Can everyone benefit from economic integration?

There is no Pareto efficient allocation rule which always encourages economic integration. Further, for any efficient rule treating indistinguishable agents identically in welfare terms, there is an economy in which a third of the agents are hurt upon integration.     

Can country trade flows benefit from improved corporate social responsibility ratings?

We set out in this study to examine the effects of country ‘corporate social responsibility’ (CSR) ratings on the international trade flows of 28 countries. Drawing on categorization theory, we examine whether country CSR engagement is a categorizing factor capable of influencing the overall process of categorization. Based upon a two-stage approach, comprising of gravity and panel Tobit models, we find that a country's CSR rating has significantly positive effects on the country's international trade flows. When the CSR rating of a country is higher than that of another rival trading country, this will have significantly positive effects on the bilateral trade flows between the two countries.     

Put your practice where shoppers throng?

It's no longer just the big chains locating in malls and small shopping centers. More and more traditional practices are thriving there, too.     

Can investors of Chinese energy stocks benefit from diversification into commodity futures?

We attempt to evaluate the diversification potential of commodity futures for energy stocks in China. With a variety of copula functions and three risk-based dynamic measures, our results show that even though commodity futures are not helpful in improving the risk-adjusted returns of energy stocks, they can significantly reduce the volatilities and expected-shortfalls of the diversified portfolios. Such diversification benefits are much larger during large market downturns than during normal times. In particular, gold (copper) futures are the most (least) attractive in diversifying risks of energy stocks in most cases. The results also highlight that the non-linear dependence cannot be ignored when estimating the diversification benefits, and more various risk hedging strategies are expected for investors holding energy stocks, especially coal company stocks.     

Do consumers benefit from quantity discounts?

A monopoly selling to identical consumers gains at their expense if non-linear pricing is permitted. In contrast, under duopoly non-linear pricing may benefit consumers and lower equilibrium profit.