ON INCREASING RETURNS TO SCALE. A REPLY TO PROFESSOR RYZHENKOV

A recent paper by Ryzhenkov considers also a paper of mine, where increasing returns to scale are a crucial ingredient. According to Ryzhenkov, my specification of increasing returns is not correct. In this paper I shall show that on the contrary, it is his specification that is not correct while mine is well grounded in the main contributions to this field of literature. Further criticisms addressed to my paper will also receive a reply.     

Change of numeraire in the two-marginals martingale transport problem

In this paper, we apply change of numeraire techniques to the optimal transport approach for computing model-free prices of derivatives in a two-period setting. In particular, we consider the optimal transport plan constructed in Hobson and Klimmek (Finance Stoch. 19:189–214, 2015) as well as the one introduced in Beiglböck and Juillet (Ann. Probab. 44:42–106, 2016) and further studied in Henry-Labordère and Touzi (Finance Stoch. 20:635–668, 2016). We show that in the case of positive martingales, a suitable change of numeraire applied to Hobson and Klimmek (Finance Stoch. 19:189–214, 2015) exchanges forward start straddles of type I and type II, so that the optimal transport plan in the subhedging problems is the same for both types of options. Moreover, for Henry-Labordère and Touzi’s (Finance Stoch. 20:635–668, 2016) construction, the right-monotone transference plan can be viewed as a mirror coupling of its left counterpart under the change of numeraire.     

Business and Human Rights: A Configurational View of the Antecedents of Human Rights Infringements by Emerging Market Firms

Journal of Business Ethics - This study investigates the antecedents of human rights infringements (HRIs) by emerging market firms (EFs). We used fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA)...     

DEMOGRAPHY IN MACROECONOMIC MODELS: WHEN LABOUR SUPPLY MATTERS FOR ECONOMIC CYCLES

The issue of the onset of Malthusian cycles is investigated by means of a demo‐economic model incorporating the age structure of the population. It is shown that the delayed recruitment into the labour force is a major source of demo‐economic instability, potentially leading to sustained oscillations. We also compare different modelling strategies for age structure, by showing that the results of our general model are borne out by those provided by a simpler model, based on a representation of age structure via time delays, which allows a deeper mathematical analysis. This suggests that simplified delay models may be of great help in understanding the qualitative properties of complex age structure models.     

Territorial dynamics and social differentiation among peasants in the northern highlands of Ecuador

This article addresses the process of social differentiation among peasants who were beneficiaries of the 1960s agrarian reform in the northern highlands of Ecuador. Although peasants obtained access to land that was previously in the hands of the haciendas, the incipient process of social differentiation that arose at that time was not halted. Today, peasants are incorporated into a commercial dynamic through milk production for agribusiness that has deepened the process of social differentiation between communities and within them. The supremacy of economic capital in the social field leads to a crisis in the traditional practices of reciprocity and to the incorporation of productive strategies and new “habitus” of consumption that have generated profound transformations in the territory.     

Funzioni di Green per equazioni differenziali ordinarie e applicazioni in finanza

Nella letteratura finanziaria è ricorrente la presenza di problemi ai valori iniziali o ai limiti, non omogenei, la cui soluzione può essere espressa in forma integrale. A tal fine si utilizza un nucleo, detto funzione di Green, di cui è possibile indagare le proprietà e fornire un'interpretazione probabilistica. Il presente lavoro esamina e rielabora tale metodo risolutivo, usato per la valutazione di funzionali di processi stocastici privi di fattori di sconto. D'altro canto, nella letteratura finanziaria sono presenti funzionali al cui interno è riconoscibile un fattore di sconto. Definiremo la funzione di Green anche in relazione ad essi e li studieremo al di fuori del caso browniano, già noto.Summary Second-order ordinary differential equations, both linear and non-homogeneous, play an important role in Finance. Integral form solutions to the corresponding initial or boundary-value problems — in the spirit of the Feynmac-Kac representation — are well-known. They are based on a kernel, known as Green's function. This method has been applied almost exclusively to the representation of functionals of stochastic processes with no discount factor. In Finance however we are mainly concerned with functionals presenting a discount factor, which have been extensively studied for the brownian case only. As a consequence, the paper firstly reviews the concept and properties of the Green function, especially with reference to the standard evaluation of functionals of stochastic processes. Secondly, it develops a Green's function approach for discounted functionals. Finally, it suggests applications and extensions.

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L'autrice è grata ad un anonimo referee per i suggerimenti dati al lavoro, che ha goduto del parziale finanziamento MURST 40% (Intermediazione finanziaria, funzionamento dei mercati ed economia reale).     

NON‐RIGID WAGES AND MERGER PROFITABILITY REVERSAL UNDER CONVEX COSTS AND CENTRALIZED UNIONIZATION

Can a merger from duopoly to monopoly be detrimental for profits? This paper deals with this issue by focusing on the interaction between decreasing returns to labour (which imply firms’ convex costs) and centralized unionization. First, it is highlighted that a wage ‘non‐rigidity’ result applies: the post‐merger wage is higher than in the pre‐merger equilibrium. Second, it is shown that a ‘reversal result’ in relation to merger profitability actually realizes when the union is sufficiently oriented towards wages. Moreover, the higher the reservation wage, the degree of product differentiation, and the union's relative bargaining power, the higher the probability that a merger reduces profits.