A heuristic-systematic processing analysis of the effectiveness of product warning labels

In this article we present the heuristic-systematic model (Chaiken, 1980, 1987; Chaiken, Liberman, & Eagly, 1989) as a theoretical framework for research on product warning labels. The model proposes two fundamental information processing modes. When processing systematically, perceivers access, scrutinize, and integrate all useful information to reach their judgment. In contrast, heuristic processing involves the use of learned knowledge structures in the form of simple decision rules, or cognitive heuristics, to reach judgments. In addition to proposing when either or both of these processing modes will occur, and with what effect, the model also specifies three different underlying types of processing motivations, termed accuracy, defense, and impression, each with implications for information processing and judgments. This model is used to explain past findings on the effectiveness of product warning labels, and to suggest new areas for future research as well as practical guidelines for the design of warning labels. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Corruption and Unethical Behavior: Report on a Set of Danish Guidelines

Corruption is defined as private individuals or enterprises who misuse public resources for private power and/or political gains. They do so through abusing public officials whose behavior deviates from the formal government rules of conduct. Ethical behavior is defined as individuals or enterprises adhering to a non-corrupt work or business practice. A review of the academic literature is conducted drawing on perspectives from the political, economic, and anthropological sciences. Insights from a Danish research program are reported on. This program identifies five different actions for dealing with corruption: (1) no action; (2) withdrawals from markets; (3) decentralized decision-making process; (4) establishment of an anti-corruption code; and (5) mutual commitment through integrity pact. The following aspects of ethical behavior should be regulated through an anti-corruption code: the company vis-à-vis political parties; gifts and entertainment expenses; political campaign contributions; and policy against small-scale corruption. Directions for future research are considered including the role of international organizations and multinational companies in fighting corruption and fostering ethical behavior; the role of countries and their governments; and the management systems.     

Machine tools and mass production in the armaments boom: Germany and the United States, 1929–44

This article anatomizes the ‘productivity race’ between Nazi Germany and the US over the period from the Great Depression to the Second World War in the metalworking industry. We present novel data that allow us to account for both the quantity of installed machine tools and their technological type. Hitherto, comparison of productive technologies has been limited to case studies and well‐worn narratives about US mass production and European‐style flexible specialization. Our data show that the two countries in fact employed similar types of machines combined in different ratios. Furthermore, neither country was locked in a rigid technological paradigm. By 1945 Germany had converged on the US both in terms of capital‐intensity and the specific technologies employed. Capital investment made a greater contribution to output growth in Germany, whereas US growth was capital‐saving. Total factor productivity growth made a substantial contribution to the armaments boom in both countries. But it was US industry, spared the war's most disruptive effects, that was in a position to take fullest advantage of the opportunities for wartime productivity growth. This adds a new element to familiar explanations for Germany's rapid catch‐up after 1945.     

II. Allgemeine und angewandte Statistik

Ohne Zusammenfassung     

Management’s personal ideology and financial reporting quality

Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting - We investigate the relation between managers’ personal ideologies and financial reporting quality. We use Federal Elections Commission data to...     

Is the Abnormal Post-IPO Underperformance Really Abnormal? The Evidence from CEE Emerging Markets

Using sorting procedures and cross-sectional tests, we investigate the long-run post-IPO performance and its sources in the Central and Eastern European (CEE) markets. We examine over 1100 stocks from 11 CEE countries for the period 2002–2014. We find that “old stocks” perform significantly better than “young stocks”, but only when the market beta is the sole risk factor considered. After accounting for the size and value effects, the IPO firms perform neither better nor worse than non-issuing companies. The sources of the initial low B/M ratios of debuting companies may lie in time-varying financial quality. The market newcomers are financially healthier than their older counterparts. However, over 2–5 years the fundamentals deteriorate and the financial standing regresses to the mean.     

Robustly optimal monetary policy in a microfounded New Keynesian model

We consider optimal monetary stabilization policy in a New Keynesian model with explicit microfoundations, when the central bank recognizes that private-sector expectations need not be precisely model-consistent, and wishes to choose a policy that will be as good as possible in the case of any beliefs close enough to model-consistency. We show how to characterize robustly optimal policy without restricting consideration a priori to a particular parametric family of candidate policy rules. We show that robustly optimal policy can be implemented through commitment to a target criterion involving only the paths of inflation and a suitably defined output gap, but that a concern for robustness requires greater resistance to surprise increases in inflation than would be considered optimal if one could count on the private sector to have “rational expectations.”