Toward a More Phronetic Leisure Science

In this essay, we examine the assumptions underlying natural science, social science, and the humanities. More specifically, we suggest that social science in general and leisure science in particular be guided by a different set of assumptions than those guiding natural science and the humanities. Drawing on the Aristotelian idea of phronesis, we propose that value rationality more so than instrumental rationality guide social scientific inquiry, and that social science in general, and leisure science in particular, be viewed as a bridge between natural science and the humanities.     

Real and nominal interest rates and the demand for housing

This paper is an empirical study of the relationship between inflation expectations and the demand for housing. The major findings are that housing demand is a function of both expected inflation and the real interest rate but that demand cannot be specified as a function of the nominal rate. It is also shown that expected inflation has a larger impact on those households that are likely to be constrained by capital market imperfections.     

Do Analysts' Cash Flow Forecasts Encourage Managers to Improve the Firm's Cash Flows? Evidence from Tax Planning

Recent research finds that analysts' cash flow forecasts have meaningful financial reporting ramifications, but, to date, the identified effects are unlikely to yield meaningful cash flow benefits. This study examines whether analysts' cash flow forecasts encourage managers to enhance the firm's cash flow position through tax avoidance activities. We evaluate the change in cash tax avoidance after analysts begin issuing cash flow forecasts relative to a propensity score matched control sample of firms without cash flow forecasts. Consistent with analysts' cash flow forecasts encouraging tax avoidance that enhances the firm's cash flow health, we find a negative association between cash tax payments and analysts' cash flow coverage. Additional analysis suggests this association is driven primarily by strategies to permanently avoid rather than to temporarily defer tax payments and that increased cash tax avoidance activity represents a nontrivial component of the overall increase in reported operating cash flows after the initiation of analysts' cash flow coverage.     

Labor protection laws and the drain on productivity: Evidence from India

Employment protection legislation (EPL) is designed to promote securityers by placing restrictions on firing, but it generates unintended consequences. With India as a setting, I argue that EPL shifts jobs from younger to older workers in two ways: by discouraging the hiring of unproven young workers and by preventing the firing of low‐productivity workers. The identification strategy is motivated by Rajan and Zingales (1998): I assume that EPL is more binding in those manufacturing sectors where the involuntary separation rate in other countries is high. The data show that older workers are more likely to have formal jobs, and the effect is strongest in high‐firing sectors, which indicates that EPL shifts jobs from young to old. Additionally, EPL reduces plant‐level total factor productivity, and this effect is seen only in plants which are large enough to fall within the purview of EPL, which provides a useful placebo test.     

The Performance Effects of Human Resource Practices: The Case of Interclub Networks in Professional Baseball, 1919–1940

This study investigates the performance effects of two industry‐specific human resource management innovations that dramatically changed the way professional baseball teams selected and trained ballplayers. In the early part of this century, major league clubs developed and refined two player‐development practices based on “reserve team” and “farm team” systems. We use a panel data set of the win/lose records for the population of 16 major league clubs for the seasons from 1919 through 1940 to test hypotheses about the effect of human resource practices on organizational performance. The results suggest that the reserve team practice had no significant impact on organizational performance. In contrast, the more complex farm‐team system, pioneered by Branch Rickey of the St. Louis Cardinals, improved organizational performance and diffused rapidly throughout the league. We estimate that by 4 years after its creation, the farm‐team system improved a team's win rate by 0.068 points relative to nonadopters of the farm‐team system and teams with less than 4 years of prior experience with a farm‐team system. The results also show that the farm‐team effect was not confined to St. Louis but also was experienced by later adopters. These results contribute to the growing literature showing a positive effect of human resource policies on organizational performance. The results also illustrate the important role the external environment plays in shaping this relationship (e.g., legal restrictions to labor mobility).     

The benefits of in-kind government programs

In this paper I present a methodology to calculate the benefits of in-kind programs such as public housing which restrict consumption of some goods to the levels offered by the government. Most previous studies begin with an a priori specification of the direct utility function. I begin with the ordinary demand function and then integrate demand to recover the indirect utility function and the expenditure function. I argue that this approach gives additional flexibility in choosing a functional form which best describes the data. I then use this methodology to estimate the benefits of the U.S. government's Section 8 housing program.