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Public (U.S.) Compared to Private (U.K.) Regulation of Corporate Financial Disclosure

The Accounting Review 1976 51(3), 483-498
This paper explores differences, costs and benefits of the two systems public regulation of financial disclosure in the U.S. and private regulation in Great Britain and concludes that, in many important respects, private regulation is preferable. Though the U.S. and Great Britain are dissimilar in many important respects, their security markets are rather alike. Though the U.S. Federal Securities Acts were modeled after Great Britain's Companies Acts, they are administered quite differently. In 1934, the U.S. established the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), giving it the authority to prepare and administer regulations governing the financial disclosure mandated by the Securities Act of 1933 and the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. In contrast, Great Britain's Companies Acts stand on their own in the sense that the specific disclosure required is given in acts rather than in regulations promulgated by the Great Britain's Department of Trade (DT). Although the DT has the power to investigate failures of directors to conform to the requirements of the acts, particularly when such an investigation is requested by security holders, it serves primarily as a repository for the statements filed pursuant to acts

The Effect of "Fair Value" Rate Base Valuation in Electric Utility Regulation

Journal of Finance 1976 31(5), 1487
Rate regulation of electric utilities in the United States is accomplished using a rate of return on capital limitation. The firm is allowed to charge rates which are designed to produce no more than some specified return on its capital. During the course of setting rates there are several intermediate steps. The commission must determine the proper or fair rate of return, the depreciated capital or rate base to which the allowed rate of return is to be applied, the firm's current revenues, revenues under proposed new rates, and allowable expenses

Consequences and Causes of Public Ownership of Urban Transit Facilities

Journal of Political Economy 1976 84(6), 1239-1259
The reasons for the shift from private to public ownership of urban transit facilities are the subject of the paper. The regulation theory suggests that this shift is due to the increasing severity of regulation, while the declining-market and externalities hypotheses suggest that increases in automobile ownership are the reason for reduced profits and public ownership. Regression results indicate that profit margins of privately owned systems are higher when regulation is by a state rather than a local agency. Changes in profit margins over time are found to be directly related to increases in automobile ownership

Competition, Scale Economies, and Transaction Cost in the Stock Market

Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis 1976 11(5), 779
The opponents and proponents of competitive brokerage commission rates for the New York Stock Exchange have, for nearly a decade, been dueling in the hearing rooms of Congress and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The contest developed because financial institutions, in attempting to skirt the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and its fixed commission rates, had used a variety of trading practices that were sharply criticized by the government overseers of the securities markets. The securities industry, the government overseers, and scholars have debated what would be the most effective regulatory approach to improving the social performance of the securities marketplace. Would it be through initiating even more stringent federal regulation of exchange behavior? Or, would it be through selective deregulation to increase competition, particularly in the determination of commissions? Competitive forces might constrain and direct that behavior. The policy that has been developing would deregulate and restructure the marketplace to create a “central market system.” Competition would replace regulation to whatever extent may be possible, in determining both commission rates and the quality of marketplace services provided [6]. But, the contest has been long and often heated. From the thrusts and parries, there can be identified some fundamental issues concerning the economics of the stock exchange as a form of marketplace organization

Dealer Inventory Behavior: An Empirical Investigation of Nasdaq Stocks

Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis 1976 11(3), 359
1. This paper presents and tests a model of dealer inventory response. The estimated inventory responsiveness coefficient is statistically significant and its magnitude is consistent with reasonable values of underlying variables which, it is hypothesized, determine the coefficient.2. The sign of the inventory responsiveness coefficient indicates that dealers tend to be passive and acquire shares when prices fall and sell shares when prices rise. This type of behavior is sometimes termed “stabilizing.”3. Dealer inventories tend to increase on days prior to price declines and tend to decrease on days prior to price increases; that is, inventory changes tend to be “destabilizing” with respect to future price changes. This implies that a fraction of the public trades on superior information and that dealers tend to lose money to such information traders.4. There is a strong tendency for dealer inventory levels to return to normal, presumably zero. The implied typical inventory holding period is about 8 to 10 trading days.5. Comparison of NASDAQ dealers and NYSE specialists shows that the pattern of inventory responsiveness is very much the same for the two. This suggests that both act in accordance with the underlying economic model and that differential regulation has little effect on typical inventory responsiveness.6. This finding does not obviate the possibility that individual dealers or specialists behave in atypical or undersirable ways, and that the extent of such atypical behavior might depend on the degree of public regulation of dealer activities. An exhaustive comparative study of deviations from normal behavior was not possible. However, it was possible to compare the frequency of nonstabilizing transactions in which price change and inventory change on a given day are in the same, rather than opposite, direction. One could not conclude that NASDAQ dealers had more nonstabilizing activity than NYSE specialists

Labor Force Participation and Earnings in a Demographic Model of the Labor Market

American Economic Review 1976
A structural model of the labor market should improve our understanding of and ability to predict unemployment and wage change. With such a model of the labor market and the inflation process we should be better able to prescribe policies for aggregate demand and for structural improvements that are designed to reduce inflation and unemployment. Because labor market dynamics are fast, the duration of unemployment being only a few months, a structural model to reflect turnover and search behavior must have a very short period-a quarter would be too long. However, since real wages change sluggishly, the usual allocation variables will not be fully effective in regulating the turnover and search behavior of workers and employers. Hence, we expect that the short-term dynamics of the labor market will be regulated primarily by the availability in the market of jobs and workers. The composition of unemployment shows wide disparities for different demographic groups which suggests the desirability of separately estimating their search and turnover behaviors

Travel Expenses for a Visiting Professor -- An Addendum.

The Accounting Review 1976 51(1), 181-183
The article focuses on a discussion on ramifications of tax deductibility of a visiting professor's travel expenses as discussed by researcher Allen Ford. The article deals extensively with the tax implications during the professor's stay; however, an addendum is needed for the professor who decides to remain permanently in the position, especially in light of the number of professors so inclined. The two tax questions facing the professor in a decision to stay or even to move to a new position are the taxability of any gain on the sale of the residence at the former location and the availability of a moving expense deduction. Under section 1034, gain from the sale of a taxpayer's principal residence is not recognized, provided certain conditions are met. Regulation 1.1034-1(c)(3) (i) states that the mere fact that property is, or has been, rented out is not determinative that such property is not used by the taxpayer as his principal residence. In the case where a taxpayer uses more than one property as a residence, the determination of whether property is used by the taxpayer as his principal residence depends upon all facts and circumstances in each case