Resale price maintenance and restrictions on dominant firm and industry-wide adoption

We consider a model in which firms use resale price maintenance (RPM) to dampen competition. We find that even though the motive for using RPM is thus anti-competitive, market forces may limit the overall adverse impact on consumers. Indeed, we find that when there are a large number of firms in the market, consumer welfare under a laissez-faire policy might be as high or almost as high as it would be under an alternative policy in which RPM is banned. Government interventions that put an upper limit on the extent of industry-wide adoption of RPM can have adverse welfare effects in the model. We further show that proposed guidelines in the United States and Europe may come close to minimizing welfare.     

Nonlinear Supply Contracts, Exclusive Dealing, and Equilibrium Market Foreclosure

We examine how the feasibility of both nonlinear pricing and exclusive dealing arrangements affect incentives for market foreclosure when two manufacturers contract with a retail monopolist. Surprisingly, we find that although market foreclosure equilibria exist, they are Pareto-dominated (from each manufacturer's perspective) by all nonforeclosure equilibria. If one believes that Pareto-dominated equilibria are unlikely to arise, then the difference between our results and those of Mathewson and Winter (1987), who do not allow for nonlinear pricing, suggests an ironic twist on the notion that quantity discounts and other kinds of nonlinear pricing can provide an additional way for a manufacturer to foreclose a rival. By providing a manufacturer with increased flexibility (beyond linear pricing) to extract a retailer's surplus, nonlinear pricing may instead have the effect of reducing the incidence of observed market foreclosure.     

Analysts’ annual earnings forecasts and changes to the I/B/E/S database

Review of Accounting Studies - I/B/E/S is a common source of analyst earnings forecast data, and the reliability of these data is important for practice and academic research. Examining a common...     

Consumer debt and unemployment

We present evidence that US consumer debt has varied inversely with unemployment rates since 1990, potentially reflecting responses by households and/or lenders to adverse labour market conditions, and helping explain why consumer debt recently fell despite low interest rates. For several measures of debt, unemployment exhibits greater explanatory power and economic significance than interest rates.     

Reactions to abusive supervision: examining the roles of emotions and gender in the USA

Abusive supervision leads to many detrimental outcomes, yet the role of gender and emotions has received little attention. We applied affective events theory to study emotions in a new context. Using qualitative and quantitative methods, we tested a conditional process model of the effects of abusive supervision on subordinate work and job withdrawal as mediated by negative emotions and moderated by gender. We found support for our proposed model. Specifically, abusive supervision increased work and job withdrawal via victims’ negative emotional reactions. When negative emotions are low, women are more likely to engage in work withdrawal; when negative emotions are high, men are more likely to do so. Additionally, men experiencing high negative emotions are likely to quit their job.     

The Competitive Impact of Disclosure Requirements in the Credit Card Industry

Theoretical studies have questioned the efficacy of mandatory disclosure requirements under various conditions, but empirical studies of disclosure requirements have been rare. This paper tests the impact of the Fair Credit and Charge Card Disclosure Act of 1988, enacted specifically to increase the degree of competition in the credit card industry in the face of suspected consumer search costs. The findings suggest that the Act failed to achieve its intended purpose.     

Market‐share contracts as facilitating practices

This article investigates how the use of contracts that condition discounts on the share a supplier receives of a retailer's total purchases (market‐share contracts) may affect market outcomes. The case of a dominant supplier that distributes its product through retailers that also sell substitute products is considered. It is found that when the supplier's contracts can only depend on how much a retailer purchases of its product (own‐supplier contracts), intra‐ and interbrand competition cannot simultaneously be dampened. However, competition on all goods can simultaneously be dampened when market‐share contracts are feasible. Compared to own‐supplier contracts, the use of market‐share contracts increases the dominant supplier's profit and, if demand is linear, lowers consumer surplus and welfare.     

Market power,price discrimination,and allocative efficiency in intermediate‐goods markets

We consider a monopolistic supplier's optimal choice of two‐part tariff contracts when downstream firms are asymmetric. We find that the optimal discriminatory contracts amplify differences in downstream firms' competitiveness. Firms that are larger—either because they are more efficient or because they sell a superior product—obtain a lower wholesale price than their rivals. This increases allocative efficiency by favoring the more productive firms. In contrast, we show that a ban on price discrimination reduces allocative efficiency and can lead to higher wholesale prices for all firms. As a result, consumer surplus, industry profits, and welfare are lower.     

Bridging the education–profession gap: The Accounting Student–Practitioner Day (ASPD) program

This paper provides a detailed discussion of an annual (and cost-effective) professional-development event we call the Accounting Student–Practitioner Day (ASPD). This program brings together, for a single day, students, accounting faculty, and accounting professionals in a conference-like setting. The conference format provides a unique, and formal, link between the classroom environment and the professional world students will be entering. The program is attended by accounting and non-accounting students from our university, senior students from area high schools, and undergraduate students from other universities in the area. Specific objectives of the program are to help students learn what it takes to become an accounting professional, to provide students with information that facilitates their career-choice decision, and to encourage networking and community-building activities. Assessment data indicate that the ASPD program is successful in terms of its stated objectives. The relatively low cost of operating the program makes it attractive for other accounting programs. The paper includes a set of recommendations for those faculty interested in implementing an ASPD program at their own institution.