Wealth portfolios and elite professional athletes

Defined contribution pension plans typically rely on some type of lifecycle allocation investment strategy. This approach has recently been shown to be sub-optimal due to the portfolio size effect. The terminal wealth of individuals with steadily increasing earnings over time is significantly less when using a lifecycle strategy compared with a simple contrarian approach. The adverse effect of an inappropriate asset allocation strategy for investors with unorthodox earnings profiles, such as for professional athletes, can be greatly magnified. We demonstrate that strategies that exploit the portfolio size effect vastly dominates terminal wealth earned using lifecycle strategies for individuals who experience unorthodox earning profiles, particularly those generating high investable incomes early in life. While the lifecycle strategy contains some attractive features relating to risk aversion and diminishing utility from wealth, we demonstrate that for unorthodox earnings profiles the case for taking advantage of the portfolio size effect is particularly strong.     

Law, legislation, and local minima: Solving a problem in Hayek��s theory of common law judging, with historical examples

Friedrich Hayek??s Law, Legislation, and Liberty noted a problem in the common law system: Sometimes, following judicial precedent would lead to unforeseen bad outcomes over time. No judge can anticipate all possible implications of a precedent-setting decision, and sometimes later judges, bound by precedent, will be forced despite themselves to elaborate the law in ever more inefficient or unjust ways. Hayek proposed that one role of the legislator was to correct such ??dead ends?? in the common law. This paper proposes that judges working within the constraints of the common law and given only the tools Hayek himself allowed them are capable of escaping such binds on their own. It uses historical examples from the era of coverture to support this claim. Not only were judges willing to identify exceptions to coverture, these exceptions helped pave the way for coverture??s eventual abolition. This process is examined and found to be otherwise consonant with Hayek??s larger theory of the common law as a rule-finding process.     

Is the growth of regionalism as significant as the headlines suggest? Lessons from agricultural trade

The proliferation of regional trade agreements (RTAs) has motivated a significant number of ex post econometric studies investigating their agricultural trade impacts. The general conclusion is that RTAs increase members’ trade by as much as 150%, on average. In this article, we demonstrate that previous empirical work likely misrepresents the impact of RTAs because of considerable heterogeneity in the depth of economic integration pursued by these agreements. Contrary to previous studies, the results reveal that RTAs are not universally trade creating, and some agreements appear to provide very little benefit. “Deep integration agreements,” on the other hand, are largely responsible for the impressive agricultural trade flow increases reported in the literature. Testing the hierarchy of RTAs largely confirms the theory: the benefits of regionalism are an increasing function of the depth of economic integration.     

CHILDREN AND THE ENVIRONMENT: VALUING INDIRECT EFFECTS ON A CHILD'S LIFE CHANCES

Children can face disproportionately greater risk from environmental hazards because they are kids—smaller bodies, faster metabolisms, shorter attentions spans, less knowledge, and fewer resources. Environmental programs that reduce risks to children produce benefits to society that should be adequately represented so policy makers have more information to help them decide which policies are most worthwhile relative to their costs. The open question is just how exactly to value these reductions in risks to children, risks which can arise either from a direct effect on their health, or an indirect effect on their life chances because of illness in other family members or the degradation of the environment. This article focuses on valuing these indirect effects to a child's life chances. The question addressed here is whether standard benefits estimation adequately captures the indirect effects on healthy children. If policy makers presume caregivers make fully informed, rational choices when dealing with adverse family health, indirect effects are already accounted for in revealed and stated values: estimating indirect effects implies double counting of benefits. But if policy makers fear that caregivers face choice without complete information or experience, indirect effects might be understated. Then it becomes constructive to devote resources to explore the importance of these indirect effects.     

Cognitive Dimensions of Wilderness Privacy: An 18-Year Trend Comparison

In 1999, replication of a 1981 study was conducted as exactly as possible as the 1981 study, involving the same number of respondents ( n = 109), universities, recreation management classes, classroom-administered questionnaire, and data analysis. Cognitive states of privacy were measured using a 20-item scale, rated on a 7-point importance continuum. Trend analysis involved individual scale item and factor analysis comparisons between the 1981 versus 1999 data. Twelve of the 20 scale items were rated significantly different ( p h .05) over the 18-year period, with 11 of the 12 items rated higher by 1999 respondents. Today's students found cognitive aspects of freedom of choice concerning interactions, use of time and actions, rules/constraints of society, and everyday pressure/tensions more important than did 1981 students. The major factor differences between years were the following: The Intimacy factor increased in importance and was perceived more consistently (reliability alphas) in 1999 and Individualism changed the most of any factor in the dimension structure.     

Utilitarian and hedonic shopping value in the US discount sector

General merchandise discount retailers in the US have evolved to offer higher levels of hedonic shopping value, thereby intensifying levels of intra- and inter-type competition within the industry. Academic research on consumer reactions to these efforts is limited. This study investigates consumers’ perceptions of utilitarian and hedonic shopping value associated with the two leading US general merchandise discounters. Findings suggest differences in perceptions of the level of hedonic benefits offered by the discounters and provide useful insight for the further development of marketing strategies.     

Public and private intervention for next-generation access deployment: Possibilities for three European countries

How next-generation access (NGA) deployment can be encouraged is a challenge that many countries are facing, and one that has been widely and actively discussed around the globe. This discussion has highlighted a dilemma that ultimately shapes investment—how to encourage the widespread deployment of NGA while enabling operators to achieve reasonable returns. This paper focuses on the tensions that arise as a consequence of this investment challenge in three countries – the Netherlands, Sweden and the United Kingdom (UK) – and uses the analysis of extensive data collection with k7ey actors to argue the case for the injection of public or private incentives. The paper finds that markets with competitive infrastructure will not benefit from public investment while markets with geographical constraints are in need of public support. The paper also explains that regulatory intervention is necessary in the early stage of NGA roll-out, even in currently competitive markets. In all the discussions it becomes evident that, among the three cases, the UK is most in need of public intervention.     

Professors and hamburgers: an international comparison of real academic salaries

In recent years, academic staff unions and associations have argued for higher salaries for academics on the grounds that existing salaries have not kept pace with inflation, are well below commercial salaries and, most glaringly, are much lower than the salaries of their overseas counterparts. However, most international comparisons are made based on exchange rate conversions, which is inappropriate since purchasing power differentials are only reflected in exchange rates in the long term. Furthermore, the volatility of exchange rates make such conversions highly inaccurate. A comparison is provided of real academic salaries by converting the nominal salaries in each country to their purchasing power equivalents, using the Big Mac Index. Our results show that real academic salaries are highest in Hong Kong and Singapore, relative to the developed countries, while Hong Kong tax and social security deductions are lowest. Furthermore, real salary levels, combined with intrinsic considerations such as the quality-of-life, indicate that Canada and New Zealand are unattractive places for visiting/migrating academics, while Australia and the USA are relatively attractive. It is suggested that these findings could be of use to policy-makers and academic unions in salary negotiations, as well as academics making relocation decisions.     

Preference Learning in Consecutive Experimental Auctions

This paper explores the origins of the strikingly high price premia paid for new food products in lab valuation exercises. Our experimental design distinguishes between two explanations of this phenomenon: novelty of the experimental experience versus the novelty of the good, i.e., preference learning—bids reflect a person's desire to learn how an unfamiliar good fits into their preference set. Subjects bid in four consecutive experimental auctions for three goods that vary in familiarity, candy bars, mangos, and irradiated meat. Our results suggest that preference learning is the main source of the high premia, and that novelty of the experimental experience does not in itself artificially inflate valuations.