Showing papers on "Earnings published in 2018"
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors provide the first comprehensive analysis of the labor market for Uber's driver-partners, finding that most of them had full- or part-time employment before joining Uber, and many continue in those positions after starting to drive with the Uber platform, which makes the flexibility to set their own hours especially valuable.
Abstract: Uber, the ride-sharing company launched in 2010, has grown at an exponential rate. Using both survey and administrative data, the authors provide the first comprehensive analysis of the labor market for Uber’s driver-partners. Drivers appear to be attracted to the Uber platform largely because of the flexibility it offers, the level of compensation, and the fact that earnings per hour do not vary much based on the number of hours worked. Uber’s driver-partners are more similar in terms of their age and education to the general workforce than to taxi drivers and chauffeurs. Most of Uber’s driver-partners had full- or part-time employment before joining Uber, and many continue in those positions after starting to drive with the Uber platform, which makes the flexibility to set their own hours especially valuable. Drivers often cite the desire to smooth fluctuations in their income as one of their reasons for partnering with Uber.
550 citations
21 Apr 2018
TL;DR: In this paper, a task-level analysis revealed that workers earn a median hourly wage of only ~$2/h, and only 4% earned more than $7.25/h.
Abstract: A growing number of people are working as part of on-line crowd work. Crowd work is often thought to be low wage work. However, we know little about the wage distribution in practice and what causes low/high earnings in this setting. We recorded 2,676 workers performing 3.8 million tasks on Amazon Mechanical Turk. Our task-level analysis revealed that workers earned a median hourly wage of only ~$2/h, and only 4% earned more than $7.25/h. While the average requester pays more than $11/h, lower-paying requesters post much more work. Our wage calculations are influenced by how unpaid work is accounted for, e.g., time spent searching for tasks, working on tasks that are rejected, and working on tasks that are ultimately not submitted. We further explore the characteristics of tasks and working patterns that yield higher hourly wages. Our analysis informs platform design and worker tools to create a more positive future for crowd work.
293 citations
TL;DR: For non-elderly adults with health insurance, hospital admissions increase out-of-pocket medical spending, unpaid medical bills and bankruptcy, and reduce earnings, income, access to credit and consumer borrowing.
Abstract: We use an event study approach to examine the economic consequences of hospital admissions for adults in two datasets: survey data from the Health and Retirement Study, and hospitalization data linked to credit reports. For non-elderly adults with health insurance, hospital admissions increase out-of-pocket medical spending, unpaid medical bills and bankruptcy, and reduce earnings, income, access to credit and consumer borrowing. The earnings decline is substantial compared to the out-of-pocket spending increase, and is minimally insured prior to age-eligibility for Social Security Retirement Income. Relative to the insured non-elderly, the uninsured non-elderly experience much larger increases in unpaid medical bills and bankruptcy rates following a hospital admission. Hospital admissions trigger less than 5 percent of all bankruptcies.
266 citations
TL;DR: For example, this paper found that the women appointed to these boards post-reform were observably more qualified than their female predecessors along many dimensions, and that the gender gap in earnings within boards fell substantially.
Abstract: In late 2003, Norway passed a law mandating 40% representation of each gender on the board of public limited liability companies. The primary objective of this reform was to increase the representation of women in top positions in the corporate sector and decrease the gender disparity in earnings within that sector. We document that the women appointed to these boards post-reform were observably more qualified than their female predecessors along many dimensions, and that the gender gap in earnings within boards fell substantially. However, we see no robust evidence that the reform benefited the larger set of women employed in the companies subject to the quota. Moreover, the reform had no clear impact on highly qualified women whose qualifications mirror those of board members but who were not appointed to boards. Finally, we find mixed support for the view that the reform affected the decisions of young women. While the reform was not accompanied by any change in female enrollment in business education programmes, we do see some improvements in labour market outcomes for young women with graduate business degrees in their early career stages; however, we observe similar improvements for young women with graduate science degrees, suggesting this may not be due to the reform. Overall, seven years after the board quota policy fully came into effect, we conclude that it had very little discernible impact on women in business beyond its direct effect on the women who made it into boardrooms.
