New Evidence of Psychological Barrier from the Oil Market

The authors examine how stock returns were affected when the oil price reached the psychological barrier of US$100 per barrel for the first time in history. Using an event study approach, 4 key results emerge. First, the authors show that a psychological barrier event in the oil market does affect stock returns. Second, they show that a psychological barrier event in the oil market is a source of return drift—a phenomenon well explained and understood with respect to nonoil news events. Third, the psychological barrier affects small/medium-sized stocks and not large stocks. Last, the authors show that successful trading strategies can be devised based on the information that the oil price psychological barrier significantly impacts the market and that it contributes to return drift.     

Investor Sentiment and Stock Market Volatility: Evidence from India

In this article, the authors probe the role of irrational investor sentiment in the determination of Indian stock market volatility. The authors developed a new irrational aggregate sentiment index (IASI) to examine the issue. The conditional volatility is extracted from the nonlinear univariate models for the market indices and the IASI. The vector autoregression (VAR) is carried out to analyze the relationship between the volatility of irrational aggregate sentiment index and stock market volatility. The authors find a unidirectional causality from sentiment to stock market volatility, and their findings highlight the significance of sentiment in explaining the stock market volatility in India.     

Is There Long Memory in Indian Stock Market Returns? An Empirical Search

The issue of long memory, though has important theoretical and practical implications, has not received much attention in India. This article examines the issue of long memory in mean of the stock returns by employing a set of sophisticated time-series tests including a bias reduced log periodogram test of Andrews and Guggenberger. The study used daily values of 29 major indices including sectoral indices traded on the National Stock Exchange and Bombay Stock Exchange from April 2003 to March 2012, which provide insights into relation between composition of indices and long memory. The findings of the study suggest significant presence of long memory in mean returns of the medium- and small-sized indices and weaker evidences for large cap indices. Further, the study identifies a relationship between presence of long memory and market structure variables. The use of linear models in the presence of long memory would result in incorrect inferences, and this calls for investigation of appropriate long memory model to generate profits in Indian stock market.     

Understanding Society: health,biomarker and genetic data

Understanding Society, the UK Household Longitudinal Study includes a wide range of health measures, and in particular biomarker and genetic data. This makes it a unique resource for research on the economics of health. We review the main features of the biomarker data, how they are collected, and evidence on data quality. We also discuss examples of how these data have been used in economic research to date.     

Human Resource Management Technology Diffusion through Global Supply Chains: Buyer-directed Factory-based Health Care in India

We examine the role that buyers in global supply chains play in helping vendors uncover productivity-enhancing labor management innovations. We report on a buyer-directed NGO-coordinated factory-based program targeting intestinal parasites and anemia in seven Bangalore apparel factories. Raw pre-post productivity comparisons were confounded by factory organizational changes that were implemented in anticipation of the termination of the Multi Fiber Arrangement (MFA). Using a difference-in-difference-in-difference (DDD) estimator, a full complement of medically appropriate treatment was found to increase individual productivity of anemic workers by 8% relative to non-anemic workers.     

An investigation of the usage of capital budgeting techniques by small and medium enterprises

Quality & Quantity - This paper examines the extent or usage of capital budgeting techniques in Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) and the effect of non-financial factors on the choice of...     

The domestic benefits of tropical forests: a critical review.

This review focuses on forests in the humid tropics and on two of their potentially most important benefits. These include hydrological benefits, such as erosion control and regulation of stream flows, and non-timber forest products, such as rubber, rattan, fruits, and nuts. The first benefit is motivational. Host countries capture only a small proportion of the global benefits, which stem from biodiversity conservation. Demonstration of palpable local benefits could help to build support for biodiversity-oriented projects. The second benefit is the magnitude of domestic benefits that could influence project financing. Sufficiently large net domestic benefits could justify financing of a project on narrow economic grounds, with biodiversity conservation as a by-product. Overall, it is noted that the quantifiable benefits of forest preservation in providing hydrological services and non-timber forest products are highly variable. These classes of domestic benefits may in general be smaller than popularly supposed. In view of this, the need for financing conservation from the Global Environmental Facility or other global sources is emphasized rather than placing the burden on domestic resources.     

The plantation sector in Sri Lanka: Recent changes in the welfare of children and women

Although Sri Lanka has achieved high standards of mass well-being, physical quality of life indicators for the historically deprived plantation population fall well below the impressive national averages. This paper analyses the position of women and children on the plantations within the context of the global recession and national economic strategies. It highlights some of the programmes which, along with a legacy of concern for social welfare in Sri Lanka, have attempted to maintain and even improve the living conditions of plantation women and children.     

Exploring the enablers and inhibitors of electric vehicle adoption intention from sellers' perspective in India: A view of the dual‐factor model

The electric vehicle (EV) is a crucial innovation with the potential to lower greenhouse gas emissions and help reduce the causes of climate change. Despite their multiple benefits, EVs are selling lower numbers than would be expected, seeming to require more positive intent from their sellers to increase the pace of EV adoption. Hence, this study explores the enablers and inhibitors of EV adoption intention from the sellers' perspective using a dual‐factor model. The extended theory of planned behavior has been used to explore the enablers, whereas the status quo bias theory has been used to explore the inhibitors of EV adoption. The results indicate that attitude, subjective norm, perceived behavioral control, environmental concern, and perceived corporate social responsibility obligation have significant positive impacts on intention to adopt EVs. However, regret avoidance, inertia, perceived threat, and perceived value have significant impacts on the resistance to adopt EVs. This study enriches the literature related to intention and resistance to adopt green technology and also provides several suggestions to marketers for increasing the pace of EV adoption.