Deregulation,tax policy,and certainty: foundations of the U.S. recovery

Business Economics - This paper focuses on the impact that the change in direction of economic policy ushered in by the Trump administration has had on the performance of the U.S. economy. Since...     

An Ongoing race: family CEOs vs. non-family CEOs

International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal - Recent studies have established that non-family CEOs invariably outperform family CEOs. In this paper, we argue that the case against family...     

Extending financial literacy to insurance literacy: a survey approach

We extend behavioural research in investment and retirement savings to insurance, by investigating factors that may influence individuals’ insurance decision making. These factors include financial literacy, specialist insurance education and some behavioural biases. Based on a definition of insurance literacy that requires both having, and applying insurance knowledge, we find from a survey of postgraduate students that financial literacy does not necessarily translate to insurance literacy, whereas more specialised education can improve insurance literacy. Results also indicate specialist education potentially reduces susceptibility to anchoring effects.     

A dynamic analysis of the impacts of export taxes: The case of Argentinean soy and beef markets

Argentina plays an important role in the global soy market as one of the world's leading exporters of soy products. In an effort to shift its agricultural sector's focus to value‐added exports and to raise revenue, Argentina's government has maintained a regime of differential export taxes on soy products. In addition to soy products, Argentina is a major producer, consumer and exporter of beef. However, over the last decade it has relinquished much of its world market share as its beef exports have fallen because the government has periodically imposed a ban on exports of beef along with maintaining an export tax. As the soy and livestock sectors are inextricably linked, owing to both industries’ intensive land use and the utilisation of soymeal as a feed supplement for cattle, trade policies in one sector have pronounced cross‐sectoral impacts. This study develops a theoretical model of these different sectors and trade policies, incorporating the dynamic decisions of cattle stock management. The model is calibrated to real‐world data on the Argentinean economy, and the impacts of trade liberalisation are quantified. Key results show modelling the various intersectoral linkages and the dynamic implications of cattle stock is essential for obtaining accurate estimates.     

Recessionary bundles: HR practices in the Irish economic crisis

The HR practices adopted by firms in response to the current deep and prolonged recession have received little attention in the literature. There are reasons for supposing that firms will adopt HR practices in bundles in responding to the recession in order to benefit from technical and behavioural complementarities. Drawing on a nationally representative survey, the article investigates the bundles of HR practices adopted by firms during the Irish recession and examines influences on the bundles that are evident. The article contributes to HRM theory by testing different views on HR bundles likely to be adopted in recessionary conditions and by moving beyond the prevailing focus in HRM on HR bundles adopted by firms in steady‐state business conditions.     

Unions and the Great Compression of wage inequality in the US at mid‐century: evidence from local labour markets

This article tests whether places with higher exposure to unionization during the 1940s, due to their pre‐existing industrial composition, tended to have larger declines in wage inequality, conditional on local economic and demographic observables and regional trends. We find a strong negative correlation between exposure to unionization and changes in local inequality from 1940–50 and 1940–60. This does not appear to be underpinned by skill‐specific sorting of workers or by firms leaving places with high exposure to unionization. We also find that the correlation between exposure to unionization in the 1940s and the change in inequality after 1940 persists in long‐difference regressions to the end of the twentieth century.     

ISSUES IN MULTI-STATE PRODUCER REGULATION

Abstract: Oversight of the producer licensing process is a vital regulatory function aimed at protecting public interests inherent to insurance transactions. The National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC), through a separate business entity formed in conjunction with private business, the Insurance Regulatory Information Network (IRIN), recently implemented a new program designed to allow better tracking of "rogue" agents, eliminate costly and error-prone duplicate data entry, and streamline the producer licensing and continuing education processes among/across the states. The heart of the NAIC effort is a wide-area client/server electronic network built around their Producer Data Base (PDB), which is designed to provide both regulators and industry with detailed, timely information on individual producers. The PDB spans a wide spectrum, from personal demographics to licenses and professional designations held, continuing education progress, and agency appointments, renewals and terminations, as well as complaints registered with and disciplinary actions taken by other regulators. This research investigates the development and implementation of the PDB/IRIN project. Though likely to be effective as a regulatory tool, we find significant risks exist in IRIN with regard to privacy, breach of confidentiality and reduced due-process protection, as well as threats to important private personal interests such as individual credit histories. The expanded role of NAIC reflected in IRIN may run counter to the federalist ideal of continued state control of insurance regulation. We also anticipate structural changes, such as displacement of smaller, local producers and continuing education providers.     

The Certification Role of Large Customers in the New Issues Market

This paper examines the certification role of large customers and finds that IPO firms that have product market relationships with large customers experience higher valuation and better long-term performance compared to IPOs without such relationships. This higher valuation is more pronounced when product market relationships are able to alleviate IPO uncertainties, when the businesses of large customers and their IPO suppliers are closely related in downstream markets, and when large customers have stronger certifying abilities. Finally, we find that large customers realize significant positive abnormal returns around their suppliers’ preliminary prospectus filing dates, suggesting that some of the benefits from product market relationships accrue to large customers.