Dividend Policy, Agency Costs, and Earned Equity

Why do firms pay dividends? If they didn't their asset and capital structures would eventually become untenable as the earnings of successful firms outstrip their investment opportunities. Had they not paid dividends, the 25 largest long-standing 2002 dividend payers would have cash holdings of $1.8 trillion (51$160 billion (6% of assets), and $1.2 trillion in excess of their collective$600 billion in long-term debt. Their dividend payments prevented significant agency problems since the retention of earnings would have given managers command over an additional $1.6 trillion without access to better investment opportunities and with no additional monitoring. This logic suggests that firms with relatively high amounts of earned equity (retained earnings) are especially likely to pay dividends. Consistent with this view, the fraction of publicly traded industrial firms that pays dividends is high when the ratio of earned equity to total equity (total assets) is high, and falls with declines in this ratio, becoming near zero when a firm has little or no earned equity. We observe a highly significant relation between the decision to pay dividends and the ratio of earned equity to total equity or total assets,controlling for firm size, profitability, growth, leverage, cash balances, and dividend history. In our regressions, earned equity has an economically more important impact than does profitability or growth. Our evidence is consistent with the hypothesis that firms pay dividends to mitigate agency problems.

Fundamentals, Market Timing, and Seasoned Equity Offerings

Firms conduct SEOs to resolve a near-term liquidity squeeze, and not primarily to exploit market timing opportunities. Without the SEO proceeds, 62.6% of issuers would have insufficient cash to implement their chosen operating and non-SEO financing decisions the year after the SEO. Although the SEO decision is positively related to a firm's market-to-book (M/B) ratio and prior excess stock return and negatively related to its future excess return, these relations are economically immaterial. For example, a 150% swing in future net of market stock returns (from a 75% gain to a 75% loss over three years) increases by only 1% the probability of an SEO in the immediately prior year. Strikingly, most firms with quintessential "market timer" characteristics fail to issue stock and a non-trivial number of mature firms do issue stock, with current and former dividend payers raising more than half of all issue proceeds.

A dynamic and stochastic analysis of fertilizer use in swidden agriculture

The number of times a crop can be harvested on a cleared parcel of forest land (CPFL) before this land must be fallowed is dependent on the decision to use or not to use fertilizers to enhance soil fertility. As such, we first construct a theoretical model of fertilizer use by a swidden cultivator when this cultivator can choose whether or not to enhance soil fertility by using fertilizers. Second, we analyze two different policies (fertilizer use and no fertilizer use) for overseeing the problem of soil fertility deterioration on the CPFL. Finally, we identify a particular likelihood function and we show that whether the problem of soil fertility impairment is best addressed with a fertilizer use policy or with a no fertilizer use policy depends essentially on this likelihood function.

Characterizing regulation and negligence rule uncertainty in solid waste management

We propose a model of municipal waste management that combines waste quality monitoring with leachate control. These inputs modulate two types of uncertainty. First, waste quality is uncertain, as it arrives from several nonpoint sources and may contain hazardous waste. Second, while U.S. federal law requires landfill operators to employ these specific inputs, the rates at which they should be employed to avoid culpable negligence for environmental damages are uncertain. We extend the economic literature regarding the management of these types of uncertainty to this municipal waste context.

Mechanisms of atrocity prevention policy brief on gender mainstreaming

The purpose of this brief is to provide recommendations on how to approach the possibilities of gender mainstreaming when gender identities are nonbinary. This brief also gives an overview of gender mainstreaming issues when it comes to downstream phases of atrocity prevention in places that have recently recovered from civil wars—the same civil wars which systematically committed violence against women and gender non-conforming people

New approaches to the management of adult acute lymphoblastic leukemia

Traditional treatment regimens for adult acute lymphoblastic leukemia, including allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation, result in an overall survival of about 40%, a figure hardly comparable with the extraordinary 80-90% cure rate currently reported in children. When translated to the adult setting, modern pediatric-type regimens improve the survival to about 60% in young adults. The addition of tyrosine kinase inhibitors for patients with Philadelphia chromosome positive disease and the measurement of minimal residual disease to guide risk stratification and post-remission approaches has led to further improvements in outcomes. Relapsed disease and treatment toxicity - sparing no patient but representing a major concern especially in the elderly - are the most critical current issues awaiting further therapeutic advancement. Recently, there has been considerable progress in understanding the disease biology, specifically the Philadelphia-like signature as well as other high-risk subgroups. In addition, there are several new agents that will undoubtedly contribute to further improvement in the current outcomes. The most promising agents are new the monoclonal antibodies, immunomodulators, and chimeric antigen receptor T cells and, to a lesser extent, several new drugs targeting key molecular pathways involved in leukemic cell growth and proliferation. This review examines the evidence supporting the increasing role of the new therapeutic tools and treatment options in different disease subgroups, including frontline and relapsed/refractory disease. It is now possible to define the best individual approach based on to the emerging concepts of precision medicine

