Financial Integration Among the ASEAN 5 ＋ 3 Stock Markets： A Preliminary Look at the First 10 Years of the New Millenium

The purpose of this study is to investigate the financial integration of the stock markets of the ASEAN 5 ＋ 3 countries. These countries include Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, China, Japan, and South Korea. The research determined the stock return volatility for each country＇s index during the first decade of the new millennium. The findings showed that there is the presence of integration and co-integration with Philippine index＇s return with the index＇s returns of the following countries： Indonesia, Singapore, and Thailand. Furthermore, there is evidence of volatility clustering in these stock markets. The study concluded with the policy implications of greater integration in light of the planned cross trading among four ASEAN bourses, namely, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Malaysia by 2012.     

Investments in Human Capital： Elements of Investments, Their Valuation, and the Related Financial Performance Ratios

Investments in human capital （employees） include investments in the direct assurance of working abilities, investments in health and well-being, and investments in loyalty to the company. These investments are crucial for the long-term existence and development of a company, but their value is not disclosed on the assets side of the classical balance sheet. The most important argument of the mentioned approach＇s promoters is that the economic benefits stemming from such investments are uncertain. However, investments in human capital are those with the highest long-term benefits for the company. Therefore, human capital is the only element of the business process that can add value. Other elements （equipment, materials, and services） just transfer their value to products and services. In this paper, the elements of investments in human capital and the methods used to evaluate these investments are addressed. In addition, uniquely shaped financial performance ratios related to investments in human capital are presented along with the system of integrated ratios.     

Effect of Macro Factor Volatility on the Returns of Financial Sector in Southeast Asian Stock Markets

The emphasis of this study is on the practice of the Pooled Mean Group （PMG） estimators to investigate the magnitude of macroeconomic performances： Real Gross Domestic Product （RGDP）, Foreign Exchange Rate （EX）, and Deposit Interest Rate （DINT） affecting on the rate of financial sector returns in Southeast Asian Stock Markets including Stock Exchange Of Thailand （SET） index （Thailand）, the Kuala Lumpur Composite Index （KLSE） index （Malaysia）, Financial Times Share Index （FTSI） （Singapore）, Philippine Stock Exchange （PSE）, and the Jakarta Composite Index （JKSE） （Indonesia）. The Panel Autoregressive Distributed Lag （Panel ARDL） is applied to model the relations. The study applies the Levin, Lin, and Chu （LLC） test （2002） and Im, Pesaran, and Shin （IPS） test （2003） to investigates a set of time series data to examine whether the determinants and the rate of financial sector returns contain a unit root, the next step is investigated the cointegration and causality relationship of the determinants of financial sector influencing on long-run rate of returns of financial sector in Southeast Asian Stock Markets.     

The New Method to Determine Ownership Stake to Exercise Control： An Empirical Analysis on Italian Companies

The idea of this work arises from the analysis of the researches developed in the literature on topic of ownership and control that are mostly based on threshold of ownership stake to determine control equal for all companies and, in most cases, not supported by theoretical arguments and empirical evidences. In fact, the aim of this paper is to build a new method of determining the threshold of ownership stake that allows the shareholder to exercise control. In particular, this survey uses all Italian listed companies as reference, and the minutes of the Ordinary and Extraordinary General Meetings of shareholders, in 2009-2012, as database. The topic can be enriched with further and future researches aiming to adapt this new method in a cross-country investigation and so to identify the different threshold for the countries, on the basis of the different national laws regarding the ownership stakes that affect the control.     

Bank Credit,Firm Entry and Exit,and Economic Fluctuations in China

This study explores how a worsening bank credit quality affects firms＇ entry and exit decisions （i.e., changes in the extensive margin）, and how the extensive margin variation amplifies the transmission of financial and technological shocks to the real economy. Using a vector autoregression （VAR） model, our empirical evidence indicates that deteriorating Chinese bank credit conditions have a significant negative influence on net firm entry to the market. To explore the potential mechanism behind the stylized fact, we establish a dynamic stochastic general equilibrium （DSGE） model featuring fixed production costs, loss-related bank credit quality shocks and an endogenous balance sheet constraint which restricts the aggregate credit supply by the level of the banks＇ net worth. Model simulations indicate that the interaction of financial constraints and the extensive margin variation amplifies the impact of bank credit shocks on the real economy. When banks experience loss-related financial shocks, bank credit tightens, which increases firms＇ external financing costs. When the firms＇ expected income is not sufficient to cover the fixed production cost, some firms exit from or stop entering the market. As a result, the economy displays a severe recession and a slow recovery.     

