Search

Introduction Methods Results Discussion Financial costs remain one of the greatest barriers to abortion, leading to delays in care and preventing some from getting a desired abortion. Medication abortion is available through in‐person facilities and telehealth services. However, whether telehealth offers a more affordable option has not been well‐documented.We used Advancing New Standards in Reproductive Health (ANSIRH)'s Abortion Facility Database, which includes data on all publicly advertising abortion facilities and is updated annually. We describe facility out‐of‐pocket prices for medication abortion in 2021, 2022, and 2023, comparing in‐person and telehealth provided by brick‐and‐mortar and virtual clinics, and by whether states allowed Medicaid coverage for abortion.The national median price for medication abortion remained consistent at $568 in 2021 and $563 in 2023. However, medications provided by virtual clinics were notably lower in price than in‐person care and this difference widened over time. The median cost of a medication abortion offered in‐person increased from $580 in 2021 to $600 by 2023, while the median price of a medication abortion offered by virtual clinics decreased from $239 in 2021 to $150 in 2023. Among virtual clinics, few (7%) accepted Medicaid. Median prices in states that accept Medicaid were generally higher than in states that did not.Medication abortion is offered at substantially lower prices by virtual clinics. However, not being able to use Medicaid or other insurance may make telehealth cost‐prohibitive for some people, even if prices are lower. Additionally, many states do not allow telehealth for abortion, deepening inequities in healthcare. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article demonstrates that rating-based capital requirements, through their impact on insurers' investment demand, affect corporate bond prices. Consistent with insurers' low demand for investment-grade bonds with a rating close to noninvestment-grade, these bonds outperform. Consistent with insurers' high (low) demand for investment-grade bonds with high (low) systematic risk exposure, these bonds underperform (outperform). Insurer demand, measured by insurer holdings, explains most of these pricing effects. We identify rating-based capital requirements as the driver of insurer demand, and thus the pricing effects, by showing that the effects do not exist before these requirements' implementation in 1993. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We reconsider trend‐based predictability by employing flexible learning methods to identify price patterns that are highly predictive of returns, as opposed to testing predefined patterns like momentum or reversal. Our predictor data are stock‐level price charts, allowing us to extract the most predictive price patterns using machine learning image analysis techniques. These patterns differ significantly from commonly analyzed trend signals, yield more accurate return predictions, enable more profitable investment strategies, and demonstrate robustness across specifications. Remarkably, they exhibit context independence, as short‐term patterns perform well on longer time scales, and patterns learned from U.S. stocks prove effective in international markets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Healthcare costs continue to rise considerably in the United States; one proposed solution is to give consumers more choices regarding their healthcare decisions. Recent legislation has the aim of making healthcare pricing more transparent and providing consumers with an increased understanding of costs. This article offers a research agenda for studying healthcare price transparency and provides an overview of several potential implications for consumers. The authors review the recent legislation and its intended impact on consumer shopping in the healthcare market. Research propositions are focused on healthcare as a unique decision context, the power and peril of price information, the emerging healthcare information market, and individual differences in consumers. The authors also illustrate some of these issues with a price transparency dataset. Opportunities for future research and implications for marketing, healthcare providers, and policymakers are offered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: In this research, our main objective is more accurate pricing of life insurance products with a new approach of predicting mortality or survival rates. Currently, a life table is used to calculate the current value of pensions, insurance premiums, etc. Therefore, to increase the accuracy of our calculations, we are looking for a mortality prediction model for such calculations. Therefore, in this research, instead of static pricing (only using the latest life table), we used life table prediction and dynamically rated life insurance products. METHODS: In this research, a new model proposed to predict the probability of human mortality (survival) based on the Markov process, a limited state with an absorption state (death). This model measured based on the physiological age, because the physiological age of each person can be checked based on different laboratory indicators, and finally it has led to the results of the individual health index. In addition, the parameters of this model are the initial probability vector and the sub-intensity matrix of a Markov chain that changes over time. In other words, in this model, according to a possible process in the model, the initial probability vector over time selects the possible interval of the physiological age equivalent to the chronological age. FINDINGS: To show the satisfactory performance of this model, the relevant data set from the United States of America was analyzed. The predicted results with the presented model are better than Lee Carter’s model. It should be noted that the number of parameters of the model introduced in this research is much less compared to the Lee Carter model and other mortality or survival prediction models. Based on this model, a closed form for life insurance pricing relationships is obtained, which simplifies these calculations for users. CONCLUSION: The relationships obtained for pricing were investigated based on two products, 5-year term life insurance and also a 5-year term pension. The fitted results for the model used in the predictions of the probability of mortality as well as the probability of survival and pricing are very satisfactory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Agency mortgage‐backed securities (MBSs) with diverse characteristics are traded in parallel through individualized specified pool (SP) contracts and standardized to‐be‐announced (TBA) contracts with delivery flexibility. This parallel trading environment generates distinctive effects on MBS pricing and trading: (i) Although cheapest‐to‐deliver (CTD) issues are present in TBA trading and absent from SP trading by design, MBS heterogeneity associated with CTD discounts affects SP yields positively, with the effect stronger for lower‐value SPs; (ii) high selling pressure amplifies the effects of MBS heterogeneity on SP yields; and (iii) greater MBS heterogeneity dampens SP and TBA trading activities but increases their ratio. