Pricing U.S. Dollar Index Futures Options: An Empirical Investigation

This paper develops a pricing model and empirically tests the pricing efficiency of options on the U.S. Dollar Index (USDX) futures contract. Empirical tests of the model indicate that the market consistently overprices these options relative to the derived model. This overpricing is more pronounced for out‐of‐the‐money options than for in‐the‐money options and more pronounced for put options than for call options. To validate the above results, delta neutral portfolios are created for one‐ and two‐day holding periods and consistently generate positive arbitrage profits, indicating that on average the market overprices the options on the USDX futures contracts.     

Firms’ fundamentals,macroeconomic variables and quarterly stock prices in the US

This paper modeled the effects of firms’ fundamentals such as total assets and long-term debt and of macroeconomic variables such as unemployment and interest rates on quarterly stock prices of over 3000 US firms in the period 2000–07. The merged CRSP/Compustat database was augmented by macroeconomic variables and comprehensive dynamic models were estimated by maximum likelihood taking into account heterogeneity across firms. Likelihood ratio statistics were developed for sequentially testing hypotheses regarding the adequacy of macroeconomic variables in the models. The main findings were that the estimated coefficients of lagged stock prices in simple dynamic random effects models were in the interval 0.90–0.95. Second, comprehensive dynamic models for stock prices showed that the firms’ earnings per share, total assets, long-term debt, dividends per share, and unemployment and interest rates were significant predictors; there were significant interactions between firms’ long-term debt and interest rates. Finally, implications of the results for corporate policies are discussed.     

Executive compensation, share repurchases and investment expenditures: econometric evidence from US firms

This paper modeled the dynamic inter-relationships between average salary, bonus, and stock options granted to top executives of 700 US firms using a merged ExecuComp and Compustat database. The effects of stock options granted and exercised on firms’ share repurchases and research and development and investment expenditures were investigated, taking into account simultaneity and distributional misspecification aspects. First, firms’ total assets, intangible assets, market-to-book value, and share repurchases were positively associated with the values of stock options granted. Second, stock options exercised in the previous year were significant predictors of share repurchases indicating that firms avoided dilution of earnings per share. Third, share repurchases and stock options granted were negatively associated with expenditures on research and development and long-term investments. Overall, the results suggest that high levels of stock options granted to executives and share repurchases are unlikely to have beneficial effects for raising future productivity.     

Market-based capabilities and financial performance of firms: insights into marketing’s contribution to firm value

While there is recognition that market-based capabilities contribute to a firm’s financial performance, the exposition is largely conceptual (Srivastava et al. Journal of Marketing 62:2–18, 1998; Journal of Marketing 63:168–179, 1999). Using a resource based view of the firm, the present study proposes that (1) market-based assets and capabilities of a firm impacts (2) performance in three market-facing business processes (new product development, supply-chain and customer management), which in turn, influence (3) the firm’s financial performance. It develops related hypotheses and tests the framework empirically. The study also examines for the first time the interrelationship among the three business processes and their impact on the market value of firms. Further, the study examines the moderating influence of two organizational variables—size and age of the firm. Overall, the major contribution of the study is that it offers a process linkage between capabilities, process performance and financial performance. The results of this research will provide strategic insights to managers on optimal customer management, product development and supply chain strategies.

Exploiting International Stock Market Correlations with Open-end International Mutual Funds

Investors can exploit the correlations between international stock markets by trading no-load, open-end, international mutual funds. These investors in effect cheat passive investors because they buy the mutual funds at their net asset values, which do not reflect information released during the US trading day. The strategy we examine yields an annual rate of return 800 basis points above the S&P500, over a period of almost eight years.     

On the efficiency comparison of certain randomized response strategies

Comparisons between different randomized response strategies have already been performed by several workers but all have concentrated solely on comparing the variances of the appropriate estimators. A very little attention has been paid by these workers to the degree of privacy protection offered to the interviewees. In the present paper, an attempt has been made in this direction and some important randomized response strategies have been compared with the Warner's model, taking into account the aspect of privacy protection. Received February 2000     

Brand as Promise

Journal of Business Ethics - Brands are widely regarded as a constellation of shared associations surrounding a company and its offerings. On the traditional view of brands, these associations are...     

A City Divided by Political Philosophies: Residential Development in a Bi-Provincial City in Canada

This paper examines the impact of two distinct political ideologies on the development of residential dwellings, particularly single-family residences, in Lloydminster, a bi-provincial city in Canada. Lloydminster is a city of about 22,000 which straddles the provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan. The two provinces are recognized for the dissimilarities in their political orientations. These dissimilarities are reflected in different taxation policies, different Medicare and health insurance policies and different auto insurance policies, which have given rise to a quantitative and qualitative split in the market for single-family residences in Lloydminster. This duality of the housing market is manifested in Saskatchewan's "affordability" and Alberta's "desirability." Alberta's tax policies have attracted "place entrepreneurs" to build upscale residences on its side for homeowners in high income brackets, who benefit from its tax policies. Saskatchewan's health care and auto insurance advantages have attracted those with such priorities and with moderate incomes. It is contended here that while distinct policies may have contributed to an uneven bi-provincial housing market, the disparity between the markets has been sustained and reinforced by all players who construct the housing reality through myths and perceptions as well as interpretations of policies and their underlying ideologies.     

Generalized Lotka-Volterra equations and the mechanism of technological substitution

This paper demonstrates that if technological substitution is viewed as the result of competition between old and new technology in which new technology wins, and if generalized Lotka-Volterra equations are taken to describe this competition, then various models of technological substitution can be obtained as very special cases. It is argued that this could lead to a better understanding of the substitution process itself.     

Implied volatilities,stochastic interest rates,and currency futures options valuation: an empirical investigation

Different models of pricing currency call and put options on futures are empirically tested. Option prices are determined using different models and compared to actual market prices. Option prices are determined using historical as well as implied volatility. The different models tested include both constant and stochastic interest rate models. To determine if the model prices are different from the market prices, regression analysis and paired t-tests are performed. To see which model misprices the least, root mean square errors are determined. It is found that better results are obtained when implied volatility is used. Stochastic interest rate models perform better than constant interest rate models.