Socio-Economic Effects of Agri-Tourism on Local Communities in Turkey: The Case of Aglasun

This research aims to investigate the main socio-economic effects of agri-tourism on local community of Aglasun village in Burdur, Turkey. The study tries to give a perspective on the development of agri-tourism in Turkey and has a purpose of focusing on the social and economical dynamics of the host-guest encounters by pointing out the linkage between agriculture and tourism as a growing importance among tourism scholars. According to the interview results, economic benefits of agri-tourism have not been observed yet, since it is a new type of development in the region. Some dimensions of social effects such as tourist contact and cultural exchange are more observable than the others such as eating&drinking habits or clothing habits. Since there is not not any fully developed agri-touristic village in Turkey, the study is going to focus on the future expectations, long term benefits and perceptions on agri-tourism.     

Dynamic Correlations Among Asset Classes: REIT and Stock Returns

We use the Dynamic Conditional Correlation model with Generalized Autoregressive Conditional Heteroskedasticity (DCC-GARCH) developed by Engle (Journal of Business & Economic Statistics 20(3):339–350, 2002) to examine dynamics in the correlation of returns between publicly traded REITs and non-REIT stocks. The results suggest that REIT-stock correlations form three distinct periods. During the first period, ending in August 1991 with the start of the modern REIT era, correlations were high and without trend, never dipping below 59%. During the second period, ending in September 2001 with the inclusion of REITs in broad stock market indexes, correlations declined precipitously to 30%, enabling substantially higher portfolio allocations to both high-return asset classes and therefore higher portfolio returns without increasing portfolio volatility. During the third period, since September 2001, correlations increased steadily but only reached 59% in late 2008. A simple portfolio optimization suggests that asset managers would be willing to pay 20 basis points per year, plus the difference in transaction costs, for the ability to use DCC-GARCH modeling of dynamic correlations in place of rolling 24-month asset correlations.     

Geographic Deregulation and Competition in the U.S. Banking Industry

We examine the effects of geographic deregulation on state‐level competition in U.S. banking markets over the period 1976‐2005. The empirical results confirm that the U.S. banks in general operated under monopolistic competition during the period examined. After partitioning the sample based on bank size we find that the market competition for large banks in Delaware, Oregon, and Rhode Island can be characterized as monopolistic while small banks in Arizona and Massachusetts seem to have operated under the conditions of perfect competition. The removal of geographic restrictions appears to have very limited and non‐uniform effect on state‐level competitive conduct. There is some evidence that the U.S. banking industry might have actually experienced a less competitive behavior in recent years due to increased market power of larger banks.     

Is market learning the missing link between family involvement – firm performance relationship? A resource-based perspective

Drawing on previous literature on proposing that there exists a positive relationship between family involvement and firm performance, this study refines the explanatory role of market learning in explaining the relationship between family involvement and firm performance to be conditional to firm age and environmental turbulence. The data from 344 small-medium enterprises show that family involvement is positively related to market exploitation while family involvement is negatively related to market exploration as family firms age. Also, we provide empirical evidence that family involvement is positively related to firm performance in turbulent environments through market exploration irrespective of the firm’s age. Conversely, family involvement is positively related to firm performance through market exploitation in less turbulent environments irrespective of firm age. This study provides empirical evidence of the market exploration and exploitation capabilities may be the capabilities that glue family involvement to firm performance.     

How does the economic policy uncertainty affect the relationship between financial slack and firm performance in emerging countries?

This study investigates the moderating effect of economic policy uncertainty (EPU) on the relationship between slack resources and firm performance in emerging countries. By using 47,523 firm-year observations from seven emerging market economies through the period of 2010–2018, the results show an inverse U-shaped relationship between slack resources and firm performance. The findings also demonstrate that EPU acts as a negative moderator for the slack–performance relationship. In high EPU environments, the marginal benefit from one additional unit of slack is smaller relative to low EPU environments. This study contributes to the slack resources-firm performance literature by emphasizing the role of the broader external environment as a moderator.     

An analysis of closed-end funds discounts viewed from a lack of redemption perspective

We examine the behavior of discounts for an extensive sample of U.S. closed-end funds (CEF) undergoing open-ending. Share prices increase and discounts reduce at the time of announcement. The 2-day abnormal return is approximately one half of the pre-announcement discount. We test and find support for the investor sentiment, transaction costs, and portfolio liquidity hypotheses controlling for fund characteristics, tax liability, and dividends yield. The role of investor sentiment declines following the announcement. We decompose the pre-announcement discount into its structural and idiosyncratic parts, and find that there is a greater reduction of the idiosyncratic part of the discount at the time of announcement. The correlation between discount of CEF undergoing open-ending and that of an index of similar funds declines as the CEF nears open-ending.     

Do Small‐Group Health Insurance Regulations Influence Small Business Size?

State small‐group health insurance reforms, implemented in the 1990s, aimed at controlling the variability of health insurance premiums and to improve access to health insurance. These reforms only affected firms within a specific size range, and as a result, they may have affected the size of small firms around the legislative threshold and may also have affected the propensity of small firms to offer health insurance. We examine the relationship between small‐group reform and firm size and find evidence that small firms just below the regulatory threshold that were offering health insurance grew in order to bypass reforms.     

An Examination of the Equity Market Response to The Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act Across Commercial Banking, Investment Banking, and Insurance Firms

Abstract:  This paper examines the wealth effects of the events surrounding the passage of the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act of 1999 and changes in systematic risk from the pre-Act period to the post-Act period for commercial banks, investment banks, and insurance firms. The results suggest that investment banks and insurance firms are better positioned to exploit the benefits of product-line diversification opportunities allowed by the legislation compared to commercial banks that experience no significant market reaction. Further evidence indicates a significant risk shift and overall reduction in riskiness for the financial sectors under consideration around the event period.     

CASE STUDY: BUS FLEET REPLACEMENT

Parallel replacement analysis is concerned with determining minimum cost replacement schedules for a group of assets that are economically interdependent and operate in parallel. That is, keep and replace decisions are required for each asset among a group of assets over a specified horizon. The assets are economically linked through economies of scale or budgeting constraints. One application of parallel replacement analysis is fleet replacement. We recently studied the operations, including fleet replacement policies, for a city transit bus operator in Europe. Key factors in their replacement decisions included the ability to choose from multiple manufacturers, purchase price, and government regulations. We explore these and other factors, by solving a heterogeneous replacement problem with fixed costs, budgeting constraints, and demand constraints. Through extensive sensitivity analysis we analyze the impact of various parameters on decisions, in terms of the choice of replacement assets, as well as the optimal time to retain assets. Additionally, we provide motivation for future research in this application area, which is important for many cities.     

The effect of firm characteristics in accessing credit for SMEs

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) play an important role in socio-economic development. Despite their significance, the failure rate for SMEs is considerably high, especially in developing economies. Among the widely pronounced reasons for the high failure rate is non-availability of external financing. This study examines various firm attributes that affect access to credit using a sample of 970 SMEs that operate across nine provinces of Mediterranean and Southeast Anatolia regions in Turkey. The results suggest that asset size, sales volume and stability, export rate, and legal form are important determinants of satisfaction with bank products and services. These results are consistent with the hypothesis that larger firms with high and stable sales revenues are more likely to have better access to and therefore benefit more from credit services offered by their local banks.