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Information frictions play a key role in an array of economic activities and are frequently incorporated into formal models as search costs. However, little is known about the underlying source of consumer search costs and how heterogeneous they are across markets. This study analyzes the sources and magnitude of heterogeneity in consumer search costs in retail gasoline markets. In doing so, the authors also investigate the extent to which retail gasoline stations employ mixed pricing strategies. They identify hundreds of geographically isolated markets and are the first to estimate the distribution of consumer search costs for many geographic markets. They directly recover the distribution of consumer search costs, market by market, using price data for retail gasoline in the United States. They find that the distribution of consumer search costs varies significantly across geographic markets and that distribution of household income is closely associated with search cost distribution [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research summary: This article examines how proximity to high‐status neighbors enables lower‐status firms to engage in aspirational pricing. While prior studies have focused on associations based on bilateral agreements, we argue that mere spatial proximity to other high‐status firms creates perceived associations, which positively affects the focal firm's aspirational pricing. Furthermore, middle‐status firms are most likely to engage in aspirational pricing because they are sufficiently similar to high‐status neighbors to expect assimilation, not contrast, effects. Our multi‐method approach based on panel data from the U.S. Vogue magazine and an experiment provides converging evidence for our arguments. Being somewhat randomly featured near the advertisements of prominent high‐status firms in Vogue positively impacts the subsequent average listed price of the focal firm's products, especially for middle‐status firms. Managerial summary High‐status firms tend to form relationships with other high‐status counterparts, making it difficult for lower‐status firms to ascend the status hierarchy and access status‐based benefits. This study shows that lower‐status firms may be able to obtain status‐based benefits, namely the ability to set higher prices for their products, by merely being proximate to other high‐status firms. Our analyses using data from Vogue magazine and online experiment show that having advertisements appear proximate to those of high‐status fashion firms enables the focal firm, especially middle‐status ones, to raise the prices of their products. As advertisement locations are somewhat random in that firms do not have control over determining their adjacent ads, our study highlights that lucky locations can sometimes be beneficial to disadvantage lower‐status firms. Video Abstract [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Companies are interested in maximizing profit, which happens at the individual product level. We introduce a two-stage model which uses both simulation and optimization to maximize the profit of an individual product. We utilize the concept of consumer margin, benefits minus price, as a way for consumers to determine which product within a competitive set to purchase (if any). The purpose of the stage 1 model is to find the consumer margins and standard deviation that will give the most accurate model. Next, the consumer margins and standard deviation are used in the stage 2 model to find the price that will maximize the profit of a given product. The model is illustrated through a case study involving the top 10 selling sedans in the United States in 2019. In short, this paper will help companies to maximize the profit of a given product through using this two-stage simulation–optimization model to find the optimal price for the product. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: China's National Health Service Items Standard (NHSIS) establishes a relative value system and plays an important role in pricing. However, there are few empirical evaluations of the objectivity of the NHSIS-estimated relative value., Methods: This paper presents a comparison between physician work relative value units (wRVUs) estimates for 70 common surgical procedures from NHSIS and those from the U.S. Medicare Physician Fee Schedule (MPFS). We defined the ratio of the wRVUs for sample procedures to the benchmark procedure (inguinal hernia repair) as a standardized relative value unit (SRVU), which was used to standardize the data for both schedules. We examined the variances in the ranking and quantification of SRVUs across specialties and procedures, as well as how SRVUs impact procedure reimbursement prices between the two schedules., Results: There was no systematic difference between MHSIS-estimated SRVUs and MPFS-estimated, but the dispersion of MPFS-estimated SRVU was greater than that of MHSIS-estimated, and the discrepancies increased with surgical risk and technical complexity. The discrepancies of SRVUs were significant in cardiothoracic procedures. Additionally, whether SRVUs were based on MPFS or MHSIS, there was a positive association between them and payment prices. However, in terms of the impact of SRVUs on payment pricing, the NHSIS system was lower than the MPFS system., Conclusion: China has made incremental progress in estimating the relative value of healthcare services, but there are shortcomings in valuation methods and their impact on pricing. The modular assessment method should be considered as a component to optimize reform., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2024 Hao, Yao, Kong and Liu.)