Characteristics of Organizational Leadership and Motivation as a Factor of Change in the Public Health System

The purpose of this study is to investigate the characteristics of organizational leaders in the health system and the factors that motivate health workers, in order to improve health care. The research was conducted in the public health institutions in Montenegro. The objectives of the research were to investigate whether leaders affect the motivation of employees in order to implement changes in the health system. The study was implemented through the interview method on the representative sample of 603 employees in public health institutions. The factor analysis revealed the latent characteristics of the organizational leader and the factors that motivate employees in public health institutions. The result of study indicates that employees in public health perceive organizational leadership to have a good quality. Result also exposes that the strongest motivation factor is a financial incentive. Financial incentive is the main motivator for employees in the public health sector, while the participation in decision-making was the least important motivational factor. The results obtained indicate that employees are primarily focused on individual goals, which influence the acceptance of change within the health system. The role of organizational leaders in motivating is poor because obtained factor scores are not correlated. The research has shown that organizational leaders do not have a great impact on the motivation of employees in the public health sector. This has effect on the process of accepting changes, where the roles of leaders are very important, especially in providing support to employees.     

The World Production and Trade of Rare Earth Elements： The Position of the Pacific Area

In this paper we analyze the characteristics of the so-called rare earth elements （REEs） and its industrial applications. We present the policy, or lack thereof, in the countries in the Pacific Rim for its mining and commerce, and the current and future weight that rare earth minerals will have in international trade. The technological revolution experienced over the last 25 years, has brought the REEs to the public＇s attention for being instrumental in obtaining catalysts, lasers and optical fiber, luminescent substances and LEDs, superconductors, permanent magnets, batteries and ultra-capacitors. China＇s leading position as the supplier of these minerals worldwide, and its recent export restriction policy for domestic industrial activities have driven up international prices. Price increase for REEs is leading to the need for both recycling and its replacement. It has also led other countries in the Asia Pacific Rim to prospect new potential sites on their own territories, or even to restart operations in deposits that had been previously abandoned. Those strategies will likely gain greater importance as environmental pollution problems associated with the exploitation, processing, and recovery of REEs increase.     

The Impact of Education on Innovative Economy Polish Experiences

Methods and concepts of innovation performance are widely analyzed, discussed, and evaluated. The influence of educational management on the creation of innovative economy is not widely described in literature, however, procedures of innovation performance include the measures of educational elements. The paper discusses the methodology of European Innovation Scoreboard （EIS） and Innovation Union Scoreboard （IUS） in the aspect of education for innovative economy. Educational indicators in EIS/IUS methodology are quantitative and do not include information about the quality of education. Researchers agreed that innovation processes and economical growth require well-educated and skilled workforce and they assume that skilled workers are on output of the educational system. The measurement system of innovations in Europe includes various economical aspects, allows to observe trends and gives opportunity to improvement for countries and is directed on future educational effects. Quantitative indicators allow to observe trends, educational needs, desires of pupils, and their parents. The efficiency of these indicators is presented on the example of Poland. Educational indicators to improve innovation performance should be very synthetic, but cannot lose important information. The article presents author＇s research on graduate career paths and suggests to include elements of this methodology in the measurement system of innovation economy.     

Globalization and Voluntary Environmental Management in Developing Countries

Weak capacity to enforce regulations and sanction violators, and an emphasis on economic growth in developing countries has led to concerns about worsening environmental conditions and the potential for these countries becoming pollution havens for multinational corporations. International environmental standards, voluntary programs, and public disclosure programs have gained popularity because they engage market participants in providing incentives for self-regulation and have the potential to substitute for the lack of domestic regulatory capacity. This paper analyzes the motivations for firms to undertake voluntary environmental management and reviews the empirical evidence on the type of firms participating in such initiatives and their effectiveness in improving environmental performance. We also consider the special case of China that has witnessed dramatic globalization following its acceptance into the World Trade Organization and participation by its firms in global supply chains. We conclude with a discussion of the effectiveness of these efforts as a substitute for weak regulatory and civic society pressures in these countries.     

Impact of Financial Development on the Environmental Quality in Iran

In recent decades, undesirable environmental changes, such as global warming and greenhouse gases emission, have raised worldwide concerns. In order to achieve higher growth rate, environmental problems emerged from economic activities have turned into a controversial issue. The aim of this study is to investigate the effect of financial development on environmental quality in Iran. For this purpose, the statistical data over the period from 1970 to 2011 were used. Also by using the Auto Regression Model Distributed Lag （ARDL）, short-term and long-term relationships among the variables of model were estimated and analyzed. The results show that financial development accelerates the degradation of the environment; however, the increase in trade openness reduces the damage to environment in Iran. Error correction coefficient shows that in each period, 53% of imbalances would be justified and will approach their long-run procedure. Structural stability tests show that the estimated coefficients were stable over the period.     

