This paper explores a number of methodological issues related to the econometric analysis of stated preference data in the context of estimating the value of automobile travel time. Estimates of parameters and the willingness to pay (WTP) to save time are obtained using conventional ordered probit and rank-ordered logit models and an innovation called mixed logit. We find that the average WTP is low and does not exhibit much variation among motorists. Although our findings using data on respondents' rankings of alternatives are robust, we find that caution should be used in estimating stated preferences based on respondents' ratings

The study explores the influence of domestic competition on international trade performance, using data from a broad sample of Japanese industries. Domestic rivalry is measured directly using market-share instability rather than employing structural variables such as seller concentration. We find robust evidence that domestic rivalry has a positive and significant relationship with trade performance measured by world export share, particularly when R&D intensity reveals opportunities for dynamic improvement and innovation. Conversely, trade protection reduces export performance. These findings support the view that local competition—not monopoly, collusion, or a sheltered home market— pressures dynamic improvement that leads to international competitiveness

The banking industry realizes that a vital and profitable segment of its clientele demands a significant online presence that complements the traditional “bricks and mortar” presence. A virtual minefield of traditional and new issues and risks arises as banks adopt 24/7 transactional websites in their pursuit of a “clicks and bricks” strategy. Banks face operational, security, legal, and reputation risk with their foray into online banking. An innovative and proactive approach to risk management is essential as banks move into this new territory. Recent regulatory and legislative developments suggest that as electronic banking evolves, the earlier regulatory stance of “self-regulation” appears to be changing to one of increased scrutiny

An innovation in this paper is to introduce a time‐to‐build technology for the production of market capital into a model with home production. Our main finding is that the two anomalies that have plagued all household production models—the positive correlation between business and household investment, and household investment's leading business investment over the business cycle—are resolved when time to build is added

According to the permanent income hypothesis with quadratic preferences, households save for a rainy day the transitory component of income innovations and consume entirely the permanent one. The model also rules out precautionary saving. Typically, income shock components are not separately observable, and information on the conditional variance of income is hard to come by. We show how to combine income realizations with subjective expectations to identify separately the transitory and the permanent shock to income and to obtain a measure of idiosyncratic uncertainty, thus providing a powerful test of the theory in short panels. The empirical analysis is performed on a sample of Italian households drawn from the 1989–1991 Survey of Household Income and Wealth

In this article we ask: what kind of information and how much of it should firms voluntarily disclose? Three types of disclosures are considered. One is information that complements the information available only to informed investors (to-be-processed complementary information). The second is information that is orthogonal to that which any investor can acquire and thus complements the information available to all investors (preprocessed complementary information). And the third is information that substitutes for the information of the informed investors in that it reveals to all what was previously known only by the informed (substitute information). Our main results are as follows. First, in equilibrium, all types of firms voluntarily disclose all three types of information. Second, in contrast to the existing literature, complementary information disclosure by firms strengthens investors' private incentives to acquire information. Substitute information disclosure weakens private information acquisition incentives. Third, while complementary information disclosure has an ambiguous effect on financial innovation incentives, substitute information disclosure weakens those incentives

In this article we ask: what kind of information and how much of it should firms voluntarily disclose? Three types of disclosures are considered. One is information that complements the information available only to informed investors (to-be-processed complementary information). The second is information that is orthogonal to that which any investor can acquire and thus complements the information available to all investors (preprocessed complementary information). And the third is information that substitutes for the information of the informed investors in that it reveals to all what was previously known only by the informed (substitute information). Our main results are as follows. First, in equilibrium, all types of firms voluntarily disclose all three types of information. Second, in contrast to the existing literature, complementary information disclosure by firms strengthens investors’ private incentives to acquire information. Substitute information disclosure weakens private information acquisition incentives. Third, while complementary information disclosure has an ambiguous effect on financial innovation incentives, substitute information disclosure weakens those incentives

Moody's endorses the Basel Committee's proposal to use banks' internal risk assessments to refine the Basel Accord's risk weights on bank assets and commitments. External risk assessments, such as Moody's credit ratings, will likely play a supporting role as direct inputs into banks' internal rating systems and as tools for benchmarking and validating those systems. However, the widespread use of ratings in regulation threatens to undermine the quality of credit over time by increasing rating shopping, decreasing rating agency independence, and reducing incentives to innovate and improve the quality of ratings. This paper discusses how bank regulators can use external ratings in ways that mitigate the adverse incentives created by the resulting regulatory demand for rating agency services

Executive stock options and convertible securities can increase the number of common shares outstanding while adding less than the market value of the newly issued securities to a firm's assets. We model the effect of expected dilution on the earnings/return relation. Expected dilution effectively reduces the permanence of an earnings innovation. Empirical evidence supports the hypothesis that dilutive securities attenuate the relation between earnings and returns. Estimated earnings response coefficients (ERCs) are significantly lower when there are shares reserved for conversion. The effect is more pronounced for firms that have experienced price increases or positive earnings news, as these increase the expected dilutive effect of conversions

This paper analyzes mutual‐fund performance from an investor's perspective. We study the portfolio‐choice problem for a mean‐variance investor choosing among a risk‐free asset, index funds, and actively managed mutual funds. To solve this problem, we employ a Bayesian method of performance evaluation; a key innovation in our approach is the development of a flexible set of prior beliefs about managerial skill. We then apply our methodology to a sample of 1,437 mutual funds. We find that some extremely skeptical prior beliefs nevertheless lead to economically significant allocations to active managers