The extent of single firm dominance in U.S. manufacturing industries

This paper presents upper and lower bound estimates of leading firm market shares in U.S. manufacturing industries, and of the ratio of leading firm shares to the combined shares of the next three largest firms. These estimates suggest that extreme dominance is not a common feature of the U.S. industrial landscape, although unequal share distribution among leading firms is common. Dominance appears to be an important cause of differences among industries in four-firm concentration ratios. Finally, single firm dominance might account for as much as 16% of observed concentration levels.     

When good HR gets bad results: exploring the challenge of HR implementation in the case of workplace bullying

Research on the relationship between HRM and organisational performance has highlighted a gap between intended and implemented HR practices. However, this gap has rarely been explored systematically, and the consequences of the effectiveness of the implementation process for relevant outcomes remain poorly understood. This article addresses this issue by examining the process and quality of HR implementation. Drawing on a model of HR implementation, it presents a detailed case study of the implementation of HR practices relating to workplace bullying. Findings reveal that while the policy reflected best practice, implementation was uneven, resulting in persisting high levels of bullying which negatively affected staff well‐being and performance. The results indicate that it is misleading to look just at HR practices, and that even ‘best HR practices’ are unsuccessful unless implemented effectively. It is argued that a greater focus on HR implementation will improve our understanding of the HRM – performance relationship.     

EPA enforcement,firm response strategies,and stockholder wealth: an empirical examination

We investigate the effect of EPA pollution control enforcement activities and firm response strategies on stockholders' wealth. We find that the market reacts negatively upon learning that the firm has been targeted, and that losing a contest with the EPA is very costly to stockholders. Apparently firms are not expected to recover a significant part of pollution control costs from their customers. Somewhat surprisingly, losses are only weakly related to the presence of (unregulated) foreign competition, suggesting that untargeted domestic competitors may restrain cost recovery. Our analysis also indicates that firms may benefit by cooperating with the EPA; i.e., compliant strategies reduce (but don't avoid) wealth losses. The losses of firms that settle are about 40% less than those of firms that fight and lose, and we find no evidence of value gains for firms that fight and win. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The extent of single firm dominance in U.S. manufacturing industries: Reply

Myupper bound leading firm share estimates are not affected by Daskin's criticisms. In particular, my central conclusion that dominant firms are rare in U.S. manufacturing industries is unchanged. However, his criticisms of mylower bound estimates are generally correct; better ways can be found to compute these. In addition, I made a computational error which prevented him from replicating my previously reported lower bound results. Fortunately, the results are relatively insensitive to the computational algorithm. As demonstrated above, there is little quantitative impact and less qualitative impact.⁵ His assertion that his criticisms raiseserious questions about validity of my empirical work is incorrect.     

Misspecified Recovery

Asset prices contain information about the probability distribution of future states and the stochastic discounting of those states as used by investors. To better understand the challenge in distinguishing investors' beliefs from risk‐adjusted discounting, we use Perron–Frobenius Theory to isolate a positive martingale component of the stochastic discount factor process. This component recovers a probability measure that absorbs long‐term risk adjustments. When the martingale is not degenerate, surmising that this recovered probability captures investors' beliefs distorts inference about risk‐return tradeoffs. Stochastic discount factors in many structural models of asset prices have empirically relevant martingale components.     

Using census and survey data to measure undocumented immigration and emigration for the United States

The estimation of emigration and undocumented immigration rates for the United States is discussed. "A residual methodology compares census or survey data on the resident foreign-born population with an independently derived estimate of the legally resident foreign-born population. The difference is the estimated undocumented population which may be compared for alternative dates to derive measures of change. In 1988, this difference was 1.9 million, similar to the 1980 estimate of 2.1 million.... Measurement of emigration...has recently relied on resident reports of immediate relatives who have emigrated. Controlling for multiple reporting of the same emigrants, the direct estimate of the emigrant population from the United States is about 1.2 million. Allowing for undercoverage of the emigrant population due to nonresident relatives, there could be 2.0 million or more emigrants."     

Who incentivizes the mutual fund manager,new or old shareholders?

This study tests whether mutual fund shareholders continue to trade in response to fund returns after they make their initial investment in fund shares. It decomposes the relationship between fund returns and shareholder flow in a large, proprietary panel of all shareholder transactions in one midsize no-load mutual fund family. Results show that both new and old shareholders buy shares during periods of good returns; however, shareholder outflow is essentially unrelated to fund returns. This lack of a return-sell relationship is not driven by locked-in pension assets, shareholders’ ignorance of ongoing fund returns, or embedded capital gains. However, there is evidence that exchanges between equity funds in the family are related more strongly to returns of the destination fund than to returns of the origination fund. This may indicate that flow between equity mutual funds is driven by shareholders buying new funds rather than selling old funds. Supermarket shareholders are smart insofar as they exchange into funds that subsequently outperform their prior funds during their individual holding periods.     

The Revenue Gains from Multi‐Tier Ticket Pricing: Evidence from Pop Music Concerts

We provide empirical estimates of the revenue benefits of multi‐tier pricing at a major US pop music venue. Our unique sample includes data on the number of tickets sold at every price. Mean revenue gain from multi‐tier pricing is estimated to be about $20,000 per show, a 4.2% increase over uniform pricing, although the gains were as high as 21.2% for one performer. We also provide evidence that customer segmentation by income is a likely motive of multi‐tier pricing and, for the first time, that the standard assumption of zero marginal cost of additional venue attendees is valid. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

农村资金互助社可持续发展模式探讨及路径选择——以甘肃临夏回族自治州为例

资金互助社作为农村新型金融机构,在满足农村多样化资金需求,促进农民消费、投资、应对风险以及发挥扶贫功能上都发挥着十分重要的作用.本文以临夏回族自治州为例,探讨农村资金互助社可持续发展模式,及其与金融效率、金融稳定、地区经济协调发展的运营模式,旨在找到一条适合少数民族地区农村资金互助社发展的可行路径.