Introduction: Antitrust and Regulatory Update

Review of Industrial Organization -     

Pricing mortgage-backed securities in a multifactor interest rate environment: a multivariate density estimation approach

Multivariate density estimation (MDE) suggests that mortgage-backedsecurity (MBS) prices can be well described as a function ofthe level and slope of the term structure. We analyze how thisfunction varies across MBSs with different coupons. An importantfinding is that the interest rate level proxies for the moneynessof the option, the expected level of prepayments, and the averagelife of the cash flows, while the term structure slope controlsfor the average rate at which these cash flows should be discounted.     

Traumberuf oder Verlegenheitslösung?

So far relatively little is known about the situation of Ph.D. students in media and communication research. The main purpose of this study is, therefore, to shed light on the employment and working conditions for young scholars on their way to their doctoral degrees. We conducted a survey of 281 Ph.D. students in Germany, Switzerland and Austria. The results show that, on the one hand, young scholars are intrinsically highly motivated to do their jobs. On the other hand, they perceive an academic career as a very uncertain venture with many obstacles. Furthermore, several types of Ph.D. students can be distinguished: idealists, careerists and waverers. It is shown that only the idealists conform to the concept of a productive and interested scholar. The results are discussed in terms of their importance for the future development of the field.     

The Grocery Shopper and Food Specials: A Case of Subjective Deception?

Advertised food specials may be deceptive to consumers who mistake the advertised prices as reduced prices. Of all the advertised food specials examined in this research, at least 13 percent and as many as 25 percent of those advertised in newspapers were not reduced in price.     

Size, technology, complexity, and structural differentiation: toward a theoretical synthesis.

This paper proposes a theoretical synthesis of the concepts of organizational size, technology, complexity, and structural differentiation. It suggests and finds that the most important determinant of differentiation in the division of labor is the scope of an organization's task, a technological dimension, and not organizational size. Neither horizontal nor vertical differentiation is thought to be determined by size while the scope of the task is proposed as a determinant of horizontal differentiation. The findings, however, support only the inference of a moderate causal connection between either size or task scope and either form of differentiation. Throughout the analysis and discussion the contrast between causal inference based on associations of levels and change rates is discussed. When dealing with the organizational processes addressed in this paper, both associations must be examined to adequately portray the complexity of the causal processes inferred.