Incentives of Stock Option Based Compensation

We introduce explicitly the effort as a choice variable in a continuous time utility maximisation framework of an executive who is partly compensated with stock options. We solve the model in the case where the executive is not allowed to trade in the company’s stock but is able to achieve a partial insurance through trading in a correlated market portfolio. We define the executive’s value of the options through a certainty equivalence approach both in the case of European call options and non-standard capped stock options and study the behaviour of the reservation price as relevant parameters change.JEL Classification: G13, G30, G32, J33, M12     

Expected Accrual Models: The Impact of Operating Cash Flows and Reversals of Accruals

This paper augments the Jones (1991) model with operating cash flows and lagged accruals to evaluate the impact of (1) the negative association between accruals and concurrent cash flows, (2) the positive association between accruals and lagged cash flows, and (3) the reversal of accruals. I find that operating cash flows greatly improve the explanatory and predictive power of the Jones model; but, lagged accruals do not. A market test of the expected and unexpected components of accruals indicates that unexpected accruals are on average informative with respect to concurrent stock returns; however, the market does not fully understand the implications of accruals anticipated at the beginning of the return period.This paper has benefited from helpful comments and suggestions from Tae Hee Choi, In-Kyu Moon, and two anonymous reviewers on earlier versions of this paper. The author gratefully acknowledges the financial support from the Queens School of Business.     

Sharing Demand Information in a Value Chain: Implications for Pricing and Profitability

While it is known that information exchange (IE) in a value chain improves resource coordination, scant attention has been paid to two issues. The first issue is the effect of relative bargaining strengths of the parties on whether and how IE will be implemented. The second issue is whether a resource-based costing system is adequate to motivate the implementation of information exchange. In this paper, we model a value chain consisting of a manufacturer and a retailer, where the retailer gets (private) demand information that has the potential of improving the manufacturers resource decisions. In this model, it is always beneficial for the value chain to implement IE. We show that in a monopsony or in a bilateral monopoly when the retailer has sufficient bargaining power, IE can be implemented if and only if the wholesale price compensates him for the loss of the information rent that he would get without IE. Using this model as the benchmark, we also examine other settings where the retailers have less bargaining power due to competition or size. In such settings, even though the retailers are better informed, the manufacturer can implement the IE regime costlessly and appropriate the information rent partially or fully. In effect, the manufacturer benefits both by improved resource coordination and by reduced payment for information rent. In all these settings, we find the retailer will not be motivated to adopt IE solely by a resource-based costing and pricing system.     

A Theoretic Analysis of Extent of Lender Participation in a Participating Mortgage

A participating mortgage is a loan in which a lender accepts a below-market coupon rate in return for a share (participation) in the cash flows generated by income-producing real property. The cash flows provided by participation are classified as contingent interest and are intended to compensate the lender for additional risk exposure as well as the reduction in coupon rate. In this paper, we present a partial equilibrium wealth-maximizing model to estimate the extent of lender participation and an analysis of the factors affecting it. The results of formal comparative statics analysis show that the lender's percentage participation is, in general, positively related to changes in the loan-to-value ratio and threshold cash flows above which participation is payable. Among yet other results, a change in the contracted loan life has an ambiguous effect on the lender's percentage participation. Then, in an effort to resolve ambiguities in the comparative statics results, we employ a numerical procedure in conducting sensitivity analyses. This allows us to estimate percentage participation levels, and their elasticities, under various assumptions regarding the underlying factors. JEL Classification: G21, C65     

Corporate Financing Decisions and Non-Debt Tax Shields: Evidence from Italian Experiences in the 1990s

Between 1995 and 1999, Italy experienced three episodes of fiscal reform during which different categories of non-debt tax shields were introduced, including a classical investment tax credit, a system of dual income taxation, and an investment tax credit restricted to equity financed investments. Using the balance sheets of a large sample of Italian companies, we construct a data set which allows us to evaluate the impact of the different fiscal interventions. We apply MacKie-Mason's (1990) method to study incremental financing decisions using discrete choice analysis. The analysis shows that the measures introduced were successful in reducing the advantage of debt financing relative to equity financing. We relate the findings to the current literature on the determinants of capital structure. JEL Code: G32, H25     