This paper examines the contribution of out-of-town second-house buyers to mispricing in the housing market. We show that demand from out-of-town second-house buyers during the mid 2000s predicted not only house-price appreciation rates but also impliedto- actual-rent-ratio appreciation rates, a proxy for mispricing. We then apply a novel identification strategy to address the issue of reverse causality. We give supporting evidence that out-of-town second-house buyers behaved like misinformed speculators, earning lower capital gains (misinformed) and consuming smaller dividends (speculators). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses whether violations of the Sherman Act are forcing alcoholic beverage retailers to sell at artificially high prices. Also cited are the post-and-hold alcohol statutes in U.S. states, the antitrust law implementation, the government's efforts to protect consumers, how minimum retail price requirements are anticompetitive, and why the statutes are unconstitutional violations of the Act.

We examine listed tuition and institutional aid practices within the US private sector, a sector where market pressures are relatively strong and consequently influence organizational behavior. We present a conceptual framework that highlights three psychological aspects of pricing—the price-quality heuristic, ego-expressive aspects of aid, and the silver lining effect—that can influence the attractiveness of specific pricing strategies to prospective students. We review relevant literature from psychology, marketing, and behavioral economics to illustrate that these three psychological aspects should be especially important in higher education. Furthermore, we identify pricing strategies that could position colleges and universities advantageously within market-based competition due to these aspects. The key elements of the strategy include high listed tuition, widespread institutional aid awards, and aid awards that are framed in a manner that confers distinction upon the recipient. We use data from a range of sources to describe the nuanced ways in which these pricing strategies are used within the US private sector. Our empirical analysis reveals that many schools, especially those in the middle of the prestige hierarchy, provide institutional aid to all or almost all of their incoming students, which allows them to set listed tuition prices well above the demonstrated willingness to pay of students. We also present evidence that aid awards are named in a manner that exaggerates the distinction conferred by the award. Our conclusion highlights implications of our work for students, organizations, policymakers, and future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the decision of the U.S. District Court in the case In re Insulin Pricing Litigation on federal claims under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO). It mentions court ruled that patients who need insulin cannot seek damages from the insulin manufacturers for price inflation and insulin pricing structure and the parties involved. It also mentions antitrust and RICO standing doctrines based on proximate cause sufficiently address the policy concerns.

