what drives corporate social performance the role of nation level institutions based on whitley s national business systems nbs institutional framework we theorize about and empirically investigate the impact of nation level institutions on firms corporate social performance csp using a sample of firms from 42 countries spanning seven years we construct an annual composite csp index for each firm based on social and environmental metrics we find that the political system followed by the labor and education system and the cultural system are the most important nbs categories of institutions that impact csp interestingly the financial system appears to have a relatively less significant impact we discuss implications for research practice and policymaking

effect sizes and the interpretation of research results in international business journal editors and academy presidents are increasingly calling on researchers to evaluate the substantive as opposed to the statistical significance of their results to measure the extent to which these calls have been heeded i aggregated the meta analytically derived effect size estimates obtained from 965 individual samples i then surveyed 204 studies published in the journal of international business studies i found that the average effect size in international business research is small and that most published studies lack the statistical power to detect such effects reliably i also found that many authors confuse statistical with substantive significance when interpreting their research results these practices have likely led to unacceptably high type ii error rates and invalid inferences regarding real world effects by emphasizing p values over their effect size estimates researchers are under selling their results and settling for contributions that are less than what they really have to offer in view of this i offer four recommendations for improving research and reporting practices

differential income taxation and household asset allocation this article empirically investigates the effects of differential income taxation on households portfolio choice and asset allocation applying a two stage budgeting model of asset demand to german survey data the model is structured into the discrete and the continuous asset choice cross sectional variation in marginal tax rates appropriately instrumented as well as over time variation from a major tax reform are used to identify the tax effects households with higher tax rates are found to have relatively greater demand for tax privileged assets such as nonowner occupied housing mortgage repayments building society deposits stocks insurances and consumer credits than households with lower tax rates demand at higher tax rates is lower for owner occupied housing bank deposits and bonds

urgent need for new approach to energy policy the case of finland the process of climate change is already under way and is a serious threat facing the planet our response to this threat will irrevocably transform the energy sector and the priorities within it the trend in emissions over the next decade will largely determine whether the process of climate change can be kept at a moderate level this literature based study focuses on finland as an example case oil price fluctuations economic development and changes in consumer values and attitudes are key forces that will drive change in the energy sector a greater diversity of energy sources is vital if we are to avoid a catastrophic warming of the climate the use of renewable energy sources must be increased and the efficiency of producing transmitting and distributing energy must be improved the energy sector must also exploit the potential of nuclear energy wind solar and hydro power afforestation measures biomass resources carbon capture and storage ccs technology and the nano bio sector national policies and measures must be set out in detail and global cooperation enhanced the presence and impact of factors that impede the work to curb climate change must also be taken into account in energy strategies if these strategies are to be successful

what makes a landlord ownership of real estate by us households households supply about three quarters of us rental housing the paper examines the real estate investment decision and the proportion of wealth invested in real estate hypotheses drawn primarily from the real estate finance literature about the role of wealth expected inflation human capital income tax rates race health risk aversion and inheritance are tested against data from the health and retirement study wealth has a powerful non linear effect on ownership of real estate but ownership is negatively associated with human capital marginal tax rates race and property gifts affect real estate investment poor health risk aversion and expected inflation do not seem to

post tax optimization with stochastic programming abstract in this paper we consider a stochastic programming approach to multistage post tax portfolio optimization asset performance information is specified as a scenario tree generated by two alternative methods based on simulation and optimization we assume three tax wrappers involving the same instruments for an efficient investment strategy and determine optimal allocations to different instruments and wrappers the tax rules are integrated with the linear and mixed integer stochastic models to yield an overall tax and return efficient multistage portfolio the computational performance of these models is tested using a case study with different scenario trees our experiments show that optimal portfolios obtained by both linear programming and mixed integer stochastic models diversify over wrappers and the original capital is distributed among assets within each wrapper

saving accounts versus stocks and bonds in household portfolio allocation we study the structure of household portfolios of financial wealth by analyzing both the determinants of total financial wealth and the choice between risky stocks and bonds and riskfree assets saving accounts the econometric specification is a generalized trivariate tobit model estimated on a cross section of 3 077 households in the netherlands in 1988 we account for endogeneity of financial wealth and for selectivity due to nonreporting results show that the level of financial wealth and the marginal tax rate are major determinants of the allocation between riskfree and risky assets