220 citations
TL;DR: The authors found that the aggregate opinion from individual tweets successfully predicts a firm's forthcoming quarterly earnings and announcement returns, and the results hold even after controlling for concurrent information or opinion from traditional media sources, and are stronger for firms in weaker information environments.
Abstract: Prior research has examined how companies exploit Twitter in communicating with investors, and whether Twitter activity predicts the stock market as a whole. We test whether opinions of individuals tweeted just prior to a firm's earnings announcement predict its earnings and announcement returns. Using a broad sample from 2009 to 2012, we find that the aggregate opinion from individual tweets successfully predicts a firm's forthcoming quarterly earnings and announcement returns. These results hold for tweets that convey original information, as well as tweets that disseminate existing information, and are stronger for tweets providing information directly related to firm fundamentals and stock trading. Importantly, our results hold even after controlling for concurrent information or opinion from traditional media sources, and are stronger for firms in weaker information environments. Our findings highlight the importance of considering the aggregate opinion from individual tweets when assessing...
213 citations
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TL;DR: This article found that stock return anomalies are 50% higher on corporate news days and six times higher on earnings announcement days and that these results could be explained by dynamic risk, mispricing due to biased expectations, or data mining.
Abstract: Using a sample of 97 stock return anomalies, we find that anomaly returns are 50% higher on corporate news days and six times higher on earnings announcement days. These results could be explained by dynamic risk, mispricing due to biased expectations, or data mining. We develop and conduct several unique tests to differentiate between these three explanations. Our results are most consistent with the idea that anomaly returns are driven by biased expectations, which are at least partly corrected upon news arrival.
167 citations
Posted Content•
TL;DR: In this article, the authors apply the GMM regression estimation approach to a matched sample of French firms listed on Euronext Paris during the period 2001-2010 in order to investigate the relationship between female directors and earnings management by considering their specific (statutory and demographic) attributes.
Abstract: We apply the system GMM regression estimation approach to a matched sample of French firms listed on Euronext Paris during the period 2001–2010 in order to investigate the relationship between female directors and earnings management by considering their specific (statutory and demographic) attributes. We first find that the presence of female directors deters managers from managing earnings. However, this finding does not hold when the statutory and demographic attributes of female directors are taken into account, thus showing that the detection and the correction of earnings management require particular competencies and skills. Interestingly, we find that business expertise and audit committee membership are key attributes of female directors that promote the effective monitoring of earnings management. An important implication of our findings is that the decision to appoint women on corporate boards should be based more on their statutory and demographic attributes than on blind implementation of gender quotas. Finally, our supplementary analysis reveals that female CEOs and CFOs are strongly inclined to reduce earnings management.
162 citations
Book•
21 Feb 2018TL;DR: In this article, the authors present evidence that 20 percent of the 10-Ks in their sample are filed with the SEC after the 90-day statutory due date, which is not a random sample of firms.
Abstract: We present evidence that 20 percent of the 10-Ks in our sample are filed with the SEC after the 90-day statutory due date. Firms that delay filing their 10-K are not a random sample of firms; up to 25 (10) percent of the firms experiencing unfavorable (favorable) economic events delay their 10-K. Firms that delay their 10-K are, on average, small, have negative accounting rates of return, negative earnings changes, low liquidity, and high financial leverage; they also experience negative market- adjusted stock returns.
154 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the consequences of climate-related risk on financing choices by publicly listed firms across the globe were examined using the Global Climate Risk Index compiled and published by Germanwatch (Kreft & Eckstein, 2014).
Abstract: Increasingly adverse climatic conditions have created greater systematic risk for companies throughout the global economy. Few studies have directly examined the consequences of climate-related risk on financing choices by publicly listed firms across the globe. We attempt to do so using the Global Climate Risk Index compiled and published by Germanwatch (Kreft & Eckstein, 2014), which captures at the country level the extent of losses from extreme weather events. As expected, we find the likelihood of loss from major storms, flooding, heat waves, etc. to be associated with lower and more volatile earnings and cash flows. Consistent with policies that attempt to moderate such effects, we show that firms located in countries characterized by more severe weather are likelier to hold more cash so as to build financial slack and thereby organizational resilience to climatic threats. Those firms also tend to have less short-term debt but more long-term debt, and to be less likely to distribute cash dividends. In addition, we find that certain industries are less vulnerable to extreme weather and so face less climate-related risk. Our results are robust to using an instrumental variable approach, a propensity-score-matched sample, and path analysis, and remain unchanged when we consider an alternative measure of climate risk. Finally, our conclusions are invariant to the timing of financial crises that can affect different countries at different times.
