Design matrix analysis

Analysts of social mobility are coming round to the view that it is not enough to find a model that fits the data; it is at least as important to know which bits of the model fit the data, and which are unimportant. The need for this type ofstructuring becomes even more pressing when we seek to determine the dimensions along which societies differ. This paper carries the process of structuring a stage further by proposing an orthogonal decomposition of a mobility model in which each dimension (degree of freedom) can be given a distinct sociological interpretation. In the following paper orthogonal rotation is deployed to uncover the latent dimensions of a mobility table. Relations among different models are established. The paper closes with a response to criticisms published by Sobel (1983).     

Workers’ investigations into the working environment

This article compares workers’ investigations into the working environment in Scandinavia with trade union research projects in Britain. The future of workers’ investigations in Britain is related to increasing concerns about occupational stress and changing work organisation with the introduction of new technology.     

Standards are Too High

Government action to establish minimum standards in a wide range of consumer activities almost invariably ignores the obvious economic truth that standards can be too high: they must have a cost, by forcing up prices, reducing choice and so on. Dr Keith Hartley, of the University of York, argues that the market, not the state, will provide the amount of information on quality that consumers want.     

THE NEW LEVERAGED LOAN SYNDICATION MARKET

Over the past ten years, commercial lending has been transformed from a one-off, bilateral "market" in which issuers maintained one or more separate banking relationships into a capital market in which one or more underwriters structure and price loans for syndication to groups of investors. This market-driven evolution has been most dramatic in the leveraged lending segment (defined as loans priced at LIBOR plus 150 basis points or more), where wide margins have attracted a large and growing field of underwriters, intermediaries, and investors.
Liquidity is the overriding theme in today's syndicated loan market, making the market a more user-friendly one for corporate borrowers and deal sponsors. As a result, a record number of corporate issuers are taking advantage of the syndicated loan market to finance strategic transactions or simply to reduce their borrowing costs. Deal sponsors, too, are tapping the market to finance leveraged buyouts, recapitalizations, and acquisitions at a pace not seen since the late 1980s. But, although acquisition pricing has reached cash flow multiples that recall those of the late '80s, equity contributions by sponsors are larger and credit structures are more conservative.
For banks and other investors, reduced loan pricing and more flexible credit structures have been balanced by much greater access to a large volume of diversified assets, as well as the ability to manage asset-specific and portfolio risk more effectively. As a result of more effective portfolio management strategies, lenders today are less vulnerable to credit problems with individual issuers or a given industry segment, and the bank market as a whole should be much less subject to disruption than it proved to be in the early 1990s.     

Constructing Commercial Indices: A Semiparametric Adaptive Estimator Approach

Constant-quality commercial indices generated by ordinary least squares may suffer an efficiency loss due to leptokurtosis caused by outliers in transactions data. When the subsequent nonnormality occurs, substantial improvement in index precision is obtained by estimating the hedonic model using a semiparametric adaptive estimator technique. When this method was applied to 1,846 office transactions that occurred in the Phoenix metropolitan area from January 1997 through June 2004, a substantial standard error reduction of approximately 9% was realized relative to ordinary least squares estimates. The difference in average returns between the semiparametric method and ordinary least squares was about 0.25% in each period, which represents a substantial increase in commercial property index precision. JEL Classification C4 R0     

Do Predatory Lending Laws Influence Mortgage Lending? An Analysis of the North Carolina Predatory Lending Law

In this paper, we examine the effect of the 1999 North Carolina predatory lending law on mortgage activity in that state as compared to other states in the Southeastern United States. Using 1998–2000 Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) data, we find that the North Carolina law reduced the overall level of subprime mortgage lending activity. Furthermore, we find that the North Carolina decline was caused by a decline in loan application volume and not by a change in loan denial rates, suggesting less aggressive marketing in that state after the imposition of the law. Finally, the impact of the legislation was different by both the type of financial service provider and borrower. Specifically, non-bank subprime lending contracted faster in North Carolina when compared to the control group, while both minority and low-income applicants were also less likely to get loans following the legislation. These results have wide ranging policy implications given that several predatory lending proposals are currently before Congress, as well as proposed in almost forty other states.     

Property taxes and the transition of land to urban use

This paper examines the land and improvements tax effects on development timing and structural density at the urban fringe. It presents new results concerning structural density effects and resolves the ambiguity surrounding timing effects. This paper also studies the role of structural durability in the land tax non-neutrality phenomenon.     

A Note on Racial Differences in Employed Male Job Search

This article examines why black males are more likely to engage in employed job search than are their white counterparts. We focus primarily on the roles that expected wages, wage growth, and job characteristics have on explaining the observed differential. Using a sample of young men from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY), the results indicate that the greater propensity of blacks to engage in employed job search is the result of their desire to obtain better jobs with more agreeable working conditions.