Productivity Growth in the UK Regions, 1968–1991

This paper provides estimates of total factor productivity growth for the regions of the UK. It shows that the peripheral regions generally performed better than the national average in the 1980's. A model to explain TFP growth found that much of this increase can be attributed to a general upskilling of a more flexible workforce, falling plant sizes, and a 'catch-up' effect in the unionized sector.     

Reemployment Differences Among Dislocated and Other Workers

Abstract Dislocated workers are often assumed to have a more difficult time becoming reemployed than their non-dislocated counterparts, especially into jobs in growth sectors of the economy. Evidence presented here suggests that it is not dislocation per se that makes reemployment difficult, but that factors associated with dislocation such as education, experience, and industry-specific skills in declining industries play the most important roles. The findings are relevant to the matter of workers' retraining programs.     

Factors Influencing Firms' Disclosures about Environmental Liabilities

This paper examines factors related to environmental liability disclosure decisions for firms in industries with substantial Superfund site involvement. We hypothesize that the extent of disclosure about environmental liabilities is associated with five factors: (1) regulation, including enforcement activity, (2) managements' information, including site uncertainty and allocation uncertainty, (3) litigation and negotiation concerns, (4) capital market concerns, and (5) other regulatory influence. Our empirical tests examine the association between measures of environmental liability disclosure, based on disclosures in firms' annual reports and Forms 10-K, and proxies for the five factors, based on information from other public sources, including the EPA. We find that all of our hypothesized factors except site uncertainty significantly influence firms' environmental disclosure decisions.     

Bank loan-loss provisions and the income-smoothing hypothesis: An empirical analysis, 1976–1984

This article tests an income-smoothing hypothesis for a sample of 106 large bank holding companies for the period 1976 to 1984. Our focus is on the behavior of the provision for loan losses as a function of bank income and alternative measures of business conditions likely to affect loan portfolio risk-taking or quality. Using an econometric model with pooled time-series, cross-sectional data, we find evidence of income-smoothing behavior over our test period. Our dummy-variable models indicate that regional banking companies tend to engage in income smoothing more than money-center banks. Alternative motivations for income-smoothing behavior, which include bank regulatory policy, risk management, agency theory, and compensation policy, are explored and their policy implications considered.