Entrenched Board in New Public Firms： An Empirical Study of Chinese IPOs

This study empirically investigates the impact of managerial entrenchment on firm financial performance of Chinese firms initial public offerings （IPOs）. Using 142 firms listed in the Shenzhen Stock Exchange （SZSE）, which was collected from the Guotaian Research Service Center （GTA-RSC） databases, this study uses two proxies to measure firm performance and three proxies to measure managerial entrenchment. The two proxies for firm performance are Tobins＇ Q and return on assets （ROA）, and the three proxies for managerial entrenchment are entrenchment 1, entrenchment 2, and entrenchment 3. These three entrenchment proxies are derived from the principal component analysis （PCA）. Though previous studies of managerial entrenchment and firm performance variables suffer from endogeneity, with respect to the corporate governance it is unclear as to which variables are endogenous and which are exogenous. This study confirms that the data are linear and no endogeneity issue should be address in this study, but only heteroskedasticity, non-normality for Tobins＇ Q are a problem, therefore, the regression method employed for Tobins＇ Q is the generalised least square （GLS） and the ordinary least square （OLS） between estimators for ROA. The regression result for Tobins＇ Q reveals that managerial entrenchment is negatively impact on firm performance. The results are in contradiction to the stewardship theory for new firms whereas the managerial entrenchment for new firms is positive. Furthermore, only one entrenchment proxy yields a significant coefficient. In conclusion, the negative results of entrenchment proxies were caused by the different institutional structures and legal systems which are the Chinese corporations that are still largely owned and controlled by a state and hence the centralised state controlled was responsible for all managerial actions.     

Talcott Parsons＇ AGIL Schema-based System Identification of Administrative Problems of North-East Vocational Education in Thailand

Talcott Parsons was a great well-known sociologist whose approach was based on system theory. He identified social system into subsystems which were A （Adaptation functions）, G （Goal gratification functions）, I （Integration functions）, and L （Latent pattern maintenance functions）. His approach was based on the concern for the stability or maintenance of social system. The aim of this research is experimentally to identify the social system of north-east vocational education＇s macro administrative problems in Thailand by utilizing AGIL schema. The writer has adopted the symbiosis or maintenance of socials system stance by utilizing this approach. The results of the research were, firstly, the major macro vocational education eight problems （sentences） and 27 sub-problems （sentences） and secondly, the 15 diagrams of above-mentioned problems and sub-problems after utilizing AGIL concepts （In this paper, the writer illustrated seven of them）. The study had been done using both secondary and primary data. The secondary data were collected from the written documents and from the internet concerning the vocational schools. In depth interview data were collected. Some respondents have been interviewed more than once. The total of 69 times in depth interview were collected. The researcher had utilized Japanese Kawakita Jiro Method of processing scattering paper clips from these primary and secondary data. In conclusion, the detail of main findings, system of sentences of the macro problems, some derived diagrams examples （After AGIL schema applying） and also implication from the main findings have been illustrated.     

The possible effects on the future management of local Italian authorities following the use of financial derivative instruments

The appeal from municipalities, provinces and regions to financial derivative instruments is tied to the need of overcoming the situations in a state of urgency inherent in a balance. On average, one local Italian authority in twenty has decided to underwrite a derivative product, giving life to a number of contracts that had a value of over 35 billion euro with an average value of 6.5 million for each contract until 2007. The boom of swaps has, since 2000 on, experienced a peak period from 2003 to the end of 2005, in which the Euribor rate touched a very low level, maintained itself for long periods at around 2% and fallen in some cases even under this value. Many of the contracts completed before 2006, which link the debt of local authorities to variable rates, but also many of those completed from 2006 onwards that moved debt onto fixed rate, which are now a source of loss for the balance of local authorities that have underwritten them. In the 2002-2008 period, the number of the stipulation of contracts local authorities reported to the Ministry of Economy and Finance is about 900, corresponding to more or less 150 per year, which affected 18 regions, 44 provinces, 532 municipalities and 4 mountain commtmities, for a total of 594 authorities. Therefore, the local authorities have approached the derivative instruments in an often approximate way without a real awareness, both for the conditions that were being negotiated and the effects that they would have produced in perspective. The purpose of this work is to highlight the consequences of the use of derivative instruments on the future management of local authorities.     

Non-classical Algorithm for Time Series Prediction of the Range of Economic Phenomena With Regard to the Interaction of Financial Market Indicators

The aim of the article is to present non-clasical copyrighted algorithm for prediction of time series, presenting macroeconomic indicators and stock market indices. The algorithm is based on artificial neural networks and multi-resolution analysis （the algorithm is based on Daubechies wavelet）. However, the main feature of the algorithm, which gives a good quality of the forecasts, is all included in the series analysis division into, a few partial under-series and prediction dependence on a number of other economic series. The algorithm used for the prediction, is copyrighted algorithm, labeled M.H-D in this article. Application of the algorithm was performed on a series presenting WIG 20. The forecast of WIG 20 was conditional on trading the Dow Jones, DAX, Nikkei, Hang Seng, taking into account the sliding time window. As an example application of copyrighted model, the forecast of WIG 20 for a period of two years, one year, six month was appointed. An empirical example is described. It shows that the proposed model can predict index with the scale of two years, one year, a half year and other intervals. Precision of prediction is satisfactory. An average absolute percentage error of each forecast was： 0.0099%---for two-year forecasts WIG 20; 0.0552%--for the annual forecast WIG 20; and 0.1788%---for the six-month forecasts WIG 20.     

