1. Since capital budgeting decisions involve the estimation of a projects future cash flows and the rate at which they should be discounted is still a relatively subjective process, the behavioral traits of managers still affect this process. Discuss this statement and suggest how managers can better improve their ability to eliminate biases in their forecasting.

2. 23 July 2002 an article entitled Investors Appreciate Dividends Again, See Them as Safer Bets in Bear Market, appeared on Associated Press Newswire. The article described two reasons why financial planners have routinely recommended that investors hold dividend-paying stocks, especially in bear markets such as the period 2001-2002: First, retired investors use quarterly dividends to augment their income find dividends to be more attractive during bear markets. Second, investors search for a bird in the hand, which dividends represent. In this respect, dividends provide investors with the ability to be patient, and wait out the market decline. The article quotes Steve Wetzel, a professor of finance at New York University's School of Continuing Education and a certified financial planner, and Arnie Kaufman, editor of Standard & Poors newsletter The Outlook. Discuss both reasons mentioned above, in the context of this week's assigned readings.

3. Discuss the merits of the following statement: Inside directors should constitute the majority of a corporate board, because insiders have superior understanding of the firms business operations. What evidence can you cite in support or in opposition to this assertion?