Search and Liquidity in Single-Family Housing

A two-stage least squares model of housing prices is estimated with data collected from 3358 single-family home transactions. The results provide evidence for an optimal marketing period and indicate that a liquidity premium is priced in single-family home sales. Consistent with the hypothesis derived from economic search models, the model shows higher selling prices for houses having longer expected marketing periods. The model also shows a price premium for houses that sell faster than expectations. This effect supports the concept that liquidity is a value-enhancing characteristic.     

Head-heart disparity among future managers: Implications for ethical conduct

An examination of the ethical perceptions of business students using Macobby's head/heart traits and a comparison to earlier studies of managers, accountants, and business students is made. The data were collected at three universities that are similar in size, enrollment and degree programs within the College of Business. Results indicate that present day business students are no less ethically inclined than are their business counterparts in previous eras. In general head traits dominated over heart traits, an indication that business schools continued to do a good job emphasizing and developing analytical skills but a poor job of developing the qualities of the heart that are generally associated with ethical behavior. The implications of these findings are discussed.     

Models for which the MLE and the conditional MLE coincide

The MLE, CMLE and MMLE coincide in a linear regression model with fixed individual effects. In this case, there is no incidental parameters problem and the MLE is consistent. The equivalence of these estimators is important because CMLE=MLE implies both the consistency of the MLE and the efficiency of the CMLE. In general, we cannot expect to find a CMLE or MMLE, since there may be no fixed-dimension sufficient statistic for the effects, nor an appropriate transformation of the data whose distribution does not depend on the effects. However, we show that the MLE, CMLE and MMLE do coincide in systems of seemingly unrelated regressions and in systems of simultaneous equations. We establish this result for systems in which (exogenous) variables in addition to (or other than) the intercept may have coefficients which vary over individuals, provided that the set of such variables is the same in every equation.The financial support of the National Science Foundation is gratefully acknowledged.     

Complexity, Governance and Constitutional Craftsmanship

Economic policy is commonly treated as a vehicle for selecting among possible allocative outcomes within an economy. An economy, however, is a complex network of relationships whose patterns can be understood but whose details can be neither predicted nor controlled. Because of this complexity, allocative outcomes are not direct objects of choice. They are simply emergent consequences of human interaction that takes place within some framework of governing rules and conventions. All economic policy can do is modify some of the rules that govern this interaction. Economic policy is thus constitutive and not allocative in character, being centrally involved in shaping the character of the regime that governs our relationships with each other.     

Explaining the Cross‐Section of Stock Returns in Japan: Factors or Characteristics?

Japanese stock returns are even more closely related to their book-to-market ratios than are their U.S. counterparts, and thus provide a good setting for testing whether the return premia associated with these characteristics arise because the characteristics are proxies for covariance with priced factors. Our tests, which replicate the Daniel and Titman (1997) tests on a Japanese sample, reject the Fama and French (1993) three-factor model, but fail to reject the characteristic model.     

Some 'real' problems of 'virtual' organisation

This paper presents an ethnographic study of organisational change in a retail bank considering issues surrounding the supposed emergence of the 'virtual organisation'. It outlines emerging problems in organisational work as a consequence of the shift toward 'virtuality' and questions the explanatory value of such theoretical stances.     

A Proposed Arbitration Mechanism to Ensure Free Trade in Livestock Products

Trade negotiations between Canada and the United States are to begin in the near future. For there to be an ongoing free movement of commodities the question of nontariff barriers must be addressed in the negotiations. Livestock commodities are particularly prone to nontariff barriers due to the public health aspects of domestic regulations and the perishability of the products. Potential nontariff barriers in livestock and meat products are identified and the problems of normal negotiation procedures outlined. A proposal for an arbitration mechanism for the settlement of disputes is developed. It's essential elements are pre-approval of changes to regulations, extremely short arbitration periods and decentralized adjudication.
Les négociations de commerce entre le Canada et les États-Unis commenceront bientôt. Pour avoir un mouvement continuel des denrées, la question des barrières nontarifaires doit être adressée dans les négotiations. Les denrées bestiaux sont particulièrement portées aux barrières nontarifaires à cause des aspects de la santé publique dans les régulations domestiques et la nature périssable des produits. On identifie les barrières nontarifaires potentielles en des produits bestiaux et de viande. On indique aussi les problèmes avec les processus de négotiation normale. Une proposition pour un mécanisme d'arbitrage pour la résolution des disputes est developpée. Les elements essentiels de cette proposition sont l'approbation en avance des changements aux régulations, les périodes d'arbitration très courtes et les prononcements de jugements décentralisés.