Random links
- Greek disabled unions aghast at inclusion of pedophiles, pyromaniacs on disability list
- Now in Greece being a pedophile will get you 35% disability pay (by comparison they pay 10% disability to diabetics. I'm kinda speechless at this time.
- The Changing of the Board: The Impact on Firm Valuation of Mandated Female Board Representation
- The abstract: "In 2003, a new law required that 40 percent of Norwegian firms’ directors be women – at the time only nine percent of directors were women. We use the pre-quota cross-sectional variation in female board representation to instrument for exogenous changes to corporate boards following the quota. We find that the constraint imposed by the quota caused a significant drop in the stock price at the announcement of the law and a large decline in Tobin’s Q over the following years, consistent with the idea that firms choose boards to maximize value. The quota led to younger and less experienced boards, increases in leverage and acquisitions, and deterioration in operating performance, consistent with less capable boards."
- Harder for Americans to Rise From Lower Rungs
- How much of this is likely to be the effect of divorce? Education costs in the US would seem likely to account for some of this, but divorce (with the resulting single-parent families likely to be comparatively poor plus lacking in other aspects) seems like a good argument for a cause. Why divorce might matter more in the US would likely be lower levels of social support relative to other countries (with such more expansive systems likely hurting the long-term economic viability of these countries - as we see in pension systems in much of the world right now).
- Solo diners find a new companion right at their fingertips
- "It's almost rare now that a single diner will walk in without some type of device ... It’s really changed the experience for single diners." I have to admit to pulling out a phone in a restaurant for some random web surfing... and an ebook reader too. Still I don't mind the old paperback.