OBJECTIVE Certain modifiable risk factors lead to higher health care costs and reduced worker productivity. A predictive return-on-investment (ROI) model was applied to an obesity management intervention to demonstrate the use of econometric modeling in establishing financial justification for worksite health promotion. METHODS Self-reported risk factors (n = 890) were analyzed using chi2 and...

This paper investigates if and to which extent managerial behavior, its mindset and potential behavioral biases can be accounted for the underperformance of companies. We include behavioural explanations, such as optimistic managers, as well as rational theories, for example agency costs or that informed managers take advantage of a possible window of opportunity. Using the data of IPOs and SEO...

Q, Cash Flow and Investment: An Econometric Critique The effects of measurement and speci…cation error on estimates of the Q and cash ‡ow model of investment are investigated. Two sources of error are considered: expensing of R&D expenditures and failing to identify that component of cash ‡ow which relaxes …nancing constraints. We apply random-effects and instrumental variables estimators to a ...

The paper tests a political economy theory of simultaneous government decision-making on income redistribution through commodity policies and on public research investment in agriculture. We use data from 37 countries on agricultural protection and public agricultural research expenditures (PARI). The empirical results are consistent with the political economy hypotheses. The analysis suggest t...

We use a panel data set that combines annual brand-level advertising expenditures for over three hundred brands with measures of brand awareness and perceived quality from a large-scale consumer survey to study the effect of advertising. Advertising is modeled as a dynamic investment in a brand’s stocks of awareness and perceived quality and we ask how such an investment changes brand awareness...

We study an optimal timing decision problem where an agent endowed with a risky investment opportunity trades the benefits of waiting for additional information against a potential loss in first-mover advantage. The players’ clocks are de-synchronized in that they learn of the investment opportunity at different times. Previous literature has uncovered an inverted-U shaped relationship between ...

We study an optimal timing decision problem where an agent endowed with a risky investment opportunity trades the benefits of waiting for additional information against a potential loss in first-mover advantage. The players’ clocks are de-synchronized in that they learn of the investment opportunity at different times. Previous literature has uncovered an inverted-U shaped relationship between ...