The Global Preference for Dividends in Declining Markets

Investors globally prefer dividend‐paying stocks over nondividend‐paying stocks more in declining than in advancing markets, even accounting for firm‐level growth opportunities, size and risk effects. Dividend‐paying stocks outperform nondividend‐paying stocks, from 0.63% (China) to 3.79% (Canada) more per month in declining than in advancing markets. In declining markets, dividend‐paying firms outperform by more than any underperformance in advancing markets. The results are robust across dividend taxation regimes, legal environments, emerging and developed markets, periods prior to and after the 2008 global financial crisis, the exclusion of the dividend declaration month and in respect to segmented or integrated international capital markets.     

电凝聚降氟器降氟改水的实验研究

通过对Ｚ—Ⅰ，Ｚ—Ⅱ型降氟器在沧州市饮用水降氟实验结果的对比研究，发现水的ｐＨ值、反应器的工作电流是制约降氟效果的关键。由于Ｚ—Ⅱ型降氟器对ｐＨ值具有控制作用，所以其降氟效果较好。     

A study of the believability of the forms of puffery

This study tested consumers' perceptions of the believability of puffery in advertising. Forms of puffery have been ranked for their potential ability to deceive consumers. Subjects were asked to rate how believable they found examples of each of the six forms of puffery. The study compared the believability of the claims with the subjects' familiarity and experiences with the products about which the claims were made. The results of a one-way analysis of variance showed little difference between consumers' levels of believability across five of the six levels of puffery. Overall, most consumers did not feel strongly one way or another about the believability of the puffed claims. That both familiarity and experience with the products significantly influenced the believability of the claims made in the study was indicated by χ²-tests. Recommendations are made concerning marketers' use of puffery. Topics for future research in the area are also suggested.     

Can the traditional Asian US dollar peg exchange rate regime be extended to include the Japanese yen?

Using daily data for a select set of four Asian exchange rates, namely the Hong Kong dollar, the Singapore dollar, the Taiwan dollar and the Thailand baht, from October 1985 to October 2002, we apply principal components analysis and the O-GARCH model to describe the evolution and persistence in the correlations over time. We also estimate 2-, 3- and 4-variable multivariate GARCH models, without imposing the assumption of constant correlations, to investigate volatility interaction amongst the currencies. To allow for fat tails in the distributions of exchange rate changes, we use the multivariate student-t distribution in maximising our log-likelihood functions. Our results indicate the possibility of designing an Asian exchange rate system involving a number of the region's currencies.     

Collaborator or competitor: assessing the evidence supporting the role of social enterprise in health and social care

In many countries, social enterprise has been introduced into a competitive market-oriented environment as a substitute for publicly owned services, particularly in healthcare. In the United Kingdom, evidence for this move seems to derive from case studies where social enterprise operates in collaboration – as opposed to competition – with publicly owned services. Our systematic review demonstrates that there is no evidence to support the role of social enterprise as a substitute for publicly owned services. However, there is evidence to show that where social enterprise operates in a collaborative environment, enhanced outcomes can be achieved, such as connectedness, well-being and self-confidence.     

Assessing co-ordinated Asian exchange rate regimes: Proposal for a possible move towards a common currency

This study assesses prospective Asian exchange rate regimes and finds short- and long-run currency dynamics more conducive to the introduction of a common peg based on a basket of the European euro, the United States dollar and the Japanese yen than the alternative of a United States dollar peg exchange rate regime. Exchange rate systems of 3- 4- and 5-Asian currencies are considered and the dynamics in a set of four European currencies prior to the introduction of the Euro provides benchmark evidence. The evidence for an Asian basket peg exchange rate regime is strengthened when, unlike prior studies, estimates of the long-run parameters account for time-varying volatility effects.     

Does the information content of payout initiations and omissions influence firm risks?

We study the influence on firm risks of NASDAQ and NYSE firm payout initiations and omissions. These payout events can be interpreted as managerial signals of firm financial life-cycle maturation resulting in concomitant changes in firm risks. We remove confounding payout types and we match on the propensity to initiate or omit informed by determinants of payout known to investors in advance. For payout event and matched firms, we apply the difference-in-differences method to estimate the effect of the information content of actual initiations and omissions on firm risks. We find consistent significant declines in total, aggregate systematic, and idiosyncratic firm risks after cash dividend initiations and increases after dividend omissions, but only incidentally after share repurchase initiations and omissions.     

Trade and civil conflict: Revisiting the cross‐country evidence

We revisit and expand the evidence on the impact of trade shocks on intra‐state conflict by using a large sample of developing countries in the 1960–2010 period. The results suggest that increases in the price of a country's exported commodities raise the country's risk of civil conflict and its duration. The effect on conflict risk is mainly driven by the price of point‐source commodities, in line with the rapacity effect theory of conflict. Intense trading with contiguous countries is associated with lower duration of conflict, consistent with the idea that such trade reduces the incentive of these countries to fuel conflict in their neighbor. Trading with neighbors is also associated with a lower risk of conflict when such trade occurs under trade agreements. On the other hand, we find no support for the opportunity cost theory via exported and imported commodities, nor via the economic cycle in export markets. We also identify a number of conditions under which the changes in the value of exported commodities cease to matter for conflict probability.