148 citations
TL;DR: The Changing Wealth of Nations 2018: Building a Sustainable Future covers national wealth for 141 countries over 20 years (1995-2014) as the sum of produced capital, 19 types of natural capital, net foreign assets, and human capital overall as well as by gender and type of employment as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: Countries regularly track gross domestic product (GDP) as an indicator of their economic progress, but not wealth—the assets such as infrastructure, forests, minerals, and human capital that produce GDP In contrast, corporations routinely report on both their income and assets to assess their economic health and prospects for the future Wealth accounts allow countries to take stock of their assets to monitor the sustainability of development, an urgent concern today for all countries The Changing Wealth of Nations 2018: Building a Sustainable Future covers national wealth for 141 countries over 20 years (1995–2014) as the sum of produced capital, 19 types of natural capital, net foreign assets, and human capital overall as well as by gender and type of employment Great progress has been made in estimating wealth since the fi rst volume, Where Is the Wealth of Nations? Measuring Capital for the 21st Century, was published in 2006 New data substantially improve estimates of natural capital, and, for the first time, human capital is measured by using household surveys to estimate lifetime earnings The Changing Wealth of Nations 2018 begins with a review of global and regional trends in wealth over the past two decades and provides examples of how wealth accounts can be used for the analysis of development patterns Several chapters discuss the new work on human capital and its application in development policy The book then tackles elements of natural capital that are not yet fully incorporated in the wealth accounts: air pollution, marine fisheries, and ecosystems This book targets policy makers but will engage anyone committed to building a sustainable future for the planet
145 citations
TL;DR: This paper studied the relationship between productivity, management practices, and employee ability using German data combining management practices surveys with employees' longitudinal earnings records and found that better-managed firms recruit and retain workers with higher average human capital.
Abstract: We study the relationship among productivity, management practices, and employee ability using German data combining management practices surveys with employees’ longitudinal earnings records. Including human capital reduces the association between productivity and management practices by 30%–50%. Only a small fraction is accounted for by the higher human capital of the average employee at better-managed firms. A larger share is attributable to the human capital of the highest-paid workers, that is, the managers. A similar share is mediated through the pay premiums offered by better-managed firms. We find that better-managed firms recruit and retain workers with higher average human capital.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors present new evidence on the evolution of black-white earnings differences among all men, including both workers and nonworkers, and study two measures: (i) the level earnings gap, the difference between a black man's percentile in the black earnings distribution and the position he would hold in the white earnings distribution.
Abstract: We present new evidence on the evolution of black–white earnings differences among all men, including both workers and nonworkers. We study two measures: (i) the level earnings gap—the racial earnings difference at a given quantile; and (ii) the earnings rank gap—the difference between a black man's percentile in the black earnings distribution and the position he would hold in the white earnings distribution. After narrowing from 1940 to the mid-1970s, the median black–white level earnings gap has since grown as large as it was in 1950. At the same time, the median black man's relative position in the earnings distribution has remained essentially constant since 1940, so that the improvement then worsening of median relative earnings have come mainly from the stretching and narrowing of the overall earnings distribution. Black men at higher percentiles have experienced significant advances in relative earnings since 1940, due mainly to strong positional gains among those with college educations. Large relative schooling gains by blacks at the median and below have been more than counteracted by rising return to skill in the labor market, which has increasingly penalized remaining racial differences in schooling at the bottom of the distribution.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors examine whether firms use social media to strategically disseminate financial information and find that firms are less likely to disseminate when the news is bad and when the magnitude of the bad news is worse, consistent with strategic behavior.
