Venture capital‐backed and commitments test entity initial public offerings on the ASX

This paper examines initial returns to venture capital (VC) backed and non‐VC‐backed IPO companies on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX). We find support for the theoretical predictions of Rossetto (2008), by providing empirical evidence that VC‐backed CTE IPOs exhibit greater wealth losses to pre‐IPO investors compared to non‐VC‐backed CTE IPOs during hot issue markets. We also find that greater retained ownership increases IPO underpricing. In the subsample of IPOs with below the median level of retained ownership IPOs, VC‐backed CTE IPOs and VC‐backed, non‐CTE IPOs have significantly higher levels of underpricing and wealth loss compared to non‐VC‐backed, non‐CTE IPOs.     

The effects of travel activities and seasons on expenditure

The primary objective of this research was to improve the understanding of the relationships among travel activities, seasons and expenditure after controlling for income. Path analysis was used to test all hypothesised causal relationships. In addition to its conceptual contributions, the findings of the study revealed how international travellers spend during travel in response to changes in activity preferences and season of travel. To maximise travellers' expenditure and to generate greater tourism revenues, destination policy‐makers and marketers need to identify what types of activities and which season contribute most to their destination. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Benchmarking CVB website performance: Spatial and structural patterns

This study evaluated 967 U.S. CVB websites using a modified Balanced Scorecard (mBSC) approach which assesses website performance with respect to overall technical functionality, customer friendliness and usability, effectiveness of marketing the destination, and information content. Spatial maps were constructed for these four dimensions and overall CVB website performance using ArcMap v.9.2 GIS software. A structural pattern of CVB website performance was obtained using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). It was concluded that CVB websites primarily need improvement in marketing the destination product. The analysis revealed significant differences in website performance between members and non-members of Destination Marketing Association International (DMAI) as well as regional differences. Study implications for destination marketing organizations and CVB website designers are discussed.     

Food prices,tax reforms and consumer Welfare in Tanzania 1991–2007

This paper analyses the effect of observed food price changes on household consumption (welfare) in Tanzania and from this simulates the welfare effect attributable to tax (tariffs and VAT) reforms. The three rounds of the Tanzania Household Budget Survey (1991/92, 2000/01 and 2007) are used to apply Deaton’s method based on median unit values (prices) and household budget shares. The results indicate that real price increases over 1991–2007 have reduced welfare of the average household by 20 per cent of 1991 income, and the loss was fairly evenly distributed between the 1990s and 2000s. The welfare loss was much greater for the poor, especially the rural poor (a 27 per cent reduction), compared to the non-poor (in particular the urban non-poor, who suffered a five per cent loss). Although we cannot establish explicit links between tax reforms and domestic commodity price changes, to assess the extent to which welfare changes can be explained by tax reforms we simulate the effects of tax changes on domestic price changes. The simulation shows that tax reforms (tariff reductions) offset the welfare losses for all household groups, especially in the 1990s; although the differences were small, the urban poor benefit more in relative terms from tax reforms whereas the rural poor benefit least (the effect on the non-poor was similar irrespective of location).     

An Analysis of ASX Price Queries

This study examines 'no news' responses to stock price queries issued by the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX). We find strong evidence that the pre-query changes in price are driven by informed traders rather than by speculators. First, there is only a partial reversion in prices following a 'no news' response by a company in receipt of a price query. Second, the adverse selection component of market spreads rise during the immediate pre-query period and then decline following the company response. Last, the mean level of institutional shareholder ownership increases in the period immediately prior to an ASX query of a price increase.     

FIRM FRAGMENTATION AND URBAN PATTERNS*

We document several empirical regularities regarding the evolution of urban structure in the largest U.S. metropolitan areas over the period 1980–90. These regularities relate to changes in resident population, employment, occupations, as well as the number and size of establishments in different sections of the metropolitan area. We then propose a theory of urban structure that emphasizes the location and internal structure decisions of firms. In particular, firms can decide to locate their headquarters and operation plants in different regions of the city. Given that cities experienced positive population growth throughout the 1980s, we show that firm fragmentation produces the diverse set of facts documented in the article.     

Manual dishwashing habits: an empirical analysis of UK consumers

This study presents an overview of the washing up behaviour of consumers in the UK. Peoples' individual attitudes were observed as were the amount of water and energy used, the time taken and the cleaning performance. Additionally, manual dishwashing was compared with the use of automatic dishwashers. Participants were recruited to represent all geographic regions of the UK as well as forming a representative cross‐section of the population. Each of the 150 participants washed a full load of soiled tableware based on the standard EN 50242 ‘Electric Dishwashers for Household Use – Methods for Measuring the Performance’. For comparison, the best selling dishwasher in the UK in 2007 was tested under the same conditions as those in the consumer trial. Additionally, consumers who owned a full‐size dishwasher were asked to load it to the point when they decided that the dishwasher was full. The study shows that these consumers, on average, used 49 l of water and 1.7 kWh of energy, whereas the dishwasher used 13 l of water and 1.3 kWh of energy on average for the same amount of dishes under the conditions tested. Statistical analysis showed that these differences are significant. The dishes washed by hand were found to be slightly less clean than dishes washed in a dishwasher. For washing a full dishwasher load by hand, the participants needed, on average, 60 min, while they only took 9 min on average to load and unload the same amount of dishes in a dishwasher. The average participants were able to fill almost the full load into the dishwasher (96% of the items as used in a test following EN 50242).     

Sign reversal in the relationship between income smoothing and cost of debt

Despite the fact that income smoothing by managers is a pervasive phenomenon that has been widely researched, extant literature provides incomplete evidence on how smoothing is associated with cost of debt in general, and in the private loan market in particular. The institutional factors associated with private loan contracts, combined with the theoretical motivations for smoothing, make it unclear whether smoothing will be positively, negatively, or not associated with loan spread. Using both cross‐country and within‐country analyses on an international sample of private loans, we predict and provide evidence that income smoothing is associated with lower cost of debt when the threat of private benefits consumption by managers is low, but is associated with higher cost of debt when the threat of private benefits consumption by managers is high. We provide the first evidence in the literature that the garbling effect of smoothing can predictably dominate the signaling view of smoothing in debt contract design, and we identify private benefits consumption threat as the feature of the contracting environment that empirically reveals a sign reversal in the relationship between smoothing and cost of debt.