Agency problems as antecedents to unrelated mergers and diversification: Amihud and Lev reconsidered

Amihud and Lev (1981) are widely cited as providing evidence that managers, unless closely monitored by large block shareholders, will attempt to reduce their employment risk through unrelated mergers and diversification. These corporate strategies, however, may not be in shareholders' interests. Reconsidering the agency assumptions underlying Amihud and Lev's study and the methodology they used, we develop hypotheses regarding the association between ownership structure, board vigilance, corporate strategy, and corporate performance from management theory and test them using Amihud and Lev's data from the 1960s and new data from the 1980s. Neither study supports the conclusions of Amihud and Lev, nor the agency theory belief that monitoring efforts by principals affect the strategic behaviors of agents or the performance of firms that they manage. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Tourism destination decisions: the impact of risk aversion and prior experience

This study broadly explores the impact of risk aversion on tourists' destination decisions and, in particular, explores for differences in individuals' leisure and medical tourism destination decisions. The results of this study indicate that risk aversion significantly distinguishes tourists' destination decisions in both leisure and medical tourism in Indonesia, but not in Singapore. All risk-averse groups are less likely to visit Indonesia than Singapore for leisure and medical purposes. By contrast, all risk-averse groups are likely to visit Singapore for leisure purposes, although they remain unlikely to travel to Singapore for medical tourism. In addition, the study found that the impact of prior experience on the likelihood that the two risk-averse groups will travel to Indonesia and Singapore for leisure was significant. Conversely, the effects of prior experience on medical tourism generally do not significantly differ between the two countries.     

Employment in China’s hi-tech zones

The purpose of this paper is to explore employment differences over time across China’s hi-tech zones. Using data from China’s Ministry of Science and Technology, we find that if a university science park is within a hi-tech zone, employment in that zone is higher, but that finding only holds for zones established in the pre-information communication technology period. After 2000, proximity to a university science park does not appear to be necessary for the exchange of tacit knowledge which we contend leverages the technology base of firms and organizations in the zone and thus their level of employment. We also find greater employment in hi-tech zones in which information technology is a dominant industry.     

Least-cost cheap-food policies: some implications of international food aid

Many low-income countries pursue cheap-food policies in which consumers pay subsidized prices for bread, rice and other staples. This paper addresses the issue of why different governments select different food subsidy policies, using multiple instruments rather than a simple across-the-board subsidy to provide consumers with access to cheap food. It examines the optimal structure of cheap-food policies in the context of a partial equilibrium model in which the country may he large in trade, and is able to combine import subsidies or tariffs, and output taxes or subsidies, to transfer income to consumers through the market. The model allows for a marginal opportunity cost of government revenues greater than one dollar. In addition, in the model, food aid from overseas may be either given away to the consumer, or given to the government for subsequent sale in the domestic market. The results indicate that only by happenstance will a country choose to use a pure consumption subsidy or a pure import subsidy to transfer income to consumers. In addition, an increase in international food aid does not necessarily lead the government to reduce producer and consumer prices for a commodity.     

Juggling central control and provincial fiscal autonomy in South Africa

In this article it is argued that sound fiscal relations between national and subnational governments are based on a balance between central control and local fiscal autonomy. After sketching the theoretical aspects of the problem, we discuss some of the fiscal problems experienced by South Africa's provinces since 1994. We then argue that these problems are caused by insufficient provincial fiscal autonomy. Some suggestions are made as to how provincial fiscal autonomy may be reinforced without compromising central government control to an unacceptable degree.     

环境战略与中国城市发展

可持续发展理论已越来越受到社会广泛关注,但如何将可持续发展理论从书斋引向实践一直是大家渴望看到而未如愿的事情。作者结合上海张江高科技园区规划实践论述了城市发展进程中应如何保护生态环境,为城市可持续发展创造条件。他指出,一、降低城市积聚区密度是改善城市发展环境的基本方法;二、超大城市中心区内的开敞空间和一定面积的绿化对补偿建成区土地利用带来的负面影响是一个关键要素;三、协调通畅的交通组织必须贯彻公交优先原则;四、基础设施网络化是城市可持续发展不可或缺的条件;五、与开发商的密切合作才能实现城市管理和金融资源合理有效地利用。     

R&D Patterns in the Video Display Terminal Industry

A long-standing question asks whether small firms or large firms are more successful in product innovation, and the answer seems to be coming up, "It depends." Professors Link and Zmud reveal some of the things it depends on when they describe the results of their research on the VDT industry. They see the VDT industry as a possible prototype of the several technologically progressive industries now growing toward the early stages of maturity. What we see here today may be a forerunner of what we'll see elsewhere in the near future.     

Nationalökonomie und sozialwissenschaftliche Integration

Ohne ZusammenfassungG. Fleischmann: Nationalökonomie und sozialwissenschaftliche Integration. Die Einheit der Gesellschaftswissenschaften. Studien in den Grenzbereichen der Wirtschafts- und Sozialwissenschaften, Bd. 5. Herausgegeben von Erik Boettcher u. a., 125 S., Tübingen: J. C. B. Mohr (Paul Siebeck), 1966.