Do Investors Care if Steve Jobs is Healthy?

Steve Jobs of Apple, Inc., is one of the best known CEOs in the world, and some stock analysts have termed him “irreplaceable.” Using conventional event study methods, we test the magnitude of these announcements on Apple’s share price and its market capitalization. We focus upon nine “events” between 2004 and 2009 in which new information about Mr. Jobs’ health was flushed into the marketplace, on occasion by Apple itself, but more often by the commentary and speculations of media observers, stock analysts and bloggers. We find that the impact of these announcements upon Apple share prices is mixed, usually modest, and disappears over time. We conclude that Jobs’ health has an impact on Apple’s share price and market capitalization, but that impact is not always negative and not nearly as large as many observers apparently believe.     

The hard ECU — A substitute for the D-Mark or a trojan horse?

The British Government?s proposal to develop the ECU gradually into a “hard” European currency has begun to be viewed in a more positive light. What principles are at the heart of this proposal? Does a “hard” ECU have advantages over the existing ECU? What are its chances as a parallel currency?     

Offshoring and Outsourcing Potentials: Evidence from German Micro‐Level Data

This paper provides two indicators that measure: (i) offshoring potentials (cross‐country geographical relocation) and (ii) outsourcing potentials (organisational relocation) separately at the level of jobs, occupations, tasks and industries. We use four waves of the BIBB/BAuA Labour Force Survey in Germany and apply principal component analysis based on a large set of potential determinants of offshoring and outsourcing derived from the literature. Our results show significant variation across these levels in the determinants of both dimensions. We provide a comprehensive empirical classification of the determinants of how easily jobs can be offshored and outsourced. This can serve as a basis for further research to investigate the economic effects of job offshoreability.     

The firm''s leverage-cash flow relationship

Two separate strands of the literature on capital structure under asymmetric information consider the relationship between a firm's financial leverage and cash flow. Signalling theory suggests a positive relationship, while pecking order behavior implies a negative relationship. These contrasting theoretical implications appear contradictory. However, both are supported in different bodies of empirical literature. Leverage-changing event studies tend to support a positive relationship while cross-sectional studies typically reveal a negative relationship. This paper proposes that the appropriate pecking order relationship is contemporaneous — between current leverage and current cash flow, while the relevant signalling relationship is intertemporal-between current leverage and future cash flow. A dynamic simultaneous equations model is built which allows the firm's leverage, cash flow, and risk to interact jointly in the same period, as well as across time. Empirical results reveal that, in the same time period, leverage and cash flow tend to be negatively related, while across time leverage is positively related to future cash flow. Thus the apparent contradictions in the theoretical and empirical literature may be reconciled by considering both the contemporaneous and dynamic aspects of the firm's leverage/cash flow relationship.     

Versicherungsinformatik — eine versicherungswissenschaftliche Fachdisziplin

What is insurance information technology?Insurance information technology describes all processes involved in the development, supply and processing of IT services for the insurance industry.Is there a need for a theoretical insurance information technology?A knowledge of information technology and specialist knowledge relating to insurance must be — or must become — an integral component of information technology for the insurance industry. To reach this objective not only in practice but also in theory, for the conception of multidisciplinary and cross-company models and theories, a theoretical, academic approach to insurance information technology is required.Is insurance information technology a part of insurance theory?Insurance information technology deals with the real phenomenon of ?insurance“ and aims to complete the extensive development of the theory. An ?insurance theory“ would be incomplete without the theoretical contributions of insurance information technology.