Regional Developmental Problems of the Rural Settlements in Bosnia and Herzegovina

The paper considers developmental problems of the rural settlements in Bosnia and Herzegovina, which are results of long-term disparity in the regional development in the period 1991-2012. In this paper it is considered the recent migration from rural to urban areas and the depopulation of the rural areas. The result of these trends reflects the development of the new infrastructure and tertiary activities. In these investigations, statistical data processed and geovisualised in GIS were used. The obtained data indicate extremely unequable regional arrangement of the population in the rural areas and socio-economic development.     

Ethics as an Active Self-construction of the Human

This paper will attempt to clarify the clear tendency, in our contemporary world, to look at ethics as something that ＂cures＂ all wrongs, all unbalance, and all evils from the political, environmental, to the business ones. For this reason, there is nothing better than to turn to ethics in order to ＂moralise＂ the system and the world, when the numerous news of fraud, injustice, and scandals are a part of everyday life in the business world and in our society. But, is this the role of ethics？ Can we reduce the aim of ethics to a mere technique？ In this paper, it is argued that ethics needs to be replaced in the epistemological scale of knowledge, where until now it has occupied a place at the top. Ethics needs to be repositioned in a different level of knowledge where we may find the roots of its foundation. It is also discussed that it is at the core of being that the experience of the action takes place and develops and in it, ethics takes root. Furthermore, it is suggested that understanding ethics from this point of view presupposes a new ethos around a relational poietics which privileges inter-subjectivity, self-creation, and an active and dynamic construction of the human and of the world.     

The Impact of Nationalisation on CSR Policy in Citadele Bank and CR Study of the Latvian Retail Banking Sector

The present research paper is dedicated to the analysis of the impact of nationalisation on Corporate Social Responsibility （CSR） Policy in Citadele bank （formerly Parex） and Corporate Responsibility （CR） study of the Latvian banking sector. The goal is to analyse the notion of nationalisation, the history of Citadele bank, and to scrutinise CSR policy and its aspects. Research aim is to explore the impact of CSR activities implemented by Citadele on customers＇ views after the nationalisation of the bank. The research methodology involves the analysis of the existing theoretical literature and a quantitative research method-survey conducted by an international research agency. The article also explores CSR activities of commercial banks in Latvia by applying the comparative method of research.     

The 2007-2009 Financial Crisis on Emerging Markets： Quantitative Identification of Crisis in Continent-based Regions

This paper focuses on a direct quantitative identification of crisis periods in selected emerging stock markets from four continent-based regions of Europe, Latin America, East Asia, and Middle East and North Africa （MENA）, in the context of an influence of the 2007 U.S. subprime financial crisis. The 17 emerging stock markets and, for comparison, the U.S. stock market are investigated. A statistical method of dividing market states into bullish and bearish markets, based on monthly logarithmic returns of major stock market indexes, is employed. The analyzed sample period begins in January 2003 and ends in December 2013. As there is no unanimity in the literature about the crisis periods in the continent-based regions, a formal statistical identification of crises is worthwhile to conduct. Furthermore, the effect of increasing cross-market correlations in the crisis compared to the pre-crisis period in the context of contagion is examining. To address this issue, both standard contemporaneous cross-correlations and volatility-adjusted cross-correlations are applied. The results are consistent with the literature and confn＇m that tests for contagion based on cross-market correlations are problematic due to the bias introduced by changing volatility in market returns. As contagion can be confused with globalization, the globalization tests in the group of international investigated markets are employed. The results generally do not confirm a global world market integration effect, i.e. there is no reason to reject the research hypothesis of no globalization during the 2007-2009 financial crisis.     

The Impact of Agricultural Import Tariff on Economic Growth： Evidence From Mercosur Countries

This research paper attempts to determine the relationship between agricultural import tariff and economic growth of Mercosur countries over the period 1996-2007 using regression analysis as well as evaluates the gains and losses from the group＇s trade policy over the same period. The introductory part of this paper focuses on the dynamics of changes in economic growth, trade, and import tariff of these countries over the last two decades. The results of the performed regression analysis of panel data suggest that trade liberalization has a quantitatively significant positive effect on growth. By using the coefficient estimates on tariff, the authors perform a quantitative evaluation of gains and losses from trade policy, for which tariff measures to trade （imports） are used as a proxy.