Exploring pilgrim satisfaction on facilities for religious events: a case of Ratha Yatra at Puri

This article relates to the annual Ratha Yatra festival at Puri, India, and aims at quantifying the pilgrim perception of the event on three major aspects of every facility – adequacy, quality, and signage – to measure their satisfaction. A questionnaire survey (N?=?680) was conducted, from which a five-factor structure was extracted using exploratory principal component analysis, further examined through partial least squares-path modeling. The final model was found to have significant positive effects on three factors that comprised adequacy and quality of physiological needs, quality of ancillary facilities, and signage. The outcome may be utilized in planning other pilgrim events for achieving a higher pilgrim satisfaction score.     

Geography,Informal Information Flows and Mutual Fund Portfolios

This paper explores how informal information channels impact mutual fund performance. We measure the strengths of two location‐based information channels: 1) information transfers among fund managers (fund‐fund links) and 2) transfers between managers and the companies in which they invest (fund‐company links). We find that each channel increases investment performance in the absence of the other, but decreases it when acting in combination. Stock selection associated with the presence of one channel, but the absence of the other, earns positive future returns. Our results indicate that the economic benefits of informal information channels depend critically on the nature of their interactions.     

Oil shocks and volatility jumps

Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting - In this paper, we analyse the role of oil price shocks, derived from expectations of consumers, economists, financial market, and policymakers, in...     

关于当前社会保险重大问题的研究

覆盖城乡的社会保障制度体系的基本建立,是我国改革开放以来经济社会发展取得的重大成就,但距离制度的完善还任重道远。本文指出当前社保制度改革中还存在诸如不同制度保障水平差距较大、基金支付压力大、基金统筹层次低、缴费负担重等重大问题,在对问题成因认真分析的基础上,提出今后改革的方向是以增强公平性、适应流动性、保证可持续性为重点,并提出完善基本养老保险制度模式、加快提高社会保险统筹层次、鼓励发展补充性养老保险和医疗保险、提高基金投资效率、将财政投入作为养老保险基金的稳定筹资来源、取消基本医疗保险最高支付限额等具体政策建议。     

Does conditionality in IMF-supported programs promote revenue reform?

This paper studies whether revenue conditionality in Fund programs had any impact on the revenue performance of 126 low- and middle-income countries during 1993–2013. The results indicate that such conditionality had a positive impact on tax revenue, with strongest improvement felt on taxes on goods and services, including the VAT. Revenue conditionality matters more for low-income countries, particularly those where revenue ratios are below the group average. Moreover, revenue conditionality appears to be more effective when targeted to a specific tax. These results hold after controlling for potential endogeneity, sample selection bias, and when revenues are adjusted for economic cycle.     

THE VALUE OF EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING BY ORGANIZATIONS: EVIDENCE FROM INTERNATIONAL JOINT VENTURES

We use a sample of international joint venture announcements to test the hypothesis that organizations learn from experience, such that prior learning enhances the value of later ventures. We find that experience with ventures in the same foreign location, as well as experience with international joint ventures in general, is valued by the market. In contrast, experience in the same type of joint venture activity does not add any incremental value. These findings suggest the market recognizes and values some, although not all, forms of organizational learning.