Top management conservatism and corporate risk strategies: Evidence from managers' personal political orientation and corporate tax avoidance

We investigate whether managers' personal political orientation helps explain tax avoidance at the firms they manage. Results reveal the intriguing finding that, on average, firms with top executives who lean toward the Republican Party actually engage in less tax avoidance than firms whose executives lean toward the Democratic Party. We also examine changes in tax avoidance around CEO turnovers and find corroborating evidence. Additionally, we find that political orientation is helpful in explaining top management team composition and CEO succession. Our paper extends theory and research by (1) illustrating how tax avoidance can serve as another measure of corporate risk taking and (2) using political orientation as a proxy for managerial conservatism, which is an ex ante measure of a manager's propensity toward risk. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Impacts of the Productive Safety Net Program in Ethiopia on livestock and tree holdings of rural households

We evaluated the impacts of the Ethiopian Productive Safety Net Program (PSNP) on rural households' holdings of livestock and forest assets/trees. We found no indication that participation in PSNP induces households to disinvest in livestock or trees. In fact, households that participated in the program increased the number of trees planted, but there was no increase in their livestock holdings. We found no strong evidence that the PSNP protects livestock in times of shock. Shocks appear to lead households to disinvest in livestock, but not in trees. Our results suggest that there is increased forestry activity as a result of PSNP, and that improved credit access encourages households to increase their livestock holdings.     

Delegated portfolio management and optimal allocation of portfolio managers

In this article, we investigate whether the application of the mean-variance framework on portfolio manager allocation offers any out-of-sample benefits compared to a naïve strategy of equal weighting. Based on an exclusive data-set of high-net-worth (HNW) investors, we utilize a wide variety of methodologies to estimate the input parameters including exponentially weighted moving average (EWMA), generalized autoregressive conditional heteroscedasticity (GARCH) and Bayes–Stein shrinkage estimation. We apply nine different mean-variance models, but find that none of these present any consistent benefit over a naïve strategy of equal weighting.     

丹麦的福利政策

丹麦的福利政策已经成为与市场经济、技术和社会可能协调发展的一个范例 ,与此同时 ,这一政策能够确保社会成员的高度平等 ,也使得社会福利政策能更好地关注儿童、老年人及卫生事业。这一政策同时能够确保丹麦人享有较高的生活水平 ,也能够确保丹麦经济的持续发展。《丹麦福利政策的历史》一文阐释了形成这一政策的关键原因是核心人物在制定这一政策方面所表现出的高度一致 ,即初期主要是工人、农民的意愿 ,但随后各主要党派对创造平等的生活水平作为目标都形成了政治共识。因此 ,与其它国家相比 ,丹麦的福利政策能够将占GDP比重较高的税…     

A role for a pan-European trade union movement?–possibilities in European IR-regulation

Steps towards internationalisation of the trade union movement are considered in the context of the process of political and economic integration taking place in the EU. The trade unions are trying–partly via the ETUC–to play a role at pan-European level. However, the European trade union movement is not a cohesive entity. Besides, it has no significant transnational power-resources. These factors suggest that any European IR-system will be based primarily on political regulation rather than on a system of collective agreements.     

Characteristics of Innovative Firms in the Brazilian Computer Industry

A number of studies have reported characteristics of innovative firms; however, these studies have typically been conducted in freely competitive markets. Angela da Rocha, Carl Christensen and Newton Paim have studied firms within the Brazilian computer industry. The Brazilian government regulates the entrance of foreign competitors to this market. Thus, the authors are able to ask whether the characteristics of innovative firms in a protected market differ from characteristics previously reported in competitive markets. With only a few minor exceptions, the reported profiles of innovative firms are quite similar. These results suggest that characteristics of innovative firms are generalizable across certain industry and environmental conditions, including protected markets.     

A Two-country Comparison of Public Sector Performance Reporting: The Tortoise and Hare?

Recent Australian and Japanese second tier public sector performance measurement changes are compared and contrasted. The case analyses are presented within a theoretical structure derived from Hood's depiction of NPM which predicts an increased emphasis on explicit performance reporting. Significant differences and similarities are identified in terms of performance reporting effort and output; motivation for changed performance reporting; role of central agencies; and degree of resultant accountability discharge. NPM is a useful analytical framework and is enhanced by Luder's Contingency Model, epistemic community influence and governance. The explanatory factors identified reinforce views that NPM is a term best used solely in the context of the governmental traditions of each relevant public sector.     

The riot as politics

Conclusion Two independent tests with a total of 36 large and medium-sized non-southern cities have demonstrated support for a political explanation of the major riots of the 1960s. It is argued that politically interested and motivated segments of the black community were disaffected because of the failure of government to respond to their demands. Their participation turned minor disorders into major uprisings. An alternative hypothesis, that public policy response generates increased expectations and ultimately greater violence, has been rejected. However, the findings rest upon the riot experience of a small number of cities in the 1960s. It seems very unlikely that the public policies of these cities would have much impact on the expectations of their black citizens and thus the rationale of the alternative hypothesis is undermined. The public policies of other governments, at other times, might have more influence on the expectations of their citizens. Additional research would be required to identify circumstances under which public policy response might lead to increased expectations, disaffection, and ultimately greater violence.     

The Business Responsibility for Wealth Distribution in a Globalized Political-Economy: Merging Moral Economics and Catholic Social Teaching

If it is accepted that the real marketplace does not necessarily distribute wealth in the manner that the ideal market would have done, and that societal institutions have an obligation to bring the real and ideal market distributions into accord, then it can be argued that economic actors have a responsibility to consider the effects of their activities on the distribution of wealth in society. This paper asserts that businesses have a responsibility to consider the wealth distribution effects of their wealth-creating decisions. We use arguments from moral economics and Catholic social teaching to support this assertion, deriving decision principles that we apply to the Starbucks fair trade coffee case.     

ON THE ACCURACY OF INDEX NUMBERS

Index number accuracy is affected by formula specification and sampling error. The authors argue that an index formula should be "ideal" and "exact" (with reference to the range of economically plausible aggregator functions) to be economically justified. These indices are invariant in the homothetic case, as well as in certain non-homothetic scenarios. Empirically, based on foreign trade data for Egypt from 1885-1961, the set of economically justified indices are virtually identical, supporting the theoretical argument that "instrumental error" or "formula variance" should be a negligible factor contributing to index number error. In a discussion of sampling error, on the other hand, the authors criticize earlier work and propose an upper and lower bound. Using the same data, these limits imply that sampling error may be a serious problem for many indices.