Few studies have investigated pricing and promotional practices used by the indoor tanning industry, despite their potential to promote indoor UV tanning-a well-established risk factor for melanoma skin cancer. Posing as potential customers, we telephoned 94 indoor tanning businesses in six United States (U.S.) cities and requested pricing information. The price of a single tanning session ranged from $0 to $23, and was lower at facilities that offered indoor tanning as a secondary service (mean $4.82 and free in 35%) than at tanning salons (mean $16.45). Session prices in salons could be as low as $1.50 with daily use of an unlimited monthly plan. Free indoor tanning, monthly packages, and memberships encourage increased use. Policies that limit free indoor tanning or that restrict pricing and advertising for indoor tanning exist in several places in the U.S. and Europe. Future research should evaluate whether those policies are effective in reducing indoor tanning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Transaction cost economics (TCE) has received much attention in the international marketing literature over the past 25 years. Many key issues in international marketing have been examined through the lens of TCE, including entry mode choice, the governance of international distribution channels, propensity to franchise, international pricing control, and the governance of international buyer-supplier relationships. The author presents a review and analysis of 43 empirical TCE international marketing studies from 1987 to the present day. The results from this review and analysis indicate that the extant international marketing TCE studies demonstrate some support for the TCE propositions. In addition to these findings, the author also notes some key measurement issues, issues involving the dominance of U.S.-based studies, and some data equivalence issues. He builds on the results of the analysis to lay out important future research directions in the TCE international marketing domain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The authors investigate whether, and to what extent, marketing conduct varies over the business cycle and how this contributes to the growing popularity of private labels. To address this issue, they examine a unique data set that combines a broad set of seven marketing-mix instruments with private-label share, using two decades' worth of data for 106 consumer packaged goods categories in the United States. The results show that private-label share behaves countercyclically and that part of the boost in private-label share during contractions is permanent. Retailers' observed practice of supporting their own labels in contraction periods while cutting back in expansion periods helps this cyclical sensitivity even further. In addition, national brands' procyclical behavior in terms of (1) major new product introductions, (2) advertising, and (3) their promotional pressure compared with private labels is associated with more pronounced cyclical fluctuations in private-label share and even with permanent private-label market share gains. Although brand managers cannot be held responsible for the occurrence of economic downswings, they can be held accountable for how much contractions help strengthen their fiercest competitor, the store brands owned by their very customers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Branding is a necessary and important business tool. This study, however, examines whether branding can constitute an anticompetitive act. While most markets and firms do not undertake anticompetitive actions, being identified as such can result in a wide range of negative outcomes. To explore this low-frequency yet high-risk outcome, this study assesses how branding has been perceived to be anticompetitive by the UK competition authorities. This assessment is undertaken by examination of all UK competition law regulatory decisions undertaken over the period 1950-2007 by the UK competition authorities. From this assessment, it is observed that branding can facilitate excessive pricing, requires vertical restraints, and can lead to consumer confusion; all potentially anticompetitive acts. The competition regulatory decisions focused on branding issues are demonstrably different from regulatory decisions without branding concerns and involve larger, often manufacturing, firms, which operate in more concentrated markets. It is concluded that comprehension of competition law needs to be disseminated more widely amongst marketing communities and greater reference to business and marketing theory should be made by competition law agencies to assist the comprehension of marketing techniques such as branding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes an alternative characterization of the early exercise premium that is valid for any Markovian and diffusion underlying price process as well as for any parameterization of the exercise boundary. This new representation is shown to provide the best pricing alternative available in the literature for medium- and long-term American option contracts, under the constant elasticity of variance model. Moreover, the proposed pricing methodology is also extended easily to the valuation of American options on defaultable equity and possesses appropriate asymptotic properties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines whether firms that voluntarily recognize stock option expense in their financial statements manage that expense downward more than firms that do not recognize the expense by adjusting option-pricing model assumptions. To examine this issue, I collect option-pricing model assumptions from fiscal year 2002 for both a sample of firms that voluntarily recognize stock option expense ("recognizing firms") and a sample of control firms that do not ("disclosing firms"). The empirical results suggest that recognizing firms manage the recognized stock-based compensation expense reported in their financial statements downward more than do firms that only disclose the expense. Additional analyses reveal that recognizing firms assume a lower level of volatility than disclosing firms in the option-pricing model calculations; however, I find no