Trading and Pricing in Upstairs and Downstairs Stock Markets

We provide empirical evidence on the economic benefits of negotiatingtrades in the upstairs trading room of brokerage firms relativeto the downstairs market. Using Helsinki Stock Exchange data,we find that upstairs trades tend to have lower informationcontent and lower price impacts than downstairs trades. Thisis consistent with the hypotheses that the upstairs market isbetter at pricing uninformed liquidity trades and that upstairsbrokers can give better prices to their customers if they knowthe unexpressed demands of other customers. We find that theseeconomic benefits depend on price discovery occurring in thedownstairs market.     

A Discursive Approach to Understanding Women Leaders in Working Life

In this paper, we develop a theoretical framework for understanding women leaders in working life. Our starting point is in statistics and earlier women-in-management literature, which show that women leaders represent a minority of the managerial population. We assume such underlying mechanisms causing discriminatory practices towards women leaders to exist which have become naturalized and invisible. Our concern is that everyone irrespective of gender should have a fair chance in career progression. This is both a moral and also an economic challenge. The framework we develop in this paper is an alternative approach to studying women leaders compared to traditional women-in-management literature. It aims at revealing the "natural and taken-for-granted" cultural mechanisms behind discriminatory practices. Our framework is based on a critical discursive approach, which draws on ideas of how women's leadership becomes symbolically represented and constructed in discursive practices. These symbolic constructions, which are mediated through language, often have an ideological loading which positions women leaders and builds their identities in ways that can help to legitimize unequal relations between the genders. However, our framework emphasizes the possibility of multiple discourses and a dynamic view of culture. The cultural constructions of women leaders are, thus, open to change.     

Production functions and productivity of family firms: Evidence from the S&P 500

This paper examines whether the higher profitability and valuation of family firms is related to differences in production technologies and production efficiency. Using data on S&P 500 manufacturing firms, we find that family firms are more productive than comparable non-family firms. Furthermore, our results show that the production technologies of family and non-family firms do not differ per se, thereby suggesting that the differences in the level of production output are caused by higher production efficiency of family firms. These findings indicate that the superior performance of family firms is related to their more efficient use of labor and capital resources.     

Excess returns and international diversification: The Scandinavian view

The paper discusses excess returns within four Scandinavian stock markets and also how Scandinavian returns are related to the returns in non-Scandinavian markets. Some underlying reasons for the observed economically weak relationships between markets are reviewed. Moreover, some reasons why the interrelationships between markets can be expected to increase in the future are provided.     

ON THE FUNCTIONAL FORM OF EARNINGS AND STOCK PRICES: INTERNATIONAL EVIDENCE AND IMPLICATIONS FOR THE E/P ANOMALY

This paper examines the functional form of earnings and stock prices on US and Finnish stock markets. Although the functional specification of the components of financial ratios based on purely accounting numbers has received considerable attention, the functional form of earnings and stock prices has not been investigated carefully enough. This investigation is, however, important because of the common use of E/P ratio in financial statement analysis. The empirical evidence provided by this study indicates that the proportional relationship between earnings and stock prices is rejected in both countries. In addition, it is discovered that this deviation from proportionality is a major factor producing the so-called E/P anomaly in these two countries.     

The international co-movements of Finish stocks

This paper provides new empirical evidence on the international co-movements of Finnish stocks. The vector autoregression (VAR) approach indicates that US and especially Swedish stock markets lead Finnish stock market returns by approximately one or two months. The results based on international market models indicate that the returns of individual Finnish stocks are significantly positively related to those of Sweden, while the relation between Finnish and US returns is significantly lower. The relation seems to vary clearly between industries, some industries being related to US markets as well. Significant time-series instability is reported in the results, however.     

Earnings management as a predictor of future profitability of Finnish firms

This study investigates whether the level of current earnings management can be used to predict future profitability of Finnish firms. Earnings management is assumed to predict future profitability, because firms use discretional accruals to manage this year's earnings upwards/downwards, if they believe that the next year's earnings will be high/low. Finnish data are used because the extent of the earnings management can be directly measured from the published Finnish financial statements. The results indicate that the lagged earnings management is significantly related to the future profitability of a firm. The lagged earnings management also contains incremental information relative to past profitability or stock prices when predicting future profitability.     

Does file-sharing reduce DVD sales?

The short-term effect of BitTorrent file-sharing on movie DVD sales is estimated using sales data on newly released DVDs and torrent file downloads during a 13-week period between March and May 2009 in the USA. To overcome endogeneity between downloads and sales, the analysis is carried out in a dynamic panel setting. After controlling for an autoregressive component and a declining time trend in sales, the file-sharing elasticity of sales is not statistically different from zero in the difference GMM estimations. The results hold when external instruments are used. Moreover, the results suggest an upper bound of ?0.21 of elasticity, indicating that the short-term sales displacement effect is moderate at worst.     

Costs of administration,travelling, and productivity losses associated with hospital administration of multiple myeloma drugs in Finland

Aim: To estimate the drug administration, travelling, and productivity costs associated with infusion or subcutaneous proteasome inhibitor (PI) treatments (specifically carfilzomib and bortezomib) for multiple myeloma (MM) patients in Finland.

Materials and methods: Price tariffs of Finnish hospital districts are used as the basis of invoicing sent to healthcare service payers. A review of these price tariff lists was conducted and obtained data analysed to estimate the mean unit cost of PI administration visit. Travelling costs stratified by areas with different population densities were assessed, based on the national travelling reimbursement register data maintained by the Social Insurance Institution of Finland. Productivity costs due to time spent on administration visits and travelling were estimated based on an expert interview and a spatial healthcare accessibility analysis.

Results: Nineteen (95%) of the Finnish hospital districts were included in the review. Relevant unit cost information was found for 15 (75%) of the districts. The mean PI administration cost alone was 270€ (95% CI?=?189€–351€) per administration and increased to 371€ when travelling costs were included. Productivity costs added, the mean PI administration costs totalled 405€ for bortezomib and 437€ for carfilzomib.

Limitations: The costing rationale of price tariffs may vary between hospital districts. Productivity costs were estimated conservatively, due to lack of data.

Conclusions: The administration of intravenous or subcutaneous PIs to treat MM in healthcare facilities causes significant and potentially avoidable healthcare, travelling, and indirect costs, and they should be included in all health economic evaluations (HEEs). As the cost estimates utilized in this study represent most of central hospitals in the country, they provide useful information for future HEEs. A broader conclusion is that novel oral medications, such as the first oral PI, have a significant potential for reducing administration-related costs of subcutaneous or intravenous PIs.