The liquidity premium in average interest rates

We extend recent models of liquidity to study how a systematic relationship between monetary shocks and output affects the average real short-term interest rate.     

Perspectives for Global Trade and the International Trading System

The authors review current developments in international trade and its prospects for the future arguing that despite the recent slowdown, trade remains an important driver of economic growth and development. Scepticism towards further trade opening needs to be addressed, notably via appropriate domestic adjustment policies. One challenge to advancing further global economic integration lays in the rapid transformation of trade itself and the nature of remaining barriers. The authors highlight new models of trade cooperation that can help to make progress at the global level, while accommodating countries’ diverse interests and levels of development.     

Spatial Management of Invasive Species: Pathways and Policy Options

In addressing the problem of invasive species, decision makers have a variety of options, each targeting different aspects as it evolves over time and space. We develop a 2-region bioeconomic model that includes several transmission pathways that spread the invader. Within each region, inspections, removal efforts, and sustainable land management practices, including habitat restoration and less damaging production activities, are available to the regulator. We investigate the implications of different transmission pathways and second-best policies on the control patterns and invasive populations. Second-best settings where certain controls are not available to the regulator result in large distortions on the optimal use of the land. Overall, we find that non-linear interactions between regions, pathways, and controls are significant determinants of the optimal management of invasive species.     

(Selfie)ishness: using the I-It/I-Thou distinction to parse an ethics of self-portraiture

ABSTRACT

Martin Buber’s I-It/I-Thou distinction is presented in this article as a useful analytic framework for approaching the ethics of self-portraiture without unnecessarily falling back on the (not always helpful) psychological term of narcissism. The result of the application of Buber’s I-It/I-Thou to self-portraiture will reveal that, while some acts can represent the sort of championing of the self over others that we find worrisome in selfies, this is not productively discovered with the language of narcissism. Instead of looking for self-focus as the locus of ethics, the framework of Buber’s I-It/I-Thou asks that analysts look for the legitimacy of the second-personal demands that an instance of selfie-taking places on other persons. Implications to communication ethics are discussed.     

Autonomy,accountability, and ambiguity in arm’s-length meta-governance: the case of NHS England

ABSTRACT

Meta-governance involves orchestrating the ‘rules of the game’ in public management. Arm’s-length bodies are particularly important vehicles for this. We consider the case of an arm’s-length body (NHS England) created to oversee the English NHS’ day-to-day operation, and remove ‘political interference’. Although mandated by the Department of Health it has increasingly operated as policy-maker, developing policies in tension with existing legislation, while Ministers have faded from public-facing accounts of service operation. This suggests NHS England operates as a meta-governor, insulating government whilst pursuing its own agenda, and raises crucial questions about governmental accountability whilst simultaneously making answers harder to obtain.     

Watching the degenerate: street camera surveillance and urban regeneration

Government and media rhetoric obscures the entrepreneurial roots of closed circuit television (CCTV) and its position in the regeneration of politically and economically 'viable' city centres. The paper charts this concern with 'viability' and traces the reassertion of class based discourses on crime, fear and insecurity as a component in the regeneration of UK cities and reflected and reinforced by camera networks. The efficacy of CCTV is questionable and its significance may be understood less for its 'crime prevention' potential and more for its success in reinforcing a long established scrutiny and criminalisation of the activities of the least powerful inhabitants of urban areas at the expense of scrutinising other harmful activities in the city.     

The Role of Human and Financial Capital in the Profitability and Growth of Women-Owned Small Firms

This paper examines the relationship between human and financial capital and firm performance for women- and men-owned small firms in the service and retail sectors. Results indicate that human capital variables, including education and experience, had a positive impact on the profitability of women-owned firms, whereas measures of financial capital had a greater impact of the profitability of men-owned firms. The ability to secure financial capital also had a positive impact on the growth rate of men-owned firms, but did not appear to affect the growth rate of women-owned firms. These findings suggest that the growth aspirations for women-owned firms may be driven by factors other than human capital or the ability to secure external capital.     

UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA ROUNDTABLE ON: Enterprise‐Wide Risk Management

For many years, MBA students were taught that there was no good reason for companies that hedge large currency or commodity price exposures to have lower costs of capital, or trade at higher P/E multiples, than comparable companies that choose not to hedge such financial price risks. Corporate stockholders, just by holding well‐diversified portfolios, were said to neutralize any effects of currency and commodity price risks on corporate values. And corporate efforts to manage such risks were accordingly viewed as redundant, a waste of corporate resources on a function already performed by investors at far lower cost. But as this discussion makes clear, both the theory and the corporate practice of risk management have moved well beyond this perfect markets framework. The academics and practitioners in this roundtable begin by suggesting that the most important reason to hedge financial risks—and risk management's largest potential contribution to firm value—is to ensure a company's ability to carry out its strategic plan and investment policy. As one widely cited example, Merck's use of FX options to hedge the currency risk associated with its overseas revenues is viewed as limiting management's temptation to cut R&D in response to large currency‐related shortfalls in reported earnings. Nevertheless, one of the clear messages of the roundtable is that effective risk management has little to do with earnings management per se, and that companies that view risk management as primarily a tool for smoothing reported earnings have lost sight of its real economic function: maintaining access to low‐cost capital to fund long‐run investment. And a number of the panelists pointed out that a well‐executed risk management policy can be used to increase corporate debt capacity and, in so doing, reduce the cost of capital. Moreover, in making decisions whether to retain or transfer risks, companies should generally be guided by the principle of comparative advantage. If an outside firm or investor is willing to bear a particular risk at a lower price than the cost to the firm of managing that risk internally, then it makes sense to lay off that risk. Along with the greater efficiency and return on capital promised by such an approach, several panelists also pointed to one less tangible benefit of an enterprise‐wide risk management program—a significant improvement in the internal corporate dialogue, leading to a better understanding of all the company's risks and how they are affected by the interactions among its business units.