WHO REALLY WANTS TO BE A MILLIONAIRE? ESTIMATES OF RISK AVERSION FROM GAMESHOW DATA

This paper estimates the degree of risk aversion from one of the most popular TV gameshows ever. The format of the show is straightforward; it involves no strategic decision making; we have a large number of observations; and the prizes are cash, which is paid immediately and covers a large range: from £100 up to £1 million. We provide non‐parametric estimates of the utility function and then we test some parametric restrictions. We find that, although the restriction to CRRA utility is statistically rejected, a log function approximates the utility function quite well over a large range of potential winnings. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Share price anticipation of earnings and management's discussion of operations and financing

This paper combines research on the measurement of disclosure quality and the measurement of share price anticipation of earnings to produce a new test of the usefulness of the information disclosed in management discussions of operations and financing for predicting future earnings. Market-Based Accounting Research has shown that earnings changes are anticipated and impounded in prices well before the financial year for which earnings are reported. This price anticipation leads to downward biased earnings response coefficients (ERCs) in the commonly estimated regression model of returns on contemporaneous earnings changes. We exploit predictable differences in the biasedness of the ERC estimate across firm-years to test the hypothesis that share prices are better informed when the annual report contains a detailed discussion of the firm's operations and financing. Our results suggest that such voluntary disclosure may have been useful in predicting future earnings changes. The effect would appear to be strongest (1) in models that examine one-period-ahead and two-period-ahead share price anticipation and (2) when we employ a disclosure index that captures forward-looking information.     

Education

A great deal has been written about mergers in industry, but those in the public sector have received much less attention. This article sets out to redress the balance, analysing 30 recent merger examples in the higher education (HE) sector. It draws parallels with the wider literature, and includes recommendations for practitioners.     

Measuring Serious Leisure in Chess: Model Confirmation and Method Bias

The serious leisure inventory and measure (SLIM) was tested with 348 chess players to confirm the factors, assess the effects of method bias, and propose a set of the best-performing items for the 18 factor SLIM. The 54-item SLIM demonstrated acceptable fit and reliability values. The effect of method bias was evidenced in the sample and explained one-third of the variance. Inspection of factor loadings, when controlling for method bias, yielded one best-performing item per factor. Findings indicate method bias continues to be problematic for self-report measures such as the SLIM.     

'Men of small standing'? Locating accountants in English society during the mid-nineteenth century

The census enumerators' books for three counties in 1851 are utilized to explore the social standing of accountants in early-Victorian England. The objective is to illuminate sources of differential status within the occupation of accountancy and thereby enhance understandings of the problems of boundary definition and closure which confronted those who organized the profession in England from 1870. It is shown that accountants occupied various strata in local social structures, from the professional class to the pauper. Accountants were, however, predominantly positioned on the margins of the middle class and very few of their number exhibited styles of living which contemporaries identified as characteristic of professional men. The findings confirm that the term 'accountant' encompassed a wide range of occupational experiences and employment statuses and its meaning appears to have been subject to spatial variation.     

Culture,Self-Construal,and Leisure Motivations

The purpose of this study is to examine Canadian and Mainland Chinese students' leisure by investigating the role self-construal plays as an intervening variable between culture and motivation. Separate hierarchical multiple regressions are performed on each motivation with culture entered first followed by a block composed of four types of self-construal: vertical collectivism (i.e., dutiful), horizontal collectivism (i.e., cooperative), horizontal individualism (i.e., unique), and vertical individualism (i.e., achievement oriented). Results suggest that: (a) higher levels of horizontal collectivism are associated with higher levels of introjected reward (i.e., pride), identified (i.e., personally important), integrated (self-identity), and intrinsic (i.e., interesting and enjoyable) motivations; and (b) higher levels of horizontal individualism are associated with higher levels of introjected reward, identified, and integrated motivations.     

Adding a freight network to a national interstate input–output model: a TransNIEMO application for California

The state of the nation’s infrastructure is the subject of widespread discussion and comment because it is thought to include many deteriorating and unsafe bridges. Ever since the terrorist attacks of 9/11, there has been increasing concern over the extent to which an attack on infrastructure could result in serious economic disruption. This research develops a model to analyze the economic consequences of an attack on a major element of the highway network. We add a freight network to a national multiregional economic impact model and make freight traffic flows endogenous. The use of a sub-national interstate model recognizes that most infrastructure planning is at the state level and most political leaders’ interest is local. We base our approach on the National Interstate Economic Model (NIEMO) and refer to an elaboration that we name Transportation network and the National Interstate Economic Model (TransNIEMO). The new model enables us to study the state-specific and industry-specific economic impacts of some significant changes in the nature of highway freight movements. We tested the model for selected freight movements in and out of California. The results are entirely plausible and encourage us to elaborate and test the model for hypothetical disruptions of freight traffic throughout the US.     

Barriers to ‘industrialisation’ for interwar British retailing? The case of Marks & Spencer Ltd

Research on international differences in retail productivity has highlighted formidable environmental barriers to the ‘industrialisation’ of mass retailing as a driver of declining British interwar productivity growth in this sector (and in services more generally). We examine evidence for such barriers, using a case study of a firm that built its interwar expansion strategy on ‘American’ retail methods – Marks & Spencer (M&S). We find that, rather than facing barriers to the adoption of American mass retail practices, M&S reaped major productivity gains from this process. This adds further evidence to an emerging literature rejecting the barriers to industrialisation thesis for retailing.