a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t Donations in-kind can be a mixed blessing for charities, who are often more adept at solicitation than resale. Many organizations rely on raffles to turn donations into cash, but auctions are also common. Theory predicts that all-pay mechanisms should produce more revenue than winner-pay mechanisms, but the empirical literature is thin and inconclusive. Dra...

This article compares the provision of long-term care (LTC) in Japan and Spain, two countries with similar demographic structures but which address the provision of LTCs in very different ways. Both countries provide universal LTC. However, Japan has developed a generous benefit package of formal services for dependents to alleviate the care burden on the family, but provides no cash benefits. ...

The size of the Ga-Mampa wetland (1 km), in the Olifants River catchment in South Africa, was halved between 1996 and 2004. This jeopardizes the ecological integrity and influences the benefits people obtain from the wetland. This study therefore analysed the economic values of the provisioning services derived from the Ga-Mampa wetland and evaluated their contribution to the livelihoods of loc...

Child poverty can be reduced by policies that help families earn more and supplement earned income with other sources of cash. A comprehensive antipoverty strategy could use a combination of these approaches. This article reviews recent U.S. experience with these broad approaches to reducing child poverty and discusses lessons from abroad for U.S. policymakers. The evidence reviewed suggests th...

We model the interplay between cash and debt policies in the presence of financial constraints. While saving cash allows constrained firms to hedge against future cash flow shortfalls, reducing current debt – “saving borrowing capacity” – is a more effective way of securing investment in high cash flow states. This trade-off implies that constrained firms will allocate cash flows into cash hold...

The optimal outcome of a firm in bankruptcy is to liquidate if its asset value is greater than its value as a going concern or, alternatively, to reorganize if it is worth more as a going concern. In this study, we identify firm asset and liability characteristics which may determine the likelihood of a firm successfully emerging from bankruptcy. We find two key factors influencing the success ...

Providing such assistance has been the dominant strategy for combating poverty in the United States for many years. Yet it has been remarkably unsuccessful. There is no state where a welfare check will raise a four-person family above the g o v e rn m e n t ’s official poverty line ($18,104 in 2001). Add in the fact that the official poverty lineis a pretty stingy standard that has not kept pac...

In the era of rapid growth and high competition, a company must possess an information/knowledge advantage in order to hold the upper hand in the industry. Therefore, the company has to continuously monitor its competitors in order to get enough information and convert the information into competitive knowledge. Although information technology has been used in many areas and has many successful...

We develop a theory of money and credit as competing payment instruments, then put it to work in applications. Buyers can use cash or credit, with the former (latter) subject to the inflation tax (transaction costs). Frictions making the choice of payment method interesting also imply equilibrium price dispersion, and together these deliver closed-form solutions for money demand. The model can ...

A house purchase typically requires a deposit (or down-payment) and so a significant amount of cash. This paper considers the empirical implications of this borrowing constraint for the housing market. It shows that, at the aggregate level, models of the housing market that incorporate the constraint are consistent with the following stylised facts: i) a positive correlation between house price...