Investing Public Pensions in the Stock Market: Implications for Risk Sharing,Capital Formation and Public Policy in the Developed and Developing World

Concerns that existing public pension systems will be unable to pay benefits to a rapidly ageing population without sharp tax increases, and the prospect of higher average returns on stocks than on government securities, are drawing the attention of policy–makers worldwide to the option of investing public pension assets in stocks. Including stock market investments in public pension plans could improve risk sharing within and between generations, and could perhaps lead to faster market development in some countries. It could also result in excessive risk–taking, higher transactions costs and a false sense of increased financial security. This paper assesses these issues, with an emphasis on the considerations that are of special importance to developing markets. A contrast is drawn between the demographic outlook in East Asia and the major industrialized countries. Some lessons are drawn from the reform experience in Chile and elsewhere in Latin America.     

Do Americans consume too little natural gas? An empirical test of marginal cost pricing

This article measures the extent to which prices exceed marginal costs in the U.S. natural gas distribution market during the period 1991–2007. We find large departures from marginal cost pricing in all 50 states, with residential and commercial customers facing average markups of over 40%. Based on conservative estimates of the price elasticity of demand, these distortions impose hundreds of millions of dollars of annual welfare loss. Moreover, current price schedules are an important preexisting distortion which should be taken into account when evaluating carbon taxes and other policies aimed at addressing external costs.     

The modified Tichy TPC framework for pattern matching and hypothesis development in historical case study research

Scholars' calls for an integrating view of the technical, political, and cultural (TPC) aspects of management lead to examining Tichy's TPC framework as the basis of such a view. Tichy's framework is shown to require modification to include the TPC systems of a firm's customers and competitors, and a modified TPC framework is proposed. This framework's usefulness for pattern matching to identify causes of performance is demonstrated in historical case research into a strategic group marketing IBM‐compatible mainframes. A result is four testable hypotheses suggesting how firms' success marketing to organizations depends on effective integration between marketing and general management, and a potential cause of variations in performance within strategic groups and during movement between strategic groups. In addition, a method for testing and developing hypotheses by pattern matching on a modified TPC framework is demonstrated. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Equity-premium prediction: Attention is all you need

Predictions of stock returns are greatly improved relative to low-dimensional forecasting regressions when the forecasts are based on the estimated factor of large data sets, also known as the diffusion index (DI) model. However, when applied to text data, DI models do not perform well. This paper shows that by simply using text data in a DI model does not improve equity-premium forecasts over the naive historical-average model, but substantial gains are obtained when one selects the most predictive words before computing the factors and allows the dictionary to be updated over time.     

Special issue of the journal international economics and economic policy: international economics,climate policy innovations and economic policy (IEEP,issue 2)

International Economics and Economic Policy -     

The capital tax paradox in a greening economy

We adopt a simple model of endogenous growth with polluting capital and a fixed budget for aggregate emissions. Pollution abatement efficiency is growing over time due to technical progress. We find that long-run capital and consumption are inversely related to the initial capital stock. Capital taxation does not harm the economy but actually raises long-run consumption and production, which we call the “capital tax paradox.” The reason for this surprising result is that in an economy with a binding carbon policy, early abundance of polluting capital is not a blessing but a curse. It is preferable to have a large capital stock when abatement efficiency has grown sufficiently large. The paper also provides novel results on the impact of pollution intensity and the rate of technical progress on the greening of the economy and the pollution permit prices. In the quantitative part, we calibrate model and study economic growth under different assumptions on the basic model parameters.

     

Corporate social responsibility projects: critical success factors for better performance of Brazilian companies and guidelines to qualify professionals and entrepreneurs

Corporate Social Responsibility is a reality for businesses and can be understood through the analysis of organizational actions in three areas, namely: economic, social and environmental. Its operationalization occurs through projects, and cases presented by the literature can greatly contribute to the definition of factors that lead these projects to success. Generally, professionals and entrepreneurs have good qualifications in traditional aspects of project management, but when they need to manage Corporate Social Responsibility projects doubts arise. In this context, the main objective of this study was to analyse the most impactful Critical Success Factors for Corporate Social Responsibility projects, considering Brazilian companies’ context, and to propose guidelines to better qualify new professionals and entrepreneurs in the kind of projects mentioned. Thirteen Critical Success Factors were identified in the literature and, through a survey with experienced professionals, it was possible to evidence the six most relevant for Brazilian companies’ context: ability to properly define the scope; ability to integrate the CSR project with the company's strategy; ability to identify stakeholders’ needs; ability to analyse risks; identify and involve stakeholders outside the organization; and grant financial resources to meet project needs. Using the information provided, three guidelines were proposed to better qualify professionals and entrepreneurs. This is an exploratory study that can contribute to potentialize debates on theme.

     

Stranded Assets: How Policy Uncertainty affects Capital,Growth, and the Environment

Environmental and Resource Economics - The paper considers stochastic environmental policy and its effects on the environment, portfolio composition, and economic growth. Capital accumulation...     

Anti-money laundering and financial fraud detection: A systematic literature review

Money laundering has affected the global economy for many years, and there are several methods of solving it presented in the literature. However, when tackling money laundering and financial fraud together there are few methods for solving them. Thus, this study aims to identify methods for anti-money laundering (AML) and financial fraud detection (FFD). A systematic literature review was performed for analysis and research of the methods used, utilizing the SCOPUS and Web of Science databases. Of the 48 articles that aligned with the research theme, 20 used quantitative methods for AML and FFD solution, 13 were literature reviews, 7 used qualitative methods, and 8 used mixed methods. This study contributes by presenting a systematic literature review that fills two research gaps: lack of studies on AML and FFD, and the methods used to solve them. This will assist researchers in identifying gaps and related research.     

Developing pre-service primary teachers’ understanding of engineering through engineering habits of mind and engagement with engineers

International Journal of Technology and Design Education - This paper explores how primary teachers might be prepared through their pre-service training to feel more confident to include...