A target's perspective on the effects of ATPs in takeovers after recognizing its choice in the process

The use of antitakeover provisions (ATPs) in corporate charters/bylaws has evoked substantial debate over their costs and benefits. While there are many empirical studies of their effects in takeovers, these studies have ignored the self selection issues introduced by studying completed transactions, which reflect the target's choice. We examine data on a sample of U.S. corporations and show that accounting for self selection leads to a more nuanced understanding of how ATPs influence target shareholder wealth. We show that the effect of ATPs is more on the likelihood of receiving a bid rather than the success of a bid and that the success of a takeover is driven primarily by the characteristics of the offer and offer process rather than by the characteristics of the target and its ATPs. Further, we document that prior empirical studies that ignore these issues have mis-estimated the economic and statistical significance of various ATPs on target shareholder wealth.     

Multi-dimensional skills,specialization, and oligopolistic competition in higher education

This paper develops a differentiated products model of school competition that distinguishes among different dimensions that matter in the skill acquisition process. The model predicts that when identical schools compete for students, specialization may arise as a competition strategy. This serves rich students' education goals well. Poorer students, however, may attend schools with specializations that do not cater to their relative strengths. By doing so, these poorer students complement the weaknesses of the richer students through peer effects and receive financial aid in return. The empirical analysis provides strong support for the model's predictions about within-school implications of specialization.     

Guilt, Shame, and Reparative Behavior: The Effect of Psychological Proximity

Research has paid scant attention to reparative behavior to compensate for unintended wrongdoing or to the role of emotions in doing the right thing. We propose a new approach to investigating reparative behavior by looking at moral emotions and psychological proximity. In this study, we compare the effects of moral emotions (guilt and shame) on the level of compensation for financial harm. We also investigate the role of transgressors’ perceived psychological proximity to the victims of wrongdoing. Our hypotheses were tested through a scenario based questionnaire on a sample of 261 participants. Analyses indicate that (1) guilt has a stronger effect on the level of compensation than shame; (2) psychological proximity influences the level of guilt, shame, and compensation; and (3) shame interacts with psychological proximity to predict compensation, whereas guilt mediates the relationship between psychological proximity and compensation.     

MULTIPRODUCT COST FUNCTIONS AND SCALE ECONOMIES IN BANKING

This study provides new and efficient estimates of scale economies in banking. Recent criticism of the incorrect specification of homogeneity restrictions on the translog cost functions is addressed, and correct estimations are provided. The results indicate that such misspecifications do affect measures of scale economies. The study covers 1980 to 1983 for unit and branch banks. The estimation is further enhanced by introducing factor share equations invoking Shephard's lemma and using an iterative Zellner procedure. The results fail to indicate scale economies for the overall sample. Some evidence of small degrees of scale economies is observed in parts of the sample.     

心理学原理与英语教学法探析

从心理学理论对英语教学法的影响和实际应用等方面，论述了如何将心理学原理在学习语言的一般心理机制，发展智力和非智力因素及课堂中师生心理协调等方面应用于英语教学中。     

Pricing the US residential asset through the rent flow: A cross-sectional study

The paper explores how the standard consumption-CAPM fares in pricing housing returns and regional rental income streams in a cross-section of regions. In particular, we estimate the Euler equations associated with the gross housing returns inclusive of price appreciations and rents jointly for several metropolitan areas of the US. The representative agent has a Constant Relative Risk Aversion (CRRA) utility. The rent growth is allowed to depend on the business cycle. When biannual data from 1978 to 2007 is used, the parameter estimates are reasonable, and the model is not rejected. Large standard errors indicate uninformative estimates. The implied price rent ratio time series averages are similar to the data; however the model misses the boom-bust pattern in the prices. The model significantly understates the average and the variance of the price appreciations. Results are robust to allowing housing consumption directly in the utility function or using the Epstein–Zin–Weil utility.     

Corporate Governance and Firm Survival

We explore how various aspects of corporate governance influence the likelihood of a public corporation surviving as a separate public entity, after addressing potential endogeneity that arises from competing corporate exit outcomes: acquisitions, going‐private transactions, and bankruptcies. We find that some corporate governance features are more important determinants of the form of a firm's exit than many economic factors that have figured prominently in prior research. We also find evidence that outsider‐dominated boards and lower restrictions on internal governance play major roles in the way firms exit public markets, particularly when a firm's industry suffers a negative shock. Overall, our results suggest that failure to recognize competing risks produces biased estimates, resulting in faulty inferences.     

Free‐Riding and the Provision of Public Goods in the Family: A Laboratory Experiment*

We examine the provision of family public goods using experimental economics methods. With sufficient altruism and shared resource arrangements, families can provide the efficient level of family public goods. Becker's Rotten Kid Theorem asserts that transfers from altruistic parents will induce children to maximize family income even if children are not altruistic toward other family members. Consistent with altruism, parents and children contributed more to a public good when in groups with family members than when in groups with strangers. In contrast to the predictions of the Rotten Kid Theorem, however, children's behavior fell short of maximizing family income.