An Agent-Based Simulation of Rental Housing Markets

We simulate a closed rental housing market with search and matching frictions, in which both landlord and tenant agents are imperfectly informed. Homogeneous landlords set rents to maximise revenue, using information on the market to estimate the relationship between posted rent and time-on-the-market (TOM). Tenants, heterogeneous in income, engage in undirected search accepting residences based on their idiosyncratic tastes for housing and a disagreement point derived from information on the distribution of offers. The steady state to which the simulation evolves shows price dispersion, nonzero search times and vacancies.The main results concern the effects of increasing information on either side of the market. When tenants see a greater percentage of the distribution of offers, tenants learn to refuse high rents and so the population rises and tenants' utilities rise as does overall welfare. Conversely, when landlords have less information, their utility can rise as over estimations in best posting rent move the market to higher rents.Real estate; Rental markets; Search; Information; Simulation; Multi-agent systems

Shareholder Theory/Shareholder Value

Shareholder theory states that the primary objective of management is to maximize shareholder value. This objective ranks in front of the interests of other corporate stakeholders, such as employees, suppliers, customers, and society.Shareholder theory argues that shareholders are the ultimate owners of a corporate’s assets, and thus, the priority for managers and boards is to protect and grow these assets for the benefit of shareholders. Shareholder theory assumes that shareholders value corporate assets with two measurable metrics, dividends and share price. There-fore, management should make decisions that maximize the combined value of dividends and share price increases. However, shareholder theory fails to consider that shareholders and corporates may have other objectives that are not based on financial performance. For example, as early as1932, Berle and Means argued that corporations have a variety of purposes and interests including encouraging entrepreneurship, innovation, and building communities. This wider view is gaining more traction in recent decades as evidenced by an increased interest in ethical investment funds.This suggests that shareholders and potential shareholders are not only interested in financial gains but are also interested in corporates being socially responsible (Kyriakou2018). Therefore shareholder value creation is important; however,it needs to be balanced with other stakeholders’ interests. This is referred to as an enlightened approach to shareholder value maximization

Earnings distribution, corporate governance and CEO pay

We investigate the relationship between earnings differentials and the pay of CEOs of 190 British companies between 1970 and 1990. We find that (i) changes in the differential between the 90th and 50th weekly earnings percentiles for non-manual adult male workers [90:50] explain changes in the level of real CEO salary and bonus in our sample of companies; (ii) changes in this differential also account for changes in the elasticity of CEO pay to firm size; (iii) a broader measure of earnings inequality does far worse than 90:50 at explaining changes in both the level and the firm size elasticity of CEO pay; (iv) fitting the model on data for 1970-1983 and predicting pay levels for the period starting with the widespread adoption of executive share option schemes in 1984, we find a structural break in the relationship between lower management pay differentials and the pay of the CEO. We conclude first that top executive pay prior to 1984 was a stable function of both firm size and earnings differentials lower on the administrative ladder, consistent with a hypothesis advanced by Herbert Simon in 1957; and second that the use of share options from 1984 onward represents not simply a change in the mode of top executive compensation, but a de -linking of the pay of top executives and that of their subordinates

Delta and gamma oscillations in operculo-insular cortex underlie innocuous cold thermosensation

Cold-sensitive and nociceptive neural pathways interact to shape the quality and intensity of thermal and pain perception. Yet the central processing of cold thermosensation in the human brain has not been extensively studied. Here, we used magnetoencephalography and EEG in healthy volunteers to investigate the time course (evoked fields and potentials) and oscillatory activity associated with the perception of cold temperature changes. Nonnoxious cold stimuli consisting of Δ3°C and Δ5°C decrements from an adapting temperature of 35°C were delivered on the dorsum of the left hand via a contact thermode. Cold-evoked fields peaked at around 240 and 500 ms, at peak latencies similar to the N1 and P2 cold-evoked potentials. Importantly, cold-related changes in oscillatory power indicated that innocuous thermosensation is mediated by oscillatory activity in the range of delta (1–4 Hz) and gamma (55–90 Hz) rhythms, originating in operculo-insular cortical regions. We suggest that delta rhythms coordinate functional integration between operculo-insular and frontoparietal regions, while gamma rhythms reflect local sensory processing in operculo-insular areas

