Information and conspiracy in sealed bid auctions

This paper examines the allocative properties of the sealed bid institution when different aspects of the available information to bidders are considered. Specifically, we examine: (a) the effect on price determination in repeated sealed bid auctions of post auction revelation of losing bids, and (b) the effect on price determination when conspiratorial discussions are allowed.     

The Effects of Regional Economic Communities on Industrialization: The Case of COMESA

This paper seeks to establish the contribution of the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) programmes in promoting industrialization. It further seeks to establish the link between industrialization and productivity. The paper uses a gravity model to estimate a cross‐sectional time‐series (panel) dataset for the period 2001–2015. The results indicate that membership to COMESA has created large markets and promoted industrialization among member states. However, results also confirm that COMESA member states still heavily trade in industrial intermediates with non‐members. The study further reveals that the share of foreign total factor productivity (TFP) to COMESA's TFP are weaker than expected, which suggests non‐convergence to international knowledge spillovers. The study concludes that COMESA programmes have positively affected industrialization. We therefore recommend that COMESA should continue implementing strategies, policies and programmes that promote industrialization and technology transfer.     

The contribution of millennium development goals towards improvement in major development indicators, 1990–2015

This study explores the contribution of Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) towards improvement in seven major development indicators during 1990-2015. The improvement in each indicator is decomposed into two parts. The first is the improvement that is likely to have occurred without the MDGs and is calculated by extrapolating to the entire period 1990-2015 the pre-MDG trend of 1990-2000. The second part is the improvement that may be attributed to the MDGs and is calculated as the actual improvement during 1990-2015 minus the part based on pre-MDG factors. The contributions are estimated for the world and six geographical regions. Apart from the huge diversity across the indicators and the regions, the exercise indicates two main points. First, MDGs did make a positive contribution to the improvement in almost all cases and it is not true that the MDGs contributed little. Second, however, the improvement attributable to the pre-MDG factors dominates contribution of the MDGs. Relative to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the study indicates that attainment of the SDG targets for access to safe water and under-5 mortality at the global level appears likely, but attainment of the targets for poverty rate, maternal mortality, and access to sanitation seems unlikely.

Abbreviation EAP: East Asia & Pacific; ECA: Europe & Central Asia; LAC: Latin America & Caribbean; MENA: Middle East & North Africa; SA: South Asia; SSA: Sub-Saharan Africa; ICP: International Comparison Program; MDGs: Millennium Development Goals; SDGs: Sustainable Development Goals; UN: United Nations; UNICEF: United Nations Children’s Fund; WDI: World Development Indicators     

A general model of insurance under adverse selection

Summary. This paper considers optimal insurance schemes in a principal-agent multi-dimensional environment in which two types of risk averse agents differ in both risk and attitude to risk. Risk corresponds to any pair of distribution functions (not necessarily ordered by any of the usual dominance relations) and attitudes to risk are represented by any pair of non-decreasing and concave utility functions (not necessarily ordered by risk aversion). Results obtained in one-dimensional models that considered these effects separately and under more restricted conditions, are preserved in the more general set-up, but some of the questions we study can only be posed in the more general framework. The main results obtained for optimal insurance schemes are: (i) Insurance schemes preserve the order of certainty equivalents; consequently, the latter constitute a one-dimensional representation of types. (ii) Agents with the lower certainty equivalent are assigned full insurance. Partial insurance assigned to the others may entail randomization. (iii) Partially insured positions are an increasing function of the ratios of the probabilities that the two types assign to the uninsured positions. Most of these properties are preserved when, due to competition or other reasons, the insured certainty equivalents can not be set below pre-determined levels. Received: January 13, 1998; revised version: October 10, 1998     

Institutional cross-ownership,heterogeneous incentives,and negative premium mergers

Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting - Cross-owners, investors who have stakes in both the acquiring and target firms, are likely to focus on the total portfolio wealth effects from...     

Partnership duration and concurrent partnering: implications for models of HIV prevalence

Researchers and policy makers have argued that long-duration concurrent relationships promote the spread of HIV. The concurrency hypothesis proposes that concurrent partnering, particularly as manifested in formal and informal polygyny, is a primary contributor to the spread of HIV in sub-Saharan Africa. We investigate claims that agent-based models of concurrent partnering support this hypothesis. Specifically, we explore how assumptions about the duration and network structure of sexual partnerships affect the results of agent-based models of HIV propagation. We offer new support for the contention that long-duration concurrent partnering can be protective against HIV transmission rather than promoting it. Additionally, we argue that the focus on concurrency has misdirected attention away from the key role of exclusivity.

     

Idolizing “My Love from the Star”: Idol attachment and fanaticism of luxury brands

This study examines the influence of idol attachment and consumer fanaticism on consumers’ attitude toward celebrity product placement of luxury fashion brands in Korean television dramas. A 2 × 2 research design was used to examine two different product categories (fashion apparel vs. fashion accessories) and two celebrities (Kim Soo Hyun vs. Jun Ji‐Hyun). Respondents were screened and limited to those who were aware of the Korean television drama My Love from the Star. The findings show that the gender of celebrity and the category of product placement have differential impacts on viewers or fans’ attitudes and intention toward the product placement.     

Not all shadow banking is bad! Evidence from credit intermediation of non-financial Chinese firms

Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting - Using data from 2009 to 2016 data, we investigate the relation between leverage and investment in listed firms in China against the backdrop of...     

Lasting impacts and perceived inequities: community reappraisal of the siting of a regional biosolids processing facility in rural Ontario

This paper presents a comparative study of the shift in community perceptions pre- and post-siting of a biosolids processing facility – the Organic Material Recovery Centre – in the rural Township of Southgate, Ontario. The study responds to the need for comparative studies examining residents’ perceptions of contested noxious facilities during acrimonious siting processes and later during facility operations. Interviews were conducted before and after the techno-industrial facility was sited to compare community perceptions of the proposed and operational facility, and further examine residents’ experiences with residual impacts and reflections on the siting process. Results reveal that once the facility began operations and residents had the opportunity to understand its operational mandate and directions, many residents seem to accept the facility as less threatening to well-being, quality of life and core values. Nonetheless, sustained community concerns shifted to invisible impacts and long-term uncertainty. Findings highlight lingering intra-community conflict between those supporting and those who remained concerned about negative impacts. As a result of the hostile community conflict, the local politics seems to have morphed into a ‘one-issue’ political scene, whereby all issues are divided along the lines of municipal councillors opinions of the facility These findings make methodological contributions with pre- and post-siting comparative qualitative research and contribute theoretically to our understanding of residents’ reappraisal of contested noxious techno-industrial facilities, show sustained divisive social impacts within the community, and call for meaningful consultation and increased participatory siting processes that accounts for the diversity of values and expectations during facility siting.