The consequences to analyst involvement in the IPO process: Evidence surrounding the JOBS Act

The JOBS Act allows certain analysts to be more involved in the IPO process, but does not relax restrictions on analyst compensation structure. We find that these analysts initiate coverage that is more optimistically biased, less accurate, and generates smaller stock market reactions. Investors purchasing shares following these initiations lose over 3% of their investment by the firm's subsequent earnings release. By contrast, issuers, analysts, and investment banks appear to benefit from this increased bias, as optimism is more positively associated with proxies for firm visibility and investment banking revenues when analysts are involved in the IPO process.     

The Joint Cross Section of Stocks and Options

Stocks with large increases in call (put) implied volatilities over the previous month tend to have high (low) future returns. Sorting stocks ranked into decile portfolios by past call implied volatilities produces spreads in average returns of approximately 1% per month, and the return differences persist up to six months. The cross section of stock returns also predicts option implied volatilities, with stocks with high past returns tending to have call and put option contracts that exhibit increases in implied volatility over the next month, but with decreasing realized volatility. These predictability patterns are consistent with rational models of informed trading.     

The directors' and officers' insurance premium: an outside assessment of the quality of corporate governance

Using a sample of directors' and officers' (D & O) premiumsgathered from the proxy statements of Canadian companies, thisarticle examines the D & O premium as a measure of ex antelitigation risk. I find a significant association between D& O premiums and variables that proxy for the quality offirms' governance structures. The association between the proxiesfor governance structure quality and D & O premiums is robustto a number of alternative specifications. This article providesconfirmatory evidence that the D & O premium reflects thequality of the firm's corporate governance by showing that measuresof weak governance implied by the D & O premium are positivelyrelated to excess CEO compensation. The overall results suggestthat D & O premiums contain useful information about thequality of firms' governance.     

Aquatic resources and recreation behavior

While substantial effort has been undertaken to understand the consequences of industrial and agricultural uses for the environment, concern has also been expressed about its other uses, including recreation. Little is known about the relationship between recreational behavior and an environmental resource base. The present paper focuses upon participation in a specific outdoor recreation activity or activity‐cluster and dominant resource base where participation occurs. Resource bases identified were river, lake, ocean, swamp/marsh, forest/mountain, range/ farm and city/town. Emphasis is placed upon aquatic environs and participation in water‐based recreation. Water activities constituted from 14–30 percent of all outdoor activities taking place at those resource bases identified. Aquatic environments provided the resource base for 38 percent of all recreation participation events, water‐ and non‐water based, occurring during one reporting period. While participation in water‐based activities requires a water resource, the array of participation patterns reported suggests that resource bases defined as recreation places provide a wide range of opportunities for non‐resource‐dependent recreation activities. One conclusion is that resource bases cannot be distinguished by the recreation activities occurring on them. Resource bases in fact facilitate a wide range of recreation activities, some holding little direct connection with the resource base, nor are the conditions of the resource sufficient to predict behavioral outcomes.     

Wage protection systems, segregation and gender pay inequalities: West Germany, the Netherlands and Great Britain

This paper provides an empirical test of Rubery and Fagan's(1995) hypothesis that gender inequalities are influenced primarilyby the comprehensiveness of the overall wage protection systemin a country and by the extent of gender segregation. Genderdiscrimination in earnings is compared in West Germany, theNetherlands and Great Britain using 1989 ISSP data. Human capitalearnings functions for married males and married females areestimated. Discrimination is measured using standard decompositiontechniques. Earnings discrimination against females in the morecomprehensive systems was 37% in West Germany and 39% in theNetherlands, much less than the 61% found for the less comprehensivelyregulated Great Britain, the latter figure being higher thanprevious estimates using earlier data. Gender segregation isdemonstrated to have contributed to the relative magnitude ofdiscrimination in Great Britain.     

Personnel scheduling with flexshift models

The concept of personnel scheduling when alternative work hours are permitted is presented in this article. The concept, called Flexshifts, schedules 6-, 8-, and 10-hour shifts against a 12- and 24-hour daily demand profile. Using the concept, required shifts can then be offered to the labor staff allowing each individual to select those shifts that best fit their personal plans. Alternatively, certain shifts can be guaranteed to key employees. Case studies reported in this paper indicate many advantages to allowing workers to opt for different start times, to select their days off and to create non-standard workweeks from predefined sets of 6-, 8-, and 10-hour days. Computerized timekeeping systems make this flexibility manageable. Personnel scheduling algorithms such as the one presented here make the planning of Flexshift easy.The formulation presented here utilizes linear programming. Tests of the L.P. Flexshift model on 42 data sets of 12-hour days showed an average savings in labor of 24.2% when compared to an L. P. model of the traditional 8-hour work shift. For a 24-hour work pattern, that formulation outperformed a published heuristic for 8-hour shifts by reducing average idle time from 13.9 to 5.4%.     

中国实施天然气能量计量与计价的基础条件分析

天然气按能量计量与计价已成为目前国际上最流行的天然气贸易和消费计量与结算方式。随着进口天然气的大量引进以及我国天然气供应系统的复杂化,我国对于天然气按体积计量和计价的方式将难以协调国产气与进口气贸易结算问题,难以适应多气源、多类型、多路径联网供气的天然气销售格局,难以解决天然气价值扭曲问题。因此,实行天然气按能量计量和计价在我国已经迫在眉睫。目前,我国实施天然气按能量计量和计价的技术标准基本具备、技术设备配置基本符合要求、发热量量值溯源技术体系也基本满足要求。相关单位已持续开展多项前期研究与模拟试验,企业与用户普遍赞同实施能量计价。未来更多的是需要国家进一步完善相关的实施标准,建立更高水平的天然气量值溯源体系,建立天然气质量监督体系,出台合理的天然气能量价格政策,支持和引导天然气实施能量计量和计价。