OPTIMAL FUTURES HEDGE WITH MARKING-TO-MARKET AND STOCHASTIC INTEREST RATES

We investigate the effect of marking-to-market on an optimal futures hedge under stochastic interest rates. An intertemporal optimal hedge ratio that accounts for basis risk and marking-to-market is derived. This ratio includes all previous hedge ratios, with constant interest rates as special cases. In a preliminary empirical study using S&P 500 index futures contracts, we demonstrate that the futures-forward hedging differential is nontrivial, especially in risk-return optimization. We also show that the covariances between interest rates and spot and futures prices explain the differential: the larger the covariances are, the larger the differential will be.     

The Pricing of Lake Lots

This article reveals aspects of lakefront property pricing especially with respect to lot frontage and depth. A clearer understanding of how these lot dimensions affect price should be of interest to those engaged in lake development, land use control, valuation, and marketing. A data set with eighty observations of vacant Lake Michigan residential properties sales is used. The unique geography of northwest Michigan provides an opportunity to tackle empirical issues associated with zoning when zoning is correlated with lot attributes, such as lot topography.     

Leadership in your midst: tapping the hidden strengths of minority executives

All companies value leadership-some of them enough to invest dearly in cultivating it. But few management teams seem to value one engine of leadership development that is right under their noses, churning out the kind of talent they need most. It's the complicated, overburdened but very rich lives of their minority managers. Minority professionals-particularly women of color-are called upon inordinately to lend their skills and guidance to activities outside their jobs. Sylvia Ann Hewlett, who heads the Center for Work-Life Policy, and her coauthors, Carolyn Buck Luce of Ernst & Young and Cornel West of Princeton, present new research on the extent to which minority professionals take on community service and other responsibilities outside the workplace and more than their share of recruiting, mentoring, and committee work within the workplace. These invisible lives, argue the authors, can be a source of competitive strength if companies can learn to recognize and further cultivate the cultural capital they represent. But it's hard to convince minority professionals that their employer respects and values their off-hours responsibilities. A lack of trust keeps many people from revealing much about their personal lives. The authors outline four ways companies can leverage hidden skills: Develop a new level of awareness of minority professionals' invisible lives; appreciate the outsize burdens these professionals carry and try to lighten them; build trust by putting teeth into diversity goals; and, to finish the job of leadership development, help minorities reflect on their off-hours experiences, extract and generalize the lessons, and apply what's been learned in other settings.     

Networks,trust, and risk mitigation during the American Revolutionary War: a case study

This article takes a case study approach to the question of how entrepreneurs developed and used networks to support trade during the American Revolutionary War (American War of Independence). Using the business letter books of Daniel Eccleston of Lancaster, covering January 1780 to December 1781, the article shows how he used trust‐building activities and developed open networks in Britain and the West Indies in order to build, sustain, maintain, and diversify his commercial activities to reduce risk and develop new opportunities. Eccleston's letters illustrate a competitive market in which entrepreneurs helped drive the industrial revolution through stimulating demand and encouraging trade. They show that mutual trust was the foundation of strong networks, and that networks were significant in underpinning entrepreneurial success through allowing the mitigation of business risk and offering the opportunity for diversification supported by the network. The article makes use of the work of Casson, Pearson and Richardson, and Wilson and Pop.     

The impact of implied facilities cost of money subsidies on capital expenditures and the cost of debt in the defense industry

We examine the public policy effects of a cash flow subsidy unique to the government contracting industry, on defense contractors’ capital expenditures and cost of debt over a relatively long time-period, 1978–2009. Because the Department of Defense found evidence of a shrinking defense industrial base in the early 1970s, it wanted to encourage capital spending by defense firms. The result was a cost accounting standard that reimbursed contractors for an imputed facilities capital cost of money (FCCOM) that has remained in effect, virtually unchanged, for almost 30 years, despite structural changes in the defense industry. Our results, using a sample of 628 defense firms, suggest that the standard met its intended objective of increased capital spending within 10 years of its promulgation. However, we also find that the FCCOM subsidy may have contributed to a decreased cost of debt within the defense sector over the long-term. Finally, further analyses indicate that the long-term persistence of this subsidy may have encouraged defense contractors to overinvest in capital goods. Our findings suggest that public policy makers should consider both direct and indirect effects of regulation embedded in accounting standards.     

Evidence of assurance enhancing the quality of voluntary environmental disclosures: an empirical analysis

In response to investor and public concerns about harm to the environment, companies are increasingly disclosing environmental information. To enhance the quality of corporate environmental disclosures in a largely voluntary context, various stakeholders are also demanding independent assurance. This study uses a stakeholder‐agency theoretical perspective to examine whether the quality of voluntary environmental disclosures is enhanced when assured. This study also examines the difference in the quality of voluntary environmental disclosures when assurance is provided by either professional accountant assurers or private consultants. Our sample comprises listed companies voluntarily disclosing environmental information in stand‐alone reports, annual reports, and websites. We use an index based upon the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) to measure the quality of company environmental reporting. Results of this matched pairs study show that the quality of voluntary environmental disclosures scores significantly higher for assured companies than unassured companies. For assured companies, the quality is no different when assured by accountants or consultants. Additional analysis provides preliminary evidence that experience improves the quality of environmental disclosures.     

Determinants of corporate hedging and derivatives: A revisit

Although the primary purpose of hedging is to reduce earnings volatility, corporate hedging may also increase firm value. Using publicly-available data, we found that hedging reduces the probability of financial distress, reduces the agency costs of debt, and reduces some agency costs of equity. However, we found no support for the hypothesis that hedging increases firm value by reducing expected tax liability. In addition, we suggest that corporate ownership structure may affect the desirability of hedging. We also found that large firms have a stronger tendency to hedge, firms with a larger percentage of value derived from growth opportunities are more likely to hedge, and convertible debt serves as a substitute for corporate hedging. With a dummy variable for multinational corporations as a proxy for operational hedging, we found that operational hedging and derivative hedging are complements rather than substitutes.