Surprises,sentiments, and the expectations hypothesis of the term structure of interest rates

Between 2005 and 2009, we document evident time-varying credit risk price discovery between the equity and credit default swap (CDS) markets for 174 US non-financial investment-grade firms. We test the economic significance of a simple portfolio strategy that utilizes fluctuation in CDS spreads as a trading signal to set stock positions, conditional on the CDS price discovery status of the reference entities. We show that a conditional portfolio strategy which updates the list of CDS-influenced firms over time, yields a substantively larger realized return net of transaction cost over the unconditional strategy. Furthermore, the conditional strategy’s Sharpe ratio outperforms a series of benchmark portfolios over the same trading period, including buy-and-hold, momentum and dividend yield strategies.     

Transformational leadership,trusting climate,and knowledge-exchange behaviors in Taiwan

This study follows the leadership literature in proposing that leadership behaviors can affect followers' attitudes and actions. Specifically, we propose that transformational leaders may nurture a trusting climate among organizational members and, in turn, promote employee knowledge-exchange behaviors. Surveying data from multiple respondents, we find that a trusting climate mediates the positive relationship between transformational leadership and employee knowledge-exchange behaviors among R&D workers in 122 Taiwanese enterprises. We then discuss the significance of our findings and the possible contribution to the literature of leadership and organizational climate.     

The Performance Implications of Financial and Non‐Financial Rewards: An Asian Nordic Comparison

This study empirically investigated culture's consequences on employee perceptions of the performance implications of financial and non‐financial rewards. Using a sample (n = 568) drawn from the banking industry in Finland and Hong Kong, we found that although the effects and predictive capability of culture (i.e. masculinity–femininity, individualism–collectivism, uncertainty avoidance, and power distance) offered some important insights, a range of other contextual factors (i.e. organizational, institutional, economic) wielded influence over and shaped reward–performance values, preferences, and behaviours. The emergence of these new paradigms necessitates that the US centric economic and behavioural theories (e.g. exchange) that underpin reward–performance be revisited and extended if they are to be applicable in the international context. Understanding the influence of a range of contextual forces is therefore critical to multinational organizations attempting to implement effective reward strategies aimed at achieving a diverse set of performance priorities. In addition to these novel theoretical and practical contributions, this study also paves the way for future research in this promising area of management studies.     

Software copyright infringement among college students

In recent years, the issue of infringement in the software industry has gained international attention as the demand for software continues to grow. The growing presence of unauthorized reproduction of copyrighted products inhibits full potential growth and discourages creative activity. This study analyses the extent of software copyright infringement among college students and attitudes of these students with regard to risk of apprehension and conviction. This study finds a significantly higher likelihood of infringement for computer majors and male students, and a decrease in the likelihood of infringement for older students. This study also uncovers differences in attitudes toward risk of apprehension and conviction between majors in scientific fields and those in business and economics. Whereas the first group of majors appears to exhibit risky behaviour, the latter tends to be more risk averse.     

Knowledge-oriented human resource configurations,the new product development learning process,and perceived new product performance

We propose a set of organizational efforts that can help companies accumulate and learn knowledge related to new product development (NPD) activities. We call it the NPD learning process and argue that a set of coherent human resource management (HRM) practices, termed knowledge-oriented human resource (HR) configuration, can facilitate the NPD learning process. Collecting survey data from Taiwan, we find that the knowledge-oriented HR configuration is positively related to the NPD learning process and that the NPD learning process is positively related to managers' perceived new product performance. This study contributes to the literature of strategic HRM and innovation management.     

Fewer Fish for Higher Profits? Price Response and Economic Incentives in Global Tuna Fisheries Management

This paper evaluates industry-wide economic incentives arising from changes in product prices in an industry exploiting a common renewable resource (tropical tunas) that is regulated via output limits. Changes in prices alter economic incentives by affecting revenues, profits, conservation, and nonmarket public benefits. Economic incentives in industries exploiting common resources have been examined from multiple angles. However, industry level variation in market prices arising from changes in public regulation has not been explored. We analyse the impact on economic incentives due to changes in output limits and market prices through estimation of ex-vessel price and scale flexibilities for imported skipjack and yellowfin in Thailand’s cannery market. The unitary scale flexibility, estimated from the General Synthetic Inverse Demand Systems, indicates no loss in revenue and even potential profit increases resulting from lower harvest levels that could arise from lower catch limits. However, for a revenue neutral or positive outcome to be achieved, the three inter-governmental tuna Regional Fisheries Management Organizations, which manage the majority of the yellowfin and skipjack tuna in the Pacific and Indian Oceans, would have to coordinate multilaterally to set the catch limits for both species.     

WHAT MAKES INTERNATIONAL CAPITAL FLOWS PROMOTE ECONOMIC GROWTH? AN INTERNATIONAL CROSS‐COUNTRY ANALYSIS

This paper re‐examines the relationship between international capital flows and economic growth within the context of various ‘conditional factors’ that possibly have the potential to influence such relationships. It achieves this by employing panel data for 80 countries that cover 1976–2007. International capital inflow is broken down into foreign direct investments (FDI) and foreign portfolio investments (FPI). We find interesting evidence that only FDI has a positive effect on growth and that FPI has an unfavorable, if not negative, effect on growth. The conditional variables of banking liberalization, high‐income level, twin crises, lower corruption, and human capital mitigate the positive impacts of FDI on growth. In contrast, the middle‐income level and good shareholder protection have a positive effect. As concerns FPI, the level of financial liberalization, being in a Latin American region, the wealth of countries, and market governance all influence the way that FPI affects growth, whereas the conditional variables of twin crises and human capital do not influence the effect of FPI on economic growth.     

The Role of Correlated Trading in Setting REIT Prices

This study investigates the role of correlated trading by individuals in setting equity real estate investment trust (REIT) prices. Consistent with existing literature, this study finds that there is a common element in correlated trades that drives both traditional closed-end fund prices and REIT prices. Perhaps more important, we find evidence suggesting that (1) the effects of correlated trading on REIT prices are stronger for those REITs that are hypothesized to be preferred by individual investors, and (2) this linkage is stronger when the REIT market is hot and exuberant; i.e., when the average share turnover in the REIT market is high.     

Discovering REIT Price Discovery: A New Data Setting

This study decomposes real estate investment trust (REIT) returns into two components: (1) real returns, and (2) public returns. The real returns are based on the changes in the private, appraisal-based net asset values of REITs, whereas the public returns are measured by the variations in REITs’ premiums/discounts. This study then investigates the price discovery of REIT prices. The results indicate that lagged public returns are useful in predicting real returns. In addition, the study documents concurrent factor exposures for public returns and lagged factor exposures for private returns under a variety of asset pricing models. Overall, the results are consistent with the notion that public markets are more efficient in processing information.

Outlier Detection in the Lognormal Logarithmic Conditional Autoregressive Range Model

An outlier detection procedure in the lognormal logarithmic conditional autoregressive range (lognormal Log‐CARR) model is proposed. The proposed test statistic is demonstrated to be well‐sized and to have good power using Monte Carlo simulations. Furthermore, the outlier detection procedure suffers less from the masking effect caused by multiple outliers. The results of an empirical investigation show that the proposed method can effectively detect volatility outliers and improve forecasting accuracy.