Co-movement in Stock Prices in Emerging Economies: The Case of the Caricom Region

The Grand Anse Declaration of 1989 recognised the need for financial integration within the emerging economies that comprise the CARICOM region, as a way of furthering the wider process of economic integration and, indeed, economic development in that region. Using co-movement as a measure of financial integration, this paper investigates the co-movement in stock prices among the Barbados, the Jamaica and the Trinidad and Tobago Stock Exchanges, the three major exchanges within the CARICOM region. It also examines how integrated these exchanges are with the New York Stock Exchange. The GARCH-Copula methodology and, to a lesser extent, estimated correlation coefficients, are used to attain this objective. There appears to be co-movement in stock prices and returns within the CARICOM stock markets and significant dependence structures between the returns of the three CARICOM stock markets. However, there is considerably less evidence of integration between the CARICOM markets and the New York Stock Exchange.     

Cost Analysis of Calcium in Store Brand versus National Brand Grocery Products

Objective: This study was to determine if calcium fortification yields a higher price per serving in grocery store products. Researchers compared store brand to national brand grocery products in relation to cost in order to examine if calcium values were similar between store brand and national brand products. Methods: A total of 112 store brand and 211 national brand grocery products were collected from three low (national chain store), middle and high priced (Virginia and North Carolina regional store) grocery venues. Products were compared using price and calcium percentage per serving. ANOVA was used to determine between store brand and national brand for price per serving and calcium content, and between grocery venues. Results: National brand fortified products had a significantly lower mean price per serving when compared to national brand non-fortified products (p = 0.0002). There was no statistical difference between store brand fortified and non-fortified products (p = 0.9256). Low priced store brand products had the lowest mean price per serving ($0.34 ±0.24). Conclusions: This study found store brand products have similar calcium content as national brand products. Product cost was lower at low priced store compared to middle and high priced stores.     

基于文献计量学的洪涝灾害研究现状及发展趋势分析

以美国科学情报机构科学引文索引数据库(SCI-E)为数据源,通过文献计量学的方法从文献数量、学者数量、文献发表期刊分布、发文国家/地区、科研机构及关键词等方面对数据库中1988—2015年洪涝灾害的相关文献进行分析,以评估洪涝灾害的研究趋势。结果显示:1988—2015年洪涝灾害在其领域内发展迅速,无论是文献总量、参与研究的作者数量还是研究内容上都随时间呈上涨趋势;洪涝灾害相关论文主要覆盖的学科类别是"水资源",Natural Hazards为发表相关论文最多的学术期刊;美国是洪涝灾害领域发文量最多的国家,中国紧随其后位列第二;学术力量方面,洪涝灾害相关研究力量以高等院校为主,其中中国科学院为该领域研究发文量最高的科研机构;通过对关键词的分析可知,与洪涝灾害相关的科学问题研究中,"洪水管理""气候变化"和"模型"是未来研究热点,将高新技术广泛使用于洪涝灾害的研究领域,控制洪涝灾害对国民经济造成的损失,有利于经济的持续、稳定和健康发展。     

The importance of consumer multihoming (joint purchases) for market performance: Mergers and entry in media markets

Consumer “multihoming” (watching two TV channels, or buying two news magazines) has surprisingly important effects on market equilibrium and performance in (two‐sided) media markets. We show this by introducing consumer multihoming and advertising finance into the classic circle model of product differentiation. When consumers multihome (attend more than one platform), media platforms can charge only incremental value prices to advertisers. Entry or merger leaves consumer prices unchanged under consumer multihoming, but leaves advertiser prices unchanged under single‐homing: Multihoming flips the side of the market on which platforms compete. In contrast to standard circle results, equilibrium product variety can be insufficient under multihoming.     

Development of a voice recognition based system to help physically disabled people use the facebook

Social network sites (SNSs) have become so popular that the number of people joining and actively participating on such sites is increasing on a daily basis. Although there are several SNSs, Facebook is currently the most popular and most commonly used. SNSs have primarily been developed with able-bodied people in mind and as a result of this, people with disabilities find it difficult to join and participate on these sites. Furthermore, this topic has received little attention by researchers around the world. Facebook pages usually consist of text, graphics, and sound where the users navigate through the pages using a mouse. As a step towards addressing this need and finding a possible elegant solution, the authors have developed a voice-activated PC-based system (called NEU-FACE) in the form of an interface to Facebook. With the aid of this system, a person with a physical disability can join and participate in Facebook by giving voice commands to manage the typical Facebook activities.

     

Effect of mobile teaching on students who need special education

The purpose of this study is to test the mobile application designed for the teaching purposes of students who need special education. Many mobile applications and software are available for teaching, thus this study will point the effect of using such technologies in teaching activities as an assistive method to the teacher. The tests are done using our previously designed mobile application that is designed to teach the basic concepts. As it is indicated in the design, the process starts with the testing of the basic abilities of the children, therefore, our tests include these kind of pretests and after that testing phases that will measure the effect of the application to learning. Students who need special education are the focus of the study. The tests are carried out in a special education centre, in Nicosia, Northern Cyprus on two students. Test results show that the mobile application developed in its current form, is a good tool to assist the teachers to enhance and speed up the learning process.

     

Physical education and sports education candidate students awareness and knowledge status about physical education lessons designed for physically disabled individuals

The purpose of the current study was to investigate the awareness and knowledge status of physical education candidate students about physical education lessons designed for disabled individuals. A qualitative data collection technique was used in order to present the knowledge and awareness status of candidate students. Research conducted during the 2017–2018 fall semester with 30 4th grade students. By using the interview technique students questioned if physical education for disabled course composed awareness and increased their knowledge about disabled with three questions. The Data obtained accordingly were summed up and annotated according the pre-determined themes. Moreover, qualitative data were prepared by using the frequency and breakdown tables to form the numerical findings. The results revealed that the physical education candidates did not have knowledge about the physical education lessons designed for disabled individuals before taking the course and awareness status also found low (53.34%). However they stated that the physical education for disabled course changed their knowledge and awareness status (60%).

     

Price dispersion and optimal price categories with limited memory consumers

In this paper, we study consumers with limited memory and examine the effects of their price categorization on the pricing strategies of competing firms. The valuations of consumers are assumed to be heterogeneous. We find that it is possible to observe price dispersion even when each firm charges a single price if the consumers categorize prices non‐optimally. Moreover, we demonstrate that the likelihood of a price dispersion outcome is reduced when consumers with limited memory set up the price categories optimally. These findings suggest that the consumers' limited memory and their sub‐optimal behavior, that is, their inability to choose price categories optimally can be a reason for observed price dispersion.     

Corrigendum to “Characterization of the asymptotic distribution of semiparametric M-estimators” [J. Econometrics 159 (2) (2010) 252–266]

This note provides correction to Ichimura and Lee (2010).