McCloskey, economics as conversation, and Sprachethik

In writing about the 'rhetoric of economics' - particularlyabout the standards which prevent situations where 'anythinggoes' in argument - McCloskey takes an eclectic approach totwo philosophical positions, based on Rorty and Habermas respectively.But these positions, despite sharing some common aspects, alsodifferentiate themselves from each other sharply in importantways. In this paper, it is argued that this eclecticism of McCloskeyis not coherent, as a result of her not completely graspingthe fundamental differences between these two positions, andthat this incoherence has damaging implications for her projectof the rhetoric of economics.     

Price formation on stock exchanges: the evolution of trading within the day

Prior analyses of prices of the NYSE and other exchanges findthat transitory price volatility is greater at the open of tradingthan at the close. We extend this line of research by using40 years of hourly Dow Jones 65 composite price index data toestimate transitory volatility throughout the trading day. Ourresults indicate that transitory volatility steadily declinesduring the trading day. We find a similar intraday decline intransitory volatility for a 2-year sample of the individualfirms in the Dow Jones 30 Industrials Index. The results areconsistent with the hypothesis that trading aids price formationand do not support the argument that particular trading mechanismsare the source of greater volatility at the open of trading.     

Workplace violence and corporate policy for health care settings

Incidents of workplace violence have been of significant concern to health care employers and the public at large. Many employers now find themselves confronted with sentinel events in the workplace, such as assault; property damage; racially, ethnically, or religiously motivated violence; sexual assault; employee suicide; or homicide. Regardless of a health care agency's size or mission, when employees are unexpectedly confronted with workplace violence, they are typically overwhelmed with shock and multiple questions surrounding how the event could have occurred in the safety of the workplace. It is difficult to imagine returning to work only minutes after hearing such news and, yet, in this modern era of corporate health care, this is what usually happens. Awareness of the dynamics and issues related to workplace violence can guide policy development and related interventions to promote safety, stability, and provide a platform for adapting to the devastation of such a disturbing event.     

Tax planning, regulatory capital planning, and financial reporting strategy for commercial banks

We test whether banks' investment and financing policies canbe explained by tax status. We document changes in bank holdingsof municipal bonds in response to changes in tax rules relatingto deductibility of interest expense. We also document an associationbetween banks' marginal tax rates and their investment and financingdecisions, which is consistent with the existence of tax clienteles.However, banks do not sort themselves perfectly into investmentand financing clienteles because of adjustment costs. We positspecific types of transaction-cost impediments to tax planning,and document that banks apparently trade off these costs againsttax-planning benefits.     

DETERMINATION OF PARTICIPATION DECISION, HIRING DECISION, AND WAGES IN A DOUBLE SELECTION FRAMEWORK: MALE-FEMALE WAGE DIFFERENTIALS IN THE U.S. LABOR MARKET REVISITED

The magnitude of the male-female wage differential is known to be highly sensitive to the specification of the wage equations used. An important source of misspecification is the failure to correct the sample selection bias that results from estimating the wage equation obtained through two sequential decisions: the worker's decision to participate in the labor market and the employer's decision to hire. Estimation of the wage equation ignoring this double selection process leads to biased estimates, and consequently the resulting male-female wage differentials are likely to be misleading. Following a double selection approach and using a sample from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, this article examines the determinants of not only the wage equation but also the worker's participation and the employer's hiring decisions in both male and female samples. The study further demonstrates that the unexplained male-female wage differential remains underestimated when the roles of both selection decisions are ignored in the estimation of wage equations.