Capital gains lock-in and governance choices

Differences in accrued gains and investors’ tax-sensitivity induce variation in a capital gains lock-in effect across mutual funds even for the same stock at the same time. Exploiting this variation, we show this effect influences funds’ governance decisions: higher capital gains decrease the likelihood a fund exits prior to contentious votes and increase the likelihood a fund votes against management. Consistent with tax motivation, these findings are concentrated among funds with tax-sensitive investors. Further, high aggregate capital gains across funds holding a stock predict a higher likelihood management loses a vote and a lower likelihood a contentious vote is proposed.     

Two-step multi-criteria model for selecting optimal portfolio

In spite of a large number of multi-criteria models applied to solve the problem of optimal portfolio selection and a large number of market criteria and accounting criteria proposed for these models, the problem of portfolio containing securities from different industries has not yet been adequately solved. Namely, neither can stocks of companies from different industries be compared using the same criteria nor can the weight of a particular criteria be equal for them all. Therefore this paper develops a new two-step model that will overcome the shortcomings of the previously used models. The model is divided into two different but related pillars: the choice of different industries to form the overall portfolio and the choice of portfolio for each industry. The multi-criteria model used in this paper is a modified multi-criteria programming model based on the PROMETHEE II approach. The selected model has been applied at the Zagreb Stock Exchange (ZSE) as a real case.     

Individual investor mutual fund flows

This paper studies the relation between individuals’ mutual fund flows and fund characteristics, establishing three key results. First, consistent with tax motivations, individual investors are reluctant to sell mutual funds that have appreciated in value and are willing to sell losing funds. Second, individuals pay attention to investment costs as redemption decisions are sensitive to both expense ratios and loads. Third, individuals’ fund-level inflows and outflows are sensitive to performance, but in different ways. Inflows are related only to “relative” performance, suggesting that new money chases the best performers in an objective. Outflows are related only to “absolute” fund performance, the relevant benchmark for taxes.     

An Extended Neural Network-Based Importance-Performance Analysis for Enhancing Wine Fair Experience

This article presents the results of a study conducted at the Dalmacija Wine Expo, a regional wine fair that was held for the first time in 2010 in Makarska, Croatia. To identify critical attributes impacting the experience of fair participants, two separate surveys were conducted among visitors and exhibitors. In analyzing the data, this study used an extended neural network-based importance-performance analysis (IPA) that combines measures of both the relevance (i.e., stated importance/general importance) and determinance (i.e., derived importance/actual influence) of fair attributes. Compared to traditional IPA approaches with uni-dimensional operationalization of attribute-importance, such an approach provided significantly more detailed (and reliable) managerial implications.     

Monetary Inflation’s Effect on Wealth Inequality: An Austrian Analysis

Austrian monetary inflation theory claims that changes in the money supply are disproportionately distributed throughout an economy, and as a result wealth is coercively redistributed. This study proposes and tests a model illustrating this connection by examining monetary inflation’s effect on wealth inequality. After testing the model’s validity, this study compares monetary inflation’s effect on several measures of wealth inequality, concluding that not only is monetary inflation a significant variable, but its effect on wealth inequality is more pronounced at the extremities of the distribution.

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Global cultural zones the empirical way: value structure of cultural zones and their relationship with democracy and the communist past

The paper empirically identifies the world’s cultural zones, comprised of the countries with the distinctive patterns of values, and determines their relationship with the country’s communist past and current state of democracy. The analysis is based on the countries’ average values on the two main dimensions of cross-cultural variations: the traditional versus secular-rational and the survival versus self-expression values. The World Values Survey and European Values Study data from 101 countries were used. The K-means method of cluster analysis and the Variance Ration Criterion for determining the final number of clusters were performed. The solution with three clusters appeared as the most appropriate and theoretically meaningful, representing three broad cultural value syndromes. The first value syndrome was defined by low self-expression and high secular-rational values (the zone of secularized authority), the second one by low secular-rational and low self-expression values (the zone of traditional authority), while the third was characterized by high values on both value dimensions (the zone of emancipation). The countries’ cluster membership is highly correlated with the (non-)communist past and the level of socioeconomic development. The countries in three cultural zones significantly differ in terms of the state of democracy: democracy is more fully developed in the countries in the cultural zone of emancipation, and the least developed in the countries with the prevailing traditional authority cultural outlook.

     

Spatio-temporal determinants of the structural and productive transformation of regions in Central and East European countries

This paper investigates the determinants of the structural (between-sectoral) and productive (within-sectoral) transformation of 56 NUTS2 regions in Central and East European (CEE) countries over the 2008–2014 period. Over the analysed period, a transformation of the analysed regions has taken place towards the tertiary sector and high value-added activities. The results from a spatial panel Durbin analysis reveal the existence of product-space linkages and point to a productive transformation towards high technology-intensive activities as an important driver of industrial development. Equal access to digital infrastructure in urban and rural areas and transfer of skills, knowledge and resources through the inflow of foreign investment and imports of production inputs increase the contribution of manufacturing to regional employment. The effect of profit tax reductions on the share of manufacturing employment is about five times larger than the effect of government subsidies to production.     

A data mining approach to financial time series modelling and forecasting

This paper describes one of the relatively new data mining techniques that can be used to forecast the foreign exchange time series process. The research aims to contribute to the development and application of such techniques by exposing them to difficult real-world (non-toy) data sets. The results reveal that the prediction of a Radial Basis Function Neural Network model for forecasting the daily $US/$NZ closing exchange rates is significantly better than the prediction of a traditional linear autoregressive model in both directional change and prediction of the exchange rate itself. We have also investigated the impact of the number of model inputs (model order), the number of hidden layer neurons and the size of training data set on prediction accuracy. In addition, we have explored how the three different methods for placement of Gaussian radial basis functions affect its predictive quality and singled out the best one. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Struggle for Survival in the Deregulated Market: Re-commodification and Informalisation of the Taxi Sector in Stockholm

This paper investigates the process of the informalization of the Swedish taxi industry, focusing on how this process has been manifested in Stockholm’s taxi market. This process has been analysed partly in its particular, local and sector-specific context, as it has been affected by the deregulation of the taxi sector, and partly in its relationship to the broader context of economic and political changes to which all contemporary capitalistic (welfare) states are exposed. This study raises questions about actual common sense discourses on the issue of irregularities in the taxi industry, and offers an alternative perspective both on the ongoing process of informalization, and on the role of various economic actors in that process, including the state.     

Territorial identity and development: From topophilia to terraphilia

This paper brings about a conceptual and methodological framework for the study of topophilia and its enrichment in terms of development policy and actions seeking (re)affirmation of landscape-related and other territorial identity features. To this end, the results of an empirical verification of a newly introduced concept, named terraphilia, are presented. Records and assessments of the topophilia–terraphilia interface were carried out in the framework of the Identerra Model that enables empirical delimitation and systematization of the state (spatial fixes) and change (spatial flows) of natural, economic, societal and cultural features of territorial identity. The research area was the Oeste Region (a NUTS III, North-west of the Lisbon Metropolitan Area). The promotion of terraphilia may be important in the process of identification and assessment of strategically relevant elements of local and regional development, such as “sense of territorial belonging” and “territorial attractiveness”.