Money stock targeting and money supply: An intertemporal optimization approach (with an application to Canada)

We propose a model of the short-term behaviour of the monetary authorities of a small open economy that is willing to stabilize, to some extent, its bilateral exchange rate vis-à-vis a dominant partner. The optimal money supply strategy is derived using intertemporal optimization arguments, in a rational expectations environment, The model is formulated so as to avoid the time inconsistency problem stressed by Kydland and Prescott (1977). It allows econometric estimation of the optimal money supply rule as well as of the parameters of the intertemporal utility function, and of the function that defines the intermediate target money stock. The model is successfully estimated on Canadian quarterly data, using maximum-likelihood techniques.     

How and why small to medium size enterprises (SMEs) engage with their communities: an Australian study

• While many studies address corporate philanthropy and corporate community involvement, limited work has been conducted internationally in small to medium businesses and even less has been elucidated about the Australian small business landscape.
• This article reports findings from qualitative research investigating giving to community causes by 52 small to medium size enterprises (SMEs) across Australia.
• Three key questions addressed in this article are: (1) why SMEs engage with community (2) how they engage with community and (3) obstacles they perceive in giving.
• Our findings suggest that SMEs have a preference to avoid cash gifts, prefer to support local causes and would benefit from the development of best practice giving guidelines and templates.

Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Dynamic prediction of mortality among patients in intensive care using the sequential organ failure assessment (SOFA) score: a joint competing risk survival and longitudinal modeling approach

In intensive care units (ICUs), besides routinely collected admission data, a daily monitoring of organ dysfunction using scoring systems such as the sequential organ failure assessment (SOFA) score has become practice. Such updated information is valuable in making accurate predictions of patients' survival. Few prediction models that incorporate this updated information have been reported. We used follow‐up data of ICU patients who either died or were discharged at the end of hospital stay, without censored cases. We propose a joint model comprising a linear mixed effects submodel for the development of longitudinal SOFA scores and a proportional subdistribution hazards submodel for death as end point with discharge as competing risk. The two parts are linked by shared latent terms. Because there was no censoring, it was straightforward to fit our joint model using available software. We compared predictive values, based on the Brier score and the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve, from our model with those obtained from an earlier modeling approach by Toma et al . [Journal of Biomedical Informatics 40, 649, (2007)] that relied on patterns discovered in the SOFA scores over a given period of time.     

Dealing with rough times: a capabilities development approach to surviving and thriving

Leaders during a deep and prolonged downturn should introduce organizational practices that build capability in the organization, not only to withstand the uncertainties of rough times better, but also to emerge stronger for the future. We present a set of organization design changes that can create closer connections to the marketplace and better use knowledge in the organization to introduce new ways to deliver value while consuming fewer resources. During rapid change and extreme threats, steering the ship is not sufficient. Leaders must introduce approaches that tap employees' energies throughout the organization. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Convergence to competitive equilibria and elimination of no-trade (in a strategic market game with limit prices)

The strategic market games literature contains many results that predict Walrasian equilibria in the competitive limit. However, they usually come at the expense of ad hoc assumptions that rule out “pathological” no trade equilibria. This paper studies a strategic market game with limit prices. The set of Nash equilibrium allocations of this game converges to the set containing all competitive equilibria and no-trade, when players are replicated. Moreover, two rounds of iterated deletion of weakly dominated strategies eliminate the no-trade equilibria. Hence, replication paired with two rounds of iterated dominance gives a clean prediction of competitive equilibrium.     

Mutual interests management with a purposive approach: Evidence from the Turkish shipyards for an amorphous impact model between (subjective) well-being and performance

To enhance the academic endeavours confronting the globalisation of managerial orthodoxy (predicated on antagonising the interests of companies and employees), we will investigate the relationship between institutional performance and employees' (subjective) wellbeing in Turkish shipyards by undertaking an extensive survey. We will argue that there is a positive association between the two covariates that lends itself to a conceptual frame of Mutual Interests Management (MIM). The MIM refers to the managerial impacts that result in cross-fertilisations between the interests of companies and employees. However, we will also argue that MIM has a dynamic and amorphous character in the sense that no correlation whether it be positive, negative or the lack of thereof necessarily survives through our purposive analyses with the trial of various interaction models among the specific types and combinations of variables considered. Accordingly, the conclusion stresses that the amorphous nature of MIM can be adapted by the managers at company-level to tailor or innovate feasible MIM strategies.     

Multivariate approach to evaluate the relationship among geophysical and geochemical variables during an unrest period at Campi Flegrei caldera (Italy)

Campi Flegrei is a caldera in Southern Italy, which has manifested signs of significant unrest in the last years. Indeed, during volcanic crises, the ground of Campi Flegrei caldera begin to grow steadily, the earthquake swarms become more common and strong variations in the chemical composition of fumaroles are observed. In the Campi Flegrei volcanic area there is a spread ground deformation monitoring network. In the years 1983–1985 the bradiseism showed an increasing trend of ground uplift with a fairly fast velocity. In the following years (1986–2014) the phenomenon tends to decrease: the earthquakes number is near to zero, the vertical ground displacement decreases, the fumaroles modify the gas emissions, the soil temperature decreases. The main object of this study is to evaluate, by means of variables comparison, in a counterclockwise periods, the relationship among geochemical data of fumaroles, earthquakes and ground deformations, to discover which variables can be considered signals (geochemical indicator) of the bradyseismic events during an unrest period.

     

Asymptotic and bootstrap tests for linearity in a TAR-GARCH(1,1) model with a unit root

This paper derives the limiting distribution of the Lagrange Multiplier (LM) test for threshold nonlinearity in a TAR model with GARCH errors when one of the regimes contains a unit root. It is shown that the asymptotic distribution is nonstandard and depends on nuisance parameters that capture the degree of conditional heteroskedasticity and non-Gaussian nature of the process. We propose a bootstrap procedure for approximating the exact finite-sample distribution of the test for linearity and establish its asymptotic validity.     

Organizational Commitment to Ethics and International Ethical Perspectives: United Arab Emirates (UAE) Banks as a Case Study

This paper advocates the importance of the emergent concept of organizational ethics, defines it and connects it to scholarly literature in organizational sciences. One of the most important findings is the strongly correlated relationship between ethics and both perceived and measurable organizational performance. The findings validate the two major functions played by ethics in organizations, first, an amplifying function that creates self-reinforcing positive spirals, and second, a buffering function that strengthens and protects organizations from adverse organizational change.     

Current practice in the modelling of age,period and cohort effects with panel data: a commentary on Tawfik et al. (2012), Clarke et al. (2009), and McCulloch (2012)

This comment assesses how age, period and cohort (APC) effects are modelled with panel data in the social sciences. It considers variations on a 2-level multilevel model which has been used to show apparent evidence for simultaneous APC effects. We show that such an interpretation is often misleading, and that the formulation and interpretation of these models requires a better understanding of APC effects and the exact collinearity present between them. This interpretation must draw on theory to justify the claims that are made. By comparing two papers which over-interpret such a model, and another that in our view interprets it appropriately, we outline best practice for researchers aiming to use panel datasets to find APC effects, with an understanding that it is impossible for any statistical model to find and separate all three effects.     

空间资源紧缺下的城市密度演变与政策价值取向——以深圳市为例(2000年至2006年)

本文在2000年深圳市密度特征的基础上,分析了至2006年的全市密度总体演变趋势和结构(特区内外和用地类型)演变趋势.并进一步分析了在空间资源极度短缺的深圳市.城市密度政策受到多重价值取向的叠加影响,其表现出的实际结果往往更具政策参考价值.