Are There Any Diversification Benefits Among Global Finance Center Candidates in Eurasia?

Several Eurasian markets are considered as potential global financial centers. The main objective of this article is to evaluate the two strong candidates, Russia and Turkey, based on short- and long-run diversification benefits they provide to global investors along with big four global finance centers (US, UK, Hong Kong, Singapore) in the world. To that respect, we investigate both price spillover and volatility spillover effects among global finance centers and the two strong Eurasian candidates. Our results suggest that Istanbul Stock Exchange (ISE) has more diversification benefits and is more resilient to risk transfers from other markets compared to Moskow Stock Exchange (MSE).     

Transparency,Information Shocks,and Tax Avoidance

This study helps provide clarity to the prior mixed findings on the association between financial reporting transparency and tax avoidance by studying the effect that transparency has on tax avoidance in a cross‐country sample through aggregate‐ and firm‐level tests. Results using firm‐ and country‐level (aggregate) measures of transparency and tax avoidance show that countries and firms with greater levels of transparency exhibit lower levels of tax avoidance and that the effect of country‐level transparency is incremental to firm‐level transparency. Furthermore, results of difference‐in‐difference tests using the adoption of IFRS and the initial enforcement of insider trading laws around the world as exogenous shocks that increase transparency find that transparency has a statistically and economically significant effect on tax avoidance and address empirical concerns regarding endogeneity and reverse causality not fully addressed in the prior research. The results of these tests as well as tests that address potential correlated but omitted variables suggest that financial transparency is an important tool which regulators can use in battling tax avoidance.     

Sampling methodology and fieldwork changes in the October Household Surveys and Labour Force Surveys

The 1999 October Household Survey was the first time that Statistics South Africa introduced a master sample of Enumeration Areas. There were several important changes in sampling and fieldworker practice that accompanied the introduction of the master sample of Enumeration Areas, which have not been systematically documented and which make comparability of the surveys undertaken by Statistics South Africa before and after this time difficult. We document these changes in this research note and provide evidence that these changes were partly responsible for the odd trends in the total number of single-person households estimated from the October Household Surveys and the Labour Force Surveys, as well as rapid increases in employment, in the late 1990s.     

Energy consumption, economic growth, and carbon emissions: Challenges faced by an EU candidate member

This paper investigates the long run Granger causality relationship between economic growth, carbon dioxide emissions and energy consumption in Turkey, controlling for gross fixed capital formation and labor. The most interesting result is that carbon emissions seem to Granger cause energy consumption, but the reverse is not true. The lack of a long run causal link between income and emissions may be implying that to reduce carbon emissions, Turkey does not have to forgo economic growth.     

Genetically Modified Organisms and Trade Rules: Identifying Important Challenges for the WTO

Controversial debates associated with the establishment of international market access rules for genetically modified organisms (GMOs) illustrate a more general challenge facing the World Trade Organisation (WTO); to acceptably accommodate growing consumer concerns regarding a product's production and processing methods (PPM). This paper aims to clarify the debates by examining the foundations of and the procedures for the WTO's decision–making on PPM–based market access rules. To illustrate this, both an import embargo and a mandatory labelling regulation for GMOs are examined. The strengths and weaknesses of the current decision–making procedure are discussed and options for future negotiations are proposed.