Grandparenting Center: Connecting the Generations

Site: Hong Kong Grandparenting Center: Connecting the Generations This building represents a Grandparenting Center, a place with a variety of activities where grandparents or older guardians can take children for the day. One in three older adults in Hong Kong are caretakers for children at least one day a week, and in most cases much longer. This center is a space where grandparents can connect with their grandchildren while also building a community of peers with similar responsibilities and demands. A chief complaint of older adults caring for children is the physical demands of keeping up with a child. In order to foster positive interactions within the center, this building strives to take the burden off of the bodies of older adults and children by providing manageable circulation as well as places for rest within the building. Circulation consists of ramps, stairs with lower rises and deeper runs, and half-levels or less between spaces. Different types of built-in seating throughout the complex provide spaces to rest, ideally promoting activity in the more flexible spaces of the complex. In promoting both activity and pause within the project, proprioception and light became important considerations. Intergenerational connections are promoted by taking the different scales of a child and an older adult into consideration and proving areas of level changes. These level changes allow older adults to connect with younger children face-to-face. Two main components that allow for these connections include built-ins and ramping of the floor within a space. The plane of the floor becomes important in creating gradual shifts to allow for the two individuals to connect. Some spaces are oriented towards one-on-one interactions between an adult and child while other areas are designed for community interactions. The complex itself is broken up into four forms with distinct heights which create a series of terraces that look out towards the street and bay area. Hong Kong has a humid subtropical climate where the coldest months see average temperatures in the low 50s and the warmest months see average temperatures in the high 80s. During the hot summer days, large overhangs on the southern side of the building protect the complex from solar heat gain and provide areas of shade on the terraces. Since weather in the spring and fall is quite comfortable, the terraces should be able to be used for the majority of the year.https://openscholarship.wustl.edu/spring2019_greer/1002/thumbnail.jp

Campus Consignment

As environmental awareness and sustainability have become more widely promoted, it has resulted in an increase in the importance of recycling. A consignment store, by definition, is a second-hand store that offers previously owned goods, both used and unused, for a lower price than that of new products. Consignment stores provide consumers with an outlet through which they can recycle items, by selling those that they no longer use and purchasing products that have been previously owned. Along with their environmental benefits, these businesses present creative designers with the chance to sell their original work. My experience working at a consignment store has allowed me to recognize consignment as a valuable business opportunity providing affordable fashion to the community. The University of Rhode Island has allowed me to explore my studies of Marketing and Textiles, Fashion Merchandising, and Design, and to combine them with my love for fashion, retail, and general business. This project is my way of integrating my education and my experience working at a consignment store with what I am passionate about. The purpose of this project was to provide URI with a successful student-run organization and business. My project will consist of a written business plan for a Campus Consignment store to be run by and for students and faculty at URI’s Kingston campus. A student club, the Campus Consignment Club, will be organized specifically for the store’s operations. The goal of this club and of the store is to provide motivated students with an avenue to gain hands-on experience establishing and maintaining all aspects of a successful business. Together, both the Campus Consignment Club and the consignment store would offer the university community an additional opportunity to become more environmentally conscious. I will conduct market research to help me determine and locate the market for the store, to understand the wants and needs of the customer, and to realize the potential of a student organization for this business. My ultimate goal for this project was to explore my interests, to apply my knowledge of business in a way that would allow me to strengthen my skills, and to learn and prepare myself for my future as a potential small business owner through creating a detailed business plan

Tree Shadow Series

My shadow paintings aim to create a symbiotic relationship between contemporary art and nature by combining synthetically produced materials with distinct organic forms. In every moment, there exist uncontrollable variables which create unique experiences. I am in awe of the elegant audacity with which nature reveals these moments. I initiate a discussion with nature by bringing the canvas outside and painting fleeting shadows projected onto the canvas. Although my first four paintings stopped here, the more recent paintings were then brought into the studio, where it was my challenge to formally transform the layered tracings into paintings. Ideally, these captured moments of light (or the absence thereof) accumulate to yield another completely individual experience provided by the color and movement of the painting itself