Fee or free checking? Noninterest checking account fees,competition and multimarket banking

This article analyses noninterest checking (NIC) account fees using a unique data set covering 11 875 observations on 1880 banks from 2008 to 2012. These data identify whether the bank has free or fee checking on NIC accounts and, where relevant, the fee and minimum balance to avoid the fee. Appealing to shrouded equilibrium theory, we hypothesize that banks, and particularly small banks, will avoid drawing the attention of myopic, low-income types by having stable policies, or will attempt to confuse depositors with contradictory policy shifts in the fee and minimum balance requirements. Competition and small bank size should favour consumers, but the meaning of ‘favour’ is complicated by large depositors and the banks subsidizing small depositors with NIC accounts.

The results support the avoid attention hypothesis, particularly for single-market banks, and weakly support the confuse depositors hypothesis. The largest banks, including three too big to fail banks, are most responsive to competition, with single-market banks far less responsive. Competition may be responsible for a dramatic decline in free checking among the largest banks, and substantial increases in minimum balances for those banks, since these effectively reduced subsidies. Simultaneously, single-market banks became more likely to offer free checking.     

Treatment patterns and predictors of costs among patients with migraine: evidence from the United States medical expenditure panel survey

Abstract

Aim: Within a treated migraine population, to evaluate if the sub-group meeting criteria for high disease-specific total costs is significantly different to the sub-group with medium and/or low-costs, and to identify the associated risk factors.

Methods: Data from the Household Component of Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS-HC, 2008–2012), a nationally representative survey of non-institutionalized civilians in the US, were analyzed. Key inclusion criteria were migraine diagnosis (ICD-9 code: 346.XX) and prescribed treatment for migraine. Patients were categorized into high (>top 10th percentile), low (<bottom 10th percentile), and medium (between high and low) cost sub-groups per migraine-specific total costs. Logistic regression models were applied to identify predictors of high vs medium and medium vs low-costs. Preventive eligibility, defined as (i) past/current use of migraine preventives or (ii) overuse of acute medications, was compared to non-preventive eligibility.

Results: Within the treated migraine cohort (n?=?1,735), the mean age was 39?years, 80% were female, and the majority were in the medium-cost sub-group (n?=?1,360) (low-cost n?=?190, high-cost n?=?195). Significant predictors of high vs medium-costs were low SF-12 Physical Composite Scores (OR?=?0.95; 95% CI?=?0.92–0.97), low SF-6D health utility index scores (OR?=?0.019; 95% CI?=?0.002–0.193), preventive eligibility-i (OR?=?0.019; 95% CI?=?0.002–0.193), and preventive-eligibility-ii (OR?=?3.10; 95% CI?=?1.62–5.91). Statistically significant (p?<?0.05) predictors of medium vs low-costs included anxiety, Fleishman score, preventive-eligible-i, and preventive-eligible-ii.

Conclusions: Among patients treated for migraine, distinct characteristics, including patient-functioning measures and comorbidities, are predictive of high vs medium-costs, and medium vs low-costs. Preventive eligibility is a predictor of being in the higher cost sub-groups; however, preventive treatments that improve functioning and reduce acute medication use have the potential to reduce migraine-specific costs.

Limitations: The results are limited to a population that is diagnosed and treated for migraine. Over-the-counter medication use, and migraine headache frequency and severity were not captured.     

The British labor market in disequilibrium: Did the dole reduce employment in interwar Britain?

In this paper we estimate an econometric model of the labor market in interwar Britain. We reject the hypothesis that wages adjust sufficiently speedily to clear the labor market in each year in favor of a disequilibrium model in which the level of employment is determined by the lesser of labor demand or supply. We find that the level of unemployment benefits is a key determinant of labor supply. We estimate that a reduction in benefits to approximately half the 1925-38 average would have resulted in an increase in employment of between eight and twelve percent.     

