Regression studies have suggested that reducing estate-tax rates would lead to a "<b>net</b>" reduction in total charitable donations distributed at death. Not only is this notion counterintuitive, our empirical analysis yields the contrary conclusion: overall donations would increase. In rationalizing...

This paper illustrates how individual forecasts and forecasting techniques may be evaluated by the use of established decision theory. Given the probability distribution of the forecast error, we first find the optimal strategy for a decision process, i.e., how to make the most efficient use of...

The definition of the cost of resources devoted to inventories which is inherent in the economic-lot-size procedure implies financial conditions which may not exist. This would lead to infeasibility and/or to a misstatement of carrying costs. If carrying costs are incorrectly stated, then in...

Some of the authors of empirical bankruptcy studies have misinterpreted the "absolute priority rule" (APR) and erroneously concluded that at least some bankruptcy courts are failing to enforce the law. This paper clarifies the APR and explains why departures from it are permitted by the US...

Using a large panel of industrial Compustat firms from 1971 to 1988, we find long-term external financing to be positively related to the period's capital expenditures on growth opportunities, but negatively related to beginning-of-the-period financial slack, broadly defined. These findings...