Leverage and Mortgage Foreclosures

In this paper, we deduce the default and prepayment characteristics of mortgages by examining the actual behaviors of a large set of conforming fixed rate mortgages tracked over time. Employing reduced form pricing techniques, we are then able to fully value such mortgages, and so determine the cost as well as the probability of default for any particular mortgage. The analysis reveals the levels of foreclosures that can be expected when loans are leveraged at the high loan–to–value ratios characteristic of recent years.     

Keeping customers shopping in stores: interrelationships among store attributes,shopping enjoyment,and place attachment

Our research purpose was to identify and test variables that contribute to customer's willingness to continue to shop in brick and mortar stores, hereafter referred to as store loyalty. Specifically, we examined interrelationships among store attributes, shopping enjoyment, place attachment, and store loyalty with apparel shoppers. Significant store attributes that predicted shopping enjoyment included atmosphere, price, leisure, design, and service. Shopping enjoyment was a significant predictor of both place attachment and store loyalty. In turn, place attachment was found to be a significant predictor of store loyalty. The implications for store retailing are discussed as well as limitations and areas for future research.     

Bioenergy in Southern Africa: An opportunity for regional integration?

ABSTRACT

This introductory paper sets out the rationale for revisiting questions surrounding biofuel futures in Southern Africa and exploring the case for the establishment of a regional market. This contrasts with most research that has focused upon benefits and risks of production and consumption for individual countries. The analysis in this issue suggests that while benefits exist, the key challenges that have stifled production and consumption to date would need to be overcome. Unlocking trade requires relaxing requirements for South African manufacturers to source all their feedstock domestically. Key among factors to encourage production is resolving agricultural investment processes, particularly designing inclusive business models and clarifying land acquisition processes.     

Constraints to biofuel feedstock production expansion in Zambia

ABSTRACT

World biofuel production has been increasing to improve energy security and mitigate global warming. Southern Africa’s bioenergy demand could increase with South Africa’s planned fuel blending mandates, triggering increased demand for feedstocks and agricultural land. Ensuring sustained production will require a full understanding of the constraints to production expansion, considering the tradeoffs that may be generated in rural areas, as has been observed for large-scale land acquisitions. We analyse the social and biophysical constraints to biofuel production expansion in Zambia. Previously social constraints have received limited attention even though they may prove more problematic. Results indicate that Zambia is at least moderately suitable for bioenergy investments with biophysically suitable areas largely coinciding with the socially suitable areas. However, existing gaps in compensatory procedures may inhibit large-scale projects’ access to development finance if not aligned with internationally acceptable practices, and generate negative outcomes if safeguards are not in place.     

Patterns of rational default

In this paper, we move closer to the interests of empirical research by providing the entire distribution of default’s severity, not just a summary total. The total price of a mortgage’s default option already provides a rough summary statistic of the unconditional expected severity of default, but as will be seen, distributions of severity are both disperse and skewed and so inadequately described by even their conditional means. The results make it clear that the likelihood of default and the likely magnitude of that default must be treated as separate phenomena.     

An Analysis of Mortgage Termination Risks: A Shared Frailty Approach with MSA-Level Random Effects

Investigating the residential mortgage defaults and prepayments has been the subject of research for the past three decades. The literature on mortgage default and prepayment is often used to inform credit risk policies and asset pricing strategies. This literature has evolved from the use of logistic regressions to the use of survival and frailty models that control for unobserved heterogeneity. In this paper, we apply a shared-frailty survival model to analyze the mortgage termination risks. In particular, we investigate whether mortgages originated in the same Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) share common unobserved factors and how these factors affect the mortgage termination risks. The paper demonstrates that MSA-level frailty, together with other risk factors, has significant effects on the probability of mortgage terminations risks.     

Extraction of information from continuously masked successive stimuli: An exploratory study

Results from this series of brief pilot experiments suggest that, under certain conditions, it is humanly possible to extract information from superimposed continuously masked letter strings presented successively on the VDU of a microprocessor.     

Income inequality in corporatist and liberal economies: a comparison of trends within OECD countries

This paper examines trends in income distribution since the war in a number of OECD economies. It is shown that while most economies during the first two decades experienced decreasing income inequality, associated with the post-war boom, there has been considerable divergence thereafter. In this process the institutions of each country have mattered a great deal. By examining both liberal and corporatist economies we seek to delineate the links between economic performance and restructuring, and income inequality. The evidence is that, in contrast to the experience of liberal economies, the more corporatist economies have been able to adjust to the worsening economic climate without an increase in income inequality.     

Specifying and assessing a formative measure for Hofstede’s cultural values: a Malaysian study

The growing interest on Hofstede’s cultural values has dominated the area of management and organizational research. However, the extant literature with disappointing psychometric results have provoked a pressing need to re-examine its measurement model specification. To fill this gap, this study attempts to specify the epistemic nature of Hofstede’s cultural values and its underlying dimensions, and to assess a proposed second-order reflective–formative model for Hofstede’s cultural values at individual level in the school organizational context. The stratified sample consisted of 1,154 teachers selected from 30 Malaysian primary schools. The analysis was conducted using Partial Least Square analysis with SmartPLS 2.0 software program. Findings revealed the absence of multicollinearity with the convergent, nomological and discriminant validity were affirmed. This study has confirmed Hofstede’s cultural values as formative second-order hierarchical latent construct which are commonly operationalized by means of reflective dimensions would be better captured using a formative measure perspective by providing rigorous empirical evidence. Limitations and thoughts to stimulate future studies are discussed.