On the Closeness Aspect of Three Voting Rules: Borda – Copeland – Maximin

This paper provides a comparison of three voting rules, the Borda rule, the Copeland rule and the maximin rule. Our analysis based on the rankings derived from those voting rules will shed new light on existing comparisons based on “closeness” between the three voting rules under investigation. In particular it will be shown that both, the rankings derived from the Borda rule and the maximin rule and the rankings derived from the Copeland rule and the maximin rule, will be exactly the opposite for certain preference profiles.     

Estimates of the cost of equity for public utilities, 1961–1976

Using a simple version of the dividend cash flow (DCF) model of stock valuation, the cost of equity for public utilities is often inferred to be equal to the sum of the dividend yield and the expected rate of growth in dividends. Witnesses who employ this approach generally extrapolate past growth patterns into the future and then assume that investors expect these trends to continue; no effort is made to actually assess the expectations of investors. This approach to estimating the cost of equity for public utilities is criticized for the failure to develop testable hypotheses as an inferential basis for testing the statistical reliability of estimates of the cost of equity. This article demonstrates an alternative to the traditional approach, based on the premise that reliable estimates of the cost of equity are derived only within a methodological framework that produces testable hypotheses. The Gordon model of share valuation is formulated in such a way as to show that there is a systematic and predictable relationship between the ratio of market price to book value of common stock and a firm's normal or expected return on equity. This relationship suggests an econometric model that not only tests the Gordon model of share valuation but produces at the same time, inferences concerning the cost of equity. Using this approach, year-end estimates of the cost of equity for electric utilities are determined for the 16-yr period from 1961 to 1976.     

Municipal bond market recognition of pension reporting practices

The purpose of this study was to examine the usefulness of current municipal pension accounting disclosures for assessing municipal bond risks and returns. An empirical assessment of the association between various pension ratios and bond ratings, bond yields, and market risk revealed little explanatory power in the pension variables. We posit that the results probably stem from current practices that reduce the relevance and reliability of pension accounting numbers. Thus, standardization of practices and increased disclosures as proposed by the NCGA may have positive effects on the usefulness of pension disclosures for creditor decisions.     

The Copeland rule and Condorcet’s principle

Summary. The purpose of this note is to shed some light on the relationship between the Copeland rule and the Condorcet principle in those cases where there does not exist a Condorcet winner. It will be shown that the Copeland rule ranks alternatives according to their distances to being a Condorcet winner.Received: 30 July 2003, Revised: 31 December 2003, JEL Classification Numbers: D70, D71.Christian Klamler: I am very grateful to Daniel Eckert and Nick Baigent for their helpful comments.     

Land fragmentation as an index of history in the Virginia Military District of Ohio

This paper investigates the process of land fragmentation for several counties and townships in the Virginia Military District of Ohio in the early part of the nineteenth century. It reports the ultimate patterns or configurations arising from individual decisions about properties, that is, conveyances of all or part of original large holdings to children by inheritance or to new settlers by sale. The distribution of land holdings rapidly stabilizes as lognormal with a Gini coefficient of about 0.6. An explanation for this result is offered based on breakage theory, the distribution of male offspring, and the behavior of the lognormal distribution with truncated inheritance distributions.