Is there a business cycle in Singapore? Is there a Singaporean business cycle?

This paper explores the existence and examines the characteristics, if any, of business cycles in Singapore. Specifically, the authors ask: Is there a business cycle in Singapore? Is there a Singaporean business cycle? Unlike earlier studies, this paper investigates whether or not there exists a business cycle in Singapore and employs cross-spectral analysis and factor analysis which have advantages over the time-domain techniques. The study shows that there is a business cycle in Singapore and its frequency does not coincide with the periodicity of the two recessions experienced by the country. However, the business cycle is not in any meaningful way Singaporean, as evidenced by the existence of three international factors explaining about 99 percent of the common variance of the series. The idiosyncratic factor is well below 1 percent in all Association of Southeast Asian Nations countries with the exception of the Philippines. The findings have a number of significant implications both from the theoretical and policymaking viewpoint.     

Welfare distribution of collective in-kind transfers in education: an application to the extended schools programme

In this study, we employ the distributional characteristics approach to analyse the welfare distribution of the Extended Schools Programme, a social programme that fights inequality in Northern Ireland’s public schools. Our main result is that increasing funding to schools as their size increases penalizes the most deprived students. This is because the school size, although related to the educational supply, does not reflect the distribution of deprivation within schools. Thus, although in the Northern Irish context the largest welfare gains are possible if funds are redistributed among middle-size schools, our general result indicates an excessive support of small-size schools at the expenses of large-size schools.     

Gebrauchsanleitung für Expertenstandards

Probleme bei der Implementierung l?sen - Trotz der zunehmenden Akzeptanz von Expertenstandards im Pflegealltag zeigen sich bei der Implementierung immer noch deutliche Probleme. In den meisten station?ren und ambulanten Pflegeeinrichtungen sind daher die sieben bisher vom DNQP ver?ffentlichten Expertenstandards nur teilweise umgesetzt.     

Asset Allocation by Variance Sensitivity Analysis

This article provides a solution to the curse of dimensionalityassociated to multivariate generalized autoregressive conditionallyheteroskedastic (GARCH) estimation. We work with univariateportfolio GARCH models and show how the multivariate dimensionof the portfolio allocation problem may be recovered from theunivariate approach. The main tool we use is "variance sensitivityanalysis," the change in the portfolio variance induced by aninfinitesimal change in the portfolio allocation. We suggesta computationally feasible method to find minimum variance portfoliosand estimate full variance-covariance matrices. An applicationto real data portfolios implements our methodology and comparesits performance against that of selected popular alternatives.     

How Can the European Union Adapt to Climate Change?

Intereconomics - Europe must increasingly deal with the harmful impacts of climate change, regardless of its success in reducing emissions. These impacts have significant cross-border effects and...     

Parental role models and the decision to become self-employed: The moderating effect of personality

This paper uses social learning theory to examine the influence of parental role models in entrepreneurial families. We distinguish between paternal and maternal role models and investigate how their influence on offsprings’ decision to become self-employed is moderated by personality, specifically the offsprings’ openness. We use data on 461 alumni from eight German universities. Our results show not only that the presence of a parental role model increases the likelihood that individuals become self-employed, but that the influence of role models also depends on the individual’s openness. We discuss the implications of our findings for research on entrepreneurial families, role models, and the psychology of the entrepreneur.     

New business models in online hotel distribution: emerging private sales versus leading IDS

This article deals with online hotel distribution. Its purpose is to investigate the private sales formula, which has recently emerged as a new business model. Two case studies are presented: Expedia, a leading internet distribution system (IDS), and Voyage Privé, a private sales Website. The study highlights the main features of the private sales formula by means of a cross-case comparison between the two travel Websites. The article ends with some final remarks on the main strengths and weaknesses of the formula as compared to the leading IDS in the online travel market.