Value-added annual shareholders meetings: reflections on people''s capitalism at Wal-Mart

Most shareholder annual meetings are relatively dull. This is a case study of how a large successful company, Wal-Mart, uses its annual shareholder meeting to motivate and spread best practices among other stakeholders including vendors and employees. In doing so, it makes it a value-added event and also livens up what may be a relatively dull annual shareholder meeting.     

SECURITY RETURN DISTRIBUTIONS AND MARKET STRUCTURE: EVIDENCE FROM THE NYSE/AMEX AND THE NASDAQ MARKETS

This paper documents significant and persistent deviations from normality in security return distributions for the NYSE, AMEX, and NASDAQ from 1974 to 1988. Controlling for January and size effects, we find that the deviations of security return distributions from normality decline with increasing portfolio size and investment horizon for the NYSE and AMEX, especially for daily returns. Deviations appear to be greater for the NASDAQ than for the two exchanges even for firms of the same size. Ratios of monthly to daily variances are also larger for the NASDAQ. These results suggest that nonparametric or other robust statistical techniques should be used when valuing equity options and other derivatives, especially when examining NASDAQ security returns. They further imply that trading strategies based on market inefficiencies are more likely to succeed on the NASDAQ.     

The Politics of Russian Enterprise Reform: Insiders, Local Governments, and the Obstacles to Restructuring

Russia and other countries in the Commonwealth of IndependentStates that have implemented voucher privatization programshave to account for the puzzling behavior of insiders—manager-owners—who,in stripping assets from the firms they own, appear to be stealingfrom one pocket to fill the other. This article suggests thatasset stripping and the absence of restructuring result frominteractions between insiders and subnational governments ina particular property rights regime, in which the ability torealize value is limited by uncertainty and illiquidity. Asthe central institutions that govern the Russian economy haveceded their powers to the provinces, regional and local governmentshave imposed a variety of distortions on enterprises to protectlocal employment. To disentangle these vicious circles of control, this articlesconsiders three sets of institutional changes:; adjustmentsto the system of fiscal federalism by which subnational governmentswould be allowed to retain tax revenues generated locally; legalimprovements in the protection of property rights; and the provisionof mechanisms for restructuring and ownership transformationin insider-dominated firms. The aim of these reforms would beto change the incentives that local governments, owners, andinvestors face; to convince subnational governments that a moresustainable way of protecting employment lies in protectinglocal investment; to raise the cost of theft and corruptionby insiders and local officials; and to allow investors to acquirecontrolling stakes in viable firms.      

The role of fiscal policy in the St. Louis model: An evaluation and some new evidence

This paper re-examines the role of high employment budget expenditures (fiscal policy) in the St. Louis expenditure equation by using spectral analysis and the spectral estimates of a two-sided distributed lag model. The analysis is undertaken with quarterly U.S. data from 1947:1 to 1984:IV in the rate of change form. A salient conclusion is that fiscal policy has statistically significant partial coherences with (nominal) income, with the latter leading the former over the business cycle. We find that income is jointly related to lead terms of fiscal policy in a two-sided distributed lag model. Some explanations for these results are provided.     

Image and cost factors in the choice of mental health-care organizations: A causal model

The importance of image as a determinant of choice has been demonstrated for banks, supermarkets, hospitals and other service organizations, but not in the instance of mental health-care providers. Based on a mail survey of residents of a medium-sized metropolitan area, this study explores the components of image for mental health-care institutions. A causal model is hypothesized and validated, specifying the relationships between preferences towards mental health-care institutions, with image and cost factors as potential determinants. The findings suggest that cost does not play a significant role in the choice of mental health providers, whereas image has a significant impact.     

The Diversification Discount Puzzle: Evidence for a Transaction-Cost Resolution

The literature on the corporate diversification discount and the relative efficiency of internal versus external capital markets provides mixed results. We argue that transaction-cost economics is useful in understanding this puzzle. According to transaction-cost economics, diversified firms should outperform single segment firms in industries with higher external transaction costs (e.g., emergent industries) and under-perform in industries with low external transaction costs and high agency and other internal costs (e.g., some mature industries). This paper provides evidence supporting these contentions.