Decentralized Investment Banking: The Case of Discount Dividend-Reinve stment and Stock-Purchase Plans

Discount dividend-reinvestment and stock-purchase plans allow shareholders to capture part of the underwriting fees incurred in new stock offerings and save sponsoring firms some of the usual underwriting costs. We tested the degree to which individual investors can profitably serve this investment banking function by implementing simple investment/trading strategies designed to capture the discounts and distribute the shares in the market. The large profits earned by our strategies raise serious questions about why it takes firms so long to raise the target level of capital and why many eligible shareholders do not participate in these discount plans.

Employee Stock Ownership Plans and Corporate Restructuring: Myths and Realities

During the first six months of 1989 U.s. corporations acquired over $19 billion of their own stock to establish employer stock ownership plans (ESOPs). We evaluate the common claims that there exist unique tax and incentive contracting advantages to establishing ESOPs. Our analysis suggests that, particularly for large firms, where the greatest growth in ESOPs has occurred, the case is very weak for taxes being the primary motivation to establish an ESOP. The case is also weak for employee incentives being the driving force behind their establishment. We conclude that the main motivation for the growth of ESOPs is their anti-takeover characteristics.

Street Mobility Project: User Guide for Analysing the Health and Neighbourhood Mobility Survey

The following User Guide shows examples of how you can analyse the data from the Health and Neighbourhood Mobility Survey using pivot tables and charts in Microsoft Excel. This is not the only way to analyse the data, but it is simple and quick, so learning how to use pivot tables will probably save you time

Economic Implications of ERISA

If the intent of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act, ERISA, was to assure that beneficiaries of insolvent pension plans receive adequate pension benefits, sharp increases in nominal rates of interest have blunted that purpose. Without an increase in these rates, the Pension Benefit Guarantee Corporation, PBGC, the insurance agency established to guarantee benefits, faced large liabilities on the terminations of pension plans. We examine the economics of pension funds and the funding of pension funds before and after the enactment of ERISA. The Act changed the economics of pension funds. The PBGC, the employer, and the employees have interests in the assets of the pension plan. The PBGC can tax corporations to pay off liabilities and to fund guaranteed benefits; employers can terminate pension plans or overfund them; employees can ask for more benefits or claim the assets in the fund. Although the PBGC insures benefits, the insurance agent forbears, not acting quickly to protect its own interests. To prevent potential huge increases in its liabilities, the PBGC could require that employers hedge the guaranteed benefits, and fund their increases in promised benefits. Given its policies, these requirements could protect the PBGC.

Association of Social Support and Cognitive Aging Modified by Sex and Relationship Type: A Prospective Investigation in the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing

We examined whether between-person differences (PM) and within-person change in levels of social support were associated with age-related cognitive decline, and whether these associations varied by sex and by relationship type. Executive function and memory scores over eight years (2002-2010) were analysed by mixture models (10,241 adults’ aged≥50 years) in the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing. PM and within-person change in positive social support and negative social support were independently associated with cognitive decline in different ways by sex and relationship type. Among men, higher-than-others positive social support from spouse/partner was associated with slower cognitive decline (executive function: βPM*time-in-study = 0.005, 95%CI: 0.001, 0.010; memory: βPM*time-in-study = 0.006, 95%CI 0.000, 0.012); whereas high negative social support from all relationship types was associated with accelerated decline in executive function (all-relationships-combined: βPM* time-in-study = -0.005, 95%CI: -0.008, -0.002). For women, higher-than-others positive social support from children (β=0.037, 95%CI: 0.010, 0.064) and friends (β=0.115, 95%CI: 0.081, 0.150) but not from spouse/partner (β=-0.034, 95%CI: -0.059, -0.009) or extended family (β=-0.035, 95%CI: -0.064, -0.006) was associated with higher executive function. Associations between social support and age-related cognitive decline vary across different relationship types for men and women