This study examines the impact of implied and contemporaneous equity market volatility on Treasury yields, corporate bond yields, and yield spreads over Treasuries. The CBOE VIX is the measure of implied volatility, and the measure of contemporaneous volatility is constructed using intraday squared S&P 500 returns. We find that bond yields and spreads respond to changes in equity market volatility in a manner consistent with a flight-to-quality effect. Both shortand long-term Treasury yields fall in response to increases in implied volatility, and the yield curve flattens modestly. Yields on short-term investment grade bonds fall in response to contemporaneous volatility shocks, while long-term spreads on low-quality issues widen. This indicates that investors "look ahead" in anticipation of changes in equity market volatility but respond more strongly to changes in contemporaneous market activity.

Private contracting of public services has been alleged to reduce costs. We address the critical question of whether private contracting really saves money, using the US prison privatisation experience as an example. Although the consensus in the literature identifies such savings, we raise economic issues of incomplete contracting, asymmetric information and moral hazard, which complicate matters. We discuss explicit, implicit, and agency costs that show that measuring the savings and quality impact of private contracting is more challenging than the literature suggests, and often inconclusive. This may suggest caution in designing solutions to cost pressures.JEL codes: E20, G30, H70.

Purpose Knowledge of spreadsheet tools like Microsoft Excel is a valuable skill to have in today’s job market. The preliminary assessment of a group of business school students shows that most of them struggle to perform simple tasks in a spreadsheet. The purpose of this paper is to propose using student tutors to teach these skills. Design/methodology/approach The authors identify students proficient in Excel as tutors and organize one-on-one peer tutoring lessons. The authors compare the Excel competency level of students prior to and after the tutoring sessions. Findings The results suggest that most students with minimal Excel skills significantly improve their competency level after tutoring. Originality/value The proposed hands-on approach appears to be effective in helping students acquire basic Excel capabilities.

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