Positive Feedback Investment Strategies and Destabilizing Rational Speculation

Analyses of rational speculation usually presume that it dampens fluctuations caused by “noise” traders. This is not necessarily the case if noise traders follow positive-feedback strategies—buy when prices rise and sell when prices fall. It may pay to jump on the bandwagon and purchase ahead of noise demand. If rational speculators' early buying triggers positive-feedback trading, then an increase in the number of forward-looking speculators can increase volatility about fundamentals. This model is consistent with a number of empirical observations about the correlation of asset returns, the overreaction of prices to news, price bubbles, and expectations.     

INDUSTRIAL ECONOMICS OF THE TRANSITION: DETERMINANTS OF ENTERPRISE EFFICIENCY IN CZECHOSLOVAKIA AND HUNGARY

Firm level data are employed to estimate frontier productionfunctions for Czechoslovak industry in 1990 and for Hungarianindustry in 1991. In both countries there is evidence of inefficientfirms, with the distribution of efficiency characterized bya small number of inefficient outliers. Enterprise efficiencyis positively related to firm size and negatively to managerialeffort expended in lobbying for easier targets, but export orientationhas no effect on efficiency. Most importantly, in Hungary'smore reformed economy, efficient firms are more profitable,while profit redistribution by the center in Czechoslovakialed to an inverse relationship between efficiency and profitability.     

Risk‐Adjusting the Returns to Venture Capital

We adapt stochastic discount factor (SDF) valuation methods for venture capital (VC) performance evaluation. Our approach generalizes the popular Public Market Equivalent (PME) method and allows statistical inference in the presence of cross‐sectionally dependent, skewed VC payoffs. We relax SDF restrictions implicit in the PME so that the SDF can accurately reflect risk‐free rates and returns of public equity markets during the sample period. This generalized PME yields substantially different abnormal performance estimates for VC funds and start‐up investments, especially in times of strongly rising public equity markets and for investments with betas far from one.     

城乡物流一体化背景下供应链协同管理研究

供应链协同是增强供应链整体竞争的重要手段。城乡物流一体化下供应链具有复杂性、动态性和离散性的特点。为改善城乡供应链的协同效果,文章从战略层、管理层及操作层三个层面提出了供应链协同的管理对策。     

The Effect of Information on Willingness to Pay for Canned Tuna Fish with Different Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Certification: A Pilot Study

The objective of this study was to assess the role of information in consumers' willingness to pay (WTP) for food products with corporate social responsibility (CSR) certification. The item used for the experimental design was canned tuna fish, a product on the market that is already exhibiting various kinds of certification related to social and environmental attributes. Two different kinds of certifications were examined, namely Friend of the Sea, which involves environmental aspects, and SA8000, related to workers' rights and more general social attributes. We implemented experimental auctions, taking into account three information treatments. The initial findings show that the WTP for both CSR labels is higher than the WTP for tuna fish without any CSR certification. Nevertheless, the information provided on CSR certification did not change consumers' WTP among the certification schemes. Our findings could also serve to fine‐tune marketing strategies to consumer preferences and determine which CSR activities are worth undertaking.     

Marktanalyse en markttheorie

Summary The introduction of expectations in market theory has increased its dynamic nature and realism. It is argued that only the incorporation of historical time in the theory will suggest the market development patterns needed by analysts. Dynamic market theory can usefully be based on the development stages of the product cycle. The scope of such a theory is much wider than is currently acknowledged. It comprises entrepreneurial theory, the theory of profits, competition and industrial change, and provides the building blocks of a theory of international business. The application of methods of analysis in the various stages of market development is mentioned.

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Rede, uitgesproken bij de aanvaarding van het ambt van lector in de bedrijfshuishoudkunde aan de Universiteit van Amsterdam op 27 april 1971. Prof. Dr. P. Hennipman heeft door zijn critische opmerkingen wezenlijk bijgedragen tot de formulering en nuancering van het gegeven betoog.