Showing papers by "Stockholm School of Economics published in 1990"
TL;DR: In this article, a simple taxonomy of international environmental problems is developed, based on economic considerations, and the unidirectional externalities are illustrated by the case of one upstream and one downstream country.
Abstract: A simple taxonomy of international environmental problems is developed, based on economic considerations. The unidirectional externalities are illustrated by the case of one upstream and one downstream country. The main problem in this case is an informational one. The analysis of regional reciprocal externalities is illustrated by the acid rains in Europe. It is shown that an efficient solution could be achieved by transferable "export" rights. Finally, global external problems are discussed with reference to greenhouse effects and extinction of species. Copyright 1990 by Oxford University Press.
191 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors investigated the hypothesis that large shareholders use shares with differential voting rights for the purpose of expropriating minority shareholders and found that large owners own much more equity than required for control.
Abstract: The paper investigates the hypothesis that large shareholders use shares with differential voting rights for the purpose of expropriating minority shareholders Consistent with several theoretical arguments but inconsistent with the expropriation hypothesis, we find that large shareholders own much more equity than required for control We also show how the law can construct a regulation which reduces the opportunity for expropriation and at the same time allows for the possible benefits of differential voting rights
155 citations
TL;DR: Reactions in selected groups of the Swedish population to the Chernobyl accident were found to be predominantly negative, that the risk associated with radiation and nuclear power were rated among the worst risks, and that residents of the most exposed region (Gavle) reported being worried about injury from radiation twice as often as others.
140 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the effects of decision frame and opportunity on tax evasion behavior in the context of a business management task that required subjects to file simulated tax returns were examined in six different countries.
131 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, it is argued that organizational decisions sometimes play one or more of three other roles: mobilizing organizational action, distributing responsibility or providing legitimacy, and the degree of rationality in decision processes tends to vary according to the roles adopted.
Abstract: Standard prescriptive theories of decision-making and the use of information for making decisions in organizations presume that decisions serve the purpose of choice. In this article it is argued that organizational decisions sometimes play one or more of three other roles: mobilizing organizational action, distributing responsibility or providing legitimacy. Different roles imply different designs of decision processes, different usages of information, different costs and different needs for making decisions at all. The degree of rationality in decision processes tends to vary according to the roles adopted. High degrees of rationality can be interpreted as attempts to prevent action, evade responsibility or support organizational legitimacy in a complex environment.
117 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors provide empirical evidence about the determinants of corporate ownership structure in Swedish listed corporations and find that ownership concentration decreases with firm size and increases with firm-specific risk.
Abstract: This paper provides empirical evidence about the determinants of corporate ownership structure. In Swedish listed corporations, ownership concentration decreases with firm size and increases with firm-specific risk. We also find that dual classes of shares create vote concentration but that the presence of differential voting rights have limited impact on equity concentration. Our results indicate that the ambition to control a firm is not motivated by a ‘pure demand for power’. Furthermore, the value of control does not derive from the possibility to expropriate the fringe of minority shareholders. The value of control has to be motivated by some other economic motives including ownership of equity.
98 citations
93 citations
TL;DR: Bordo and Jonung as mentioned in this paper provided evidence from annual data for the period 1880-1986 that institutional variables are significant determinants of velocity in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Sweden, and Norway.
65 citations
TL;DR: This paper reviewed the most important parts of the economic theory and measurement of environmental damage and discussed the choice of money measure in a risky world, as well as three frequently employed methods for the estimation of money measures.
Abstract: The purpose of this paper is to review the most important parts of the economic theory and measurement of environmental damage. The paper is structured as follows. Section 2 introduces the willingness to pay concept and money measures such as the compensating variation and the equivalent variation. This section also offers an interpretation of money measures in terms of the outcome of a referendum. Section 3 defines the total value of an environmental asset, in order to give the reader an idea of the complexity of the money measures used in recent empirical studies. Section 4 and 5 introduce risk or uncertainty and discuss the choice of money measure in a risky world. In section 6, three frequently employed methods for the estimation of money measures are introduced. The paper ends with some remarks regarding the limitations of these approaches to decision making. Copyright 1990 by Oxford University Press.
