Near-sighted Justice

Chapter 11 structures complex negotiations between creditors and debtors that are overseen by a bankruptcy court. We identify conditions where the court should sometimes err in determining which firms should be liquidated. Such errors affect actions by both good and bad entrepreneurs. We first characterize the optimal error rate without renegotiation. When creditors and debtors can renegotiate to circumvent an error‐riven court, for one class of actions a blind court that ignores all information is optimal. For another class, the court should place the burden of proof on the entrepreneur. The robust feature is that the court should sometimes err.     

水务管理信息系统的研究与探讨--以陕西省铜川市王益区水务管理为例

运用系统分析和数据库技术对水务管理信息系统作出了实用的设计，且建立了完整的系统数据库，并把优化与模拟技术相结合，对其供需水量进行优化模拟，实现中小城市水务信息的输入、输出、查询、预测、优化调度等功能，为水资源的管理、利用提供合理、有效的工具。     

土地资源可持续利用规划基本思路的探讨

论文在对传统土地利用规划进行反思的基础之上，从土地资源可持续利用规划的目标、时空尺度、原则、内容、方法、规划管理等方面阐述了规划的基本思路。     

Year-End Tax-Induced Sales and Stock Market Seasonality

The paper relates two phenomena in the stock market: the high return during the month of January and the apparent existence of widespread sales of stocks for tax purposes towards the end of the fiscal year. The findings suggest that, due to the tax-induced sales, the price of many stocks over the last 35 years was temporarily depressed in December but recovered in the following January. This price recovery is a major contributor to the high returns observed in January. The tax effect is present in firms of all sizes but much more pronounced for small firms. The analysis also indicates that a more precise identification of the tax-switch candidates may prove that the tax-induced sales are, in fact, the sole contributor to the high January's returns.     

Coalitional Colonel Blotto Games with Application to the Economics of Alliances

In Borel’s Colonel Blotto game two players simultaneously allocate their respective endowments of a resource across n battlefields, the higher allocation wins each battlefield, and players maximize the number of battlefields won. Here we examine two players who may form an alliance before separately competing in two disjoint Colonel Blotto games against a common adversary. Despite a lack of common interests, unilateral transfers—in a direction consistent with the exploitation hypothesis—arise for a range of parameter configurations. Such transfers alter the adversary’s strategy and the combination of the direct and strategic effects benefits both allies.     

Répercussions de la Pension Protection Act de 2006 sur la valeur boursière

Les auteurs étudient les répercussions de la Pension Protection Act de 2006 (PPA 2006) sur la valeur boursière des actions. La PPA 2006 contient deux dispositions principales : 1) les entreprises doivent assurer la capitalisation intégrale de leur régime de retraite en sept ans (alors qu’une période de trente ans leur était auparavant accordée pour capitaliser 90 pour cent de leur passif au titre du régime) et 2) elles peuvent se prévaloir d’une déduction fiscale à l’égard des cotisations à concurrence de 150 pour cent du passif au titre du régime (alors que le plafond de la déduction était antérieurement de 100 pour cent). Une fois contrôlés l’incidence de la norme SFAS 158, les possibilités de croissance, le coût du financement externe et les autres informations publiées au cours de la période d’échantillonnage, les auteurs examinent les rendements anormaux des entreprises ayant un régime de retraite, à proximité des dates marquantes du processus législatif ayant menéà l’adoption de la PPA 2006. Premièrement, ils observent un rendement anormal moyen négatif de – 4,20 pour la période au cours de laquelle la PPA 2006 a fait l’objet d’un premier vote au Congrès. La capitalisation boursière de l’entreprise moyenne (médiane) de l’échantillon a enregistré un déclin de 310 millions de dollars (60 millions de dollars). Deuxièmement, les auteurs constatent que les répercussions sur la valeur boursière sont plus négatives dans le cas des entreprises présentant des passifs non capitalisés plus importants au titre du régime et devant faire face à des dépenses en immobilisations plus substantielles, alors que les entreprises dont les taux d’imposition marginaux sont plus élevés enregistrent des répercussions positives. Troisièmement, les auteurs ne relèvent aucun élément permettant d’affirmer que les répercussions sur la valeur boursière varient selon les différentes catégories de risque définies par la PPA 2006. Enfin, ils recensent un nombre appréciable de cas de blocage du régime au cours de la période soumise à l’étude. Les résultats sont plus marqués encore lorsque ces entreprises sont retirées de l’échantillon.     

Cross‐Asset Speculation in Stock Markets

In practice, heterogeneously informed speculators combine private information about multiple stocks with information in prices, taking into account how their trades influence the inferences of other speculators via prices. We show how this speculation causes prices to be more correlated than asset fundamentals, raising price volatility. The covariance structure of asset fundamentals drives that of prices, while the covariance structure of liquidity trade drives that of order flows. We characterize how speculator profits vary with the distributions of information and liquidity trade across assets and speculators, and relate the cross‐asset factor structure of order flows to that of returns.     

The Reluctant Analyst

We estimate the dynamics of recommendations by financial analysts, uncovering the determinants of inertia in their recommendations. We provide overwhelming evidence that analysts revise recommendations reluctantly, introducing frictions to avoid frequent revisions. More generally, we characterize the sources underlying the infrequent revisions that analysts make. Publicly available data matter far less for explaining recommendation dynamics than do the recommendation frictions and the long‐lived information that analysts acquire but the econometrician does not observe. Estimates suggest that analysts structure recommendations strategically to generate a profitable order flow from retail traders. We provide extensive evidence that our model describes how investors believe analysts make recommendations, and that investors value private information revealed by analysts' recommendations.     

ONE HAT TOO MANY: KEY EXECUTIVE PLURALITY AND SHAREHOLDER WEALTH

Tracing backward the career paths of the key executives of Business Week’s 1990 listing of the 1000 most valuable publicly held companies, we empirically examined the impact of announced changes in key executive plurality on stockholder returns. We found the more complete the position consolidation, the more negative were the shareholder responses. To attempt to gain further understanding, the additional variables of executive’s origin, the size of the board of directors of the firm, the proportion of outsiders on the board, and prior firm performance were examined. © 1997 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.