several recommendations to which those considerations can be applied.     

Effects of audit committee chair characteristics on auditor choice,audit fee and audit quality

We investigate whether the characteristics of audit committee (AC) chairs are associated with decisions about auditor choice, audit fees and audit quality. Using hand-collected Australian data, firms with AC chairs who have longer tenure and multiple AC memberships across several boards are found to be more likely to choose Big 4 and/or industry specialist auditors, pay higher audit fees and have lower discretionary accruals. Those AC chairs with higher business qualifications are more likely to hire a Big 4 auditor, pay higher audit fees and have lower discretionary accruals, while AC chairs with professional qualifications are more likely to hire a Big 4 and/or industry specialist auditor. In contrast, firms with AC chairs who are executive directors are less likely to hire a Big 4 auditor and have higher discretionary accruals. Our findings contribute to the literature by documenting that various characteristics of AC chairs are important for enhancement of auditor selection and audit quality.     

Green financing for sustainable development: Insights from multiple cases of Vietnamese commercial banks

Although the public sector is seen as the main party responsible for taking action on climate change and sustainable development, private commercial banks are in a unique position to support or shift the funding focus on green investment. By employing a qualitative research approach based on six commercial banks, this paper aims to investigate the current practices of how commercial banks are contributing to advance green business initiatives. Accordingly, this research examines and identifies the facilitators and challenges in domestic and foreign commercial banks in Vietnam which support green business initiatives. In addition to addressing the recent calls for the investigation of the role of commercial banks in facilitating green finance, our study expands the emerging literature by demonstrating the current efforts of Vietnam's commercial banks in fostering green finance during the Covid-19 pandemic.     

Evaluating horizontal mergers in the presence of price promotions

Quantitative Marketing and Economics - In this paper, I investigate the impact of a horizontal merger between firms that use price promotions. I find that after the merger, the merged firms...     

Robust XVA

We introduce an arbitrage‐free framework for robust valuation adjustments. An investor trades a credit default swap portfolio with a risky counterparty, and hedges credit risk by taking a position in defaultable bonds. The investor does not know the exact return rate of her counterparty's bond, but she knows it lies within an uncertainty interval. We derive both upper and lower bounds for the XVA process of the portfolio, and show that these bounds may be recovered as solutions of nonlinear ordinary differential equations. The presence of collateralization and closeout payoffs leads to important differences with respect to classical credit risk valuation. The value of the super‐replicating portfolio cannot be directly obtained by plugging one of the extremes of the uncertainty interval in the valuation equation, but rather depends on the relation between the XVA replicating portfolio and the closeout value throughout the life of the transaction. Our comparative statics analysis indicates that credit contagion has a nonlinear effect on the replication strategies and on the XVA.     

Making the right friends: A social network perspective on newcomer socialization in teams

Despite the prevalence of work teams in organizations, how newcomers become integrated into teams remains an understudied area. Drawing on research related to indirect social resources, in this paper we employ a social network perspective to examine how close teammates' friendship centrality can facilitate newcomers' adjustment by fostering the newcomers' own social capital in teams and promoting their subsequent task performance. Furthermore, our model incorporates institutionalized socialization tactics and political skill as two contingencies that can further strengthen the positive effects of indirect social resources on newcomers' adjustment. In a time-lagged study using multiple sources of data, we found good support for our hypotheses. Specifically, close teammates' friendship centrality was positively related to newcomers' task performance through the mediating effect of newcomers' own friendship centrality in teams. The two moderators further strengthened this indirect effect. Overall, this study highlights the importance of “making the right friends” to facilitate newcomer adjustment into teams.     

Personality,Personal Values,and Consumer Participation in Self‐Production: The Case of Home Meal Preparation

This study investigates the simultaneous influence of personality and personal values on attitude toward self‐production, and how self‐production attitude influences use of time and depth of self‐production behavior in home meal preparation. The results show that self‐control and agreeableness personality traits positively influence attitude toward self‐production, while the resultant self‐enhancement value dimension has a negative effect. Moreover, self‐control negatively moderates the influence of resultant self‐enhancement on self‐production attitude. Attitude toward self‐production has positive influences on both dimensions of self‐production behavior, with a stronger effect on the depth dimension than on the time use dimension. The results support the proposed hierarchical model that personality and personal values relate to more specific self‐production attitude and behavior in a food preparation context.