Performance characteristics of high-earning minority banks

Summary and Conclusion In this study, minority-owned commercial banks with four years or more operating experience are divided into two comparison groups according to earnings performance. Those banks with a four-year consolidated return on investment of 10 percent or better constitute the highearning group, while the remaining banks with a four-year consolidated return on investment of less than 10 percent are combined into a residual group. The performance of the high-earning group is compared with that of the residual group through an analysis of key operating ratios. This article is reprinted from Economic Review, Vol. 62, No. 6, November/December, 1976, Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond.     

Zero Stamp Tax？

In March of 2008 the＂Two Sessions＂proved to be very vital for the Chinese people;many proposals were discussed,including several hot issues that have received concern from citizens across the country.Certainly the first proposal would attract a lot of attention.At the annual session of the Chinese People＇s Political Consultative Conference（CPPCC）,     

The role of productive failure in 3D printing in a middle school setting

International Journal of Technology and Design Education - In this research we explore the pedagogical affordances associated with the use of a 3D printer in a middle school classroom...     

U.S. Economic Prospects: Secular Stagnation,Hysteresis, and the Zero Lower Bound

The nature of macroeconomics has changed dramatically in the last seven years. Now, instead of being concerned with minor adjustments to stabilize about a given trend, concern is focused on avoiding secular stagnation. Much of this concern arises from the long-run effects of short-run developments and the inability of monetary policy to accomplish much more when interest rates have already reached their lower bound. This address analyzes contemporary macroeconomic problems and proposes solutions to put the U.S. economy back on a path toward healthy growth.     

Spring cleaning: rural water impacts, valuation, and property rights institutions

Using a randomized evaluation in Kenya, we measure health impacts of spring protection, an investment that improves source water quality. We also estimate households' valuation of spring protection and simulate the welfare impacts of alternatives to the current system of common property rights in water, which limits incentives for private investment. Spring infrastructure investments reduce fecal contamination by 66%, but household water quality improves less, due to recontamination. Child diarrhea falls by one quarter. Travel-cost based revealed preference estimates of households' valuations are much smaller than both stated preference valuations and health planners' valuations, and are consistent with models in which the demand for health is highly income elastic. We estimate that private property norms would generate little additional investment while imposing large static costs due to above-marginal-cost pricing, private property would function better at higher income levels or under water scarcity, and alternative institutions could yield Pareto improvements.     

An Empirical Examination of the Stated Purposes of Issuer Tender Offers to Purchase Common Stock

This paper documents the purposes of issuer tender offers to repurchase stock, as stated in Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) disclosures, over the period 1994‐2006. We explore whether stated purposes relate to announcement period returns and find returns are significantly lower when repurchases replace dividends, distribute cash from unspecified sources, or occur subsequent to third‐party tender offers. Announcement period returns are significantly higher when repurchases are viewed by management as the best investment opportunity available or when they occur subsequent to previous repurchase programs. Finally, we find evidence in support of signaling theory and Jensen's (1986) agency cost of free cash flow theory.     

The role of ratio differences in the framing of numerical information

It is well documented that presentation of qualitatively equivalent information in different frames has considerable impacts on consumer preferences and evaluations. In this research, we demonstrate a type of framing effects that targets numerical information of an attribute.In three experiments, we find that the perceived differences between two options loom larger when equivalent attribute information is expressed in a large ratio frame than when it is expressed in a small ratio frame. Moreover, preferences shift toward an option when its superior attribute is presented in a large rather than a small ratio condition. We also show that this framing effect goes beyond the effects of loss aversion and those of numerical anchoring.     

Which consumers are ready for consumer-directed health plans?

Consumer Directed Health Plans (CDHPs) are new and increasingly popular insurance products in the United States that aim to increase consumer involvement in health care decision-making. Using quantitative and qualitative methods, we examine characteristics of employees in a large firm that voluntarily enroll in CDHPs. We find salaried and hourly high deductible CDHP enrollees to be substantially healthier and have higher educational attainment than Preferred Provider Organizations (PPO) enrollees. There was less favorable selection into a more popular, lower deductible CDHP.