Political Responsibility in Transnational NGO Advocacy

Nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) manifest a new political reality in the global realm. NGOs have come to mobilize, articulate and represent people’s interests or concerns at different levels of decision-making: locally, nationally and internationally. The central argument of this paper is that the relationships that emerge among transnational NGO networks are highly problematic. The dynamics in these relationships determine the quality of NGO advocacy, both in terms of its function as a channel to articulate different development aspirations and as in terms of effectively embracing their responsibilities to other actors in the network. This paper introduces a concept of political responsibility to clarify representation and accountability in transnational NGO networks. Based upon different case studies of NGO advocacy campaigns, the paper also introduces four typologies of relationships which may develop among networks, leading to a varying degree of political responsibility.     

The Quiet Period Goes out with a Bang

We examine the expiration of the IPO quiet period, which occurs after the 25^th calendar day following the offering. For IPOs during 1996 to 2000, we find that analyst coverage is initiated immediately for 76 percent of these firms, almost always with a favorable rating. Initiated firms experience a five-day abnormal return of 4.1 percent versus 0.1 percent for firms with no coverage. The abnormal returns are concentrated in the days just before the quiet period expires. Abnormal returns are much larger when coverage is initiated by multiple analysts. It does not matter whether a recommendation comes from the lead underwriter or not.     

Do Demand Curves for Small Stocks Slope Down?

Stocks added to the S&P 500 generally experience positive abnormal returns following the announcement. Several competing explanations exist for this reaction, but small sample sizes and other issues make it difficult to distinguish among them. We examine this subject using the small‐cap Russell 2000 index, which has several advantages over the S&P 500 in this context. Our primary finding is that stocks added to or deleted from the Russell 2000 experience significant changes in stock price and trading volume, but the effect is transitory. The results support the price pressure hypothesis.     

Why are population flows so persistent?

A neoclassical model of local growth is developed by integrating the static equilibrium underlying compensating differential theory as the steady state of a neoclassical growth model. Numerical results show that even very small frictions to labor and capital mobility along with small changes in local productivity or local quality of life suffice to cause highly persistent population flows. Wages and house prices, in contrast, jump most of the way to their new steady state. The model suggests that cross-sectional regressions of local population growth can help to identify past and present changes in the determinants of representative-agent welfare. More generally, it provides a framework for interpreting observed local growth rates.     

Disinflation costs, accelerating inflation gains, and central bank independence

Disinflation Costs, Accelerating Inflation Gains, and Central Bank Independence. - This paper considers the impact of central bank independence on both the costs of disinflation and the gains of accelerating inflation. For this purpose, sacrifice ratios for disinflation episodes and benefice ratios for accelerating inflation episodes are constructed by using a new method. The ratios are calculated for 19 industrial countries over the period 1960–1992. The results indicate that central bank independence only matters during disinflation episodes: Sacrifice ratio and output loss are higher, the more independent the central bank is; whereas during accelerating inflation episodes, central bank independence has no influence on either the benefice ratio or the output gain.     

Determinants of tourists' expenditure at mass participant sport events: a five-year analysis

Using the five-year data of a US running event (N?=?9380), this study examined key determinants of tourists' expenditure in a mass participant sport event. Economic constraint, travel-related, socio-demographic, and sport-related facets were integrated into the expenditure model while considering changes in tourism prices. The proposed four-facet model provides a broader framework for event organisers and destination marketers in evaluating what factors determine participants' spending behaviours while at the destination, thereby maximising the potential economic benefits of hosting a participant sport event.     

A simple method for estimating preference parameters for individuals

This paper demonstrates a method for estimating logit choice models for small sample data, including single individuals, that is computationally simpler and relies on weaker prior distributional assumptions compared to hierarchical Bayes estimation. Using Monte Carlo simulations and online discrete choice experiments, we show how this method is particularly well suited to estimating values of choice model parameters from small sample choice data, thus opening this area to the application of choice modeling. For larger sample sizes of approximately 100–200 respondents, preference distribution recovery is similar to hierarchical Bayes estimation of mixed logit models for the examples we demonstrate. We discuss three approaches for specifying the conjugate priors required for the method: specifying priors based on existing or projected market shares of products, specifying a flat prior on the choice alternatives in a discrete choice experiment, or adopting an empirical Bayes approach where the prior choice probabilities are taken to be the average choice probabilities observed in a discrete choice experiment. We show that for small sample data, the relative weighting of the prior during estimation is an important consideration, and we present an automated method for selecting the weight based on a predictive scoring rule.     

Strategic reporting by nonprofit hospitals: an examination of bad debt and charity care

Review of Accounting Studies - In this paper, we examine bad debt and charity care reporting by nonprofit hospitals around bond issuance. Given the tax advantages afforded to nonprofit hospitals,...