Spatial Linkages in Returns and Volatilities among U.S. Regional Housing Markets

This article investigates spatial linkages in returns, idiosyncratic risks and volatilities across 19 U.S. regional housing markets. Using Case & Shiller housing price indices from 1995 through 2009, we find that interconnections across markets can be “wider” and “stronger” than would normally be expected. They are “wider” because, in addition to geographic closeness, economic proximity is also an important source of influence; they are “stronger” because of the significant contagion effects during the 2007–2009 subprime and financial crises. The increased comovement and interdependence, especially among more geographically diverse regions with similar economic conditions, may help explain the failure of geographic portfolio diversification strategies.     

Die stochastische Modellierung von Großschäden für den Einsatz in internen Risikomodellen der Schadenversicherung

Along with individual corporate management and regulatory matters for instance within EU regime Solvency II, Internal Risk Models are very important for major general insurance companies. Of crucial importance in building these internal models, is the stochastic modelling of large claims and in particular, the selection and parameterization of suitable probability distributions for the amount and number of claims based on empirical data. To this end, in practice, a visually-based methodology is more appropriate and workable than strict mathematical approaches. Based on a practical case study, this paper provides some insight into a visually-based methodology for internal risk models.     

Systems approach in landscape design: a studio work

Landscape architects design the environment, which is an organic part, an outdoor extension of the building, according to the various functions of buildings. One of the most important objectives in design is to create a strong organization which forms a whole by combining different parts. While creating this organization, it is essential to establish relationships, make the designed elements related and obtain a unique design product. This relationship can be established only with the systems approach. It is a difficult process. For this reason, it was aimed in this study to teach Landscape Architecture students how to achieve designs meeting both creative and user needs. Thus, students will learn how to create successful open spaces with the high level of use which is one of the most important problems nowadays. In this respect, this article has two purposes. The first purpose is to create a study diagram by suggesting the systems approach theoretically. Student works will be evaluated according to this study diagram. The second purpose is to investigate the contribution of the course conducted with the systems approach to the design education. In this study, the systems approach was explained to the students of the Department of Landscape Architecture at Karadeniz Technical University and they were made to design the residence and its immediate surroundings within the scope of the 3rd semester. Then, the effect of the systems approach on the creative and applicable designs of the students was determined with the survey study conducted. The results of this study reveal the importance of the systems approach for both design education and urban designers.     

The things that belong: a grounded theory study of student categorizations of complex technical artifacts

Technical artifacts play a central role in teaching and learning about technology. The artifact exemplars used in the classroom to illustrate and discuss various technological concepts should therefore be carefully chosen in order to actually support the abstraction and successful transfer of these concepts. Research from the learning and cognitive sciences strongly suggests that this requires an understanding of how students actually perceive and conceptualize various technical artifacts, what similarities, differences and features are most salient and meaningful in their eyes. In this paper, we propose a grounded theory of how students differentiate and relate various complex technical artifacts. The core of our theory is formed by four hierarchically ordered juxtapositions: (1) technology versus non-technology, (2) everyday versus specialized, (3) private versus public, and (4) luxury versus necessity, which divide the realm of technical artifacts into five broad categories: high technology, household technology, public technology, real technology, and no/low technology. Our claim is that these differentiations and categories are generally salient and meaningful for students. Based on the theory of variation, we outline how they might help educators make more informed and systematic selections of exemplar artifacts to use in the classroom.     

The contribution of 3D computer modeling education to twenty-first century skills: self-assessment of secondary school students

International Journal of Technology and Design Education - In this study, the contribution of the 3D computer modeling to the twenty-first century’s common competencies was evaluated from the...     

A Meta-study Investigating the Sources of Protest Behaviour in Stated Preference Surveys

It is a well-known empirical finding that some percentage of respondents participating in Stated Preference surveys will not give responses that reflect their true preferences. One reason is protest behaviour. If the distribution of protest responses is not independent of respondent or survey characteristics, then simply expelling protesters from surveys can lead to sample selection bias. Furthermore, WTP estimates will not be comparable across surveys. This paper seeks to explore potential causes of protest behaviour through a meta-study based on full datasets from 38 different surveys. The objective of the study is to examine the effect of respondent specific variables as well as survey specific variables on protest behaviour. Our results suggest that some of the differences in WTP typically observed between different demographic groups, different elicitation formats and different question formats might actually be attributed to inherent differences in the propensity to protest. Our results indicate that the propensity for respondents to exhibit protest behaviour when asked a stated preference type valuation question depends on a number of specific factors, respondent specific as well as survey specific—knowledge which could be used in order to reduce protest behaviour.     

MORAL HAZARD,RISK AVERSION AND EFFICIENCY

This note revisits the classic moral‐hazard model, but assumes that the output distribution has moving support and punishments are limited. The results show that the principal can implement an efficient solution if the agent is sufficiently risk averse.     

Impact of ICT on the productivity of the firm: evidence from Turkish manufacturing

This paper aims to explore the impact of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) on labor productivity growth in Turkish manufacturing. This is the first attempt at exploring the impact of ICT on productivity in Turkish manufacturing at the firm level. The analysis is based on firm level data obtained from Turkish Statistical Institute (TURKSTAT) and covers the period from 2003 to 2012. The data used in the analysis includes all firms employing 19+ workers in Turkish manufacturing industry. Growth accounting results show that the contributions of conventional and ICT capital to value added growth are not significantly different from each other. On the other hand, results based both on static (fixed-effects) and dynamic panel data analysis highlight the positive influence on firms’ productivity exerted by ICT capital. The findings show that the impact of ICT capital on productivity is larger by about 25 to 50% than that of conventional capital. This contribution of ICT capital is higher than that of non-ICT capital for small sized and low-tech firms. Our findings imply that investing in ICT capital increases firm productivity by increasing the productivity of labor and also that convention growth accounting approaches may not be adequate to identify such linkages.