evidence that recognizing firms manage the dividend yield and risk-free interest rate assumptions more than disclosing firms. The Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) recently issued Statement of Financial Accounting Standards No. 123(R), which requires the expensing of the fair value of stock options, so these results may be of interest to capital-market participants and the FASB as they assess the reliability of stock option expense as determined by option-pricing models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this qualitative study, the authors offer a framework through which they examine the information use, strategic approach, and managerial control behavior in the export pricing practices of 24 firms based in Austria, Norway, and the United States. They offer propositions about export pricing behavior and suggestions for empirical research in the field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Brennan and Franks (1997) and Stoughton and Zechner (1998) provide contrasting arguments for why monitoring considerations create incentives for managers to underprice their firms' IPOs (initial public offerings). Like Smart and Zutter (2003), we examine these arguments using a sample of U.S. IPOs. However, we find evidence that the determinants of initial returns, institutional shareholdings, and post-IPO likelihood of acquisition are not consistent with these arguments. Thus, we conclude that monitoring considerations are not important determinants of IPO underpricing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We conduct an empirical analysis of forward prices in the PJM electricity market using a high-frequency data set of hourly spot and day-ahead forward prices. We find that there are significant risk premia in electricity forward prices. These premia vary systematically throughout the day and are directly related to economic risk factors, such as the volatility of unexpected changes in demand, spot prices, and total revenues. These results support the hypothesis that electricity forward prices in the Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Maryland market are determined rationally by risk-averse economic agents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Strategists following the resource-based view argue that firms can generate rents through value creation. To create value, firms develop and use resources and capabilities that other firms cannot imitate, trade for, or substitute other assets for. Even a firm that has created value, however, may not capture the potential rents associated with that value. To capture rents, a firm must set the right prices for what it sells. Most views of pricing assume that a firm can readily set appropriate prices. In contrast, we argue that pricing is a capability. To develop the ability to set the right prices, a firm must invest in resources and routines. We base our argument on a study of the pricing process of a large Midwestern manufacturing firm. We show that pricing resources, routines, and skills may help or inhibit a firm in setting the right price—and hence in appropriating value created. Our view of pricing as a capability contributes to the resource- based view because it suggests that strategists should consider the portfolio of value creation and value appropriation capabilities a firm uses to create competitive advantage. Our view also contributes to economics because it suggests that strategic, decisions about pricing capabilities have important implications for a fundamental economic action, determining prices. Managers in firms without effective pricing processes may be unable to set prices that reflect the wishes of its customers, so the customers may misuse their resources. As a result, resources may be used ineffectively. Our view of pricing as a capability therefore takes the resource-based-view straight to the heart of what is perhaps the central economic question: the best use of resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

IPO underpricing reached astronomical levels during 1999 and 2000. We show that the regime shift in initial returns and other elements of pricing behavior can be at least partially accounted for by marked changes in pre-IPO ownership structure and insider selling behavior over the period, which reduced key decision makers’ incentives to control underpricing. After controlling for these changes, the difference in underpricing between 1999 and 2000 and the preceding three years is much reduced. Our results suggest that it was firm characteristics that were unique during the "dot-com bubble" and that pricing behavior followed from incentives created by these characteristics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we examine the relative efficiency of audit production by one of the then Big 6 public accounting firms for a sample of 247 geographically dispersed audits of U.S. companies performed in 1989. To test the relative efficiency of audit production, we use both stochastic frontier estimation (SEE) and data envelopment analysis (DEA). A feature of our research is that we also test whether any apparent inefficiencies in production, identified using SW and DEA, are correlated with audit pricing. That is, do apparent inefficiencies cause the public accounting firm to reduce its unit price (billing rate) per hour of labor utilized on an engagement? With respect to results, we do not find any evidence of relative (within-sample) inefficiencies in the use of partner, manager, senior, or staff labor hours using SEE. This suggests that the SEE model may not be sufficiently powerful to detect inefficiencies, even with our reasonably large sample size However, we do find apparent inefficiencies using the DEA model. Audits range from about 74 percent to 100 percent relative efficiency in production, while the average audit is produced at about an 88 percent efficiency level, relative to the most efficient audits in the sample. Moreover, the inefficiencies identified using DEA are correlated with the firm's realization rate. That is, average billing rates per hour fail as the amount of inefficiency increases. Our results suggest that there are moderate inefficiencies in the production of many of