Achieving benchmark financial performance in CAHs: lessons from high performers

CEOs and CFOs of 19 critical access hospitals (CAHs) that achieved benchmark financial performance over three years were interviewed regarding the strategies they use. The interviews identified nine success factors for exemplary financial performance that were common to all or most of the 19 hospitals. All of the participating executives agreed that other CAHs would likely benefit from applying these nine success factors.     

Investor Protection – Why Gower is Wrong

Professor 'Jim' Gower's report, commissioned by Norman Tebbit's Department of Trade and Industry, calling for regulation of the 'investment industry', brings the Government's commitment to trade liberalisation seriously into doubt. Professor Gower has ignored a vast literature on regulation which reveals how it is 'captured' by interest groups to establish protected cartels. Furthermore, his proposals restrict competition that would benefit the consumer without outlawing restrictive practices. Norman Tebbit should reject Professor Gower's misguided advice decisively.     

THE INADEQUACY OF UNIT VALUE INDEXES AS PROXIES FOR CANADIAN INDUSTRIAL SELLING PRICE INDEXES*

This paper considers the adequacy of unit value indexes as proxies for industrial selling price indexes in Canada, in light of the considerations raised in the Searle report for the United States (summarized elsewhere in this issue). Some 3,237 regressions are run using the industrial selling price index for a commodity group as the dependent variable and the corresponding unit value index as the independent variable. The unit value indexes perform poorly as predictors of the I.S.P.I.; the overall tendency is for the unit value index to overestimate changes in the I.S.P.I.; and to explain on average only about 30 percent of the total variance of the I.S.P.I.     

1992 and Beyond: Market Freedom or Collectivist Regulation?

Is the ‘social dimension’ of the European Community the ‘socialist dimension’? Dr Martin Holmes, of Oxford University, argues that there is a real danger to Britain's prosperity from the Common External tariff and the CAP, in addition to the collectivism of the ‘Social Charter’.     

PRICING COUPON-BOND OPTIONS AND SWAPTIONS IN AFFINE TERM STRUCTURE MODELS

This paper provides a numerically accurate and computationally fast approximation to the prices of European options on coupon-bearing instruments that is applicable to the entire family of affine term structure models. Exploiting the typical shapes of the conditional distributions of the risk factors in affine diffusions, we show that one can reliably compute the relevant probabilities needed for pricing options on coupon-bearing instruments by the same Fourier inversion methods used in the pricing of options on zero-coupon bonds. We apply our theoretical results to the pricing of options on coupon bonds and swaptions, and the calculation of "expected exposures" on swap books. As an empirical illustration, we compute the expected exposures implied by several affine term structure models fit to historical swap yields.     

Effects of job perceptions on job behaviors: Implications for sales performance

We investigate the relationship between salesperson job perception and job behaviors and their effects on sales performance. Hypotheses are tested using a sample of automobile salespeople. Generally, results show that job involvement is positively related to working hard, but no significant relationship existed with working smart. Job challenge is positively related to both working hard and working smart. Finally, both working hard and working smart are positively related to performance. Discussion of hypothesis support is presented and implications for sales managers, limitations of the study and future research opportunities are then discussed.     

Estimating the performance attributes of Australian multi-sector managed funds within a dynamic Kalman filter framework

This paper examines the impact of Kalman filtering as a technique for modeling the risk levels of managed funds. Using a sample of Australian Multi-sector trusts we examine selectivity and market timing performance using conventional performance models alongside Kalman filter models that allow beta to vary via a random walk. Further, we consider the stability and asymmetry of these performance measures together with a measure of volatility timing arising from a cubic model of fund performance. We find that the positive selectivity (negative market timing) that stems from the conventional models is not present with the Kalman filter model. The Kalman filter model tends to show neutral performance for both. However, both models confirm a strong tendency toward negative volatility timing.     

The Euro and the Changing Face of European Banking: Evidence from Mergers and Acquisitions

During the last fifteen years, the European banking industry has experienced considerable consolidation through mergers and acquisitions against the background of the introduction of the single currency and reductions in cross‐border barriers. This paper investigates whether these changes impacted on announcement period gains of the banks acquiring targets by examining the pre‐euro, run‐up to the euro and post euro eras. Evidence suggests bidders' gains have fallen with the development of economic and monetary union. It also reveals significant differences in the gains from acquisitions within and outside the eurozone. These results are consistent with increased competition among bidders and increased integration of the market in the eurozone area in the post‐euro era. However, differing results relating to focused and diversifying bids suggest that the level of market integration is sector dependent.