Abstract: We examine whether firms use social media to strategically disseminate financial information. Analyzing S&P 1500 firms' use of Twitter to disseminate quarterly earnings announcements, we find that firms are less likely to disseminate when the news is bad and when the magnitude of the bad news is worse, consistent with strategic behavior. Furthermore, firms tend to send fewer earnings announcement tweets and “rehash” tweets when the news is bad. Cross-sectional analyses suggest that incentives for strategic dissemination are higher for firms with a lower level of investor sophistication and firms with a larger social media audience. We also find that strategic dissemination behavior is detectable in high litigation risk firms, but not low litigation risk firms. Finally, we find that the tweeting of bad news and the subsequent retweeting of that news by a firm's followers are associated with more negative news articles written about the firm by the traditional media, highlighting a potential downsi...
TL;DR: In this paper, a dynamic model of educational choice is proposed that synthesizes approaches in the structural dynamic discrete choice literature with approaches used in the reduced form treatment effect literature, which is an empirically robust middle ground between the two approaches which estimates economically interpretable and policy-relevant dynamic treatment effects that account for heterogeneity in cognitive and non-cognitive skills and the continuation values of educational choices.
Abstract: This paper estimates returns to education using a dynamic model of educational choice that synthesizes approaches in the structural dynamic discrete choice literature with approaches used in the reduced form treatment effect literature. It is an empirically robust middle ground between the two approaches which estimates economically interpretable and policy-relevant dynamic treatment effects that account for heterogeneity in cognitive and non-cognitive skills and the continuation values of educational choices. Graduating college is not a wise choice for all. Ability bias is a major component of observed educational differentials. For some, there are substantial causal effects of education at all stages of schooling.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors examine the improvements to forecast accuracy that result from analysts' visits to listed companies and find that company visits significantly enhance the accuracy of the analysts' earnings forecasts for those companies.
Abstract: We examine the improvements to forecast accuracy that result from analysts’ visits to listed companies. We find that company visits significantly enhance the accuracy of the analysts’ earnings forecasts for those companies. The benefit from company visits is more pronounced for companies that are more neglected or less accessible and for brokerage firms that face less pressure for optimistic forecasts from buy-side clients. Our results are robust and remain significant after controlling for endogeneity and selection bias. Overall, our findings show that private interactions with company management provide analysts with an informational advantage and suggest that company visits facilitate the mosaic approach to information acquisition.
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TL;DR: In this article, the authors find that in bad times, analyst revisions have a larger stock price impact, earnings forecast errors per unit of uncertainty fall, and analyst reports are more frequent and longer.
Abstract: Because uncertainty is high in bad times, investors find it harder to assess firm prospects and hence should value analyst output more. However, higher uncertainty makes analysts’ tasks harder, so it is unclear whether analyst output is more valuable in bad times. We find that in bad times, analyst revisions have a larger stock‐price impact, earnings forecast errors per unit of uncertainty fall, and analyst reports are more frequent and longer. The increased impact of analysts is also more pronounced for harder‐to‐value firms. These results are consistent with analysts working harder and investors relying more on analysts in bad times.
TL;DR: This paper examined the effect of robo-journalism on the speed of price discovery in the stock market and found that automated news articles increase trading volume and liquidity, and that the effects are most likely driven by retail traders.
Abstract: In 2014, the Associated Press (AP) began using algorithms to write articles about firms’ earnings announcements. These “robo-journalism” articles synthesize information from firms’ press releases, analyst reports, and stock performance and are widely disseminated by major news outlets a few hours after the earnings release. The articles are available for thousands of firms on a quarterly basis, many of which previously received little or no media attention. We use AP’s staggered implementation of robo-journalism to examine the effects of media synthesis and dissemination, in a setting where the articles are devoid of private information and are largely exogenous to the firm’s earnings news and disclosure choices. We find compelling evidence that automated articles increase firms’ trading volume and liquidity. The effects are most likely driven by retail traders. We find no evidence that the articles improve or impede the speed of price discovery. Our study provides novel evidence on the impact of pure synthesis and dissemination of public information in capital markets and initial insights into the implications of automated journalism for market efficiency.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors synthesize the nearly two decades of research on non-GAAP reporting to provide insights on what academics have learned to date about this reporting practice, and utilize a novel dataset of detailed non- GAAP disclosures to provide new descriptive evidence on current trends in non GAAP reporting and its recent proliferation.
