Is inflation targeting feasible in Poland?

In this paper we analyze whether inflation targeting is feasible in Poland. There are at least three prerequisites for successful inflation targeting: 1) central bank independence, 2) a high degree of central bank accountability, transparency, and communication to the public, and 3) a predictable and stable relationship between inflation and the instruments of monetary policy. While the first two prerequisites are relatively easy to analyze, the third criterion requires formal statistical analysis, which we undertake in this paper. The first two prerequisites for targeting are found to be met in Poland, and the empirical analysis shows some evidence of significant relationships between inflation and monetary instruments in Poland. Hence inflation targeting appears feasible in Poland.     

Employee involvement climate and organizational effectiveness

This study empirically examines the relationship between the perceived employee involvement (EI) climate and organizational effectiveness. Using a sample of insurance companies, results indicate that organizations with high levels of perceived EI climate lead to organizational effectiveness as measured through financial performance, turnover rate, and workforce morale. Implications of the results for research and practice are discussed. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

CAN INDONESIA DECENTRALISE SUCCESSFULLY? PLANS,PROBLEMS AND PROSPECTS

Indonesia is engaged in an unprecedented social and economic experiment. Responsibility for much government expenditure is being decentralised, largely to local (district) rather than to provincial governments. If this process is successful, the world's most centralised large country could become one of its most decentralised. This paper considers the issues arising as preparations for decentralisation are finalised, and as the socialisation of its plans and practices is considered by the central government, the People's Representative Council, the decentralised units of government, and the public. These issues were identified partly through interviews with local government officials. They include policy and administrative matters yet to be resolved, such as local budgeting, financial management and auditing practices, personnel decentralisation, local taxation, borrowing by local governments, and the match between revenues and expenditures. A major theme is the importance of a continuing national and local discussion on the goals and processes of decentralisation.     

On Nudging: A Review of Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health,Wealth and Happiness by Richard H. Thaler and Cass R. Sunstein

This paper reviews the case for libertarian paternalism presented by Thaler and Sunstein in Nudge. Thaler and Sunstein argue that individuals’ preferences are often incoherent, making paternalism is unavoidable; however, paternalistic interventions should ‘nudge’ individuals without restricting their choices, and should nudge them towards what they would have chosen had they not been subject to specific limitations of rationality. I argue that the latter criterion provides inadequate guidance to nudgers. It is inescapably normative, and so allows nudgers’ conceptions of well‐being to override those of nudgees. Even if nudgees’ rationality were unbounded, their revealed preferences might still be incoherent.     

RISK-ADJUSTED DISCOUNT RATES-EXTENSIONS FROM THE AVERAGE-RISK CASE

This paper provides an approach for developing risk-adjusted discount rates that follows naturally from the standard presentation of the weighted average cost of capital. In addition to examining the implied assumptions about the valuation of corporate debt, the paper shows the pedagogic advantages of the proposed approach.     

Money demand function estimation by nonlinear cointegration

Conventionally, the money demand function is estimated using a regression of the logarithm of money demand on either the interest rate or the logarithm of the interest rate. This equation is presumed to be a cointegrating regression. In this paper, we aim to combine the logarithmic specification, which models the liquidity trap better than a linear model, with the assumption that the interest rate itself is an integrated process. The proposed technique is robust to serial correlation in the errors. For the USA, our new technique results in larger coefficient estimates than previous research suggested, and produces superior out‐of‐sample prediction. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Market microstructure effects on volatility at the TAIFEX

This study examines whether changes in the frequency of market clearing or changes in trading hours on competing exchanges that use different auction systems affect the volatility of futures prices. In particular, this study exploits a natural experiment in the frequency of market clearing of stock index futures contracts traded on the Taiwan Futures Exchange (TAIFEX) to assess whether successive increases in the frequency of market clearing are associated with changes in the volatility of futures prices. The impact of changes in the trading hours on the TAIFEX and on the competing Singapore Exchange (SGX) where a similar Taiwanese stock index futures contract trades under a continuous auction market regime is also examined. The evidence for the impact of an increase in the frequency of market clearing on volatility is mixed. However, the introduction of simultaneous opening times for the TAIFEX (which batches orders at the open) and the SGX (which does not) is associated with a significant reduction in the volatility in SGX Taiwanese stock index futures prices. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Jrl Fut Mark 27:1219–1243, 2007     

Information and trade sizes: The case of short sales

In this study, we examine short selling of NASDAQ stocks and observe that more information about future returns is contained in small short sales than in medium-sized and large short sales, thus supporting the idea that NASDAQ short sellers stealth trade. These results are robust to different subsamples of stocks with and without tradable options and stocks that are more likely to face binding borrowing constraints. Further, these findings are contrary to the results in Boehmer, Jones, and Zhang (2008) who find that large NYSE short sales contain the most information. Combined, our study supports the idea that NASDAQ's bid test is less restricting than the NYSE's uptick rule and therefore attenuates the likelihood of stealth trading (Diether, Lee, & Werner, 2009a).