Assertiveness Bias in Gender Ethics Research: Why Women Deserve the Benefit of the Doubt

Gender is one of the most researched and contentious topics in consumer ethics research. It is common for researchers of gender studies to presume that women are more ethical than men because of their reputation for having a selfless, sensitive nature. Nevertheless, we found evidence that women behaved less ethically than men in two field experiments testing a passive form of unethical behavior. Women benefited to a larger extent from a cashier miscalculating the bill in their favor than men. However, in three follow-up studies, we found that women did not necessarily intend to benefit at the expense of someone else. Women are less prone to speak up to a cashier than men are, even when the mistake is made in their disfavor. These results reveal that gender differences in assertiveness affect differences in unethical behavior.     

Low-latency trading

We define low-latency activity as strategies that respond to market events in the millisecond environment, the hallmark of proprietary trading by high-frequency traders though it could include other algorithmic activity as well. We propose a new measure of low-latency activity to investigate the impact of high-frequency trading on the market environment. Our measure is highly correlated with NASDAQ-constructed estimates of high-frequency trading, but it can be computed from widely-available message data. We use this measure to study how low-latency activity affects market quality both during normal market conditions and during a period of declining prices and heightened economic uncertainty. Our analysis suggests that increased low-latency activity improves traditional market quality measures—decreasing spreads, increasing displayed depth in the limit order book, and lowering short-term volatility. Our findings suggest that given the current market structure for U.S. equities, increased low-latency activity need not work to the detriment of long-term investors.     

Economic impact analysis of industrial projects: An approach

A method of calculating economic impact of industrial project proposals is described. The method identifies the benefits and costs of a project to the enterprise and to government, as well as its impact on the economy as a whole, with or without government assistance or intervention in any form. Entrepreneurial and social potentials or driving forces are identified, together with potentials common to both. The analytical method, called economic fertility analysis, employs a large input-output model of the economy to generate a series of impact elements, including increased economic activity, new government revenues, trade balance effects, new capital generation, personal savings, consumer expenditures, and employment. These elements are used to calculate simple income and employment multipliers, forward and backward linkages, and cash flows through the economy resulting from the project. A method of comparing different types of investments or interventions in the economy thus becomes available.     

Corporate yield curves as predictors of future economic and financial indicators

The government yield curve is known for its ability to predict the future growth rate of the economy. Later studies showed that credit spreads can assist in predicting macroeconomic behaviour as well. We extend this notion by utilizing corporate yield curves and demonstrating that corporate yield curve spreads can predict future economic growth, the future state of the economy and stock market behaviour. In addition, our sample covers the most recent data available, and it also includes the crash year of 2008 and the recovery period following it. Our results reveal a trade-off effect between the government yield curve, which is a better predictor for long-term forecasting, and the corporate yield curves, which are better predictors for short-term predictions. In addition, we show that both the government and corporate yield curves are more effective in predicting negative rather than positive economic changes.     

Dynamic Volume-Return Relation of Individual Stocks

We examine the dynamic relation between return and volume ofindividual stocks. Using a simple model in which investors tradeto share risk or speculate on private information, we show thatreturns generated by risk-sharing trades tend to reverse themselves,while returns generated by speculative trades tend to continuethemselves. We test this theoretical prediction by analyzingthe relation between daily volume and first-order return autocorrelationfor individual stocks listed on the NYSE and AMEX. We find thatthe cross-sectional variation in the relation between volumeand return autocorrelation is related to the extent of informedtrading in a manner consistent with the theoretical prediction.     

Road traffic mortality in Estonia: alcohol as the main contributing factor

Traffic fatalities are the leading cause of death among the young and middle-aged population in Estonia. The objective of this study was to reveal the pattern of traffic fatalities among the population aged 15 - 64 years and to determine the role of alcohol in their fatalities. The data were collected from post-mortem reports at the Estonian Bureau of Forensic Medicine from 2000 to 2002. Alcohol-related deaths were those with a blood alcohol concentration (BAC) equal or above 0.05 g/100 ml. Out of 512 victims, 401 were males and 111 were females. The greatest group were car occupants (58%) followed by pedestrians (31%). The portion of alcohol-related deaths was 70% among men and 44% among women. The mean BAC and percentage of alcohol-related deaths was significantly higher in pedestrian than in driver fatalities. Alcohol intoxication was identified as the most powerful contributing factor to traffic fatalities. The results provide more evidence for politicians to tackle alcohol abuse and unsafe traffic environments.     

Technology and liquidity provision: The blurring of traditional definitions

Limit orders are usually viewed as patiently supplying liquidity. We investigate the trading of one hundred Nasdaq-listed stocks on INET, a limit order book. In contrast to the usual view, we find that over one-third of nonmarketable limit orders are cancelled within two seconds. We investigate the role these “fleeting orders” play in the market and test specific hypotheses about their uses. We find evidence consistent with dynamic trading strategies whereby traders chase market prices or search for latent liquidity. We show that fleeting orders are a relatively recent phenomenon, and suggest that they have arisen from a combination of factors that includes improved technology, an active trading culture, market fragmentation, and an increasing utilization of latent liquidity.     

Price Impact Asymmetry of Block Trades: An Institutional Trading Explanation

This article develops a theoretical model to explain the permanentprice impact asymmetry between buyer- and seller-initiated blocktrades (the permanent price impact of buys is larger than thatof sells). The model shows how the trading strategy of institutionalportfolio managers creates a difference between the informationcontent of buys and sells. The main implication of the modelis that the history of price performance influences the asymmetry:the longer the run-up in a stock's price, the less the asymmetry.The intensity of institutional trading and the frequency ofinformation events affect the asymmetry differently dependingon recent price performance.     

The economic fertility of industrial projects

The economic impact of two industrial projects was forecast using economic fertility analysis. The results of the analysis suggest that the implementation of projects such as those described here add to the resources of government, enabling them to move closer to realization of social objectives, whereas concurrent decreased government revenues and increased transfer payments based on short term political considerations are directly inflationary and represent a threat to longer term social stability. The two projects were a crude oil petrochemical plant, with an investment of $200 million, and a controlled environment agricultural plant, costing $20 million. Direct, indirect, and induced economic activity for each project were calculated, from which income and employment multipliers, and forward and backward linkages were derived. New government revenues, balance of trade effects, and new capital formation were also forecast. Employment in terms of man-years on construction and in jobs created by the operations, as well as consumer expenditures and personal savings, were other outputs of the analysis. Construction and operation phases of the two projects were more beneficial than an equivalent increase in transfer payments in the generation of longer term effects such as new capital formation, new government revenues, and import-export balance, but were less efficient than increased welfare payments in generating short term effects such as consumer expenditures and short term employment.