the subject public accounting firm's audits, and that such inefficiencies are economically costly to the firm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article theoretically explores the characteristics underpinning quadratic term structure models (QTSMs), which designate the yield on a bond as a quadratic function of underlying state variables. We develop a comprehensive QTSM, which is maximally flexible and thus encompasses the features of several diverse models including the double square-root model of Longstaff (1989), the univariate quadratic model of Beaglehole and Tenney (1992), and the squared-autoregressive-independent-variable nominal term structure (SAINTS) model of Constantinides (1992). We document a complete classification of admissibility and empirical identification for the QTSM, and demonstrate that the QTSM can overcome limitations inherent in affine term structure models (ATSMs). Using the efficient method of moments of Gallant and Tauchen (1996), we test the empirical performance of the model in determining bond prices and compare the performance to the ATSMs. The results of the goodness-of-fit tests suggest that the QTSMs outperform the ATSMs in explaining historical bond price behavior in the United States. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As previously protected and emerging markets continue to open up for international trade, export firms often have a difficult time developing marketing strategies, particularly pricing strategies. However, few studies focus on the pricing practices of export firms, which makes it difficult to understand whether the same pricing strategies apply across markets, particularly in emerging markets. Using a framework of price complexity, the authors examine and compare the cost variables that are factored into price (price complexity) by export firms in the United States and Korea. The authors also investigate and compare some important noncost factors that influence pricing decisions for exporters in both their domestic and international markets. The results show that firms from the United States, a developed market, tend to factor more cost variables into price than do firms from an emerging market such as Korea. On the basis of the results of the study, the authors discuss implications for exporters and future research directions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Researchers are increasingly using data from the Nasdaq market to examine pricing behavior, market design, and other microstructure phenomena. The validity of any study that classifies trades as buys or sells depends on the accuracy of the classification method. Using a Nasdaq proprietary data set that identifies trade direction, we examine the validity of several trade classification algorithms. We find that the quote rule, the tick rule, and the Lee and Ready (1991) rule correctly classify 76.4%, 77.66%, and 81.05% of the trades, respectively. However, all classification rules have only a very limited success in classifying trades executed inside the quotes, introducing a bias in the accuracy of classifying large trades, trades during high volume periods, and ECN trades. We also find that extant algorithms do a mediocre job when used for calculating effective spreads. For Nasdaq trades, we propose a new and simple classification algorithm that improves over extant algorithms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using a simple dynamic asset pricing model, this paper investigates the relationship between the precision of public information about economic growth and stock market returns. After fully characterizing expected returns and conditional volatility, I show that (i) higher precision of signals tends to increase the risk premium, (ii) when signals are imprecise the equity premium is bounded above independently of investors' risk aversion, (iii) return volatility is U-shaped with respect to investors' risk aversion, and (iv) the relationship between conditional expected returns and conditional variance is ambiguous. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The arrival of public information in the U.S. Treasury market sets off a two-stage adjustment process for prices, trading volume, and bid-ask spreads. In a brief first stage, the release of a major macroeconomic announcement induces a sharp and nearly instantaneous price change with a reduction in trading volume, demonstrating that price reactions to public information do not require trading. The spread widens dramatically at announcement, evidently driven by inventory control concerns. In a prolonged second stage, trading volume surges, price volatility persists, and spreads remain moderately wide as investors trade to reconcile residual differences in their private views. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We analyze the impact of a contract's length, callability, amortization, and original discount by arbitrage methods. Among instruments that are callable without penalty, longer instruments command a higher interest rate because the borrower possesses the option of repaying relatively more slowly. However, the rate on longer self-amortizing loans cannot be substantially larger than for shorter ones because the payments decrease with contract length. Bounds on the trade-off between points and rate for callable debt are characterized using the trade-off for noncallable debt and the property that the value of the prepayment option increases with the loan's interest rate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The strong bias in favor of domestic securities is a well-documented characteristic of international investment portfolios, yet we show that the preference for investing close to home also applies to portfolios of domestic stocks. Specifically, U.S. investment managers exhibit a strong preference for locally headquartered firms, particularly small, highly levered firms that produce nontraded goods. These results suggest that asymmetric information between local and nonlocal investors may drive the preference for geographically proximate investments, and the relation between investment proximity and firm size and leverage may shed light on several well-documented asset pricing