Utilizing a database of daily institutional fund manager trades, we examine the contribution of strategic trading at quarter-end associated with potential 'portfolio pumping' or 'ramping up' of reported stock prices around quarter-ends. We provide the first direct evidence that active fund...

Using unique daily fund-manager trade data, we examine the role of institutional trading in influencing firm performance. We show that short-horizon informed trading by multiple institutional investors effectively disciplines corporate management. Our focus is on short-term “swing” trades,...

The Australian Government has requested the Industries Assistance Commission to report on means of implementing its policy of a guaranteed market share, equal to 80% of the total market by volume, for domestic producers of passenger motor vehicles. This paper examines some of the costs...

Labour market regulation and social welfare policies live in a symbiotic relationship. The growing social welfare safety net has made acceptable, at least for a time, the centralised system of wage fixation in Australia which appears to have contributed to a high level of unemployment. By...

Is removal of tariff protection the key to the growth of manufacturing exports? Existing analyses of microeconomic reform have shown large improvements to mining. We use a less constrained version of the economic model ORANI to show that manufacturing exporters are the major beneficiaries of...

Hartzell and Starks (HS) (2013) report that firms with more concentrated institutional investors pay executives less, and make this pay more sensitive to performance. In an extended data set covering 1992 to 2010, we find that institutional concentration has no such effects when we control for...

This paper examines efficient means of abating the greenhouse effect in Australia by reducing the emissions of CO2. It examines the generation of CO2 emissions from fossil fuels in Australia, and analyses means to cut emissions from electricity generation and road transport. Finally, it...

International studies document strong evidence that chief executive officer (CEO) remuneration is positively correlated with corporate performance. Prior Australian studies, however, find no positive link between CEO pay and market performance. In the present paper we re-examine the association...

Performance thresholds are commonly used in executive compensation contracts. We examine the contractual nonlinearity associated with performance thresholds and its incentive implications. Incorporating a performance threshold into a standard principal-agent model of a linear contract, we show...