personal taxation pension wealth and portfolio composition this paper emphasizes the roles played by personal taxation and pension wealth in portfolio choice and composition a theoretical discussion of the impacts of taxation and participation in social security and private pension systems on individual wealth allocation is followed by empirical evidence based on u s cross section data both effects prove to be significant anticipated social security and private pension benefits exert a measurable influence on household portfolio allocation their omission from an asset demand model may lead to a misinterpretation of the impact of taxation on portfolio composition

dividend taxes and international portfolio choice this paper investigates how dividend taxes influence portfolio choices using the response to the distinctive treatment of a subset of foreign dividends in the jobs and growth tax relief reconciliation act jgtrra of 2003 an open economy after tax capital asset pricing model is used to derive the hypothesis that jgtrra should lead to a portfolio reallocation by us investors towards equities in tax favored countries a difference in difference analysis that compares us equity holdings in affected and unaffected countries finds a substantial portfolio reallocation towards the former this effect cannot be explained by several potential alternative hypotheses including differential changes to the preferences of american investors differential changes in investment opportunities differential time trends in investment changed tax evasion behavior or changes in stock prices associated or contemporaneous with jgtrra

a mixed integer programming model for multistage mean variance post tax optimization abstract in this paper we introduce a mixed integer stochastic programming approach to mean variance post tax portfolio management this approach takes into account of risk in a multistage setting and allows general withdrawals from original capital the uncertainty on asset returns is specified as a scenario tree the risk across scenarios is addressed using the probabilistic approach of classical stochastic programming the tax rules are used with stochastic linear and mixed integer quadratic programming models to compute an overall tax and return risk efficient multistage portfolio the incorporation of the risk term in the model provides robustness and leads to diversification over wrappers and assets within each wrapper general withdrawals and risk aversion have an impact on the distribution of assets among wrappers computational results are presented using a study with different scenario trees in order to show the performance of these models

non marketable assets and households portfolio choices a case study of italy abstract this paper analyzes the determinants of aggregate households portfolio choices conditional on those components of wealth which can be regarded as highly or totally illiquid because of the existence of substantial transaction costs and or institutional constraints on agents behaviour the empirical analysis broadly confirms the importance of the above mentioned institutional aspects in the allocation of financial wealth and provides the means for addressing some interesting questions regarding the behavior of portfolio holders in financial markets in particular it is shown that the presence of non tradable assets changes the risk premia on marketable assets hence in cases such as the italian one where the state is both the issuer of government securities and the collector of social security funds the positive correlation due to a common default risk between returns on government securities and on non marketable assets could lead to a higher cost of public debt financing

capital income taxation and risk taking in a small open economy abstract how do capital income taxes affect household portfolio choice and growth we approach this question within the context of a stochastic model of a small open economy in which taxes on income from domestic capital equity and foreign bonds affect household portfolio choice welfare and the growth rate of the economy the theoretical and numerical analysis demonstrates the important role that risk plays in determining the mean and variability of growth as well as the conditions under which a higher tax rate can be welfare improving to shed more light on the complex theoretical interaction between taxes and risk taking we estimate a reduced form multinomial probit model of household portfolio choice using the method of simulated moments the empirical evidence is in stark contrast to the conventional wisdom we find that higher taxes make it less likely that the household will hold risky assets

marginal taxes and the asset portfolios of swedish households this paper focuses on the effects of marginal tax rates wealth income and a set of socioeconomic and demographic variables on the portfolio composition of households using detailed micro data on 2 000 swedish households in particular efforts are made to disentangle the effects of marginal tax rates on the portfolio behavior of households some econometric problems involved when estimating asset demand equations in the presence of incomplete portfolios are briefly discussed a final section examines the overall effect of marginal tax rates on asset demands by applying estimated discrete and continuous portfolio equations to compute different tax elasticities

new evidence on taxes and portfolio choice abstract identifying the effect of differential taxation on portfolio allocation requires exogenous variation in marginal tax rates marginal tax rates vary with income but income surely affects portfolio choice directly in systems of individual taxation like canada s couples with the same household income can face different effective tax rates on capital income when labor income is distributed differently within households using this source of variation we find portfolio responses to taxation among more affluent households the estimated effects are statistically significant but economically modest in a placebo test using data from the u s which has joint taxation we find no effect of the intra household distribution of labor income on portfolios

