We examine the impact of the introduction of VIX exchange‐traded products (ETPs) on the information content and pricing efficiency of VIX futures. We document that trades in VIX futures have become less informative and that pricing errors exhibit more persistence after the introduction of VIX ETPs. In addition, we observe that the price process of the VIX futures has become noisier over time. These findings suggest that the introduction of the VIX ETPs had a prominent effect on the properties and dynamics of the VIX futures. 相似文献
In biophysical terms, such as energy return on investment (EROI), energy sources for the global economy have grown more expensive over the last few decades. This trend is likely to be more pronounced in the near-term future as conventional oil and gas are depleted and difficult-to-extract unconventional oil and gas become a larger part of the fossil-fuel supply. On the one hand, this will lead to “energy sprawl”—the growth of the energy sector, as this sector consumes a much larger portion of the energy it extracts—leaving less energy surplus for other sectors. On the other hand, we will see an unsustainable imbalance between the fuel prices that fossil-fuel companies will need to meet their costs and the fuel prices that the larger economy can afford to pay. This article reviews the historical role of inexpensive energy in economic growth, discusses the declining availability of conventional oil resources, and examines the increasing reliance on expensive, unconventional petroleum resources such as shale oil in the United States. 相似文献
This paper explores the potential of university-industry technology transfer through science-based entrepreneurship education (SBEE). The scientific literature focuses mostly on enabling university-industry technology transfer via university-industry collaboration in research, and not so much in (science) education. The paper identifies four strands of relevant literature for further theorizing SBEE principles to research its contribution to industry-technology transfer: 1. Embedding entrepreneurship education in universities; 2. Balancing theory and practice of entrepreneurship education; 3. Cultivating an entrepreneurial mindset through entrepreneurship education; and 4. Creating spin-offs through entrepreneurship education. One of the main theoretical contributions of this paper is, that SBEE is different from regular entrepreneurship education in its need for being firmly embedded in a science, technology and R&D environment, both within and outside the university. This is important in order to give SBEE students the opportunity to gain experience with handling the hurdles for successful university-industry technology transfer. The main empirical finding is that elements in the program, related to for example the balance between teaching entrepreneurship through theory and experiential learning, are not systematically covered. It means that fundamental questions such as: Can entrepreneurship be indeed taught? Which elements of entrepreneurship can be taught through theory, and which ones must be experienced in practice? are currently left unanswered. Systematic coverage of these questions enables a better exploitation of the possibilities that SBEE offers for university-industry technology transfer.
In direct competition between national brands of consumer packaged goods (CPG), one brand often has a large local share advantage
over the other despite the similarity of the branded products. I present an explanation for these large and persistent advantages
in the context of local competition on perceived quality or brand image. The main result of the analysis is a relation between
varying degrees of product similarity and equilibrium outcomes of local share advantages. Namely, I find that asymmetric quality
positioning and associated local share advantages emerge especially when competing brands are objectively similar. Conversely,
local share asymmetries based on brand positioning occur less when brands are dissimilar. This paper provides two reinforcing
intuitions for this result. First, if brands are objectively similar, different levels of investment in local quality perceptions
co-exist in equilibrium in the same market, because this investment is often borne as fixed cost. Also, early movers will
invest in high perceived quality, whereas late movers have less incentive to invest because of demand sharing and increased
price competition. Second, if the local advantages are shared by competitors across markets, the persistence of these advantages
is reinforced by multimarket contact. Even when local brand building is free, firms may not want to improve perceived quality
in their “weak” markets if it initiates retaliation by the competition in their “strong” markets. The increase in multimarket
profits from collusion is large when the products are similar, because price competition looms large.
This paper generalizes Porter’s notion of the value chain for the analysis of service industries. The generalization entails
that the flow and the physical transformation and assembly of goods that are characteristic of manufacturing are generalized
into flows and transformation of data and flows and transformation of the physical and mental condition of people that are
characteristic of many service industries. Utility is generalized from the utilities of forms and function of goods, characteristic
of manufacturing, to the utilities of time, place, convenience, speed, safety, entertainment, physical and mental well-being,
knowledge and mental capacity, funding and assurance. The analysis yields a categorization of industries according to central
features of the value adding process. Here, the analysis is used to identify sources of (in)efficiency of scale, scope and
experience, along the value chain.
A model is developed to explain participation and spending on R&D as a function of firm size. The R&D process is represented as an n-participant race with a Poisson incidence of success, where the winner takes all during some protection period. Four effects of scale are taken into account: a sunk fixed threshold cost of entry; a flow cost of expenditure for the duration of the race, which affects both the profitability of winning and the speed of development (the Poisson parameter), both with diminishing returns; allowance for an effect of firm size on the effectiveness (profit/cost) of development. The operational decision concerning the level and intensity of commitment in case of participation is modelled in a traditional fashion as the maximization of expected returns. The strategic decision whether or not to participate (at an optimal level and intensity) is modelled as a stochastic process of deliberation between different makers and influencers of decisions in the firm. The latter is to be seen as an introduction of the political and resource dependence views of organisations. The resulting model of R&D participation as a function of firm size is tested empirically on data from an R&D survey in the Netherlands. 相似文献
We characterize a duopoly buffeted by demand and cost shocks. Firms learn about shocks from common observation, private observation, and noisy price signals. Firms internalize how outputs affect a rival's signal, and hence output. We distinguish how the nature of information —public versus private—and of what firms learn about—common versus private values—affect equilibrium outcomes. Firm outputs weigh private information about private values by more than common values. Thus, prices contain more information about private‐value shocks. 相似文献