Ethnicity,acculturation, and the importance of product attributes

This investigation examined the relationship between subcultural group membership and the importance of various product attributes in purchase decisions. Subcultural group membership was defined on the basis of Hispanic ethnicity and level of assessed acculturation. The results indicate that cost considerations such as price and the availability of credit best distinguish these groups. This is particularly meaningful, given that these results persist even when income level is statistically controlled. The second major purpose of the investigation was to test the appropriateness of the traditional progressive learning model of acculturation within the specific buyer behavioral context of product attribute importance. The findings clearly indicate support for this model.     

IMPACT OF DIVIDEND‐PROTECTED EMPLOYEE STOCK OPTIONS ON PAYOUT POLICIES: EVIDENCE FROM TAIWAN

Abstract. This study used a sample of 1035 Taiwanese firms to examine the impact of dividend protected employee stock options on stock repurchase and cash dividend policies from 2000 to 2005. This study finds a positive relationship between cash dividends and executive options, implying that executives holding stock options might prefer to distribute cash dividends to boost the stock price. This result, unlike in earlier studies, arises from the dividend protected characteristic of Taiwanese employee stock options. Finally, free cash flow, firm profitability, level of debt, investment opportunities and firm size are found to considerably influence payout decisions.     

On the elasticity of substitution in international trade

Summary Attention for biases in the measurement of the Elasticity of Substitution (ES) in applied international trade flow modelling has a long tradition. It was mostly directed at the issue of the acceptability of the (often implicit) assumptions made on the parameters of the underlying demand model. The purpose of this paper is to prove both theoretically and with the help of some numerical examples that another strong potential source of biases in assessingES's in trade modelling does exist which gained remarkably little attention in the literature, namely, the regional pattern of international trade flows.     

Retail Leasing: The Determinants of Shopping Center Rents

The determinants of lease rentals are of fundamental importance to real estate researchers and practitioners. Retail leases are unique in that they typically have two rental components: a base rent and an "overage" rent equal to a percentage of the tenant's gross sales above some threshold level. In this paper, we develop and test a simple cash flow model of retail lease valuation that predicts that base rents are lower with higher percentage rent rates and are higher with greater threshold levels of sales. Using a sample of shopping center leases, regression analysis indicates that these tradeoffs are observed in the market.     

Generalized DEA model of fundamental analysis and its application to portfolio optimization

Fundamental analysis is used in asset selection for equity portfolio management. In this paper, a generalized data envelopment analysis (DEA) model is developed to analyze a firm’s financial statements over time in order to determine a relative financial strength indicator (RFSI) that is predictive of firm’s stock price returns. RFSI is based on maximizing the correlation between the DEA-based score of financial strength and the stock market performance. This maximization involves a difficult binary nonlinear program that requires iterative re-configuration of parameters of financial statements as inputs and outputs. We utilize a two-step heuristic algorithm that combines random sampling and local search optimization. The proposed approach is tested with 230 firms from various US technology-industries to determine optimized RFSI indicators for stock selection. Then, those selected stocks are used within portfolio optimization models to demonstrate the usefulness of the scheme for portfolio risk management.     

GDP Growth Rates Calculated from Quarterly National Accounts: Discrepancies and Revisions

The differences between income-based and expenditure-based rates of real GDP growth are examined. The extent to which initial growth rates are subsequently affected by data revisions is documented. Results of regressions of first reported growth rates on the growth rates reported in QNA June 1985 are presented for three samples - the sample of income-based estimates of GDP growth rates, the sample of expenditure-based estimates and the sample of mean rates (average of the two estimates).