taxation and the portfolio structure of spanish households using a sample of 5962 spanish households from the survey of household finances eff undertaken by the bank of spain this article describes the structure of their portfolio and estimates both a probit model and a tobit model to test how taxation affects respectively the decision to invest in each asset and the relative importance of each asset within the household portfolio the influence of taxation is measured using the average marginal personal income tax rate of the household the estimations performed show that the marginal tax rate is significant and displays the sign expected to explain both the holding of tax favourable assets and their weight in the household portfolio

are firms with foreign ceos better citizens a study of the impact of ceo foreignness on corporate social performance this study examines whether firms corporate social performance csp varies when local firms have foreign ceos building on the social identity perspective we argue that because foreign ceos are perceived as outgroup or nonprototypical leaders by the local firms stakeholders local firms with foreign ceos need to achieve a higher level of csp than do local firms with local ceos to enhance their legitimacy and trustworthiness furthermore we propose that the predicted difference in csp between foreign and local ceo led firms will be larger a for more authentic and thus trust enhancing csr activities and b in those socio economic environments where the salience of ceo foreignness and thus the need to build trustworthiness with locals is more pronounced in a sample of 1001 local firms across 18 developed countries during the period between 2003 and 2015 our empirical results support most of our predictions

taxation portfolio choice and debt equity ratios a general equilibrium model this paper explores the portfolio behavior of investors differing with respect to both tax rates and risk aversion emphasizing the role of constraints on individual and firm behavior in ensuring the existence of and characterizing portfolio equilibrium under certain conditions on the securities available in the market which also are necessary for shareholders to be unanimous in supporting firm value maximization investors will be segmented by tax rate into two groups one specialized in equity and the other in debt though the relative wealths of the two groups determine the aggregate debt equity ratio each firm will be indifferent to its financial policy

firms corporate social responsibility behavior an integration of institutional and profit maximization approaches understanding firms behavior across countries a key concern in the international business literature requires the joint consideration of both institutional influences and firms profit maximization goals in the corporate social responsibility csr area however researchers have utilized theories that take into account only one or the other institutional theory which explains csr as legitimacy seeking activities in line with national level institutions or economic based approaches that consider csr effects only in terms of firm profitability while an institutional argument implies convergence in csr behavior among firms in similar institutional contexts profit maximization logic treats csr as a firm specific behavior we integrate these perspectives by demonstrating the moderating effects of firms economic motivations for seeking legitimacy on the relationship between institutional environment and csr responsiveness we argue that variations in firms economic visibility and economic vulnerability can bring about differences in their need for societal goodwill and in turn their legitimacy seeking findings on a database of apparel firms employee related csr across 23 countries support this overall argument the integration of such fundamentally different theoretical perspectives allows us to contribute new theoretical insights to international business on the influence of national institutions on firms behavior

an experimental study on the relevance and scope of nationality as a coordination device in a period marked by extensive cross national interactions nationality may present an important focal point that individuals coordinate on this study uses an experimental approach to study whether nationality serves as a coordination device we let subjects from japan korea and china play coordination games in which we vary information about their partner the results show that nationality serves as a coordination device if common nationality is the only piece of information available to the subjects the strength of this device is nationality dependent and diminishes when participants are provided with additional information about their partner we also find that subjects are likely to coordinate on the pareto dominant equilibrium at about the same rate if the partner has a different nationality than if nationality is unknown jel c91 c92 z1 z13

taxation and household portfolio composition us evidence from the 1980s and 1990s abstract this paper explores the relationship between household marginal income tax rates the set of financial assets that households own and the portfolio shares accounted for by each of these assets it analyzes data from the 1983 1989 1992 1995 and 1998 surveys of consumer finances and develops a new algorithm for imputing federal marginal tax rates to households in these surveys the empirical findings suggest that marginal tax rates have important effects on asset allocation decisions the probability that a household owns tax advantaged assets such as tax exempt bonds or assets held in tax deferred accounts is positively related to its tax rate on ordinary income in addition the portfolio share invested in corporate stock which is taxed less heavily than interest bearing assets is increasing in the household s ordinary income tax rate holdings of heavily taxed assets such as interest bearing accounts decline as a share of wealth as a household s marginal tax rate increases