Volatility timing in mutual funds: evidence from daily returns

I use daily mutual fund returns to shed new light on the questionof whether or not mutual fund managers are successful markettimers. Previous studies find that funds are unable to timethe market return. I study the funds' ability to time marketvolatility. I show that volatility timing is an important factorin the returns of mutual funds and has led to higher risk-adjustedreturns. The returns of surviving funds are especially sensitiveto market volatility; those of nonsurvivors are not.     

Do higher minimum wages harm minority and inner-city teens?

Conclusion The recent proposal to increase the federal minimum wage from $5.15 to $6.15 per hour has opened a new debate among scholars and policymakers. We believe that the effects of minimum wage on school and work decision of teens should play a more central role in this deabte, which has traditionally focused mostly on employment effects.     

The international division of leisure tourism and the third world

Turner, Louis, “The International Division of Leisure: Tourism and The Third World,” Annals of Tourism Research, Vol. IV, No. 1, September/October 1976, pp. 12–24 --Despite the obvious attractions of tourism as a foreign exchange earner for a number of developing countries, the industry is dominated by the rich countries which appropriate most of the economic benefits from the tourist trade. This domination takes economic and political forms, and tends to increase over time as tour operators diversify and grow vertically. The policies open to the less developed countries to increase their returns are discussed, and the difficulties they may face are mentioned.     

Global hospital and operative costs associated with various ventral cavity procedures: a comprehensive literature review and analysis across regions

Abstract

Objectives: The aim of this literature review was to provide a comprehensive report on hospital costs, and cost components, for a range of ventral cavity surgical procedures across three regions of focus: (1) Americas, (2) Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA), and (3) Asia-Pacific.

Methods: A structured search was performed and utilized a combination of controlled vocabulary (e.g., “Hepatectomy”, “Colectomy”, “Costs and Cost Analysis”) and keywords (e.g. “liver resection”, “bowel removal”, “economics”). Studies were considered eligible for inclusion if they reported hospital-related costs associated with the procedures of interest. Cost outcomes included operating room (OR) time costs, total OR costs, ward stay costs, total admission costs, OR cost per minute and ward cost per day. All costs were converted to 2018 USD.

Results: Total admission costs were observed to be highest in the Americas, with an average cost of $15,791. The average OR time cost per minute was found to vary by region: $24.83 (Americas), $14.29 (Asia-Pacific), and $13.90 (EMEA). A cost-breakdown demonstrated that OR costs typically comprised close to 50%, or more, of hospital admission costs. This review also demonstrates that decreasing OR time by 30?min provides cost savings approximately equivalent to a 1-day reduction in ward time.

Conclusion: This literature review provided a comprehensive assessment of hospital costs across various surgical procedures, approaches, and geographical regions. Our findings indicate that novel processes and healthcare technologies that aim to reduce resources such as operating time and hospital stay, can potentially provide resource savings for hospital payers.     

Testing for cointegration using the Johansen approach: are we using the correct critical values?

This paper presents Monte Carlo simulations for the Johansen cointegration test which indicate that the critical values applied in a number of econometrics software packages are inappropriate. This is due to confusion in the specification of the deterministic terms included in the vector error correction model (VECM). The result is a tendency to reject the null of no cointegration too often. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The role of the media in a bubble

We examine the role of the news media during the British Railway Mania, arguably one of the largest financial bubbles in history. Our analysis suggests that the press responded to changes in the stock market, and its reporting of recent events may have influenced asset prices. However, we find no evidence that the sentiment of the media, or the attention which it gave to particular stocks, had any influence on exacerbating or ending the Mania. The main contribution of the media was to provide factual information which investors could use to inform their decisions.     

The BSE crisis and the price of red meat in the UK

This paper presents estimates of price functions for beef, lamb and pork for the UK economy which allow for the effects of the 1996 BSE crisis. The estimates illustrate the importance of allowing for the joint endogeneity of prices in these markets. This shown that the effects of this crisis had a significant negative effect on the price of beef and a positive and significant effect on the price of lamb. However, there appears to have been little effect on the price of pork.     

The CO2 ‘trade balance’ between Scotland and the rest of the UK: Performing a multi-region environmental input–output analysis with limited data

In this paper we attempt an empirical application of the multi-region input–output (MRIO) method proposed by Turner, Lenzen, Wiedmann and Barrett [Turner, K., Lenzen, M., Wiedmann, T., Barrett, J., 2007. Examining the global environmental impact of regional consumption activities — part 1: a technical note on combining input–output and ecological footprint analysis. Ecological Economics 62 (1), 37–44] in a recent issue of this journal in order to enumerate the CO2 pollution content of interregional trade flows between Scotland and the rest of the UK (RUK). We extend the analysis to account for direct emissions generation by households, as final consumers, and to a social accounting matrix (SAM), where a more comprehensive account of incomes and expenditures is possible. While the existence of significant data problems mean that the quantitative results of this study should be regarded as provisional, the interregional economy-environment IO and SAM framework for Scotland and RUK allows an illustrative analysis of some very important issues in terms of the nature and significance of interregional environmental spillovers within the UK and the existence of a CO₂ ‘trade balance’ between Scotland and RUK.     

The concept of face validity

The concept of “face validity”, used in the sense of the contrast between “face validity” and “construct validity”, is conventionally understood in a way which is wrong and misleading. The wrong view had relatively limited consequences for research practice per se. However, it is a serious obstacle in theoretical discussions of certain “philosophical” or “foundational” issues. In this brief note I would like to point out the logical defect in the conventional position and correct it by making the necessary distinctions.