65 citations
TL;DR: The authors found that the way entrepreneurs deal with negative outcomes explains their perseverance and affects their self-achievement; a risk-avoidance rather than a risk taking preference distinguishes them; self-Achievement, risk avoidance, and personal innovation appear to be major components of task motivation.
Abstract: Translated versions of the Miner Sentence Completion Scale-Form T and of the Differential Attribution Questionnaire were administered to entrepreneurs and to managers, in Israel, Northern and Southern Italy and Sweden. The results of this research yield strong support for a framework that integrates affective and cognitive motivational factors. In particular, it found: (1) that the way entrepreneurs deal with negative outcomes explains their perseverance and affects their self-achievement; (2) a risk-avoidance rather than a risk-taking preference distinguishes them; (3) Self-Achievement; Risk-Avoidance and Personal Innovation appear to be major components of Task Motivation. This research appears to move closer toward a more parsimonious and clearer understanding of the behaviour of the central figure in wealth formation, thus providing a framework for the designing of entrepreneurial development programmes.
59 citations
TL;DR: The microprocessor revolution is the leading edge of a new "technology system" that in itself underlies a new paradigm of organization as mentioned in this paper, and some hypotheses about how new technologies have changed our understanding of the nature of jobs, the division of labor and the control and coordination of organizations.
Abstract: The microprocessor revolution is the leading edge of a new "technology system" that in itself underlies a new paradigm of organization. While it is early to completely describe the emerging paradigm, some hypotheses can be advanced. They are presented in this paper. The hypotheses arise from studies of how new technologies have changed our understanding of the nature of jobs, the division of labor and the control and coordination of organizations. In the process of transition to the new paradigm, new professional skills will be required. It is postulated that skill in the design of organizations may be one of these.
01 Jan 1990
TL;DR: In this article, both market and policy failures can lead to environmental degradation and the correct handling of uncertainty remains a major issue, and the analysis of intemational environmental problems may benefit from the application of game theory approaches and the use of revelation mechanisism designed for public goods.
Abstract: Both market and policy failures can lead to environmental degradation Considerable progress has been made in the area of project evaluation and the valuation of environmental effect On the other hand the analytical tools to study the effects of policy failures -the impact of taxes, prices, exchange rate and incentives- are more limited The correct handling of uncertainty also remains a major issue The analysis of intemational environmental problems, such as acid rain or CO2 buildup, may benefit from the application of game theory approaches and the use of revelation mechanisism designed for public goods
TL;DR: It was found that women and retired persons tended to report a higher level of well-being, and time allocation corresponded well with national estimates.
Abstract: This study of naturally occurring behaviour employed a "beeper technique" to investigate the actions carried out by 152 subjects in eight different groups, viz. adult students, employed students who were also parents, unemployed, art students, doctoral students, alcoholics, retired people and a control group. Actions were sampled for seven subsequent days, five times per day between 8 a.m. and 10 p.m. at randomly selected occasions. Each action was rated on a number of variables, shortly after it was sampled (median delay approximately 10 min). Some of the findings were: Time allocation corresponded well with national estimates. Being under situational control was highly aversive. Instrumental and consummatory orientations correlated positively. The background variables were, on the whole, only rather weakly related to action ratings, but it was found that women and retired persons tended to report a higher level of well-being.
TL;DR: The authors refutes the claim that the use of ordinary currency would die out if legal tender laws were abolished instead, interest-bearing instruments would be used in transactions, as far as it applies to money as a medium of exchange.
Abstract: The ‘legal restrictions’ school of monetary theory hypothesizes that the use of ordinary currency would die out if legal tender laws were abolished Instead, interest-bearing instruments would be used in transactions This paper refutes the claim, as far as it applies to money as a medium of exchange The network externality or coordination convention properties of a medium of exchange imply that the strategy of holding interest-bearing instruments is not necessarily individually dominant There is a ‘critical mass’ of users that has to be assembled before a switch can occur
TL;DR: In this paper, the evolutionary game-theoretical approach to the emergence of conventions is discussed, and a precise sense in which conventions may be said to minimize transaction costs, but that they need not be efficient.
