Optimal taxation theory and excess demand functions

A class of individual excess demand functions found in optimal taxation theory is shown to restrict the set of possible community excess demand functions.     

Soft related lending: A tale of two Korean banks

In this paper, we present indirect evidence that the IMFs insistence on foreign control of two large nationwide Korean banks in exchange for short-term support during the 1997 financial crisis helped restrain soft related lending practices. News signaling the likely sale of a bank to a foreign financial institution yields an average daily decrease of about 2% in the stock price of related borrowers. News indicating difficulty in finding an interested foreign investor generates an increase in the stock price of related borrowers of about the same magnitude. These signals have larger impacts on less-profitable, less-liquid, and more bank-dependent firms.     

Quantitative easing and asset bubbles

Expansionary monetary policy is necessary to respond to financial crises. However, if Central Bank asset purchase initiatives are too large or last too long, they can lead to explosive increases in asset prices which add to the risk of a future crisis. This article employs two models including the Campbell–Shiller and Generalized Supremum Augmented Dickey Fuller techniques to search for bubbles in the US equity, housing and bond markets over the past eight years. Although, we find that prices in equities and housing have risen following Federal Reserve intervention, there is little indication of asset price bubbles. There is evidence of explosive bond price increases from September of 2011 to February of 2013.     

Experts against adverse selection: A note on the existence of equilibrium with costly appropriable information

The existence of competitive equilibrium in Laffont's (J. Econ. Theory10 (1975)) model of adverse selection with costly information is studied. The existence of an equilibrium with finite prices is demonstrated without unusual restrictions on preferences or the technology of information production. This is made possible by changing the way in which the behaviour of information producing agents is modelled, and allowing for some public information.     

High-Involvement Management and Pay in Britain

High‐involvement management practices have well‐established benefits for employers, but what do they do for employees? Using a nationally‐representative survey of British private‐sector workplaces, high‐involvement management is shown to be associated with higher pay. The wage premium is little affected by the choice of employee involvement practices (e.g., teams versus quality circles), but it appears only where employee involvement practices are supported by job security guarantees. Powerful trade unions increase the premium.     

The Effects of Executive,Firm, and Board Characteristics on Executive Exit

We estimate a hazard model of the probability of top corporate executives exiting their firms over the period 1996–2010. Our main findings are that: (1) female executives have greater likelihoods of exit than males, (2) the likelihood of exit increases with the independence of the board and decreases with the fraction of the board that is female and the average age of board members, and (3) a higher percentage of independent directors on the board lowers the probability of exit more for females than for males. Further, controlling for exit risk reduces the well‐documented compensation differential between men and women.     

Why Are Themed Brandstores So Powerful? Retail Brand Ideology at American Girl Place

Although there is growing interest in themed brandstores, we still know very little about the source of these retail environments’ power to affect consumers profoundly. Utilizing an ethnographic study of American Girl Place, a culturally rich and highly successful retail environment, we find that effective retailing in these contexts is an intensely ideological affair. In our participant-observation of, and on-site interviews with, consumers at American Girl Place we find that the ideology of the brand manifests powerfully through a variety of different and distinct areas within the store: the Museum, the Library, the Café, the Salon, the Theater, and the Photo Studio. Ideological expression is central to each of these places. Tracking the influence of brand ideology through consumers’ retail experiences, we theorize about the centrality of retail place in ideological branding. Although the confluence of ideology and retailing has been referenced in prior research, this paper focuses on and systematically develops the theoretical interconnection between the two. The physical immediacy of themed brandstore experience acts as a quilting point that links together related cultural concepts into a strong retail brand ideology. The implications of this theory draw our attention to ideological and morally-bound retail brand expressions, emphasize the importance of a variety of retail formats within a single store, and provide practical guidelines for retailers eager to build successful brands of their own.     

TFP change,output gap and inflation in the Russian Federation (1994–2006)

The present paper estimates Total Factor Productivity (TFP) change for the Russian economy in the time period 1994–2006. It also calculates potential output and output gap using a Cobb-Douglas (CD) production function and a Hodrick–Prescott filter, as well as the Non-Accelerating Wage Rate of Unemployment (NAWRU), and the Non-Accelerating Inflation Rate of Capacity Utilization (NAICU) concepts. The results show that despite the severe economic crisis TFP has contributed to strong economic growth in the country after 1998, while the output gap, although negative between 1999 and 2003, has recently become positive. The relationship between output gap and inflation is examined and the results suggest that there is a strong (causal) relationship between output gap and inflation in the Russian economy.