The Pitfalls of International Integration: A Comment on the Bush Proposal and its Aftermath

In January 2003, the Bush Administration proposed a new system for taxing corporate dividends, under which domestic shareholders in U.S. corporations would not be taxed on dividends they received, provided the corporation distributed these dividends out of after-tax earnings (the Bush Proposal). The Bush Proposal was introduced in Congress on February 27, 2003. Ultimately, however, Congress balked at enacting full-fledged dividend exemption. Instead, in the Jobs and Growth Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2003 (JGTRRA) as enacted on May 28, 2003, a lower rate of 15% was adopted for dividends paid by domestic and certain foreign corporations,¹ and the capital gains rate was likewise reduced to 15%. Significantly and in stark contrast to the original Bush proposal, under JGTRRA the lower rate for dividends and capital gains does not depend on any tax being paid at the corporate level.This comment will focus primarily on the international aspects of both the Bush Proposal and JGTRRA. I will not lay out the proposal or the law in any detail. Instead, I will ask whether either the Bush Proposal or JGTRRA make sense from an economic efficiency perspective when the international implications are taken into account. I will leave to others the question of whether either the Bush Proposal or JGTRRA are sensible ways to stimulate the economy (for discussion of the effect of the 2001 tax cuts see Shapiro and Slemrod, 2001, 2002). I will also omit any discussion of the distributive effects of either the Bush Proposal or JGTRRA, which have been extensively discussed elsewhere (e.g., Tax Policy Center, 2003; Burman, Gale and Orszag, 2003).     

Optimal Self-Reporting Schemes with Multiple Stages and Option Values

We consider a model of optimal law enforcement where sanctions can be reduced for self-reporting individuals. We distinguish between a first self-reporting stage before the case is investigated and a second one where the criminal is detected, but not yet convicted. Since we assume that violators have private information in both stages, fine reductions for self-reporting individuals lead ceteris paribus to a higher violation frequency. Nevertheless, we show that fine reductions should be granted in both stages. We characterize the connection between the two fine reductions in the optimal policy and relate our results to self-reporting schemes observed in reality.     

Economic Effects of Making the 2001 and 2003 Tax Cuts Permanent

All of the provisions of the landmark tax cuts enacted in 2001 and 2003 are scheduled to expire by the end of 2010. This paper analyzes the economic effects of making the tax cuts permanent. We describe the recent tax cuts and the proposals to make them permanent, and explore the consequences of making the tax cuts permanent with regard to the fiscal status of the government, the distribution of after-tax income, and prospects for long-term economic growth.JEL Code: H24     

Optimal Income Taxation and the Ability Distribution: Implications for Migration Equilibria

As recently argued by Diamond (1998), one of the key factors explaining the progressivity of an optimal non-linear income tax is the distribution of productivity among workers. Migration is one source of changes in the productivity distribution. How changes in the populations ability distribution affect optimal income tax schedules has received little attention. Changing the distribution generally affects both the objective function and the government budget constraint. We first consider the comparative statics of the fraction of highly-skilled workers with maximin and maximax welfare functions (so that only the second effect is present) and a quasi-linear utility function. We also present some results for a utilitarian social welfare function.We then study the interaction between mobility and redistributive taxation. We consider mobility by either the skilled or unskilled population under majority voting where governments take the population as fixed. If individuals choose to relocate independently, having identical ability distributions is always a stable equilibrium when the unskilled are the mobile group. However, this is not always the case when the skilled are mobile. If groups of individuals can choose where to locate, having identical ability distributions across regions is only an equilibrium when the mobile type has an overall majority.     

论“导学一体化“与两课教学

文章针对当前"两课"教学存在的问题,提出了"导学一体化"的教学模式,并阐述了运用"导学一体化"教学模式的"必要性"、"积极作用"、"关键因素"、"应注意的问题".