Investment performance of canadian real estate stocks using sharpe's performance index

The investment performance of a Canadian portfolio of Canadian public real estate companies is analyzed over the period 1971–79. Using Sharpe's index of performance, it would appear at first sight that this portfolio exhibited remarkable superior performance. Moreover, this conclusion is not due to some peculiarity of the Sharpe measure: results using Treynor's measure suggest a similar conclusion. We then apply the significance tests recently recommended by Jobson and Korkie (1981). When their preferred test is applied, we are unable to reject the null hypothesis that the real estate portfolio did not exhibit superior investment performance. This result illustrates the necessity of performing adequate statistical significance tests whenever investment performance is being evaluated.     

Les avantages comparatifs dans I'agriculture canadienne et le partage interprovincial des quotas laitiers

L'objectif de cet article est d'utiliser la théorie des avantages comparatifs pour éclairer le débat sur la question du partage interprovicial des quotas laitiers. Une mesure des avantages comparatifs dans I'agriculture canadienne est effectuée pour la période 1958–1987. La méthodologie utilisée est similaire à celle d'autres travaux non spécifiquement reliés à la production agricole. IIs'agit d'une mesure indirecte des avantages comparatifs révélés par les flux de commerce. Ceci nous a permis d'établir un classement des productions indiquant où se trouvent les avantages comparatifs de chaque province et du pays. On peut en conclure que les ajustements qui ont été faits ces dernières années au niveau du partage des quotas entre les provinces ne reflètent pas les avantages comparatifs de production.
The objective of this paper is to use comparative advantage theory to discuss the question of interprovincial milk quota allocation. Comparative agricultural production advantage in various Canadian provinces is measured for the 1958-87 period. The methodology used is similar to that in other studies not specifically related to agricultural production. This indirect assessment measures revealed comparative advantage by means of trade flows. This allows a ranking of the products according to comparative advantage in each province and for the country. One conclusion of this study is that adjustments in interprovincial allocation of quotas over the past few years do not reflect comparative advantage in production.     

Competition Among National Football Leagues. Does It Exist? Should We Regulate?

It is often supposed that the stakeholders of a national football league draw more satisfaction from their sport if the league is balanced, that is, if a large number of clubs have a reasonable chance of winning. This is the so‐called Competitive balance hypothesis. This hypothesis can be challenged, however, in the context of international competition like the European champions league. It could be that the utility of national leagues' stakeholders would be higher if the probability of victory for their nation's club at the international level were higher. If this were the case, a league's governing body intending to maximize the quality of the national league by making use of redistributive schemes would face a trade‐off between national competitive balance and international performance of the national representative club. We propose a simple microeconomic framework to model this trade‐off. If a non‐cooperative game exists among the national league governing bodies, whether it is a Nash or a Stackelberg one, this game would result in inefficient redistributive policies. We find ‘soft’ empirical evidence of such a competition among the big 5 football leagues in Europe. This result supports the idea of the creation of an international regulatory body. We derive the conditions under which the international regulatory body should ensure that the leagues' governing bodies implement redistributive schemes guaranteeing the respect of the national competitive balance. We also emphasize the risk of experiencing a drop in the quality of leagues if one of them becomes too big relatively to the others, what we call the tragedy of the wealthy.     

Hard Bargains and Lost Opportunities

A long tradition in economics assumes that any potential gains from trade will be exploited. This emphasis on efficiency clashes with the possibility that hard bargaining over the division of the surplus may cause some potential deals to be lost. We examine an Outside Option Game designed to study the tension between maximising the size of the surplus and bargaining over the division of this surplus among those who contributed to its creation. An experimental study confirms that subjects often fail to achieve efficient outcomes. A theoretical model accounts for this behaviour in terms of an equilibrium achieved in an imperfect world     

A longitudinal study of the characteristics, business creation process and outcome differences of Canadian female vs. male nascent entrepreneurs

This paper concerns a longitudinal study, of a random sample of nascent entrepreneurs in Canada (based on an initial screening sample of 49,763 households). We study gender differences, including number and type of gestational activities, the characteristics of the business created, and the status of the start-up effort after the 4th year of data collection. Logistic regression is used to predict the creation of an operating business from gender and other variables. Four of nine gender difference hypotheses were supported. Findings show that women who are members of a start-up team are six times more likely to achieve an operating business.

THE VALUE OF VOLUNTEER LABOR AND THE FACTORS INFLUENCING PARTICIPATION: EVIDENCE FOR THE UNITED STATES FROM 2002 THROUGH 2005

According to the U.S. Department of Labor, the number of people who volunteered rose from 59.8 million in 2002 to 65.4 million in 2005. Those volunteering benefit from their activity in various ways; however, these benefits are non-pecuniary and are generally not recognized in the national economic accounts used to measure gross domestic product (GDP). This paper uses data from the 2002–05 Current Population Survey Volunteer Supplements to assign a dollar value to volunteering. Different methodologies yield annual estimates from $116 to $153 billion (in 2005 dollars) over the four years (between 0.9 and 1.3 percent of 2005 GDP). Additionally, characteristics of individuals most likely to volunteer are identified. The volunteer rate varies by demographic characteristics in addition to geographic location, labor force participation, and business sector. Furthermore, the data suggest that volunteering is a "normal good" because participation increases with income even after controlling for observables.     

The Characteristics and Features of SMEs: Favorable or Unfavorable to Logistics Integration?

For small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), logistics integration is one of the most significant challenges of modern management. Growing numbers of SMEs are under pressure from large manufacturing enterprises (LMEs) to change their traditional management styles, both operationally and organizationally, replacing them with integrated systems that help increase the speed and fluidity of physical and information flows, help synchronize demand with supply, and help manage transactions more accurately. The recent literature discusses integrated logistics chain management quite extensively, but most studies address the issue from the standpoint of large firms. Given the importance of SMEs in the economies of industrialized countries, and given, too, that a constantly growing number of such firms will have to replace their management methods by logistically integrated practices, the authors of this study believe that it is important to examine the characteristics and features of SMEs in order to identify those favorable and unfavorable to logistics integration.