Decision aid reliance: Modeling the effects of decision aid reliability and pressures to perform on reliance behavior

We investigate the effects of decision aid reliability and pressure to perform on decision aid reliance. A total of 403 students took part in a four (pressures to perform: one through four) by five (decision aid reliability: 50%, 60%, 70%, 80% and 90%) between-participants experiment. We test two competing models of decision aid reliance behavior: pressure-induced rationality and pressure arousal theory. Additionally, we introduce a general model of reliance on a decision aid. We find that pressure arousal theory predominantly explains decision aid reliance behavior at all but the highest level of decision aid reliability tested in this study (90%). Our results indicate that there are reliance peaks across the reliability levels as more pressure to perform is applied, and that continually increasing pressures can eventually lead to decreased, rather than increased, reliance.     

Excess control,agency costs and the probability of going private in France

The current study investigates the determinants of going private (GP) in France. It contrasts a sample of 161 firms that went private between 1997 and 2009 with a propensity-score-matched sample of firms that remained public during the same period. The results indicate that, unlike for firms that remain public, the largest controlling shareholders (LCSs) of GP firms control their firms using an incommensurately small fraction of ultimate cash flow rights. This is consistent with the view that agency problems between large and minority shareholders make public firms less attractive to investors, which reduces the benefits of staying public and encourages the LCSs to take their firms private or accept takeover offers. Additional results show that GP firms have more undervalued stock prices and higher free cash flows than non-GP firms. Expected interest tax shields, low growth opportunities, and pre-GP takeover interest do not seem to affect the probability of GP.     

The pyramids plateau: A dream searching for survival

Recognized as one of the most unique archaeological sites in the world, the Giza pyramids plateau is the location of the three great pyramids and the Sphinx, tombs, seven smaller pyramids, and other monuments. Over the centuries the plateau has been instrumental in introducing Egyptian civilization to the world, and was recently declared as one of the most iconic travel spots on the planet.In recent years, the location of the new Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM) within the site of the plateau re-ignited the debate between scholars, practitioners and activists over development activities within and around this unique site. Consequently, a growing conflict re-emerged between conserving the plateau and developing the surrounding areas. Additionally, this invaluable site is threatened by urban expansion and development, pollution, rising groundwater and extensive tourism. Yet, currently there are neither tourism management nor development plans for the site.Building on national and international conservation conventions and charters, this paper explores analyses and documents the current gap between ideal conservation management sittings within and around the pyramids plateau and the reality of urban development trends and tourism activities.     

Returns from research in economies with policy distortions: hybrid sorghum in Sudan

Conventional estimates of the economic return to agricultural research use market prices for the values of products and inputs; on this basis, economic rates of return are typically well above the cost of capital, suggesting that more investment in research would be socially desirable. But these estimates may be incorrect if, as is often the case, market prices are distorted by market failures or government policies and hence do not reflect social values. This paper presents a simple, partial-equilibrium methodology with which to improve the measurement of social returns to research by taking account of multiple distortions in the market prices of products, inputs and foreign exchange. The method also takes account of variation in domestic and world prices, making a product tradable in some years and nontradable in others. The method is applied to the case of Hageen-Dura 1 (HD-1), Sub-Saharan Africa's first commercially successful hybrid sorghum. HD-1 was released in the Sudan in 1983. From the start of research in 1979 to 1992, the HD-1 breeding program had an estimated IRR of 97% when all major policies in the sorghum market, the fertilizer market, and the exchange rate are taken into account. The high rate of return to HD-1 research was due to the program's low cost and rapid payoff, pointing to the potential value of small adaptive research programs, taking full advantage of foreign technology and genetic material to produce locally-appropriate crosses in a short period of time. Even in the highly distorted economies of Africa, such programs can yield very high payoffs.