Dividends, stock repurchases and signaling: evidence from U.S. panel data

This paper exploits yearly accounting data from 1977 to 1994 to test the relative signaling power of dividends and net stock repurchases. The specification controls for potential agency cost and asset dissipation effects. Specifically, we regress changes in future income before extraordinary items on changes in dividends, changes in net stock repurchases, and a host of control variables. We also split the sample at 1981 to measure the impact of changes in the relative taxation of distribution methods. For the full twenty-year sample, only dividend changes are correlated with changes in future income. Moreover, the dividend coefficient and the repurchases coefficient differ statistically different in every future income equation. Splitting the sample reveals that the pre-1981 subsample drives the full-sample results. Put another way, the empirical link between changes in dividends and changes in future income vanishes just as a revision of the tax law reduced the tax disadvantage of dividend distributions. This evidence supports the notion that, at least for a period in time, firms deliberately exposed shareholders to punitive taxation to signal favorable prospects.Corporate governance

Experimental Design for the LATOR Mission

This paper discusses experimental design for the Laser Astrometric Test Of Relativity (LATOR) mission. LATOR is designed to reach unprecedented accuracy of 1 part in 10^8 in measuring the curvature of the solar gravitational field as given by the value of the key Eddington post-Newtonian parameter \gamma. This mission will demonstrate the accuracy needed to measure effects of the next post-Newtonian order (~G^2) of light deflection resulting from gravity's intrinsic non-linearity. LATOR will provide the first precise measurement of the solar quadrupole moment parameter, J2, and will improve determination of a variety of relativistic effects including Lense-Thirring precession. The mission will benefit from the recent progress in the optical communication technologies -- the immediate and natural step above the standard radio-metric techniques. The key element of LATOR is a geometric redundancy provided by the laser ranging and long-baseline optical interferometry. We discuss the mission and optical designs, as well as the expected performance of this proposed mission. LATOR will lead to very robust advances in the tests of Fundamental physics: this mission could discover a violation or extension of general relativity, or reveal the presence of an additional long range interaction in the physical law. There are no analogs to the LATOR experiment; it is unique and is a natural culmination of solar system gravity experiments.Comment: 16 pages, 17 figures, invited talk given at ``The 2004 NASA/JPL Workshop on Physics for Planetary Exploration.'' April 20-22, 2004, Solvang, C

Poincare duality for K-theory of equivariant complex projective spaces

We make explicit Poincare duality for the equivariant K-theory of equivariant complex projective spaces. The case of the trivial group provides a new approach to the K-theory orientation

Traversing landscapes of converging worlds

Traversing landscapes is a body of work that translates my experiences of outdoor travels in the unique and remote places in Louisiana. These experiences are transformed into semi-organic constructions that are derived from forms and materials present in the natural landscape and the forms and materials used to navigate these environments. The materials used exemplify the contrasts and also the connections that exist on the ever-converging paths of mankind and nature. Though the struggle in the relationship between man and nature has always existed though time. It is at present, our time now, that we can see the greatest contrast and the need for a unified relationship

Capital and Punishment: Resource Scarcity Increases Endorsement of the Death Penalty

Faced with punishing severe offenders, why do some prefer imprisonment whereas others impose death? Previous research exploring death penalty attitudes has primarily focused on individual and cultural factors. Adopting a functional perspective, we propose that environmental features may also shape our punishment strategies. Individuals are attuned to the availability of resources within their environments. Due to heightened concerns with the costliness of repeated offending, we hypothesize that individuals tend toward elimination-focused punishments during times of perceived scarcity. Using global and United States data sets (studies 1 and 2), we find that indicators of resource scarcity predict the presence of capital punishment. In two experiments (studies 3 and 4), we find that activating concerns about scarcity causes people to increase their endorsement for capital punishment, and this effect is statistically mediated by a reduced willingness to risk repeated offenses. Perceived resource scarcity shapes our punishment preferences, with important policy implications

Student Perceptions of the Professional Behavior of Faculty Physicians

This study was conducted to obtain a baseline understanding of the professional behavior of clinical faculty physicians from the medical students’ perspective. Students completed a professionalism evaluation of supervising faculty at the end of each required third-year clerkship over a one year period. Results were analyzed by specific behaviors and across clerkships. Differences were noted in the frequency of the types of problems seen, and varied by clerkship discipline. The most common transgressions of professional behavior reported were the use of derogatory language towards other services or patients and the disrespectful treatment of others. Our study served to provide objective feedback to the faculty about student perceptions of faculty as role models for professionalism while on clinical rotations