Price-Weight Relationships for Feeder Cattle

Feeder cattle prices are determined by the interaction of numerous factors. As economic conditions change over time, price differentials associated with feeder cattle weight vary. This study analyzes transactions data on 46,081 pens of feeder cattle over a 10‐year period. Results indicate that fed‐cattle futures prices and corn prices are important determinants of price‐weight relationships for feeder cattle. Time of year, recent feeding margins and sex of feeder cattle have moderate impacts on the price‐weight relationship (i.e., price slides). Coefficients of variation for fed cattle and corn prices have economically unimportant impacts on price relationships. Results of this model can be used to assess feeder cattle price relationships across weights as fed cattle and corn prices vary. Les prix des bovins d'engraissement sont fonction de I'interaction de nombreux facteurs. Au fil des changements des conditions économiques, les écarts de prix associés au poids des bovins varient. Nous étudions les données de transactions réalisées dans une période de 10 ans sur 46 081 parquets de bovins d'engraissement. II ressort de ce travail que les prix è terme des bovins finis et le prix du maïs sont d'importants déterminants des rapports prix‐poids pour ce type d'animaux. L'époque de I'année, les marges d'engraissement récentes et le type sexuel des bovins n'ont que des répercussions modérées sur le rapport prix‐poids (c.‐a‐d. I'écart de prix aux 100 Ib selon lepoids de I'animal). Les coefficients de variation relatifs aux prix des bovins finis et è ceux du maïs sont dénués de toute importance économique pour les rapports de prix. Les résultats du modèle peuvent être utilisés pour évaluer les rapports de prix des bovins d'engraissement selon une échelle de poids en fonction des variations des prix des bovins gras et de ceux du maïs.     

HOW DOES SKILLS MISMATCH AFFECT REMITTANCES? A STUDY OF FILIPINO MIGRANT WORKERS

In this article, unit record data on Filipino migrants are used to analyze the issue of skills mismatch, its prevalence, and its impact on remittances sent back home. Results obtained using instrumental variable techniques reveal that significant proportions of highly educated Filipino workers are employed in low‐skilled jobs overseas, with systematic variation by gender and by country of work. We find that skills mismatch impacts significantly on the migrant's remittance behavior, with effects that are differentiated between genders. Specifically, where there is mismatch in the migrant's educational attainment and the migrant's job requirement, we find significant reductions in remittances for men but not for women. (JEL J240, J610, O150)     

Risk,standard deviation,and expected value: when should an individual start social security?

In choosing when to start collecting Social Security, the differences in expected net present values (NPVs) are small—but the corresponding standard deviations are not. Starting earlier is less risky. The case analyzed is single individuals in the U.S. system, but the methodology can be applied to couples and to the systems of other nations. Considering risk and return together places Social Security in the same risk/return framework as other capital investments. Behavioral, situational, and qualitative factors that often dominate decisions on when to start are linked with quantitative approaches to longevity risk and mortality risk.     

Crime and growth convergence: Evidence from Mexico

Scholars have often argued that crime hinders growth, but the empirical literature assessing such an effect is scarce. By exploiting cross-municipal income and crime data for Mexico, in this study we find evidence indicating that drug-related crime indeed deters growth.     

Consumer responses to new food quality information: are some consumers more sensitive than others?

Missing information prevails in consumer purchase decisions and studies on consumer preferences. Previous research ignores the relationship between consumer types and their responses to new quality attribute information. In this article, consumer responses to new attribute information are compared across consumer groups. Results show that single households with low income are more responsive to new information than married households with high income. Both groups respond to new information more intensively when a cue attribute, Certified U.S. Product , is presented to consumers.     

In-Store Valuation of Steak Tenderness

Experimental methods were used to examine consumer willingness-to-pay for steak tenderness in a grocery store setting. When relying on a taste test alone to determine product quality, the participants paid an average premium of $1.23/lb for a tender versus tough steak. Fifty-one percent of the participants were willing to pay an average of $1.84/lb when they had completed a taste test and were also provided information about the steak's tenderness. Results indicate that most consumers prefer more tender steaks and that many are willing to pay a premium for tender steaks.     

Mediating instruments and making markets: Capital budgeting, science and the economy

We examine in this paper how certain instruments link science and the economy through acting on capital budgeting decisions, and in doing so how they contribute to the process of making markets. We use the term “mediating instruments” to refer to those practices that frame the capital spending decisions of individual firms and agencies, and that help to align them with investments made by other firms and agencies in the same or related industries. Our substantive focus is on the microprocessor industry, and the roles of “Moore’s Law” and “technology roadmaps”. We examine the ways in which these instruments envision a future, and how they link a multitude of actors and domains in such a way that the making of future markets for microprocessors and related devices can continue. The paper begins with a discussion of existing literatures on capital budgeting, science studies, and recent economic sociology, together with the reasoning behind the notion of “mediating instruments”. We then address the substantive issues in three stages. Firstly, we consider the role of “Moore’s Law” in shaping the fundamental expectations of an entire set of industries about rates of increase in the power and complexity of semiconductor devices, and the timing of those increases. Secondly, we examine the roles of “technology roadmaps” in translating the simplified imperatives of Moore’s Law into a framework that can guide and encourage the myriad of highly uncertain and confidential investment decisions of firms and other agencies. Thirdly, we explore one particular and recent example of major capital investment, that of post-optical lithography. The paper seeks to help remedy the empirical deficit in studies of capital budgeting practices, and to demonstrate that investment is much more than a matter of valuation techniques. We argue, through the case of the microprocessor industry, for greater attention to investment as an inter-firm and inter-agency process, thus lessening the fixation in studies of capital budgeting on the traditional hierarchical and bounded organization. In addition, we seek to extend and illustrate empirically the richness of the notion of “mediating instruments” for researchers in accounting, science studies, and economic sociology.     

Are you a net creator or destroyer of talent? Seven indicators of organizational health for talent‐intensive organizations

As far back as the ninth century BCE in Greece, a talent was a form of currency. In the 21st century, talents remain currency as the special gifts of knowledge, skills, and personal characteristics that individuals bring to organizations. Talent management, also known as human capital management, HCM, is a focus of leadership studies that increasingly strives to acknowledge and measure the tangible contributions that individuals make to the bottom line. In this symposium, we offer a position paper by Ted Harro and Leslie Miller who detail an innovative approach to address how leaders of organizations can create a consistent, positive flow of talent necessary to support success. Our respondents, Karen Kirwan, Dave Wondra, and Edward Perez, each add their perspectives to this timely discussion.     

Observations on corporate financial reporting in the name of politics

The paper argues a need to redraw the boundaries between politics, and academic and professional work in the corporate financial reporting field. The argument is pressed on grounds of intellectual honesty, in view of the under-determination by facts that can characterise social scientific theories, including accounting theories, that seek to legitimate or to change practice. An altered understanding of intellectual honesty is required of scholars and practitioners, one which seeks to maximise public awareness of the inherently disputable and questionable in the truth-claims of practices acting upon their welfares.