Abstract
We revisit one of the results in Cicala (2015) and show that the previously estimated large and significant effects of US electricity restructuring on fuel procurement are not robust to the presence of outliers. Using methodologies from the robust statistics literature, we estimate the effect to be less than one-half of the previous estimate and not statistically different from zero. The robust methodology also identifies as outliers the plants owned by a single company whose coal contracts were renegotiated before discussions about restructuring even started.
Abstract
Linguistics research shows that languages differ as to how they differentiate future from present events. Economics research finds that when the grammatical structure of a language disassociates the future from the present, speakers of the language also disassociate the future from the present in their behaviors. This study examines how linguistically induced time perception relates to cross-country variation in investment efficiency. We find that underinvestment is less prevalent in countries where there is a weaker time disassociation in the language. The results from both a within-country analysis based on firms headquartered in different regions of Switzerland and an analysis based on the birthplace information of U.S. firms’ chief executive officers confirm the relation between languages and investment efficiency. Collectively, the results suggest that time encoding in languages influences speakers’ cognition and their investment decisions.
Abstract
We study the problem of stochastic stability for evolutionary dynamics under the logit choice rule. We consider general classes of coordination games, symmetric or asymmetric, with an arbitrary number of strategies, which satisfies the marginal bandwagon property (i.e., there is positive feedback to coordinate). Our main result is that the most likely evolutionary escape paths from a status quo convention consist of a series of identical mistakes. As an application of our result, we show that the Nash bargaining solution arises as the long run convention for the evolutionary Nash demand game under the usual logit choice rule. We also obtain a new bargaining solution if the logit choice rule is combined with intentional idiosyncratic plays. The new bargaining solution is more egalitarian than the Nash bargaining solution, demonstrating that intentionality implies equality under the logit choice model. ⓒ 2021 Elsevier Inc.
Abstract
We study how monetary policy affects the funding composition of the banking sector. When monetary tightening reduces the supply of retail deposits, banks attempt to substitute wholesale funding for deposit outflows to smooth their lending. Because of financial frictions, banks have varying degrees of access to wholesale funding. Therefore, large banks, or those with greater reliance on wholesale funding, increase their wholesale funding more. Consequently, monetary tightening increases both the reliance on and the concentration of wholesale funding within the banking sector. Our findings also suggest that liquidity requirements could bolster monetary policy transmission through the bank lending channel. Copyright: ⓒ 2020 INFORMS.
Abstract
We exploit the staggered recognition of the Inevitable Disclosure Doctrine (IDD) by U.S. state courts to examine the effect of trade secret protection on the amount of firm-specific information incorporated in stock prices, as reflected in stock price synchronicity. We find that after certain state courts recognize the IDD, firms headquartered in those states exhibit a significant increase in stock price synchronicity relative to firms in other states. We also find a significant decrease in the disclosure of proprietary information in the firms' 10-K reports. These results suggest that IDD recognition increases the proprietary cost of disclosure and, in response, corporate managers withhold more information. In addition, we find that the increase in stock price synchronicity and the decrease in the disclosure of proprietary information lead to increases in the firm's market share, cost of equity, and market-to-book ratio, suggesting that managers sacrifice capital market benefits for product market gains.