International capital market equilibrium with investment barriers

This paper outlines models of capital market equilibrium when there are explicit barriers to international investment in the form of a tax on holdings of assets in one country by residents of another country. There is a corresponding subsidy on short positions in foreign assets. Asset prices deviate from the predictions of the world capital asset pricing model. Investors do not hold a mixture of national market portfolios, but the mix of risky assets is the same for every investor in a country. Optimal portfolios tend to be heavy in domestic assets, and light in foreign assets. Tax free investors, however, tend to hold assets anywhere in the world that are taxed heavily. Estimates of the magnitude of the average tax (or the magnitude of effective barriers to international investment) can be made by comparing the average return on the minimum variance zero β portfolio, z, with the average across countries and time of the short-term interest rate. When barriers are ineffective, the expected return on portfolio z will be the average short-term interest rate, and the world capital asset pricing model will hold.     

Policy responses to major disturbances of the 1970s and their transmission through international goods and capital markets

Zusammenfassung Wirtschaftspolitische Reaktionen auf die wichtigsten St?rungen in den 70er Jahren und ihre übertragung durch die internationalen Waren- und Kapitalm?rkte. — In diesem Aufsatz werden die wichtigsten St?rungen untersucht, die die acht gr?\ten Industriel?nder in den 70er Jahren betroffen haben, sowie die binnen- und au\enwirtschaftlichen Ziele dieser L?nder, ihre wirtschafts- und zahlungsbilanzpolitischen Gegenma\nahmen und die Reaktionen des Marktes auf St?rungen und wirtschaftspolitische Ma\nahmen. Es zeigt sich, da\ die Wirtschaftspolitik und die Reaktion des Marktes die expansiven Wirkungen des Dollarabflusses in den Jahren 1971–72 verst?rkten, weil dieser sich in einem zyklischen Tief ereignete. Andererseits wurde durch sie die kontraktive Wirkung der ?lpreiserh?hung von 1974 gemildert, da diese nach einem zyklischen Hoch eintrat. Au\erdem werden in diesem Aufsatz die Wirkungen flexibler Wechselkurse bewertet, und zwar mit unterschiedlichen Ergebnissen, weil man sich zu sehr auf die Wirkungen flexibler Kurse verlassen hat.

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Résumé Les réponses de politique aux perturbations majeures des années soixante-dix et leur transmission par les biens internationaux et les marchés des capitaux. — L’article examine les perturbations majeures qui affectuaient les huit pays les plus industrialisés pendant les années de soixante-dix, leurs buts internes et externes de politique, leurs réactions macroéconomiques et de politique de balance des paiements, et les réponses de marché à ces perturbations et politiques. Nous concluons que les politiques économiques et les réponses de marché magnifiaient les effets expansionnistes de l’émanation de dollar 1971–72 parce qu’il se passait pendant un creux cyclique d’une vague. Les réponses politiques et de marchés affaiblissaient l’impact contractionniste de l’augmentation de 1974 prix de pétrole, comme il se passait après un sommet cyclique. Nous évaluons les effets des taux de change flottants et trouvons des résultats mixtes, parce qu’on a placé trop de confiance en eux.

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Resumen Respuestas de politica a las perturbaciones más importantes de los a?os 1970 y su transmisión a través de bienes internacionales y de mercados de capitales. — En este artículo se examinan las perturbaciones más importantes que han afectado a los ocho países industrializados más grandes durante el decenio de 1970, sus objetivos de política interna y externa, sus reacciones macroeconómicas y de balanza de pagos y las respuestas del mercado a estas perturbaciones y políticas. Se concluye que estas políticas económicas y respuestas del mercado magnificaron los efectos expansivos de la evasión de dólares entre 1971 y 72, porque coincidió con un valle cíclico. Las políticas y respuestas del mercado amortiguaron el impacto de contracción del aumento de precios del petróleo de 1974, debido a que vino después de un alto ciclico. Se evalúan los efectos de tasas de cambio flotantes y se encuentra que han tenido un resultado ambiguo, porque se ha confiado demasiado en ellas.

     

Fly-posting: An exploration of a ‘controversial’ medium

This paper investigates the concept of a controversial medium focussing on fly posting and provides insights into the attitudes held on it, the controversies surrounding it, its media effects, and on how these issues affect sponsoring organisations. Overall, the findings from the group depth interviews paint an attractive picture for potential users, as target groups of younger informants hold positive overall attitudes towards the medium. Indeed, rather than offending, fly posting's illegality and covert use were found to further enhance its ability to communicate effectively with this group. In contrast, older respondents held a range of negative views, suggesting that fly posting is not inherently controversial but it can become so in combination with audience and executional factors. Our main contribution is that we provide evidence on which to caution organisations about putting the goal of engaging with youth segments above their responsibility to other customer groups, employees, and society.     

From Origination to Renegotiation: A Comparison of Portfolio and Securitized Commercial Real Estate Loans

We examine long-run house price convergence across the twenty Paris districts using a quarterly dataset that spans from 1991 to 2014. Our approach is based on two stages. In the first stage, we apply methods of unit root testing. Our econometric modelling exercise adopts a pair wise approach that is built on a probabilistic test for convergence based on all house price differentials across the Paris districts. We find that more than 50 % of the intra-city house price differentials that can be computed are stationary. In the second stage of our investigation, we analyse the drivers of convergence. The probability of stationarity is negatively affected by unemployment differentials across districts, demographics differentials and supply-side characteristics. Our findings further reveal that the half-life of a shock to long-run price equilibrium is affected positively by unemployment, distance and housing supply. Our analysis suggests that smaller distances between Parisian districts are associated with a faster speed of adjustment back towards long-run equilibrium.     

Uncertainty triggers overreaction: evidence from corporate takeovers

Behavioural finance models suggest that under uncertainty, investors overweight their private information and overreact to it. We test this theoretical prediction in an M&A framework. We find that under high information uncertainty, when investors are more likely to possess firm-specific information, acquiring firms generate highly positive and significant gains following the announcement of private stock and private cash acquisitions (positive news) while the market heavily punishes public stock (negative news) deals. On the other hand, under conditions of low information uncertainty, when investors do not possess private information, the market reaction is complete (i.e. zero abnormal returns) irrespective of the type of acquisition. Overall, we provide empirical evidence that shows that information uncertainty plays a significant role in explaining short-run acquirer abnormal returns.     

Human resource development in remote island communities: an evaluation of tour‐guide training in Vanuatu

About 30% of visitors to Vanuatu visit the outer islands, where ecotourism has recently emerged as a small‐scale but significant activity. In the face of increasing competition from comparable Asia–Pacific destinations, there has been pressure on tourism operators and the Vanuatu Government to improve product quality through mechanisms such as the development of high‐quality tours. One way to enhance product quality is through the provision of appropriate professional training for tourism sector employees, including local tour guides. The paper outlines a tour‐guide training programme delivered on the outer islands, which received financial assistance from several foreign aid agencies. The programme is an instructive example of an attempt to implement a human resource strategy in a developing country arising from the recommendations of a national tourism masterplan that sought the active involvement of international funding agencies in the implementation phase. The paper evaluates the effectiveness of the training programme and outlines the challenges of programme delivery. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The impact of make-take fees on market efficiency

Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting - Stock exchanges structure their trading fees to subsidize liquidity by offering “make” rebates for providing liquidity through limit...