Inside the black box: compensation structures of efficient Yugoslavian firms

The main purpose of the research discussed in this paper has been to try to understand the main determinants of labor productivity within a firm from the perspective of the worker through a model and econometric application. Understanding why workers do the best they can or "just make time" is at the heart of the issue. The results indicate that on the basis of these data there is support for the hypothesis that an hierarchical effort function of the workers may indeed help explain variations in firm productivity.productivity, cooperatives, worker self-management, Yugoslavia

Are CEO's paid their marginal product? An empirical analysis of executive compensation and corporate performance.

The theory and reality of chief executive compensation is explored in this paper. The study here uses a panel of data on 143 executives from America’s largest corporations. The results suggest that earlier theoretical expectations and empirical findings of compressed wage scales may not hold when top-level managers are included.compensation, executive, marginal products

Bad loans in the meltdown: micro analysis of credit union performance versus banks, an initial investigation

The current economic crisis has had a devastating impact in the credit markets as evidenced by bank failures, large bailouts and foreclosures. Trillions of dollars have been spent to prop up the financial sector in the U.S. alone. Credit unions, commercial banks and thrifts are where Americans go for home loans, but credit unions have a very different track record when it has come to bailouts from the government. Credit unions instead of taking trillions may ultimately not take a dime from the taxpayer. This paper will try to discern this advantage that credit unions have by focusing on the direct impact felt by financial institutions in the United States through net charge-offs from 1994 through 2009 using an exceptional data set that combines information on credit unions and banks in the U.S. from 1994 through 2009.credit unions; banks; cooperative; defaults; net charge-offs

Cooperative comebacks: resilience in the face of the Hurricane Katrina Catastrophe (New Orleans and Southern Mississippi, May 2005–May 2006)

Millions of lives were dramatically changed by Hurricane Katrina, the worst natural disaster in U.S. history. Numerous businesses were wiped out. People lost their homes, their livelihoods, their lives. Nearly two years after Katrina, some sectors of the aff ected region have proved to be more resilient than others. Th rough the able data collection and analysis of Mark Klinedinst, an economics professor at the University of Southern Mississippi, this report examines the plight of credit unions in the face of this disaster. Klinedinst compares credit unions with banks in southern Mississippi and in New Orleans at both the aggregate and case study levels. Klinedinst argues that analyzing credit unions under this kind of duress may be useful in identifying cooperative strengths and weaknesses that are not apparent under normal circumstances. These findings may assist credit unions with larger contingency planning as it relates to disaster preparedness.credit unions; banks; hurricane; Katrina; cooperatives; finance

Bank Decapitalization and Credit Union Capitalization: The Impact of Excessive Compensation

This article looks at the theory and empirical findings of excessive compensation on the recent financial implosion across institutional forms in banking. Compensation levels have gone up dramatically over the last 30 years as deregulation and concentration have grown. Some banks and quite a few credit unions avoided closure by prudent portfolio selection and keeping reserves up by maintaining compensation levels closer to the median level. Empirical findings here are based on a unique panel data set on U.S. commercial banks, thrifts, and credit unions from 1994 through 2010 (more than 300,000 observations) that provide evidence that the firms with the highest net worth typically are smaller institutions, are credit unions, have smaller insider loans as a percentage of assets, and have lower average pay levels. The favorable results here for credit unions, financial cooperatives, should help guide policy when deciding which type of financial institutions should be encouraged

Going forward financially: credit unions as an alternative to commercial banks

The global financial meltdown brought to light a number of weaknesses in the U.S. financial system. Not all financial institution types will be taking large sums of taxpayer money to address their crippling decisions. Credit unions in the U.S. represent a type of financial cooperative that will probably not take any taxpayer money directly due to their structure and prudential oversight. Commercial banks, especially the megabanks, are likely to see even more bailouts in the future unless structural weaknesses are addressed in the clarifications as part of the enforcement of the Dodd-Frank Act. Using a unique panel data set on U.S. commercial banks, thrifts and credit unions from 1994 through 2010 (over 300,000 observations) performance metrics on a number of dimensions point to strengths and weaknesses of the various financial institutional forms. Credit unions also have had far fewer adjustable rate mortgages and mortgage backed securities as a percent of their portfolio. Robust estimators to correct for potential endogeneity are used to analyze the ROA differentials between different institutional forms and portfolios. When controlling for size, region and portfolios credit unions are often estimated to have a better ROA. Institutions of under 50 million dollars, about 50 percent of the total sample, show credit unions having higher efficiency in that they control more assets per dollar spent on salaries than commercial and savings banks

Will without War?

While congress debates the merits of a stimulus package of around 900 hundred billion dollars, a historical approach to the current situation suggests that the stimulus packages currently being discussed are actually far less generous than may be needed. The Congressional Budget Office projects that we are in “a recession that will probably be the longest and the deepest since World War II.” It is often suggested that the massive spending necessitated by the nation’s involvement in World War II helped end the Great Depression. Without a comparably ambitious unifying cause, however, I am afraid that the spending required to pull us out of a decline will be considered politically unpalatable, leading to an inadequate response to the crisis. An examination of spending patterns during the nineteen-­‐thirties and nineteen-­‐forties and their application to the current scenario suggest the true extent of the stimulus that may be needed

Going forward financially: credit unions as an alternative to commercial banks

The global financial meltdown brought to light a number of weaknesses in the U.S. financial system. Not all financial institution types will be taking large sums of taxpayer money to address their crippling decisions. Credit unions in the U.S. represent a type of financial cooperative that will probably not take any taxpayer money directly due to their structure and prudential oversight. Commercial banks, especially the megabanks, are likely to see even more bailouts in the future unless structural weaknesses are addressed in the clarifications as part of the enforcement of the Dodd-Frank Act. Using a unique panel data set on U.S. commercial banks, thrifts and credit unions from 1994 through 2010 (over 300,000 observations) performance metrics on a number of dimensions point to strengths and weaknesses of the various financial institutional forms. Credit unions also have had far fewer adjustable rate mortgages and mortgage backed securities as a percent of their portfolio. Robust estimators to correct for potential endogeneity are used to analyze the ROA differentials between different institutional forms and portfolios. When controlling for size, region and portfolios credit unions are estimated to have a better ROA. Institutions of under a billion dollars, 96 percent of the sample, show credit unions having higher efficiency in that they control 30 percent more assets per dollar spent on salaries than commercial banks