Levels and Trends in U.S. Income and its Distribution: A Crosswalk from Market Income towards a Comprehensive Haig‐Simons Income Approach

Recent research on U.S. levels and trends in income inequality varies substantially based on how these studies measure income. We crosswalk (move between standards) from a market income of tax units to a more comprehensive measure of income including realized capital gains of households using a unified data set and replicate common findings in the literature. By using a comprehensive income definition in the spirit of Haig‐Simons, considering yearly accrued capital gains rather than focusing on the delayed reporting of capital gains that appear in Internal Revenue Service tax return data, the observed growth in income inequality and top income shares since 1989 is dramatically reduced.     

Building Power Together: Union Support for Central Labour Bodies

One of the key factors in the success of labour federations is to have affiliate unions who actively participate and support their work. This article examines the catalysts behind union involvement with central labour bodies and presents an analysis of the organizational motivations for engagement. The article uses comparative case study analysis to examine affiliate union commitment in the United States to the American Federation of Labor–Congress of Industrial Organizations' state federations, area labour federations and central labour councils. Union leadership, along with contextual, interpretative and organizational factors, was found to influence the level of affiliate union involvement in central labour bodies.     

An information-based model of target stock price runup in the market for corporate control

The stock price runup of target firms in the market for corporate control has been anecdotally attributed to inside trading. Moreover, the empirical merger and acquisitions literature documents a time-varying level and duration of the stock price runup of target firms. Using a market microstructure approach, we model stock price runup as a stochastic process that shifts between a random walk without drift and a predictable process dependent on a parsimonious set of state variables. Consistent with the market microstructure literature, predictability in prices can be exploited only by the informed trader. The model is capable of explaining the complex stylized facts observed in stock price runup. It is also consistent with the merger wave literature, as we find that capital liquidity, economic growth, and market valuations drive the complex dynamics of stock price runup.     

Economic valuation of product features

We develop a market-based paradigm to value the enhancement or addition of features to a product. We define the market value of a product or feature enhancement as the change in the equilibrium profits that would prevail with and without the enhancement. In order to compute changes in equilibrium profits, a valid demand system must be constructed to value the feature. The demand system must be supplemented by information on competitive offerings and cost. In many situations, demand data is either not available or not informative with respect to demand for a product feature. Conjoint methods can be used to construct the demand system via a set of designed survey-based experiments. We illustrate our methods using data on the demand for digital cameras and demonstrate how the profits-based metric provides very different answers than the standard welfare or Willingness-To-Pay calculations.     

A comparison of city size distributions for China and India from 1950 to 2010

We examine the distributions of Chinese and Indian city sizes for seven decades (1950s to 2010s) using lognormal, Pareto, and general Pareto distributions. We ascertain which distribution fits the data and how the city size distributions change during these periods. The Chinese city size distribution is represented by lognormal in the early periods (1950–1990) and by Pareto in 2010, but is not characterized by Zipf, which could be attributed to Chinese government’s restrictions of migration from rural to urban areas and the one-child policy. In contrast, the Indian city size distribution transitions from lognormal in the earlier periods to Zipf in the later periods.     

Stated values and reminders of substitute goods: Testing for framing effects with choice modelling

Choice modelling, a non-market valuation technique, is used to explore framing issues in the context of environmental valuations. Choice modelling appears to have promise in simultaneously valuing a pool of substitute amenities and goods. Describing choices according to component attributes can also help to frame choices according to a number of trade-offs. The statistical information available helps to determine where framing effects have occurred. Three choice modelling experiments were reviewed to show that framing effects may be more widespread in non-market valuation studies than is commonly thought.     

High-frequency returns,jumps and the mixture of normals hypothesis

Previous empirical studies find both evidence of jumps in asset prices and that returns standardized by ‘realized volatility’ are approximately standard normal. These findings appear to be contradictory. Using a sample of high-frequency returns for 20 heavily traded US stocks, we show how microstructure noise distorts the standard deviation and kurtosis of returns normalized using realized variance. When returns are standardized using a recently developed realized kernel estimator, the resulting series is clearly platykurtotic and the standard normal distribution is soundly rejected. Moreover, daily returns standardized using realized bipower variation, an estimator for integrated variance that is robust to the presence of jumps, are more consistent with the standard normal distribution. These results suggest that there is no empirical contradiction: jumps should be included in stock price models.     

Future visioning of local climate change: A framework for community engagement and planning with scenarios and visualisation

There is an urgent need for meaningful information and effective public processes at the local level to build awareness, capacity, and agency on climate change, and support planning and decision-making. This paper describes a conceptual framework to meet these requirements by generating alternative, coherent, holistic climate change scenarios and visualizations at the local scale, in collaboration with local stakeholders and scientists. The framework provides a template for a process to integrate emission scenarios with both mitigation and adaptation strategies, and to link local manifestations of impacts and responses with global climate change scenarios. The article outlines the empirical application of this framework in the Local Climate Change Visioning Project in British Columbia, Canada. The project collaboratively localized, spatialized, and visualized possible climate change effects and community responses in the community's ‘backyards’. The article concludes with lessons learned and suggested principles for future visioning efforts to engage communities in possible policy and behavioural choices.