Abstract: The number of firms reporting earnings on a non†GAAP basis has increased dramatically over the last decade, and non†GAAP reporting is now commonplace in capital markets. This proliferation of non†GAAP reporting has renewed both regulators’ and standard setters’ interests in these alternative performance metrics. For example, the SEC, FASB, and IASB have all recently questioned what this increasing reporting trend means for IFRS†and US†GAAP†based reporting and whether these measures are misleading to investors. This increasing focus on non†GAAP metrics motivates us to synthesize the nearly two decades of research on non†GAAP reporting to provide insights on what academics have learned to date about this reporting practice. Then, we utilize a novel dataset of detailed non†GAAP disclosures to provide new descriptive evidence on current trends in non†GAAP reporting and its recent proliferation. Finally, we discuss important questions for future researchers to consider in moving the literature forward.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors investigate the contribution of the tourism sector to economic growth of the micro states over the period 1995-2015, using second generation panel approach that accounts for cross-sectional dependence, by incorporating investment in human capital as an additional variable.
TL;DR: This article reviewed the recent research trying to explain women's underrepresentation in the upper part of the earnings distribution and highlighted possible countervailing forces (both at work and at home) that may explain why these work-family considerations may remain highly relevant to today's glass ceiling.
Abstract: Despite decades of progress, women remain underrepresented in the upper part of the earnings distribution. We review the recent research trying to explain this phenomenon. After briefly revisiting gender differences in education, we turn our attention to a body of work that has argued that gender differences in psychological attributes are holding back women's earnings. We then review another active area of research focused on the challenges that women may face when trying to juggle competing demands on their time in the workplace and the home, particularly when the home includes children. We discuss recent work documenting women's greater demand for flexibility in the workplace, as well as work measuring the labour market penalties associated with such demand for flexibility, particularly in the higher paying occupations in the economy. We highlight possible countervailing forces (both at work and at home) that may explain why these work–family considerations may remain highly relevant to today's glass ceiling despite reduced time spent in non‐market work and a trend towards a more equal division of non‐market work between men and women. Finally, we discuss the role that public policy and human resource practices may play in adding more cracks to the glass ceiling.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors compared the labour market outcomes of refugees (those who migrated to seek asylum), natives (UK-born), and other migrants in the UK (work, study and family migrants).
Abstract: Using 2010-2017 data we compare the labour market outcomes of refugees (those who migrated to seek asylum), natives (UK-born), and other migrants in the UK (work, study and family migrants). The results indicate that refugees are less likely to be employed and earn less than natives and other migrants. The evidence suggests that differences in health status (particularly mental health) may be one of the factors that partly explain these gaps. Employment growth of refugees between 2010 and 2016 was significantly higher than that of other migrants, but this was not the case for earnings.
TL;DR: This article investigated the impacts of oil prices on bank performance through a broad array of CAMEL (Capital adequacy, Asset quality, Management, Earnings, and Liquidity) indicators in China over the period 2000-2014.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors test two corporate social responsibility (CSR) views of dividends and find that firms with a stronger involvement in CSR activities should be associated with a lower (higher) dividend payouts.
Abstract: This study outlines and tests two corporate social responsibility (CSR) views of dividends. The first view argues that firms are likely to pay fewer dividends because CSR activities lower the cost of equity, encouraging firms to invest or hoard cash rather than to pay dividends. The second view suggests that CSR activities are positive NPV projects that increases earnings and hence dividend payouts. The first (second) view predicts that firms with a stronger involvement in CSR activities should be associated with a lower (higher) dividend payouts. The finding supports the second view and is robust.
TL;DR: A strong other family income effect that explains some but not all of the U-shape education relationship is found and the importance of occupational sex segregation, which excludes moderately educated Indian women from clerical and sales jobs is suggested.
Abstract: Background Theories of human capital would suggest that with more education, women acquire greater skills and their earnings increase, resulting in higher labor force participation. However, it has been long known that in India, women's education has a U-shaped relationship with labor force participation. Part of the decline at moderate levels of education may be due to an income effect whereby women with more education marry into richer families that enable them to withdraw from the labor force. Objective The paper uses the first comprehensive Indian income data to evaluate whether the other family income effect explains the negative relationship between moderate women's education and their labor force participation. Methods Using two waves of the India Human Development Survey, a comprehensive measure of labor force participation is regressed on educational levels for currently married women, 25-59. Results We find a strong other family income effect that explains some but not all of the U-shape education relationship. Further analyses suggest the importance of a lack of suitable employment opportunities for moderately educated women. Conclusion Other factors need to be identified to explain the paradoxical U-shape relationship. We suggest the importance of occupational sex segregation, which excludes moderately educated Indian women from clerical and sales jobs. Contribution This paper provides a more definitive test of the other family income effect and identifies new directions for future research that might explain the paradoxical U-curve relationship.
