Conservative dichotomous choice responses in the active policy setting: DC rejections below WTP

An important feature of a Contingent Value (CV) study is that researchers design a survey that guides respondents to answer dichotomous choice (DC) questions as if they represent once-and-for-all choices. Researchers frequently construct hypothetical markets to satisfy this condition; yet detractors assert that ‘hypotheticality’ leads inevitably to inflated DC responses. For active policy questions, however, some respondents may suspect that a CV informs an actual policy issue; so to reject a DC might induce the policy-maker to reintroduce the policy with a price reduction or a program improvement. With potential incentives to deflate a DC response when policies are active, we locate two types of respondents that represent two different incentives. One class is expected to be able to risk permanent rejection of a waiver from one automobile emissions inspection. This class more frequently rejects a DC value known to improve existing conditions. Another respondent class is expected to be risk averse to defeat of the program or to excessive delay. Predictably, these respondents more frequently accept a DC value that represents a known gain. Conservative DC responses have implications for the use of CV in active policy contexts, opening a role for theory to assist practitioners in these circumstances.      

薪酬制定的管理层权力理论进展

薪酬制定的管理层权力理论,区别于传统的最优契约论．正成为目前国外学术界解释管理层薪酬现象的主要理论。本文回顾了国外关于管理层权力影响薪酬制定过程的实证和理论文献．分析了薪酬制定过程中可能存在的代理问题。在此基础上,探讨了我国企业管理层权力的现状及其对薪酬激励的可能影响和表现,得出了一些启示。     

Employee appearance and the Americans with Disabilities Act: An emerging issue?

The recent passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), considered the most far-reaching civil rights legislation since the Civil Rights Act of 1964, promises to raise demanding new challenges for employers. This article alerts readers to one example of what may prove to be a long list of unanticipated, but potentially onerous, repercussions from this legislation. Specifically discussed is the role of the ADA in the likely emergence of the issue of employee physical appearance. In addition to the role of the ADA, we explain how other legal forces, as well as organizational and economic forces, may propel physical appearances to the level of a formidable social issue.An earlier draft of this paper was presented as a symposium at the 1989 Employee Responsibilities and Rights Conference, Orlando.     

黑龙江省国有资本经营者报酬激励机制研究

报酬机制是激励机制中的核心问题。通过分析黑龙江省国有资本经营者报酬机制中年薪制的实施现状，针对年薪制中基本年薪划分缺乏科学性等问题，提出了新的计算基本年薪的公式及方法，并在此基础之上构建了多种长期激励手段并用的报酬机制。     

我国水资源的管理困境及其解决思路

本文主要探讨当前我国水资源管理面临的市场失灵和政府失灵的管理困境,并提出解决这一困境需要从制度、文化、领导力等角度系统重构水资源管理机制,这样才能从根本上实现水资源合理利用和保护的目标。     

员工股权激励与内部控制质量

利用2008—2016年A股上市公司数据，考察员工股权激励对内部控制质量的影响。研究发现，员工股权激励与内部控制质量显著正相关；整体来看，股权激励计划的实施有助于提升企业内部控制质量。员工股权激励对内部控制质量的提升作用同时体现在对内部控制要素和内部控制目标的影响上。具体而言，一方面员工股权激励能够促进控制环境、控制活动以及信息与沟通要素发挥作用，另一方面员工股权激励还有助于促进内部控制战略目标和经营目标的实现。进一步分析发现，员工股权激励对内部控制的促进作用在市场化水平更低、行业竞争程度更高的公司中更加显著。这说明，当企业面临的外部环境条件不利于企业实现股权激励计划设定的业绩目标时，激励对象可能会致力于改善公司的内部环境，通过促进内部控制质量的提升来为业绩目标的实现提供内部环境保障和内源动力。     

When and why? A critical survey on coordination failure in the laboratory

Coordination games with Pareto-ranked equilibria have attracted major attention over the past two decades. Two early path-breaking sets of experimental studies were widely interpreted as suggesting that coordination failure is a common phenomenon in the laboratory. We identify the major determinants that seem to affect the incidence, and/or emergence, of coordination failure in the lab and review critically the existing experimental studies on coordination games with Pareto-ranked equilibria since that early evidence emerged. We conclude that there are many ways to engineer coordination successes.      

Abandonment Options and Information System Design

We study a principal-agent model of moral hazard in which the principal has an abandonment option. The option to abandon a project midstream limits a firm's downside risk. From a consumption (production) perspective, the option is clearly beneficial. However, from an incentive perspective, the option can be costly. Removing the lower tail of the project's underlying cash flow distribution also eliminates the information it contains about an agent's (unobservable) productive input. In addition, there is also the issue that the option holder cannot always (ex ante) commit to the precise circumstances under which the option will be exercised. These concerns introduce an interaction in the valuation of the abandonment option and information system. In particular, the manner in which information is coarsened and the direction of the flow of information are critical design parameters that affect option value.     

Time-varying managerial overconfidence and corporate debt maturity structure

We examine the impact of managerial overconfidence on corporate debt maturity. We build upon the argument that managerial overconfidence is likely to mitigate the underinvestment problem, which is often the major concern for long-term debt investors. Within this context, we hypothesise that managerial overconfidence increases debt maturity. Our empirical evidence, based on time-varying measures of overconfidence derived from computational linguistic analysis and directors’ dealings in their own companies’ shares, supports this hypothesis. Specifically, we find that the changes in both first person singular pronouns and optimistic tone are positively related to the change in debt maturity. Moreover, we find that the insider trading-based overconfidence of CEO, who is most likely to influence investment decision and thus the underinvestment problem, has a stronger impact on debt maturity than the overconfidence of other directors (e.g. CFO). Overall, our study provides initial evidence for a positive overconfidence-debt maturity relation via overconfidence mitigating the agency cost of long-term debt.