Unter Strom

Zusammenfassung  Wundbehandlung durch Elektrostimulationstherapie — Für die Elektrostimulation gibt es viele Anwendungsgebiete. W?hrend Verfahren wie Herzschrittmacher aus der Medizin nicht mehr wegzudenken sind, sind Behandlungsformen wie die galvanische Feinstromtherapie umstritten. In der Wundheilung allerdings macht man sie sich seit Jahren zunutze.     

An Applied Econometricians' View of Empirical Corporate Governance Studies

The economic analysis of corporate governance is in vogue. In addition to a host of theoretical papers, an increasing number of empirical studies analyze how ownership structure, capital structure, board structure, and the market for corporate control influence firm performance. This is not an easy task, and indeed, for reasons explained in this survey, empirical studies on corporate governance have more than the usual share of econometric problems. This paper is a critical survey of the recent empirical literature on corporate governance – to show which methodological lessons can be learned for future empirical research in the field of corporate governance, paying particular attention to German institutions and data availability.     

Rezensionen

Ohne Zusammenfassung     

Rückversicherung Versus Indemnity Type Insurance Linked Securities: Eine Arbitrageanalyse

This paper compares insurance linked securities and traditional reinsurance on a structured technical level. Goal is to mathematically capture and compare both risk transfer mechanisms on a conceptual basis. Starting with the basic P&L position of a non-life insurance company, the alternative coverage structures are developed and formally captured with increasing degrees of complexity. While the focus rests on pure insurance risk, additional pricing relevant cost and risk aspects are addressed as well.     

Coordination, Challenges, and Innovations in 19 National Sustainable Development Strategies

In this article, we study 19 developing and developed countries to identify key challenges, approaches, and innovations in strategic and coordinated action for sustainable development at the national level. We are interested in the institutional fabric of implementing sustainable development. What are governments actually doing to organize the processes required for this? What are the institutional innovations in this regard and what kind of typologies can be identified?Despite some true progress made, our findings indicate that countries are still at the early stages of learning toward effective action for sustainable development. This applies both to developing and developed countries. Key unsolved challenges include (a) coordination with the national budget, (b) coordination with sub-national level sustainable development strategies, and (c) coordination with other national-level strategy processes.     

Investigating the PPP hypothesis using constructed U.S. dollar equilibrium exchange rate misalignments over the post-bretton woods period

This paper investigates the PPP-hypothesis over the post-Bretton Woods period using a representation of the equilibrium exchange rate (EER) that is an alternative to the real exchange rate. The results provide evidence in support of the relative-PPP hypothesis over the current period of floating exchange rates (1974–2005); while stronger evidence is found for the post-Plaza Accord period (1986–2005). EERs based on export price indexes (EPI) and constructed traded goods price indexes (TPI) best demonstrate the mean reverting behavior of the spot exchange rate as opposed to those EERs based on CPI, PPI, or the GDP-deflator. This mean reverting behavior is slightly improved if one takes international interest rate differentials into account; however EERs extended by productivity differentials do not indicate any improvements over the base model. Over the post-Plaza Accord period average half-lives of less than 1 year are reported using TPI-based EERs, adjusted by interest rate differentials. For large misalignments, we find probabilities that the spot exchange rate will converge towards the constructed CPI-based equilibrium exchange rate of up to 80%. Lastly, over the post-Plaza Accord period, the TPI-based EERs are able to statistically significantly outperform the pure random walk at short-term forecast horizons of less than 1 year for some spot exchange rates.     

The impact of national GAAP and accounting traditions on IFRS policy selection: Evidence from Germany and the UK

The adoption of IFRS in the European Union in 2005 aimed to increase the comparability of publicly traded companies’ consolidated accounts. However, previous literature questions whether IFRS are applied consistently across countries with differing institutional environments, and therefore, whether de facto harmony has been achieved. We further examine this question by investigating IFRS accounting policy choices of listed companies in Germany and the UK between 2005 and 2009. We find that most firms, when choosing IFRS options, tend to retain accounting policies required by national rules. We also investigate national accounting traditions in the case of options under national GAAP and find that most companies continue these after adopting IFRS. Moreover, there appears to be little significant change in accounting choices over time from 2005 to 2009. Given the differences in accounting rules and practices that exist across countries, our results suggest that international differences in financial reporting are likely to continue under IFRS.     

Recovery of hidden state participation effects on oil and gas asset values

Commodity price shocks are shown to cause shifts in both the quantity and timing of risk in natural resource assets. We provide evidence that static risk measures understate the periodicity of price risk implicit in depleting assets. Risk measurement is demonstrated to be asset specific and to vary heterogeneously in response to the combined effects of state participation and market factors. We use a global sample of oilfield assets to demonstrate that oilfield participation terms cause corporate asset cash flows, volatility horizons and minimum variance hedge ratios to vary in response to oil price. We provide additional insights into movements in the timing of physical oil and gas asset risk, a hidden effect not recoverable from market oil prices. Temporal variance for physical assets is shown to be a hidden dimensional outcome of the effects of market factors and state participation.     

On the Risk of a Sovereign Debt Crisis in Italy

The intention for the Italian government to stimulate business activity via large increases in government spending is not in line with the stabilisation of the public debt ratio. Instead, if such policy were implemented, the risk of a sovereign debt crisis would be high. In this article, we analyse the capacity of the Italian economy to shoulder sovereign debt under different scenarios. We conclude that focusing on growth enhancing structural reforms, would allow for moderate increases in public expenditure.