TL;DR: A review of the literature linking natural resources to local labor markets is synthesized by organizing existing studies according to their resource measurement and the outcomes that they consider as mentioned in this paper, which provides an accessible guide to a literature that has boomed in recent years.
Abstract: A primary way that natural resources affect a locality is through the demand for labor, with greater extraction requiring more workers. Shifts in labor demand can be measured through changes in employment and earnings, the main labor market outcomes, or through changes in the population and income, more generally. These changes may spillover into the nonresource economy, leading to greater overall effects or possibly crowd out; be spread unequally across the population, thereby altering the distribution of income and the poverty rate; or influence educational attainment, as people choose between additional schooling and work. In this review, the literature linking natural resources to local labor markets is synthesized by organizing existing studies according to their resource measurement and the outcomes that they consider. This synthesis provides an accessible guide to a literature that has boomed in recent years. It also identifies promising avenues for future research and lays a foundation to further generalize the evidence through an eventual meta-analysis.
TL;DR: This paper examined the use of first person singular pronouns by CEOs in response to questions at analyst conferences to measure narcissism and found that firms with narcissistic CEOs engage in accruals management to manage earnings positively, highlighting the important effect of CEO personality on accounting choices.
Abstract: We provide the first empirical test of the relation between CEO narcissism and earnings manipulation. We test the hypothesis that narcissistic leaders over‐identify themselves with the organizations they lead and expend considerable effort to achieve their goals, including by engaging in unethical behaviour. Earnings announcements are highly anticipated information releases by organizations. They are a key performance indicator used to evaluate the performance of CEOs. This study examines the use of first person singular pronouns by CEOs in response to questions at analyst conferences to measure narcissism. We provide evidence that firms with narcissistic CEOs engage in accruals management to manage earnings positively, highlighting the important effect of CEO personality on accounting choices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
TL;DR: The authors found that married men earn more money than unmarried men, a key result of the research on marriage benefits, and they found that such a "male marital welfare" is a "female marital welfare".
Abstract: This study reconsiders the phenomenon that married men earn more money than unmarried men, a key result of the research on marriage benefits. Many earlier studies have found such a “male marital wa...
TL;DR: In this article, the authors analyzed the role of corporate governance in enhancing firm value along with the moderating role of discretionary earnings management (DEM) using models proposed by Kasznik (1999) and Beatty, Ke, & Petroni (2002).
TL;DR: This paper used newly available GAAP forecasts to document that traditionally-identified GAAP forecast errors contain 37% measurement error, and this error masks evidence that firms more frequently exclude transitory rather than recurring expenses for meet-or-beat purposes.
Posted Content•
TL;DR: In this article, the effects of local industrial concentration on earnings outcomes within and across demographic groups were investigated using data from the Longitudinal Business Database and Form W-2, and they found that increased local concentration reduces earnings and increases inequality.
Abstract: Using data from the Longitudinal Business Database and Form W-2, I document trends in local industrial concentration from 1976 through 2015 and estimate the effects of that concentration on earnings outcomes within and across demographic groups. Local industrial concentration has generally been declining throughout its distribution over that period, unlike national industrial concentration, which declined sharply in the early 1980s before increasing steadily to nearly its original level beginning around 1990. Estimates indicate that increased local concentration reduces earnings and increases inequality, but observed changes in concentration have been in the opposite direction, and the magnitude of these effects has been modest relative to broader trends; back-of-the-envelope calculations suggest that the 90/10 earnings ratio was about six percent lower and earnings were about one percent higher in 2015 than they would have been if local concentration were at its 1976 level. Within demographic subgroups, most experience mean earnings reductions and all experience increases in inequality. Estimates of the effects of concentration on earnings mobility are sensitive to specification.