Russell Kashian

The Willingness-to-Pay for Work/Family Policies: A Study of Teachers.

Recent evidence suggests that employers and employees may benefit from work/family policies and that even non-beneficiaries may support such policies. The authors posit that these policies generate not only “use” values (values for those who rely on them), but also, based on a particular norm of social justice, “need” values (values received by all individuals, regardless of expectations of direct benefit). Combining the median voter model with the contingent valuation method, which was designed to measure the willingness-to-pay for environmental goods such as national parks, the authors capture the willingness-to-pay for seven distinct work/family policies within a sample of 343 public, elementary school teachers. The results suggest that referenda to initiate work/family policies in exchange for payroll deductions from teachers would pass, depending on the specific deduction. Even respondents with no expectation of direct benefit may place a positive value on the policies, consistent with the notion of “need” values.

Mapping the Terrain of Work/Family Journals

An expanding body of published research addresses the relationship between paid employment and commitments to kin, an area referred to as work/family research. Largely relying on an electronic database located at Boston College, the authors analyze the prevalence of relevant articles in various journals and the extent of the likely audience for such articles in those journals in an attempt to obtain a well-defined map. The analysis yields rankings of journals. The rankings demonstrate the interdisciplinary nature of the field and highlight the need for researchers to read across disciplines but are unstable. For this and other reasons, the authors recommend reliance on an unranked set of 23 core journals.

Do Tax Increment Finance Districts Stimulate Growth in Real Estate Values

We use data on all Wisconsin municipalities during the period 1990–2003 to study the effect of tax increment finance (TIF) on economic development. We use appropriate statistical techniques to measure the impact of TIF and control variables on aggregate property values. We also examine the possibility communities that use TIF are self‐selected. We find little evidence that TIF has led to significant increases in aggregate property values or that TIF increases the total value of residential and manufacturing property within a community. Surprisingly, we find positive impacts for commercial TIF districts.

Credit Union To Mutual Conversion: Do Interest Rates Diverge?

This study conducts a cross-sectional analysis of 175 depository institutions, assessing the impact on the interest rates charged on loan products and offered on savings products by the size of the institution, its liquidity, its net worth, its tax and salary payments, and its status as a for-profit institution, a credit union (CU), or a converted CU. We find that banks and converted CUs have interest rates significantly less favorable for consumers than CUs, suggesting that a CU converting will result in adverse interest rate movements for its customers. (JEL 621, L3)

The economic impact of organized camps

In the course of a calendar year, the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater conducts a wide variety of camps and clinics on its campus. The idea of tourism as an economic development tool is a well-established research track and the retention and attraction of ‘engines of economic growth’ is a key topic in the field of economic development. This paper uses input–output analysis to estimate the economic value of these camps. While there is limited research directly in the area of the economic impact of organized camps, there is a relationship between this research and the literature that uses input–output analysis to evaluate the economic impacts from tourism.

Do Minority-owned Banks Pay Higher Interest Rates on CDs?

This paper analyzes whether minority-owned banks pass along an advantage in access to governmental deposits to the communities they serve in the form of higher interest rates paid on certificates of deposit (CDs). Although academic evidence has not confirmed increased profitability or efficiency of these banks since the creation of the Minority Bank Deposit Program, their unique positioning within communities may allow them to meet the needs of a clientele with lower and less stable income, and with higher than average expected future deposit withdrawals. Data from the regulatory reports provided by minority and non-minority owned banks are analyzed using five distinct time horizons for CDs. The results suggest that Black-owned banks consistently pay higher interest rates on CDs, with a lower premium for longer-term CDs, and used the premium to cushion the ill effects of the recent financial collapse on their customers. Asian-owned banks provide a smaller premium for short-term CDs, while the remaining category of minority-owned banks, including Native American, Hispanic, and Women-owned banks, also paid a premium on CDs, but shrank that premium substantially following the financial collapse. Note also that minority-owned banks may use this funding advantage in a variety of other ways to serve their respecitive communities.

