Fixed-to-mobile call substitution and telephony market definition in Korea

An appropriate market definition is critical in most antitrust cases. In practice, antitrust authorities define economic markets in a deterministic manner with little concern about the risk involved in defining markets incorrectly. In contrast, this article proposes a probabilistic market definition method by which antitrust authorities can establish a statistical confidence level for their intended market-definition judgments. As an application, we examine the likelihood that the fixed-line and mobile telephony services in Korea can compete in the same economic market. Combining critical loss analysis with a hierarchical Bayes model for stated preference data, we find some evidence for the separation of the fixed-line and mobile telephony markets in present-day Korea. After discussing certain possible regulation biases for market definition, we predict that the two markets will converge in the near future as the mobile price premium continues to decrease.     

APEC and Asia‐Pacific regionalism: Conditions and prospects

After the Cold War and the financial crisis that wreaked havoc throughout Asia, the Asia‐Pacific region has realized the importance of their interdependence. Economic prosperity will be the cornerstone of how the world will prosper throughout the 21st century. Because of globalization, the world is changing very rapidly and thus trying to cope with adjustments. The world trade order has changed and regional trading blocs are emerging after the fall of a bipolar world, which were dominated by the communist bloc and the capitalist bloc. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, capitalism has changed how countries perceive their national interests. An analysis is provided for the growth of regionalism and the future possibilities of the Asia‐Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC).     

Derivatives trading,volatility spillover,and regulation: Evidence from the Korean securities markets

Unlike the U.S. and Japanese securities markets, we find new evidence of volatility spillover between index stocks and non‐index stocks following the introductions of index derivatives trading in the Korean securities markets. We further find that the degree of volatility spillover is closely related to the level of market deregulation; significant return volatility spills over from non‐index to index stocks during deregulation period but in the opposite direction during post‐deregulation period. Our empirical results show that the former volatility spillover from non‐index to index stocks can be explained by the transitory contagion effect associated with the 1997 Korean financial crisis and the subsequent market deregulation, whereas the latter volatility spillover from index to non‐index stocks is attributed to the permanent information spillover effect. This latter evidence suggests that the information regarding investors' expectations on the future common market factors is first reflected into the return volatility of index stocks and then transferred to the trading of non‐index stocks against which derivatives are not traded. Our results are robust to different estimation and sample construction methods. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Jrl Fut Mark 29:563–597, 2009     

Detecting insider trading: The theory and validation in Korea Exchange

This paper provides an empirical basis for identifying insider transactions by deriving a theoretical model, which incorporates the relationship between insider transactions and time series of stock returns. Thus, this model enables us detecting insider transactions by applying stock return time series. We show that when there is an insider transaction in the market, time series can be derived as an ARMA(1,1) process having closed solution coefficients. For validation of the model, we test publicly released insider transactions and reverse takeover events using the minute-by-minute stock price data. The selected events show higher pass rate of the detection criteria than the current detection system which shows that our model produces smaller Type II error than the existing post transaction-based cumulative abnormal return model.     

Ambiguity Acceptance as a Function of Project Management: A New Critical Success Factor

This research examines the relationship between ambiguity acceptance and customer and organizational outcomes within the Six Sigma improvement project context. Results find a curvilinear relationship between open communication and customer outcomes for project leaders. Results of multiple regression find a significant positive relationship between open communication and organization outcomes, as well as a significant positive relationship between ambiguity acceptance and customer and organizational outcomes for team leaders, while there is a significant positive relationship between ambiguity acceptance and customer and organizational outcomes for team members. Theoretical and practical implications are examined.     

Parameter Stability and the Valuation of Mortgages and Mortgage‐Backed Securities

The recent financial crisis was triggered by large and unexpected losses on mortgages and mortgage‐related securities. Here we examine model risk arising from innovations in mortgage markets and the effect on asset values. In particular, we examine the effect of parameter instability in the prepayment function. Using carefully constructed microdata, we find that the refinancing propensity was greater in 1998 for a 1997 issue given the same incentives, compared to the 1993 performance of a 1992 issue. The associated change in cash flow patterns produces economically significant changes in asset prices. Results are robust to alternative term structure models.     

The role of the temporary component in spot prices in the revision of expected future spot prices: Evidence from index futures quotes

It is frequently argued that foreign investors have extrapolative expectations due to their informational disadvantages. That is, in the absence of other sources of information, foreigners revise their expectations on the future price of a domestic stock more in line with its current price change than do domestic investors. In this study, we analytically show that foreigners might respond more to a price change because they pay relatively less attention to a temporary component in price—i.e. because they are more well‐informed. We confirm this hypothesis with a simple yet powerful test that is designed by the identification schemes arising directly from the nature of a temporary component and by the access to a direct measure of the investor's expectation, namely, the quote for futures contracts. After controlling for the temporary component effect and using the lead–lag relationship between the spot and futures markets, we show that foreign investors are indeed most well‐informed, whereas domestic individuals are at the other end with the most extrapolative expectations. Finally, domestic institutions are largely indistinguishable from foreigners but are noticeably different from domestic individuals.     

Envirox™ fuel-borne catalyst: Developing and launching a nano-fuel additive

The paper presents a product case study tracing the challenges of commercialization from research and product development to market launch. Envirox™ is a diesel fuel additive containing nanoparticles of cerium oxide, which enables fuel efficiency gains alongside reductions in harmful emissions such as black carbon (soot). The case traces developmental stages from lab experimentation and performance data sets, to raising finance, securing manufacturing capability and market testing in Hong Kong and the UK. The paper raises a number of generic and specific issues facing innovative small, university spin-out companies engaged in introducing nano-products to the market-place.