Technological inefficiency indexes: a binary taxonomy and a generic theorem

Over the years following Debreu’s (1951) seminal formulation of a “coefficient of resource utilization”, a large number of indexes of technological inefficiency have been specified and a spate of papers has examined the properties satisfied by these indexes. This paper approaches the subject more synthetically, presenting generic results on classes of indexes and their properties. In particular, we consider a broad class of indexes containing almost all known indexes and a partition of this class into two subsets, slacks-based indexes and path-based indexes. Slacks-based indexes are expressed in terms of additive or multiplicative slacks for all inputs and outputs, and particular indexes are generated by specifying the form of aggregation over the coordinate-wise slacks. Path-based indexes are expressed in terms of a common contraction/expansion factor, and particular indexes are generated by specifying the form of the path to the frontier of the technology. Owing to an impossibility result in one of our earlier papers, we know that the set of all inefficiency indexes can be partitioned into three subsets: those that satisfy continuity (in quantities and technologies) and violate indication (equal to some specified value if and only if the quantity vector is efficient), those that satisfy indication and violate continuity, and those that satisfy neither. We prove two generic theorems establishing the equivalence of these two partitions: all slacks-based indexes satisfy indication and hence violate continuity, and all path-based indexes satisfy continuity and hence violate indication. We also discuss the few indexes that do not belong to either of these two sets. Our hope is that these results will help guide decisions about specification of the form of efficiency indexes used in empirical analysis.     

Can green behaviors really be increased for all employees? Trade‐offs for “deep greens” in a goal‐oriented green human resource management intervention

This study explores the complex interaction between psychological and goal‐relevant boundary conditions that influence levels of individual engagement in a green human resource management (HRM) intervention designed to encourage employee green behavior (EGB). Data were collected from 1,112 employees in an automobile manufacturing plant. Consistent with goal‐setting theory, the level of feedback received predicts EGB. However, a three‐way interaction demonstrates how employees with high levels of autonomous motivation do not gain the expected benefits of high feedback and high goal commitment in the enactment of EGB. Instead, only those with weak autonomous motivation are affected by these goal‐related constructs. Findings suggest that both goal‐setting and self‐determination theories are relevant to green HRM interventions. Managers should consider that interventions that are effective for employees who do not have strong autonomous motivation towards the environment may not be effective for those who do.     

Employee ownership and internal governance

This paper is designed to counter Oliver Williamson's hypothetical ‘Peer Group’ model of organization with a discussion of three prosperous populations of employee-owned firms: worked-owned scavenger companies, taxi cooperatives, and professional partnerships such as the large law firm. It will be shown here that these firms are formed, endure and prevail over their competition for reasons that Williamson, more than anyone else, has taught us to appreciate. In particular, this paper will argue that the metering problems and human asset considerations that are so prominently featured in Williamson's work are crucial for understanding the success of these firms.     

Accuracy of management and security analysts' forecasts: Additional evidence

This paper provides further support for findings in studies by Basi, Carey, and Twark [2] and Ruland [5] which indicated no statistically significant superiority of management over analysts in forecasting earnings per share. These somewhat surprising findings are seen to flow from several possible sources. Lack of superior management forecasting performance may reflect (1) a considerable sharing of the forecast or forecast-related information by management with analysts, or (2) firm-specific data (to which management is more privy) may be less important in forecasting performance than data on economy-wide movements.     

Efficiency, Performance and Changing Corporate Governance in China's Township–Village Enterprises since the 1990s

This article outlines some of the major challenges facing Chinese township–village enterprises (TVEs) since the 1990s. The authors argue that the internal mechanisms associated with the unique ownership structure of TVEs has allowed them to perform better than state-owned enterprises (SOEs). Since the mid-1990s, debt levels in the TVE sector have increased sharply. Most of the problems of TVEs have been magnified by the close relationship between local governments and enterprises, which was once one of their major strengths. Since the mid-1990s, local governments have come to regard TVEs with high levels of debt as a burden rather than an asset. In response local governments have moved to other, more indirect forms of governance over most TVEs under their control, while retaining direct control over the most successful. These alternative ownership structures include share-holding co-operatives and outright privatisation.