Fee or free checking? Noninterest checking account fees, competition and multimarket banking

ABSTRACT This article analyses noninterest checking (NIC) account fees using a unique data set covering 11 875 observations on 1880 banks from 2008 to 2012. These data identify whether the bank has free or fee checking on NIC accounts and, where relevant, the fee and minimum balance to avoid the fee. Appealing to shrouded equilibrium theory, we hypothesize that banks, and particularly small banks, will avoid drawing the attention of myopic, low-income types by having stable policies, or will attempt to confuse depositors with contradictory policy shifts in the fee and minimum balance requirements. Competition and small bank size should favour consumers, but the meaning of ‘favour’ is complicated by large depositors and the banks subsidizing small depositors with NIC accounts. The results support the avoid attention hypothesis, particularly for single-market banks, and weakly support the confuse depositors hypothesis. The largest banks, including three too big to fail banks, are most responsive to competition, with single-market banks far less responsive. Competition may be responsible for a dramatic decline in free checking among the largest banks, and substantial increases in minimum balances for those banks, since these effectively reduced subsidies. Simultaneously, single-market banks became more likely to offer free checking.

Off-balance sheet activities and community bank performance

Purpose - – The purpose of this paper is to examine loan commitments and lending patterns of community banks. The authors also test for shifts in these relationships in the period unwinding the subprime crisis. Design/methodology/approach - – Standard panel fixed-effect models as well as hierarchical (mixed) regression models are estimated given that banks operating in a specific geographic market may vary systematically with differences in firm-level characteristics. Hierarchical (mixed) regression models can control for within-counties and within-banks similarities. The authors also employ pooled estimations with clustered standard errors at the bank level as robustness check. Findings - – The empirical results show that the use of loan commitments is generally associated with moderate increase in profitability and higher insolvency risk. However, during the recent financial crisis, the use of loan commitments becomes safer. The use of loan commitments is more risky for community banks that concentrate more on loans that focus on real estate, while it is safer for community banks with higher equity. In regards to the performance of community banks’ balance sheet loan activities, a more concentrated loan portfolio results in lower return and higher insolvency risks. High loan growth generates higher return and higher risks. Originality/value - – Prior to the 2008 credit meltdown, community banks significantly increased their issuance of off-balance sheet loan commitments. While the ratio of loan commitments to total loans has come down in recent years it continues to exceed the levels reached in the 1990s. This evolution has, however resulted in little research regarding its implications on community bank profitability and risk.

Does ownership form in community banking impact profitability

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to examine the profitability of different ownership forms of banks. The two ownership forms are corporations that elect to be taxed as a Subchapter S corporation (limited to 100 shareholders) as opposed to those corporations that do not make this election. The impact this election has on the dividends paid to the investors is examined. Design/methodology/approach - This paper uses Call Report Data on Wisconsin banks as collected by SNL Securities as its database. The research methodology uses two measures of performance: dividend ratio and accounting return on assets (ROA). The dividend ratio is defined as dividends as a percentage of net income (dividends/net income). Accounting return on investment is net income as a percentage of total assets (net income/total assets) and is a measure of profitability. A number of regressions were created with these as the endogenenous variables and a heteroskedasticity-corrected ordinary least squares (OLS) model was used. Findings - Subchapter S banks were found to be more profitable (as measured by ROA). However, when taxes are taken into account, there is no practical difference in profitability between the two types of corporate structure. Research limitations/implications - By limiting the analysis to Wisconsin, a single state, confusion that may be caused by both state laws (personal and corporate) and local corporate cultures is avoided. Practical implications - The practical implications of this research can guide the federal government in determining whether this form of stock ownership is a device that reduces or increases federal tax revenues. It can also provide insight to the stockholders of these banks into the differences in profitability these corporate forms offer. Originality/value - While earlier literature has reviewed the concept of Subchapter S corporations and its theoretical impact, little research has been conducted that tests the actual results. Due to the private nature of the corporate form (these types of corporations are often not publicly traded and have no incentive to reveal private financial records), this original research is the result of the public nature of banks that provide a rich dataset for us to examine.

Minority‐Owned Banks and Bank Failures After the Financial Collapse

Minority‐owned banks (MOBs) are small banks, which often serve disadvantaged communities of color, and failed at high rates after the financial collapse. The U.S. Census and FDIC data are used to analyse bank failures for 2009–2014, with predictors from 2008, using logistic regression for estimation. Failure rates were high among Black and Asian American–owned banks; these are related to bank failures in African American communities and concentration in commercial real estate lending; policy responses to the collapse were generally ineffective for small banks. We conclude that policy support for MOBs operating in disadvantaged communities of color is warranted.