anomalies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims: To determine if there are associations between changes in the explicit (i.e. price) and implicit (i.e. use restrictions in public places) costs of cigarettes and nicotine vaping products (NVPs) and their use patterns in the United States. Methods: Data came from wave 1 (2016) US data of the ITC Four Country Smoking and Vaping Survey (ITC US 4CV1) and Nielsen Scanner Track database. A multiple logistic regression model was applied to estimate the likelihoods of NVP use (vaping at least monthly), cigarette/NVP concurrent use (vaping and smoking at least monthly) and switch from cigarettes to NVPs (had quit smoking < 24 months and currently vape) among ever smokers, conditioning upon cigarette/NVP prices, use restrictions and socio‐demographics. Results: Living in places where vaping is allowed in smoke‐free areas was significantly associated with an increase in the likelihood of vaping [marginal effect (ME) = 0.17; P < 0.05] and the concurrent use of cigarettes and NVPs (ME = 0.11; P < 0.05). Higher NVP prices were associated with decreased likelihood of NVP use, concurrent use, and complete switch (P > 0.05). Higher cigarette prices were associated with greater likelihood of cigarette and NVP concurrent use (P > 0.05). Working in places where vaping is banned is associated with lower likelihood of vaping and NVP and cigarette concurrent use (P > 0.05). Conclusions: Higher prices for nicotine vaping products (NVPs) and vaping restrictions in public places are associated with less NVP use and less concurrent use of vaping and smoking. Public policies that increase prices for vaping devices and supplies (i.e. regulations, taxes) and restrict where vaping is allowed are likely to suppress vaping. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This paper aims to explore how temporal distance influences the evaluation of partitioned pricing. Design/methodology/approach: The effect of temporal distance on the effectiveness of partitioned pricing is tested using data collected through experiments in the USA. Findings: Study 1 reveals that people perceive partitioned pricing as more attractive than combined pricing, but only for a distant event. Study 2 reveals that individuals predisposed to global information processing perceive partitioned pricing as more attractive than combined pricing. However, for individuals who commonly engage in local processing, combined pricing was equally attractive as partitioned pricing. In Study 3, the authors examine a boundary condition and find that the joint effect of temporal distance and partitioned pricing is attenuated when the purchase is made for a gift in which consumers are assumed to pay less attention to a surcharge. In Study 4, the authors examine how partitioned pricing influences a consumer's choice in terms of temporal distance. Practical implications: The findings provide practical guidelines to business leaders looking for practical guidelines for pricing policy decisions. Originality/value: Previous research shows that partitioned pricing is more effective in increasing consumers' purchase intention and demand than combined pricing. In the present research, the authors introduce temporal distance as an important moderator that affects the effectiveness of partitioned pricing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Promising growing conditions and favorable renewable energy policies make the western U.S. a potentially suitable region for dedicated woody biomass (DWB) plantations for energy generation. To support the regional development of biomass and biofuels markets, the USDA awarded an AFRI grant to the Advanced Hardwood Biofuels (AHB) Northwest project. As part of the AHB project, GreenWood Resources ("GWR") - a globally diversified timberland investment management company with over 20 years of specialized experience in high-yield, intensive plantation management - installed and managed hybrid poplar DWB plantations at four demonstration sites: Clarksburg, CA; Hayden, ID; Jefferson, OR; and Pilchuck, WA. GWR developed a discounted cash flow ("DCF") investment model based on the AHB project results and plantation management experience across this range of growing and market conditions. The model estimates financial returns and tests the sensitivity of returns to changes in key variables. These results inform directions for future research and challenges for commercial production of DWB. Results indicate that current market pricing for forest biomass in the western U.S. - approximately USD 46/BDMT - produces negative financial returns from DWB plantation investment on all four sites. To produce positive returns at all four sites requires biomass assumptions that are well above the current market (USD 121/BDMT). With this price assumption, plantation investment returns average 8.62% in real, inflation-adjusted terms across all sites, but this biomass price level may make conversion into transportation fuels uneconomic under current fuel prices and policies. Financial returns to DWB investments are most sensitive to changes in price, yield, and land costs. Given current economic conditions and plantation technology, the development of a large-scale DWB plantation base in the western U.S. is unlikely to attract private sector capital without some combination of a material increase in the biomass price, strong policy support, or a dramatic improvement in plantation yields. Highlights • Current pricing for biomass in western U.S. produces negative financial returns. • Biomass investments are unlikely to attract private-sector capital. • Returns are most sensitive to assumptions related to prices, yields, and land costs. • Increase in price or dramatic improvement in yields may change the present situation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on purchase price allocations in line with Section 1060 of the U.S. Internal Revenue Code of 1986. Topics covered include impact of Section 1060 on typical asset purchase transactions, residual method, application of Section 1060 on the sale and acquisition of real property, increases or decreases in purchase price and impact of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2018.

