University-Business Cooperation in Education： Real and Perceived Performances

The purpose of this paper is to describe and demonstrate the validity of a methodology to distinguish, in the performances of high education institutions （HEIs）, real from perceived performances. The extension of accountability to the evaluation of educational programs involves significant topics concerning the gap between perceived and real performances. It means that, since many actors such as teachers, students, and external stakeholders are involved in the process, the research on methodologies to distinguish subjective from objective parameters is still on the floor. Debate about performance evaluation in this collaboration is still in progress particularly as it concerns the proposal of several parameters and indexes to quantify the topic and reduce the subjectivism in the assessment and the gap between real and perceived performances. After describing and discussing an evaluation model based on three interdependent typologies of indexes, this will be tested in two Tempus projects having the purpose of activating Ph.D. and masters courses. The results encourage deepening researches in this direction and disseminating this methodology and extending and enriching the validation process.     

Sovereign Risk Premia and the International Balance Sheet: Lessons from the European Crisis

The external dimension has emerged as an important factor in the euro debt crisis. The crisis has also shown that fluctuations in risk premia can be dramatic. We investigate the relevance of the net international investment position for sovereign risk perception and the role of market uncertainty in this relation. Furthermore, we ask whether the composition of net external assets, in terms of debt and equity instruments, is relevant in explaining sovereign risk premia and their fluctuations in time. We find that both public debt and NIIP are subject to fluctuations in risk premia; the external variable is more sensitive to the uncertainty of future expectations, and net external debt is what drives this result. Net foreign debt liabilities are associated with a lower government bond yield spread when market optimism justifies their presence with high future growth patterns; however, it becomes an important risk factor for sovereigns when global uncertainty increases and the capacity to repay foreign debt becomes a concern. Portfolio equity and FDI are related to sovereign risk in a stable manner, while a given amount of net external debt can be associated with government yield spread spikes as high as 4 %.     

Analyzing party competition through the comparative manifesto data: some theoretical and methodological considerations

This paper deals with some of the theoretical and methodological concerns arising from an in-depth analysis of one of the most successful research groups in comparative politics: the Comparative Manifesto Project. The first part of the paper discusses its theoretical background: the dimensionality of the political space, the operationalisation of the saliency theory and whether through election manifestos it is possible to determine the actual party positions. The second part attempts to contribute to the methodological debate by focusing on generally neglected weaknesses of the CMP’s method with regard to both the classification scheme and the coding procedure. In particular, it shows that it is probably impossible to correct the major problems here identified without destroying their comparability across time and space, since they are so deeply rooted in the CMP’s approach.     

An optimisation strategy for concurrent Supply Chain Finance schemes

The uncertainty and financial instability that has plagued companies and industries in the last decade is one of the root causes behind the development of Supply Chain Finance (SCF), a set of schemes aiming to optimise the management of financial flows at the supply chain level. Recent years have seen a proliferation of different SCF schemes, with different impacts on working capital costs and requirements throughout the supply chain. The practicality of SCF usage indicates that the concurrent adoption of multiple schemes is not only possible, but even likely. However, literature on SCF still focuses on individual SCF schemes, while the concurrent adoption of multiple SCF schemes remains largely unaddressed. Thus, the objective of this paper is to assess the tangible benefits deriving from a multi-scheme SCF strategy. Based on the analytical formulation of the benefits of three relevant SCF schemes (Reverse Factoring, Inventory Financing and Dynamic Discounting), the paper formalises a model that investigates the benefits that a buyer can achieve by onboarding suppliers onto these three schemes. The results show how working capital requirements and the cost of finance represent the key parameters to assessing the benefits of the concurrent adoption of multiple SCF schemes. Moreover, the funding limits of the SCF schemes themselves strongly affect the relevance of such strategies; strict limits will increase the relevance of having ‘alternative’ schemes available to onboard suppliers. To highlight the managerial relevance of the model, the article provides a numerical example based on a real-world application.     

Geometric Asian options: valuation and calibration with stochastic volatility

The scaling properties of two alternative fractal models recently proposed to characterize the dynamics of stock market prices are compared. The former is the Multifractal Model of Asset Return (MMAR) introduced in 1997 by Mandelbrot, Calvet and Fisher in three companion papers. The latter is the multifractional Brownian motion (mBm), defined in 1995 by Péltier and Lévy Véhel as an extension of the very well-known fractional Brownian motion (fBm).

We argue that, when fitted on financial time series, the partition function as well as the scaling function of the mBm, i.e. of a generally non-multifractal process, behave as those of a genuine multifractal process. The analysis, which concerns the daily closing prices of eight major stock indexes, suggests to evaluate prudently the recent findings about the multifractal behaviour in finance and economics.     

The Role of Innovation Policies in the Brazilian Health Biotechnology Regime

ABSTRACT

The Brazilian biotechnology health innovation regime can be understood as a phenomenon that results from the co-evolution of scientific, economic, and political factors. In order to analyze this co-evolution process, this article presents empirical evidence regarding the relationship between the public policy rationale devoted to promoting innovation activities and the development of health biotechnology in Brazil. Focusing on the 2002–2010 period, this article analyzes the different roles played by public policy on the development of Brazilian health biotechnology. The article is based on the analysis of two main dimensions: the national research capabilities and the dedicated biotechnology firms in Brazil. In this regard, the main conclusion is that public policies had a significant impact on both dimensions. However, the impact has been erratic and reflects strategic public policy weaknesses.     

An evaluation of Chinese macroeconomic forecasts

This article evaluates the quality of professional macroeconomic forecasts in China for the years 1995–2009. Using a large panel of forecasts on four macroeconomic variables (GDP, inflation, consumption and investment), we reject the hypothesis of unbiasedness, and find that forecasters have been, on average, overly pessimistic. The source of the bias lies primarily in forecasters' slow adjustment to structural shocks to the level of economic growth. We also reject the hypothesis that forecasters use information efficiently, and find that a large number of forecasters overreact to economic news. Finally, we document large differences of forecast accuracy across both forecasters and variables.     

Bridging macroeconomic data between statistical classifications: the count-seed RAS approach

ABSTRACT

In applications, it is often necessary to link heavily aggregated macroeconomic datasets adhering to different statistical classifications. We propose a simple data reclassification procedure for those cases in which a bridge matrix grounded in microdata is not available. The essential requirement of our approach, which we refer to as count-seed RAS, is that there exists a time period or a geographical entity similar to the one of interest for which the relevant economic variable is observed according to both classifications. From this information, a bridge matrix is constructed using bi-proportional methods to rescale a seed matrix based on a qualitative correspondence table from official sources. We test the procedure in two case studies and by Monte Carlo methods. We find that, in terms of reclassification accuracy, it performs noticeably better than other expeditious methods. The analytical framework underlying our approach may prove a useful way of conceptualizing data reclassification problems.     

Lessons Learned from Public–Private Partnerships in Indonesia’s Water Sector

This paper surveys officials involved in public–private partnerships (PPPs) in the water sector in order to examine the differing motives of Indonesian actors in adopting PPPs. It also analyses the challenges of vertical coordination across different levels of government in PPP programs. We find that four motives for adopting PPPs are perceived differently by central government respondents and subnational government respondents. However, no significant differences are found between the two groups’ perceptions of the importance of vertical coordination problems. These results highlight the need for local capacity-building programs and improved coordination mechanisms to enhance PPP adoption and implementation in the water sector.