REIT Dividend Policies and Dividend Announcement Effects During the 2008–2009 Liquidity Crisis

Real estate investment trust (REIT) dividend policies and dividend announcement effects during the 2008–2009 liquidity crisis are examined. Multinomial logit results indicate that REITs with higher market leverage or lower market‐to‐book ratios are more likely to cut dividends, suspend dividends or pay elective stock dividends. These results imply that mitigating going‐concern risk is an important motive for REITs adjusting dividend policies during the crisis and support dividend catering theory where investor demand for dividends impacts corporate dividend policies. Moreover, REITs that cut or suspend dividends experience positive cumulative abnormal returns during the post‐announcement period after controlling for the potential influence from simultaneous funds from operation announcements. The positive market response over the post‐announcement period supports the notion that dividend decisions convey information to investors and is also consistent with the broad catering theory of dividend policy.     

Exit and the Epistemic Quality of Voice

Debates over the relationship between exit and voice in politics have focused on the quantity of citizen voice and its effectiveness in influencing public decisions. The epistemic quality of voice, on the other hand, has received much less attention. This article uses rational choice theory to argue that public sector exit options can lead to more informed and less biased expressions of voice. Whereas voters have weak incentives to gather and process information, exit options provide sharper epistemic incentives to produce knowledge which can spill over into voting decisions. Exit can thus improve democratic competence.     

Measuring soil quality dynamics A role for economists, and implications for economic analysis

Measuring soil quality is extremely difficult, yet it has clear economic importance. In particular, there is a great deal of empirical interest in the dynamics of soil quality evolution when land managers respond to policies and other incentives. Yet current methodologies for measuring changes in agricultural land quality are largely static and rely heavily either on incomplete measures such as proxy variables, or ad hoc indexes of selected soil characteristics. Moreover, much empirical work relies on static econometric techniques or simulation models. In this paper, we develop a means to infer soil quality changes from input and output data using a dynamic production function model. Using data from field experiments, we estimate the model in a way that allows the recovery of a dynamic measure of soil quality whose evolution depends on variations in management practices. Our methodology and findings will help provide firmer empirical foundations for analyses of the economic implications of land degradation and the soil quality implications of agricultural policies.     

The Relationship between U.S. and Canadian Wheat Prices

This paper examines the relationship between the price for Canadian wheat and the price for U.S. wheat. While a great deal of the variation in the Canadian series can be attributed to oscillations in either the exchange rate or the U.S. price of wheat, changing technologies, shifting market power, the marketing strategies of major market participants, and domestic market conditions are also seen to play a role in the price determination process and should be considered when making longer-term forecasts. The fact that the most encompassing price linkage specifications identified in this study differ significanty from the specification in a number of forecasting models in use today should be a point of particular concern. Since many of the decision equations (area seeded, inputs purchased, etc.) in place in these models essentially are driven off the Canada U.S. price linkage equation, the observed misspecification may have a detrimental impact on all forecasted series. Les auteurs examinent les rapports existants entre les prix canadiens et les prix américains du blé. Si une grande portion de la variabilité observée dans la série de donnée canadienne peut s'expliquer par les taux de change ou par le prix américain du blé, l'évolution des techniques, les déplacements des marchés, les stratégies de commercialisation des grands intervenants commerciaux et les conditions du marché intérieur jouent apparemment aussi un rôle dans la formation des prix. Ces facteurs devraient done être pris en compte dans les prévisions à long terme. Le fait que les spécifications de liaisons de prix les plus complètes dégagées dans cette étude s'técartent significativement de celles en usage dans plusieurs modèles de prévision mérite qu'on s'y arrête. Comme un bon nombre d'équations de décision (superficies emblavées, agrofournitures, etc.) utilisées dans ces modèles s'éloignent de l'équation de liaison de prix canado-américaine, cet écart pourrait avoir un impact défavorable sur toutes les séries de prévisions.     

Exploring the pandemic's potential effects on workers' collectivist values,prosocial behaviors,and attitudes toward mistreatment

The global COVID-19 pandemic has fundamentally changed the way we live and work in the short-term, but history suggests that the crisis may also exert deeper, longer-lasting effects. With the aim of providing preliminary insight into this possibility, we theoretically construct and empirically test hypotheses for how exposure to COVID-19 stimuli (e.g., reading or watching media coverage, observing relief efforts) relates to the deep-seated values that guide workers' attitudes and behaviors. Specifically, we build from prior work to posit that exposure to COVID-19 stimuli is positively associated with workers' self-transcendent prosocial values, which motivate prosocial behaviors directed toward society as a whole (i.e., charitable donations) and coworkers (i.e., helping). Extend the extant literature, we further argue that exposure to COVID-19 stimuli will be positively associated with conservation values emphasizing self-restraint, submission, protection of order, and harmony in relations, which in turn influences workers' willingness to tolerate mistreatment by authorities (i.e., abusive supervision, authoritarian leadership, exploitation). Evidence from 2,929 full-time Chinese employees tracked for nearly 2 months and a diverse sample of 310 workers in the United States generally support our arguments, but also provide insight into potential cultural nuances.     

Social versus psychological brand community: The role of psychological sense of brand community

In the quest for building long-term successful brands, many marketers have become increasingly interested in how to create and foster successful communities of brand users. The appeal of such an approach to relationship marketing lies in the recognition that members of brand communities tend to exhibit favorable brand-related behaviors and intentions. Research examining the social influence and creation of such social relationships among admirers of a brand has revealed substantial insights about the social processes that underlie customers' involvement in brand communities. Curiously, the psychological underpinnings of a customer's perception of community with other users of the brand remain unexplored. We offer the perspective that the observable, core components of brand community outlined in previous research may represent markers of social brand communities, while psychological brand communities may be characterized by an unobservable, psychological sense of community that could precede, or even work in lieu of, social interaction.