Abstract: Conventions are social institutions that solve recurrent coordination problems. In normative game theory, coordination games are considered problematic because of the multiplicity of equilibria. From a neoinstitutionalist perspective, however, this multiplicity should be an important part of the explanation of real-world institutions. The paper discusses the evolutionary (or “positive”) game-theoretical approach to the emergence of conventions. I note a precise sense in which conventions may be said to minimize transaction costs, but that they need not be efficient. Example applications to language, money, and the theory of the firm are discussed.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors represent a simple model of the European sulphur problem, which comprises twenty European countries and each country has a deposition target, which is set in such a way that the annual deposition per unit area does not exceed a "critical load."
Abstract: In this article, the authors represent a simple model of the European sulphur problem. The model comprises twenty European countries. Each country is assumed to have a deposition target, which is set in such a way that the annual deposition per unit area does not exceed a "critical load." The authors use this model to calculate the total costs of fulfilling the targets under different assumptions about the behavior of the countries. It is shown that, given an assumption about myopic noncooperative behavior on the part of each country, there will be substantial cost savings if the countries agree to cooperate on a cost-effective solution instead. However, when the countries are assumed to be rational and well informed, there will only be small costs savings from cooperation. Copyright 1990 by Oxford University Press.
TL;DR: In this paper, a family of three models for the valuation of international convertible bonds which are denominated in a currency different from that of the issuing corporation is presented, including the risk of devaluation of the currency of the country of issuing corporation.
Abstract: This paper presents a family of three models for the valuation of international convertible bonds which are denominated in a currency different from that of the country of the issuing corporation. The first model is two-state, with the value of the underlying stock and the value of the currency of the parent country as state variables. The second model is one-state. It is derived from the first one, with the two state variables collapsed into one, listed share price times exchange rate. The third model is an extension of the second one, in that it includes the risk of devaluation of the currency of the country of the issuing corporation. One specific Euroconvertible bond, issued by the Swedish corporation SCA, is used as illustration throughout.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors used ridge estimators to obtain preliminary estimates of the impulse response weights in the Box-Jenkins transfer function model and found that the estimators are most closely correlated with the optimal estimators.
Abstract: In this paper ridge estimators are used to obtain preliminary estimates of the impulse response weights in the Box-Jenkins transfer function model. Five ridge estimators and the Equity estimator are evaluated in a Monte Carlo study covering 5000 different transfer function models. The results show that although the differences between the estimators in most cases are rather small, the Dempster et al estimator RIDGM and the estimator by Lawless and Wang are best in terms of low average and median squared deviations from the true coefficient vector. The k values by these estimators are most closely correlated with the optimal k (computed from known true values) and also give the highest frequency of lowest squared error and lowest frequency of highest squared error among the investigated estimators.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors look at some models in agency theory which relate a firm's ownership form to agency problems and residual claims, and identify specific problems in ICA from the models.
01 Jan 1990
TL;DR: The experiences from the implementations of knowledge-based systems for time series analyses, in particular for eliminating seasonal variations in statistical studies of industry and trade, and for multivariate tabular analysis are discussed.
Abstract: Knowledge-based interfaces to existing statistical software are one way of applying artificial intelligence methods in data analysis and interpretation. In this paper we discuss our experiences from the implementations of knowledge-based systems for time series analyses, in particular for eliminating seasonal variations in statistical studies of industry and trade, and for multivariate tabular analysis. We further discuss the problems of realizing knowledge-based systems in a production environment and present an integrated conceptual model for knowledge-based data analysis and interpretation.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors compare U.S. owned affiliates with other firms in developing countries with respect to the shifts in sales from home to export markets in response to the debt crisis of the early 1980s.
Abstract: This paper compares U.S.-owned affiliates with other firms in developing countries with respect to the shifts in sales from home to export markets in response to the debt crisis of the early 1980s. The U.S. affiliates in heavily indebted countries increased their exports and the share of their production exported more rapidly than other firms did after 1982, while affiliates in less indebted countries did neither. However, a large part of the shift in sales by affiliates in the heavily indebted countries involved sharp reductions in local sales, often larger than the growth in exports.
01 Jan 1990
TL;DR: The techniques dealt with here are aimed at organizing information about environmental impacts in a consistent but multi-dimensional framework.
Abstract: Many approaches can be used to analyse environmental impacts. Some of them can be labelled specification techniques, aiming at organizing information about environmental impacts in a consistent but multi-dimensional framework. This work, whether it is labelled environmental impact assessment or something else, is often a good starting point — but not an alternative — to the techniques dealt with here.