Der umgekehrte Werther-Effekt

Over the past centuries, concerns have been raised that suicide stories in the media could lead to imitation. Nonetheless, the existence of the so-called “Werther effect” is still questionable and has barely been tested for Germany. The present study revisits two classic assumptions about the Werther effect and argues that these assumptions are neither appropriate for causal deduction in research, nor for giving journalists recommendations for the coverage of suicides. The author explains the inconsistent results of Werther research so far with overlapping effects in different directions. In a study, 140 suicide reports published nationally over the period 2001 to 2003 were recorded with a standardised (functional) content analysis and quasi-experimentally tested for their specific influence on official death statistics. Except for observer-model-similarity in the suicide rate of young men, the tested classic assumptions could not be replicated. As several confounders weakened the causal evidence provided by the quasi-experiment, a cluster analysis was subsequently used to identify four different types of suicide reports which contained all confounding aspects. A classical Werther effect with a short-term rise in suicides was observed after suicide reports using a vague prominence. Suicides decreased after stories about anonymous perpetrators were published. This finding confirms the expectation of a reversed Werther effect. Both other types of stories caused no recognizable impact.     

The impact of sovereign risk on bond duration: Evidence from Asian sovereign bond markets

This paper examines the effect of sovereign risk on bond duration. We compare the sovereign risk-adjusted duration for U.S. dollar-denominated Asian sovereign bonds with their Macaulay duration for both investment grade bonds and speculative grade bonds. We find that the sovereign risk-adjusted duration is significantly shorter than its Macaulay counterpart for all bonds, regardless of their bond rating and their maturity. Further, the “shortening” effect of sovereign risk on duration gets stronger as bond rating deteriorates and in recessionary conditions. Our findings provide strong support for the importance of adjusting for sovereign risk when bond portfolio managers apply the popular duration measure to hedge interest rate risk.     

Love Creation=Money Industry

On Nov 25,2009,the magnificent＂Love ＆ Money-50 Years of Creative Britain＂was opened for the first time at the 2nd China Trade in Services Congress was hosted by MOFCOM and Beijing Municipal Government and with sponsorship and patronage by UKTI,the British Enbassy to China and BBC Worldwide.     

Light Up the Light Industry

Based on small consumer goods production, light industry is usually less capital-intensive than heavy industry, and is more consumer-oriented than business-oriented, as most light industry products are produced for end users rather than as intermediates for use by other industries. When Katie Melua sang the fact that ＂There are nine million bicycles in Beijing.＂ in her song, she also released a clue of China as a manufacturing and consumption giant in light industry. China, boasting the fame of global workshop, supplies a large proportion of light manufactured products to the world. However, since last September, China＇s light industry products export fell sharply. Chinese enterprises in the field are suffering a tough period due to the global economic crisis.     

Gendered cognitions: a socio-cognitive model of how gender affects entrepreneurial preferences

ABSTRACT

This research explores the social-cognitive factors which lead both women and men to pursue ventures consistent with their gendered social identity, therefore, reinforcing the gender gap in entrepreneurship. We measured the self-assessments of individuals presented with experimentally manipulated entrepreneurial opportunities that were either consistent or inconsistent with their self-reported gender. A theoretical model derived from Social Role Theory is presented and tested. It posits that a gender match (mismatch) with the entrepreneurial opportunity results in higher (lower) reported self-efficacy, anticipated social resources, and venture desirability and lower (higher) venture risk perceptions. The experimental data are tested in a sequential mediation SEM model. We find evidence that self-efficacy and anticipated social resources mediate the effect of gender congruency on perceived risk and venture desirability. The results provide insight into the insidious barriers that play a role in reproducing a gender gap in entrepreneurial outcomes by ‘nudging’ women into lower-return ventures in less lucrative industries.     

Efficiency of Chinese Enterprises

This paper compares the efficiencies across firm ownership types in China. Empirical results show that the non-state-owned enterprises are more efficient than the state-owned enterprises, which provides evidence to support the continued shifting of industry structure from state-owned enterprises to non-state-owned enterprises. Also, the economic gap between the western and coastal regions are found to be related to the variations of performances of ownership types in these regions. In addition, the issue of crossing frontiers and two interesting features of the Byrnes (1985) technique on the separation of across-group and within-group technical efficiency measures are evaluated.     

Do investors still benefit from international diversification with investment constraints?

This paper empirically investigates the potential benefits of international diversification for the U.S. investor with various investment constraints from both long-term and time-rolling perspectives. While the addition of portfolio bounds makes asset allocation more feasible, our findings suggest that adding short-selling and over-weighting constraints reduce but do not completely eliminate the diversification benefits of international investment. The over-time analyses show that diversifying portfolios internationally is still beneficial even though financial markets are becoming more integrated. The out-of-sample test suggests that the Markowitz model does not necessarily realize improved mean–variance efficiency but demonstrates risk reduction. The significant time variation in optimal asset allocation implies the necessity for the fund manager to rebalance international portfolio dynamically.     

Plan fulfillment and growth in Soviet ministries

Plan fulfillment and growth-rate performance of Soviet industrial nondefense ministries for 1966–1979 are analyzed and compared. Comparisons between partial and annual plan-fulfillment results provide insights into three aspects of ministerial behavior: storming, output shifting, and the question of whether ministerial plans are firm or changed during the course of the year. The extent to which centralization of supervision explains interministerial differences in annual plan fulfillment and growth is also explored. Regression analysis is used to test impact of plan fulfillment, time, and ministry type on growth-rate performance.     

DURATION,DEFAULT RISK,AND THE TERM STRUCTURE OF INTEREST RATES

We examine the interactive effect of default and interest rate risk on duration of defaultable bonds. We show that duration for defaultable bonds can be longer or shorter than default‐free bonds depending on the relation between default intensity and interest rates. Empirical evidence indicates that in most cases duration for defaultable bonds is much shorter than for their default‐free counterparts because of the negative relation between default risk and interest rates. Results suggest that the duration measure must be adjusted for the effects of default risk and stochastic interest rates to achieve an effective bond portfolio immunization.     

The division of labour is limited by the type of market: The case of the Taiwanese machine tool industry

This paper seeks to illustrate that the division of labour is limited not only by the size of the market, i.e. aggregate purchasing power, but also by the type of market, i.e. the average income of individual consuming units. Consequently, for technology to advance in the production of certain goods, capital accumulation must occur. The multiplication of markets alone is insufficient. Empirical support for this proposition is provided by an examination of the Taiwanese machine tool industry. Central to the discussion is the treatment of the product as an economic variable.