Share Repurchases and Acquisitions: An Analysis of Which Firms Participate

Firms can transmit cash to shareholders either by paying dividends or by purchasing shares. The share purchases can be either the firm's own securities or those of another firm. Recent evidence suggests that there has been a dramatic increase in the use of these nondividend payments to shareholders. This paper reviews the theories which have been offered regarding the motivation of nondividend payments. These include taxation advantages, adjustment towards optimal debt-equity ratios, anti-takeover strategies, free cash flow (agency) considerations, signaling, and habit formation or learning. From these theories, we derive and investigate econometrically potential characteristics which predict participation in the above actions for roughly 2.000 firms in 1976 and 1984. We find the variables suggested by the various hypotheses collectively have substantial power in predicting participation in share repurchase and acquisitions. The free cash flow and habit forming arguments prove most consistent with our findings. Tests for structural change across time confirm an intercept shift consistent with dramatic increases in these activities, and fail to reject that the characteristic determinants of these actions are unchanged.

Conspicuous Consumption, Pure Profits, and the Luxury Tax

We examine a model of conspicuous consumption and explore the nature of competition in markets for conspicuous goods. We assume that, in addition to intrinsic utility, individuals seek status, and that perceptions of wealth affect status. Under identifiable conditions, the model generates Veblen effects: utility is positively related to the price of the good consumed. Equilibria are then characterized by the existence of "budget' brands (which are sold at a price equal to marginal cost), as well as 'luxury" brands (which are sold at a price above marginal cost, despite the fact that producers are perfectly competitive). Luxury brands are not intrinsically superior to budget brands but are purchased by consumers who seek to signal high levels of wealth. Within the context of this model, an appropriately designed luxury tax is a non-distortionary tax on pure profits.

Theatre Facts 2014: A Report on the Fiscal State of the U.S. Professional Not-For-Profit Theatre Field

"Theatre Facts" is Theatre Communications Group's (TCG) annual report on the fiscal state of the U.S. professional not-for-profit theatre field. The report examines attendance, performance, and fiscal health using data from TCG Fiscal Survey 2014, for the fiscal year that member theatres completed anytime between October 31, 2013, and September 30, 2014. Theatres' artistry, the contributions they make to their communities, and their influence on the artistic legacy of the nation transcend the quantitative analyses that are described here. This report is organized into 3 sections that offer different perspectives:The "Universe" section provides a broad overview of the U.S. not-for-profit professional theatre field in 2014.The "Trend Theatres" section presents a longitudinal analysis of the 118 TCG Member Theatres that responded to the TCG Fiscal Survey each year since 2010. This section provides interesting insights regarding longer-term trends experienced by a smaller sample of mostly larger theatres.The "Profiled Theatres" section provides an in-depth examination of all 177 Member Theatres that completed TCG Fiscal Survey 2014

A Long and Winding Road: Federally Qualified Health Centers, Community Variation and Prospects Under Reform

Outlines growth in the number of, demand, and federal funding for FQHCs between 1997 and 2009 in twelve communities and factors that shape FQHC development, including variations in Medicaid eligibility rules, employer-sponsored coverage, and demographics

Planning Visit: U.S.- Irish R&D Partnership

This project provides support for a planning visit to Queen\u27s University in Belfast, UK and Dublin City University in Dublin, Ireland. The US principal investigator is Laurie Connell from the University of Maine. The foreign collaborators are Chris Elliott in Belfast and Richard O\u27Kennedy in Dublin. The primary purpose of this planning visit is to develop a full proposal that will be submitted to NSF\u27s Biotechnology, Biochemical, and Biomass Engineering Program (BBBE). The proposal will address BBBE\u27s research priority area of food safety through implementation of nano-biotechnology and biosensor development. The research goal is to develop new technologies to deliver rapid and portable analysis. Over the past several years, there has been substantial progress in a number of areas of sensor technology, biotechnology and nanotechnology. The combination of these approaches could lead to the development of portable technologies capable of producing rapid and reliable analyses for food contaminants of major concern. The researchers involved in this effort have considerable expertise in the areas of toxin analysis, biosensor technology, and protein engineering. By combining this expertise, they expect to deliver working prototypes for the sensor based measurement of selected toxins in the food supply chain

Yeast in the Antarctic Dry Valleys: Biological Role, Distribution, and Evolution

The soil community of Antarctic polar desert is comprised of few endemic species of bacteria, fungi, and invertebrates. Both filamentous and single cellular fungi have been isolated from a diversity of Antarctic soil types, but only yeast appear to be endemic to the polar desert soils. Although the ecological roles of yeast in Antarctic soils is undefined, yeast may be the principal taxa in the heterotrophic communities that synthesize sterols required by soil invertebrates. In addition, yeast may be involved in accumulating and mobilizing growth limiting nutrients such as phosphorus into the polar desert food web. This multidisciplinary research will characterize the roles soil yeast play in the McMurdo Dry Valley ecosystem in order to better understand polar deserts and other extreme environments, as well as provide a foundation for incorporating yeast into biogeochemical models of temperate environments. Soil microbiota mediate most of the terrestrial ecosystem processes such as decomposition, soil respiration, the uptake and fixation of micro and macro-nutrients, detoxification of heavy metals, and serve as major global carbon sinks. The complexity of soil communities in temperate regions pose difficulties in studying the relationships between biotic and abiotic parameters of ecosystem function and the factors controlling populations of soil microbiota remain poorly understood. The extreme climate and relatively simple community structure of the continental Antarctica desert regions offer a unique opportunity to define interactions between soil organisms that are central to many ecosystems processes. The abundance and distribution of yeast in polar desert soils will be correlated with physical and chemical soil properties and these data will be stored and analyzed using Geographic Information Systems (GIS). Several physiological parameters will be explored in vitro to develop a basis for understanding the functional role(s) these organisms may play. The evolution of Dry Valley yeast will be addressed by determining intra- and inter-valley population relatedness patterns, based on DNA sequence. These experiments will form a strong foundation for future investigations, provide additional opportunities for collaborative research and students from middle school through college will be given the opportunity to participate in this project