Human Rights Performance Disclosure by Companies with Operations in High Risk Countries: Evidence from the Australian Minerals Sector

The aim of this study is to explore whether Australian mineral companies operating in high human rights risk countries provide more human rights disclosures than companies operating in low risk countries. A content analysis instrument containing 88 specific human rights performance items derived from a number of international human rights guidelines has been developed to investigate the annual reports, social responsibility reports and corporate websites of the top 50 Australian mineral companies (2010/2011). The findings show that human rights performance disclosures by companies with operations in high human rights risk countries are significantly higher than companies with operations in low risk countries. By disclosing extended human rights performance information, companies operating in high risk countries appear to ease community concerns about human rights violations. The finding is consistent with legitimacy theory, which posits that organisations respond to community concerns in relation to particular social issues.     

The price effects of cross‐market mergers: theory and evidence from the hospital industry

We consider the effect of mergers between firms whose products are not viewed as direct substitutes for the same good or service, but are bundled by a common intermediary. Focusing on hospital mergers across distinct geographic markets, we show that such combinations can reduce competition among merging hospitals for inclusion in insurers' networks, leading to higher prices (or lower‐quality care). Using data on hospital mergers from 1996–2012, we find support that this mechanism operates within state boundaries: cross‐market, within‐state hospital mergers yield price increases of 7%–9 % for acquiring hospitals, whereas out‐of‐state acquisitions do not yield significant increases.     

Welfare‐increasing third‐degree price discrimination

When demand functions in different markets are derived from distributions of reservation prices that differ only in their means, conditions exist such that third‐degree price discrimination leads to greater total output and greater total welfare. Welfare is higher with discrimination than with a uniform price when demand functions are derived from logistic distributions with different means. Welfare and consumer surplus are higher with discrimination for demands derived from a distribution related to the Pareto. In general, whether discrimination increases total output depends on demand being more convex in markets in which prices fall with discrimination than in those in which prices rise.     

Optimal mixed taxation,credit constraints,and the timing of income tax reporting

We study optimal income and commodity tax policy with credit‐constrained low‐income households. Workers receive an even flow of income during the tax year, but report their incomes and make tax payments (receive transfers) at the end of the year. They spend their disposable income on multiple commodities over the year. We show that differentiated subsidies on commodities can be optimal even if the Atkinson–Stiglitz Theorem conditions apply. When the optimal policy leaves low‐income households with binding credit constraints, it may be optimal to subsidize differentially the good that they consume in higher proportion. Uniform subsidies would also relax the credit constraint, but would be more costly to the government since they would equally benefit unconstrained households. Numerical examples suggest that commodity tax differentiation increases with basic needs and with the interest rate at which government borrows.     

Relationship, Contribution, and Resource Constrains: Determinants of Distributive Justice in Individual Preferences and Negotiated Agreements

This laboratory study investigated the impact of relationship, relative levels of perceived contribution, and resource constraints on individuals' allocation preferences and dyads' negotiated allocations. Dyads of female undergraduates – either strangers or roommates – were given performance feedback that one member produced the majority of the resources available to the dyad; the members of the dyad faced relatively scarce or abundant resources. Subjects indicated their individual allocation preferences and then negotiated the distribution of resources as a pair. Results indicate that all three factors are important predictors of the norms of distributive justice met by the individually preferred and dyadically negotiated allocations. Results also suggest that the degree of agreement between the norms implied by individually preferred allocations and dyadic agreements affect strangers' satisfaction with outcomes to a greater extent than roommates'.     

Codes of Ethics in Hong Kong: Their Adoption and Impact in the Run up to the 1997 Transition of Sovereignty to China

Following a government campaign run by the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) in 1994, many Hong Kong companies and trade associations adopted written codes of conduct. The research study reported here examines how and why companies responded, and assesses the impact of code adoption on the moral climate of code adopters. The research involved (a) initial questionnaire surveys to which 184 organisations replied, (b) longitudinal questionnaire-based assessments of moral ethos and conduct in a focal sample of 17 code adopting companies, (c) interviews with 33 managers in the focal companies examining the adoption and impact of the codes, and (d) content analysis of 41 company codes of conduct, including those of most focal companies, plus the ICAC model code.While a mixture of prudential and altruistic reasons were given for code adoption, content analysis suggested that the prime motive was corporate self-defence. The prevailing themes were bribery, conflict of interest, insider information, gambling, moonlighting, accuracy of records and misuse of corporate assets. Wider social responsibility tended to be neglected. Companies appeared to have imposed their codes top-down, emphasising disciplinary procedures rather than ethics training, and appointing neither ethics counsellors nor ombuds-people. The longitudinal study over a seven month period suggested that while moral ethos may have declined, overall standards of perceived conduct had not changed.     

Multi-country event-study methods

We provide the first simulation evidence of event-study test performance in multi-country non-US samples. The nonparametric rank and generalized sign tests are more powerful than two common parametric tests, especially in multi-day windows. The two nonparametric tests are mostly well specified, but neither is perfectly specified in all situations. The parametric standardized cross-sectional test can provide a useful robustness check but is less powerful than the nonparametric tests and rejects too often in single-market samples and when firm-specific events affect the market index. Local-currency market-model abnormal returns using national market indexes are sufficient.     

Internet telephony and the international accounting rate system

This paper attempts to provide an economic framework for assessing why and how Internet telephony may affect the international accounting rate system in particular, and communication over circuit switched networks in general. It reviews the regulatory treatment of Internet telephony, and compares the costs and prices of making international calls over the Internet and the public switched telephone network (PSTN). It argues that Internet telephony is unlikely to prove central to the downfall of the international system; other technologies, such as resale, will play a larger role. The paper also suggests a general framework in which to analyse competition between networks (such as the Internet and the PSTN). This framework indicates that differences in the preferences of end users for congestion will drive networks to specialise.     

An analysis of technology,productivity, and regulatory distortion in the interstate natural gas transmission industry: 1977–1985

The purpose of this paper is to provide the first comprehensive firm level analysis of cost structures and production in the interstate pipeline industry during the transition from price regulation to partial deregulation, 1977–85. The regulatory changes during this period were numerous and complex. We do not attempt to isolate the impact of any single change in regulation; rather, we examine how the regulatory environment, as a whole, affected the industry. Our study is based on a newly constructed panel of twenty-four interstate pipeline firms. We give particular attention to the impact of output change, technical change, scale economies, and non-optimal input allocation on total factor productivity growth and the implication of the 1978 Natural Gas Policy Act partial price decontrol relative to total wellhead price decontrol for residential, commercial, utility, and industrial consumers of natural gas, and for the transport industry itself. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.