Abstract Rainfall derivatives are in their infancy since starting trading on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) in 2011. Being a relatively new class of financial instruments there is no generally recognised pricing framework used within the literature. In this paper, we propose a novel Genetic Programming (GP) algorithm for pricing contracts. Our novel algorithm, which is called Stochastic Model GP (SMGP), is able to generate and evolve stochastic equations of rainfall, which allows us to probabilistically transform rainfall predictions from the risky world to the risk-neutral world. In order to achieve this, SMGP's representation allows its individuals to comprise of two weighted parts, namely a seasonal component and an autoregressive component. To create the stochastic nature of an equation for each SMGP individual, we estimate the weights by using a probabilistic approach. We evaluate the models produced by SMGP in terms of rainfall predictive accuracy and in terms of pricing performance on 42 cities from Europe and the USA. We compare SMGP to 8 methods: its predecessor DGP, 5 well-known machine learning methods (M5 Rules, M5 Model trees, k-Nearest Neighbors, Support Vector Regression, Radial Basis Function), and two statistical methods, namely AutoRegressive Integrated Moving Average (ARIMA) and Monte Carlo Rainfall Prediction (MCRP). Results show that the proposed algorithm is able to statistically outperform all other algorithms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this work, the impact of network architecture on the natural gas demand and price forecasts task is evaluated. Recurrent models such as GRU (Gated Recurrent Units) and LSTM (Long Short-Term Memory networks) are investigated to verify that their impressive performance on sequence modeling tasks like audio synthesis can be transferred over to this challenging domain. The effect of data decomposition using Empirical Mode Decomposition technique is explored. Finally, the effect of the encoder-decoder architecture on model performance is evaluated in this work. The results obtained by the different approaches are then compared to identify the most appropriate model for the case studies analyzed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study utilises the product barcode, store and retail real estate data to obtain consistent estimates of the effects of retail market concentration on food prices in the USA. Our disaggregated data allow for an identification strategy that corrects for the endogeneity of concentration in the concentration–price relationship. Findings from an instrumental variables fixed-effects model indicate that prices rise with retail concentration, and that ignoring endogeneity results in a severe downward bias. A simulation analysis finds that a 5 per cent increase in concentration would increase prices by 18 per cent and decrease food consumption by 2–5 per cent. Our findings suggest mergers in the food industry could inadvertently lead to adverse effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the United States, policy-makers struggle to resolve conflict between public demands for affordable insurance costs covering hurricanes and market demands for risk-based insurance pricing. Given the socially constructed nature of risk, a risk-based pricing approach prioritizes insurer values and business practices over all societal value goals expressly limiting democratic inclusion in decision-making about risk. As a step towards the more democratically inclusive approach of risk governance, this article uses the state of Florida as a case study to provide a narrative of the social and political context for the evolution of the idea of U.S. hurricane risk. I argue that today's hurricane risk is a product of long-standing shared efforts to build prosperity. However, it is no longer a simple risk for society to overcome on its way to economic well-being. Contemporary hurricane risk is systemic and serves as a nexus for political battles over American values. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Consumers face significantly different gasoline prices across gas stations. Using gasoline price data obtained from 98,753 gas stations within the U.S., it is shown that such differences can be explained by a model utilizing the gasoline demand of consumers depending on their income and commuting distance/time, where the pricing strategies of both gas stations and refiners are taken into account. The corresponding welfare analysis shows that there are significant redistributive effects of gasoline price changes among consumers, where the welfare costs of an increase in gasoline prices are found to be higher for lower income consumers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Regulators claim that increased mandated disclosure frequency should lead to more efficient price formation. However, analytical models suggest that mandating disclosure may actually impede the price formation process, and prior empirical studies have been unable to document a relation between mandatory disclosure and improved price formation. We re-examine this relationship using a recent SEC regulation that increased the frequency of mandated event disclosures in form 8-K. We show that price formation improves after the mandate, where firms with the largest increases in mandatory disclosure experience the greatest improvements in price formation. Our evidence is consistent with the idea that mandating an increase in the frequency that material events must be disclosed is associated with improved price formation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]