A Conversation with John C. Gower

Editors' Note: This conversation covers the extensive contributions of John C. Gower to statistical methodology, computing and applications. It also touches on the pioneering development of statistical computing at Rothamsted Experimental Station and the relevant work of Frank Yates, John Nelder and others who were at Rothamsted. See also the accompanying paper by John Gower (1985) on developments in statistical computing at Rothamsted (see Note 1) and the epilogue from Roger Payne.     

设施选址方法研究

在查阅大量文献的基础上,整理提炼了22种常用的设施选址方法,并依据各方法的特点,选取4种分类标准对其进行了分类研究,剖析了各方法的优、缺点,并总结各方法的适用范围,从而使选址方法更加系统化,为设施选址方法的选择以及实际选址决策提供科学的理论依据和实际指导。     

Blockholder dispersion and firm value

Multiple blockholder structures are a widespread phenomenon in the U.S. The theoretical literature, however, provides conflicting predictions on whether a single large blockholder or a set of dispersed smaller blockholders is better for firm value. Using U.S. data, we find a negative correlation between Tobin's Q and blockholder dispersion. The findings are robust to a wide variety of model specifications and controls and differ from results for other geographic regions such as Europe and Asia.     

The influence of governance on investment: Evidence from a hazard model

Does corporate governance affect the timing of large investment projects? Hazard model estimates suggest strong shareholder governance may deter managers from pursuing large investments. Controlling for investment opportunities, firms with good governance experience longer spells between large investments. However, in the presence of financial constraints or strong CEO incentives (high delta (δ)), we find no such timing differences. Finally, these higher investment hazard firms exhibit significantly negative long-run operating and stock performance. Overall, our findings are consistent with the notion that poor governance associates with overinvestment.     

Are investment and financing anomalies two sides of the same coin?

It is commonly believed that the negative financing-return anomaly is associated with the negative investment-return anomaly. The purpose of this research is to thoroughly investigate this issue to answer the question of whether the return predictabilities based on investment and financing activity are interrelated and share the same underlying cause. We find that investment and financing activities are only weakly correlated and that the profitability profiles surrounding these two activities differ. After controlling for the book-to-market ratio, high investment firms are more profitable than low investment firms, while high financing firms are less profitable than low financing firms. In addition, the investment-return relation weakens after controlling for financing, while the financing-return relation remains significant after controlling for investment. Our evidence suggests that the investment-return relation does not explain the external financing anomaly.     

Disease and development: The role of life expectancy reconsidered

This note estimates the causal effect of life expectancy on per capita income and tests the hypothesis of a non-monotonic effect using finite mixture models. The results confirm the hypothesis and qualify recent evidence for a negative effect by Acemoglu and Johnson (2007).     

AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE EFFECT OF FULL‐SCALE SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE ADOPTIONS ON INVENTORY BALANCES AND TURNS

Supply chain management (SCM) software vendors, analysts, and others claim that firms implementing SCM software stand to benefit by being able to reduce inventory holdings and increase inventory turns. We theorize that full‐scale implementations lead to system‐wide inventory optimization, which in turn leads to cost improvement associated with inventory balances and turns. To examine the question, we develop an analytical model of inventory optimization, then analyze the effects of the model with a numerical experiment, and finally confirm the results with an empirical examination. We find that firm‐wide implementation is significant in explaining improvement in inventory metrics, relative to pre‐implementation metrics for our sample. Our empirical tests indicate that implementing SCM software across only a portion of the firm does not impact inventory metrics, but that the scale of implementation does. More precisely, we find that firms implementing SCM software across the entire company significantly improve both inventory turns and inventory as a percent of revenue relative to partially‐implementing firms and non‐implementers.     

Volatility of the short rate in the rational lognormal model

A recent article of Flesaker and Hughston introduces a one factor interest rate model called the rational lognormal model. This model has a lot to recommend it including guaranteed finite positive interest rates and analytic tractability. Consequently, it has received a lot of attention among practioners and academics alike. However, it turns out to have the undesirable feature of predicting that the asymptotic value of the short rate volatility is zero. This theoretical result is proved rigorously in this article. The outcome of an empirical study complementing the theoretical result is discussed at the end of the article. European call options are valued with the rational lognormal model and a comparably calibrated mean reverting Gaussian model. unsurprisingly, rational lognormal option values are considerably lower than the analogous mean reverting Gaussian option values. In other words, the volatility in the rational lognormal model declines so quickly that options are severely undervalued.