Pairs trading under transaction costs using model predictive control

Model predictive control with proportional transactions costs provides a good approximation to the optimal trading strategy     

Non‐compliance with the Minimum Wage Law when Completely New Minimum Wage Laws Are Established: The Case of South Africa

Abstract: Using the case of South Africa, we study compliance with the minimum wage law when completely new minimum wage levels are established. By even the best estimate, the compliance rate in South Africa would not exceed 40 per cent for the agricultural sector and 30 per cent for the domestic worker sector. The compliance rates by subpopulation groups reveal that the compliance rate is low where the cost to comply with the minimum wage law is high, implying that government inspections are not done where they are likely to have the highest payoff. However, if the government tries to enforce the policy more strictly, the poor/less skilled would be adversely affected.     

Factor-Market Distortions, Dynamic Stability, and Paradoxical Comparative Statics

In the late 1960s and early 1970s there was a strong revival of interest in the role of factor-market distortions in those branches of our subject which rely on the Lerner–Samuelson two-by-two model of production. Among the legacies from that period were several comparative statical propositions which seemed counterintuitive or paradoxical. However, the revival lost momentum when confronted with Neary's observation that the major paradoxes are associated with unstable equilibria and therefore rarely observed. On the other hand, there are now seen to be several errors in Neary's analysis. For example, in the important case of a closed economy (and, by interpretation, in the case of a large open economy) he overlooked the fact that paradoxes can be associated with stable equilibria.     

The impacts of robotization on macro and sectoral economies within a world econometric model

A world model of industry and trade is developed to evaluate the probable global impact of robotization on the macro and sectoral economies. It is found that robotization in Japan and Korea has a positive impact on their economic growth, whereas robotization in the United States apparently has a negative impact on economic growth. It is also found that the international impacts of robotization in Japan are negative for the United States, but positive for the Korean economy.     

PLM education in production design and engineering by e-Learning

These days more attention is being paid to Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) using a technique for managing total product planning, design, manufacturing, sales, and disposal. We researched business processes and education curriculum of the PLM system in manufacturing businesses. We designed the curriculum of PLM education and developed part of a lesson. Most importantly, e-Learning is shown to be an effective tool for achieving educational objectives. We found that not only knowledge and theory but also practical education methods using case studies in an e-Learning environment are necessary for human resources to develop effective PLM.     

Population and Urbanization Trends in Post‐war Japan

This paper analyses the population change and urbanization process in post‐war Japan. We trace the process of population concentration into urban areas, in parallel with economic development after the war. The concentration of population into urban areas can be characterized by three major metropolitan regions: Tokyo, Keihanshin (Kyoto‐Osaka‐Kobe) and Nagoya. We also show that the urbanization process of Japan in the period from 1965 to 1985 can be characterized by two spatial phenomena; firstly, the suburbanization of the existing metropolitan areas and, secondly, the spatial dispersal of urbanized areas.     

Properties of Optimal Smooth Functions in Additive Models for Hedging Multivariate Derivatives

In this paper, we consider an optimal hedging problem for multivariate derivative based on the additive sum of smooth functions on individual assets that minimize the mean square error (or the variance with zero expected value) from the derivative payoff. By applying the necessary and sufficient condition with suitable discretization, we derive a set of linear equations to construct optimal smooth functions, where we show that the computations involving conditional expectations for the multivariate derivatives may be reduced to those of unconditional expectations, and thus, the total procedure can be executed efficiently. We investigate the theoretical properties for the optimal smooth functions and clarify the following three facts: (i) the value of each individual option takes an optimal trajectory to minimize the mean square hedging error under the risk neutral probability measure, (ii) optimal smooth functions for the put option may be constructed using those for the call option (and vice versa), and (iii) delta in the replicating portfolio may be computed efficiently. Numerical experiments are included to show the effectiveness of our proposed methodology.     

A Case study: discussion of factors and challenges for urban cultural tourism development

With both qualitative and quantitative approaches, this study examined the success factors of cultural tourism development. It discussed reasons why some cities may find it challenging to sustain cultural tourism development. The findings suggested that the lack of advantageous factors may be because all factors were highly related and that one factor's defect in marketing could easily affect the performance of all other factors. The challenge for cultural tourism development in a less competitive destination may be more related to elementary problems such as governmental leadership and funding rather than the important factors emphasized in theoretical models. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.