Estimating the Private Economic Benefits of Sons Versus Daughters in India

In order to understand the economic incentives behind gender discrimination in India, this paper provides the first estimates of the magnitude of the economic benefits of having a son instead of a daughter. The study estimates large gains from a first-born son to per capita income and expenditure, household assets, and a reduction in the probability the household is below the poverty line. Estimates show that a first-born son may provide economic advantages through a reduction in total children born and also from an adult son’s labor supply contribution to his parents’ household. The observed pattern of incentives is also compared with observed patterns in sex selection as a test of whether the relative economic value of first-born sons and daughters can explain the prevalence of sex-selective abortion.     

Tests of Hypotheses Arising In the Correlated Random Coefficient Model

This paper examines the correlated random coefficient model. It extends the analysis of Swamy (1971), who pioneered the uncorrelated random coefficient model in economics. We develop the properties of the correlated random coefficient model and derive a new representation of the variance of the instrumental variable estimator for that model. We develop tests of the validity of the correlated random coefficient model against the null hypothesis of the uncorrelated random coefficient model.     

A comparison of alternative approaches for determining the downside risk of hedge fund strategies

In this study, we compare a number of different approaches for determining the Value at Risk (VaR) and Expected Shortfall (ES) of hedge fund investment strategies. We compute VaR and ES through both model‐free and mean/variance and distribution model‐based methods. Certain specifications of the models that we considered can technically address the typical characteristics of hedge fund returns such as autocorrelation, asymmetry, fat tails, and time‐varying variances. We find that conditional mean/variance models coupled with appropriate assumptions on the empirical distribution can improve the prediction accuracy of VaR. In particular, we observed the highest prediction accuracy for the predictions of 1% VaR. We also find that the goodness of ES prediction models is primarily influenced by the distribution model rather than the mean/variance specification. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Jrl Fut Mark 29:244–269, 2009     

The changing US–China investment relationship

The United States and China are at a turning point in their investment relationship. China’s previous investments in the United States were predominantly in government securities, while other holdings were negligible. Recently, the accumulation of treasury securities has slowed and direct investments by Chinese firms have risen steeply, with Beijing signaling greater support for portfolio investment outflows as well. This article describes the nascent shift in patterns of Chinese investment in the United States and uses the case of direct investment to examine the implications for US–China relations. We discuss current and future policy issues presented by Chinese foreign direct investment (FDI) in the United States, including national security, market access, and antitrust.     

Understanding Business Relationship Management in China： A Power and Leverage Perspective

This paper examines whether a power and leverage perspective, successfully applied to analyse extended buyer-supplier relationships in a western context, can be used to analyse business relationships in China. A single embedded case study is presented in this paper and a power and leverage approach is used to analyse business relationships. The power and leverage perspective is applicable for investigating buyer-supplier relationships in a Chinese cultural context. However, in this context using power as coercion is an extremely counterproductive relationship management strategy, which can draw both buyers and suppliers in to a ＂no-win＂ or negative sum situation. The findings are based upon a single case, which makes drawing generalisable conclusions more difficult. In addition, although every effort was made to limit the subjectivity of the power and relationship analysis, researcher interpretation of the data was required. In the Chinese business context, it may not be advisable to manage any relationships in an arms-length manner. Chinese business networks are centred on less explicit or formal power relationships and therefore companies that have learnt the rules of the game of exchange in the west need to modify their approach in China. This work extends the understanding of buyer-supplier relationships and provides additional empirical evidence validating a power and leverage perspective. In addition, the paper provides the first assessment of whether this approach can be used in a non-western context without significant modification.     

Disputed Rivers: Sovereignty,Territory and State-Making in South Asia, 1948–1951

The construction of territorial sovereignty is key to conceptions of modern states. Yet after the Partition of India and Pakistan in 1947, when both became independent from Britain, the precise nature of India’s relationship to Pakistan was open to some question. Was Pakistan a foreign country? Was India’s relationship to it international? This article uses the example of a dispute over water resources in the Indus Basin to highlight the process through which Indian officials in New Delhi’s External Affairs and Law ministries came to define Pakistan as constitutionally, as well as geographically, “outside” India between 1948 and 1951. Yet while Indian policy makers manoeuvred into an aggressive stance against Pakistan, both countries’ membership of the British Commonwealth implied an international relationship blurring the formal distinction between “domestic” and “foreign”. Negotiating the contradictions between Commonwealth rules and the desire to assert sovereignty over territory and resources, I argue, made Indian sovereignty contingent on circumstance.     

Different Paths to Collaboration Between Businesses and Civil Society and the Role of Third Parties

In this article, we suggest that one of the unexplored paths toward collaboration between firms and civil society organizations starts with confrontation or potential conflict, and that the transition toward collaboration can be further understood if one focuses on triadic relationships rather than dyadic ones. We analyze the presence of third parties and their different roles to explain how collaboration is facilitated. The article aims at bringing together the bodies of research on business–civil society confrontation and on business–civil society collaboration. It offers a comparative analysis of four case studies, and proposes a typology of third parties composed of facilitating allies, participating allies, mediators, and solution seekers. We conclude with some implications for further research as well as for practice.     

Business Leadership: Three Levels of Ethical Analysis

Research on the normative aspect of leadership is still a relatively new enterprise within the mainstream of leadership studies. In the past, most academic inquiry into leadership was grounded in a social scientific paradigm that largely ignored the ethical substance of leadership. However, perhaps because of a number of public and infamous cases of failure in business leadership, in recent years there has been renewed interest in the ethical side of leadership in business. This paper argues that ethical issues of leadership actually arise at number of different levels, and that it is important to distinguish between various diverse kinds of ethical issues that arise in the study of leadership. The three levels identified are the level of the individual morality of leaders, the level of the means of their leadership, and the level of the leadership mission itself. We argue that only by fully understanding all of the different levels of ethical analysis pertinent to business leadership, and the distinctive kind of issues that arise at each level, can we fully integrate normative studies of leadership into the field of leadership studies. As such, this paper offers a model that incorporates three different levels of ethical analysis that can be used to study normative issues in leadership studies. Such a model can be used to better understand and integrate ethical issues into research, teaching, and training in leadership.     

Valuation of Discount Options in Software License Agreements

Many companies increasingly rely on licensed standard software for system software and applications. In addition to the regulation of usage conditions, software licensing agreements increasingly include services, such as software upgrades and user training, as a part of the contract or these are optional for a fee, which can be made use of by the licensee during the term of the contract at a reduced price or as a free service. This benefit entitlement is called a discount option and must be valued during the selection and designing of a contract. This paper describes the basic valuation issues as well as some weaknesses of previous approaches, and subsequently presents a model which, on the basis of the real option theory, enables an assessment of the discount options using mathematical methods. As the value of discount options can in many cases only be estimated by using analytical methods under certain conditions, a practical solution method is explained on the basis of numeric backwards induction. The procedure for applying the model and the achieved advances in knowledge are illustrated with an example.     

A sectoral approach to Okun’s Law

The study adds to the existing literature on the relationship between output and unemployment by using a sectoral specification of Okun’s Law to capture the differential sensitivity of the unemployment rate to output developments in the services and manufacturing sectors. Using quarterly data for the period between 2000 and 2012, we show that Malta’s unemployment rate has been more sensitive to output developments in the services sector than to those in the manufacturing sector. We use different equation specifications and the youth unemployment rate to show that the impact resulting from developments in the manufacturing sector occurs mainly via lay-offs while developments in the services sector affect the unemployment rate via the hiring of new entrants into the labour market.