Interactions Localisations Transport. Projet ILOT – Phase I. Rapport final pour la DRAST

Le projet ILOT consiste à appliquer la modélisation multi-agents aux rapports entre mobilité locale et transformation des espaces dans les aires urbaines. Il vise à développer dans un premier temps un ensemble de "briques" théoriques susceptibles de représenter de manière pertinente l'émergence de comportements collectifs en matière de rythmes temporels d'activités et de localisation. A plus long terme, ces "briques" théoriques seront le matériau de base pour élaborer des modèles plus appliqués, susceptibles d'être confrontés à des situations réelles.L'objectif à long terme de cette recherche consiste à réaliser des outils opérationnels, pour la recherche dans un premier temps et pour l'application dans un second temps, qui permettent de comprendre et d'analyser l'interaction entre la mobilité et la localisation dans les aires urbaines.Trois étapes ont été préalables identifiées qui semblent pertinentes :- l'exploration théorique de l'émergence de comportements "stylisés" de rythmes temporels et de localisation d'activités à travers une "ville-modèle",- le couplage de modèles éprouvés dans les domaines respectifs du transport et de la localisation, en particulier les modèles applicables à des problèmes pratiques,- l'identification et la résolution des obstacles informatiques relatifs à la simulation, à la collecte des données et à l'analyse des résultats de ces modèles

Interactions Localisations Transport. Projet ILOT – Phase I. Rapport final pour la DRAST

Le projet ILOT consiste à appliquer la modélisation multi-agents aux rapports entre mobilité locale et transformation des espaces dans les aires urbaines. Il vise à développer dans un premier temps un ensemble de "briques" théoriques susceptibles de représenter de manière pertinente l'émergence de comportements collectifs en matière de rythmes temporels d'activités et de localisation. A plus long terme, ces "briques" théoriques seront le matériau de base pour élaborer des modèles plus appliqués, susceptibles d'être confrontés à des situations réelles.L'objectif à long terme de cette recherche consiste à réaliser des outils opérationnels, pour la recherche dans un premier temps et pour l'application dans un second temps, qui permettent de comprendre et d'analyser l'interaction entre la mobilité et la localisation dans les aires urbaines.Trois étapes ont été préalables identifiées qui semblent pertinentes :- l'exploration théorique de l'émergence de comportements "stylisés" de rythmes temporels et de localisation d'activités à travers une "ville-modèle",- le couplage de modèles éprouvés dans les domaines respectifs du transport et de la localisation, en particulier les modèles applicables à des problèmes pratiques,- l'identification et la résolution des obstacles informatiques relatifs à la simulation, à la collecte des données et à l'analyse des résultats de ces modèles.modélisation multi-agents ; mobilité urbaine ; localisation des activités ; interactions localisations transport

The LRL electron and proton spectrometer on NASA's Orbiting Geophysical Observatory 5/E/ /instrumentation and calibration/

Systems analysis of electron and proton spectrometer on OGO-

The wage and employment consequences of ownership change

This paper provides a comparative examination of the consequences of leveraged buyouts (LBOs) and corporate takeovers on employment growth and wage growth. Employing both difference-in-differences combined with propensity score matching and the control function approach, we find evidence that (i) wages remain unchanged after either a private equity (PE)-backed or non-PE-backed LBO, (ii) wages remain unchanged after an unrelated takeover and (iii) related takeovers have negative employment consequences, possibly because of rationalisation. Our evidence does not find strong support for intervention in the market for corporate control on the grounds of protecting employees' welfare

Firm life cycle and advisory directors

This article investigates whether the presence of advisory directors and monitoring directors varies across firm life cycle stages. We follow a parsimonious life cycle proxy based on the predicted behaviour of operating, investing and financing cash flows across the different life cycle stages that result from firm performance and the allocation of resources. Using an Australian sample, this study shows that compared to mature-stage firms, firms in the introduction, shake-out and decline stages have more advisory directors. With respect to the demand for monitoring directors, we find that compared to mature-stage firms, firms in the introduction, shake-out and decline stages have fewer monitoring directors on the board. We contribute to the literature on boards of directors by documenting that firms choose an optimal board structure based on their economic characteristics