Quantity Surcharges on Groceries

A quantity surcharge exists when the unit cost of a given brand is higher for a large package than for a small one. This paper examines some product and household characteristics that influence observed quantity surcharging practices. Results indicate that the propensity to buy a large package of a product is positively influenced by the extent of a household's usage of that product, procurement cost, and carrying capacity and is negatively influenced by the propensity to price search. A retailer's decision to levy a quantity surcharge is, in turn, influenced by demand for the product, the propensity to buy large packages, and to some extent the product's carrying cost.     

Women's work status and their time use pattern in rural households of Haryana

The work pattern of rural women revolves around a variety of jobs in the home, farm and livestock management. The National perspective Plan (1988) rightly pooints out, ‘For the majority of the women in the country, there is more work than wages, more load titan capacity and more compulsion than choice.’Studies on time utilization pattern (work load) of men and women in rural households in India, though few, indicate that rural women work longer hours than men. A 14–16 h working day is common in certain areas even among pregnant women. Review of the literature however, reveals major gaps in information especially pertaining to work status of rural women and how the time use pattern (workload) varies with their work status and/or agricultural season. The present study was therefore, an attempt in this direction. More specifically, the objectives of the study were: (a) to study time allocation pattern of rural women in work, rest, leisure and sleep and (b) to study the time utilization pattern in various categories of work according to women's work status and agricultural season.     

The Politics of M&A Antitrust

Antitrust regulators play a critical role in protecting market competition. We examine whether the political process affects antitrust reviews of merger transactions. We find that acquirers and targets located in the political districts of powerful U.S. congressional members who serve on committees with antitrust regulatory oversight receive relatively favorable antitrust review outcomes. To establish causality, we use plausibly exogenous shocks to firm–politician links and a falsification test. Additional findings suggest congressional members’ incentives to influence antitrust reviews are affected by three channels: special interests, voter and constituent interests, and ideology. In aggregate, our findings suggest that the political process adversely interferes with the ability of antitrust regulators to provide independent recommendations about anticompetitive mergers.     

Conceptual framework to study rural women's work patterns and economic contribution to family resource development

The concern of this paper is to present a methodologylstrategy to study rural women's work patterns in Haryana. The major concern of the study was to analyse the work patterns of rural women belonging to different work status categories and to determine their economic contribution to family resource development both in terms of real income (unpaid work/household production for use) and money income (paid work).     

Relative Pricing of Eurodollar Futures and Forward Contracts

Past research explains observed spreads between futures and forward Eurodollar yields as being due to the futures contract's mark-to-market feature. We derive closed form solutions for this yield spread and show that, theoretically, it should be small. Also, differences in liquidity, taxation, and default risk cannot account for the large spreads observed. We also present evidence that the spreads, which are nonnegligible primarily in the first half of the sample period, are likely to be attributable to the mispricing of futures contracts relative to the forward rates and that the mispricing was gradually eliminated over time.     

Credit Granting: A Comparative Analysis of Classification Procedures

Financial classification issues, and particularly the financial distress problem, continue to be subject to vigorous investigation. The corporate credit granting process has not received as much attention in the literature. This paper examines the relative effectiveness of parametric, nonparametric and judgemental classification procedures on a sample of corporate credit data. The judgemental model is based on the Analytic Hierarchy Process. Evidence indicates that (nonparametric) recursive partitioning methods provide greater information than simultaneous partitioning procedures. The judgemental model is found to perform as well as statistical models. A complementary relationship is proposed between the statistical and the judgemental models as an effective paradigm for granting credit.     

Disclosure Practices of Foreign Companies Interacting with U.S. Markets

We analyze the disclosure practices of companies as a function of their interaction with U.S. markets for a group of 794 firms from 24 countries in the Asia‐Pacific and Europe. Our analysis uses the Transparency and Disclosure scores developed recently by Standard & Poor's. These scores rate the disclosure of companies from around the world using U.S. disclosure practices as an implicit benchmark. Results show a positive association between these disclosure scores and a variety of market interaction measures, including U.S. listing, U.S. investment flows, exports to, and operations in the United States. Trade with the United States at the country level, however, has an insignificant relationship with the disclosure scores. Our empirical analysis controls for the previously documented association between disclosure and firm size, performance, and country legal origin. Our results are broadly consistent with the hypothesis that cross‐border economic interactions are associated with similarities in disclosure and governance practices.     

Seasonality in Stock Price Mean Reversion: Evidence from the U.S. and the U.K.

The evidence of slowly mean-reverting components in stock prices has been controversial. The hypothesis of stock price mean-reversion is tested using a regression model that yields the highest asymptotic power among a class of regression tests. Although the evidence that the equally weighted index of stocks exhibits mean-reversion is significant in the period 1926–1988, this phenomenon is entirely concentrated in January. In the post-war period both the equally weighted and the value-weighted indices exhibit seasonal mean-reversion in January. A similar phenomenon is also observed for the equally weighted index of stocks traded on the London Stock Exchange.     

Treasury Auction Bids and the Salomon Squeeze

Recent press accounts claim that collusion is common practice in Treasury auctions and that as a result the auction profits are excessive. But, this paper finds that the auction prices are on average marginally higher than the secondary market bid prices. The auction profits, however, are systematically related to the total fraction of winning bids tendered by banks and dealers. The postauction prices of the two-year notes in which Salomon Brothers had a 94 percent holding are also examined. The secondary market prices of these notes were significantly higher than the estimated competitive prices in the four-week postissue period.     

The Role of Gatekeepers in Capital Markets

Gatekeepers in financial markets have the power to provide the institutional stability, fortitude, and direction necessary for the development and the smooth functioning of capital markets. At the same time, they are often motivated by their own private incentives. This along with the tradeoffs they face, and the at‐times unintended consequences of the regulations they propose and enforce, can undermine their effectiveness. A thorough understanding of gatekeepers and their roles can thus illuminate academics, the financial community, and regulators on how such gatekeepers can be the most effective and generate the greatest benefits for capital markets. Since gatekeeping roles and the literature they have inspired encompass a wide array of institutions and agencies, our overview concentrates on those that the conference papers appearing in this volume focus on. We conclude that collectively, the papers contribute to significant progress, and point out some crucial areas that call for further investigation and offer opportunities for future research.