Testing the nexus between renewable energy consumption and environmental quality in Nigeria: The role of broad‐based financial development

This study investigates the nexus between renewable energy consumption and environmental quality in Nigeria, accounting for the role of financial development, and re‐examines the validity of the environmental Kuznet curve (EKC) hypothesis for Nigeria covering the period 1990 to 2016. To cover financial development more adequately, the current study uses the broad‐based financial development index constructed by the International Monetary Fund. The study employs second generation econometric approaches of Lee and Strazicich, and Bayer and Hanck combined cointegration tests to check for stationarity and cointegration among the variables, and then applies autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) and vector error correction model (VECM) Granger causality tests to explore the effect and causal relationship respectively. The results divulge that renewable energy consumption improves environmental quality, while financial development hurts the environment. Further, the results validate an inverted U‐shaped association between economic growth and environmental degradation in Nigeria. The VECM Granger causality results indicate a long‐run effect of the independent variables on CO₂ emission, while the short‐run causality reveals a mixture of unidirectional and bidirectional causality among the variables. This study therefore recommends that policy makers consider the important roles of renewable energy and financial development in reforming energy policies to achieve environmental sustainability.     

Measuring Core Inflation in South Africa

Measures of core inflation convey critical information about an economy. They have a direct effect on the policymaking process, particularly in inflation‐targeting countries, and are utilised in forecasting and modelling exercises. In South Africa, the price indices on which inflation is based have been subject to important structural breaks following changes to the underlying basket of goods and the methodology for constructing price indices. This paper seeks to identify a consistent measure of core inflation for South Africa using trimmed means estimates, measures that exclude changes in food and energy prices, dynamic factor models, and wavelet decompositions. After considering the forecasting ability of these measures, which provide an indication of expected second‐round inflationary effects, traditional in‐sample criteria were used for further comparative purposes. The results suggest that wavelet decompositions provide a useful measure of this critical variable.     

Determinants of university student registration by department

This study attempts to explain the observed distribution of students among university departments. A general model describing the student's initial choice of department is constructed. The decisions made by a sample of student's were then explained by multiple regression analysis, where students' socio-economic characteristics are the explanatory variables. Although the statistical results are weak, some conclusions regarding educational planning can be drawn.     

The impact of execution delay on the profitability of put‐call‐futures trading strategies—Evidence from Taiwan

This study examines the impact of execution delay on the profitability of put‐call‐futures quasi‐arbitrage strategies using trade and quote data in the Taiwanese market. Assuming order execution at the next immediate price following a mispricing signal, the execution of individual components is traced and a substantial delay resulting from the late execution of an option is reported. A fill‐or‐kill strategy that directly restricts such a delay is unsatisfactory because unwinding already acquired positions involves added transaction costs. Ex ante performance is significantly improved for combined strategies that execute the less liquid asset first, while shortening the time before acquisition of the first position. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Jrl Fut Mark 27:361–385, 2007     

Reimagining Chinatown: An analysis of tourism discourse

Ever since Chinese immigrants began to move into big North American cities in the late nineteenth century, their ethnically segregated neighborhoods have been referred to as Chinatown and layered with negative and demeaning imagery. Through an analysis of the discourse circulating in neighborhood tours organized by the Chicago Office of Tourism, this paper illustrates how current tourism representations of Chicago's Chinatown are constructed through a process of negotiation with the infamous past imagery of this ethnic enclave. The paper identifies two discursive themes that work to exoticize this neighborhood, while simultaneously attempting to render it familiar and comfortable for tourists. It is argued that such an analysis illuminates how the process of touristification is governed by an ideological shift toward diversity in the globalized city. Moreover, it also illuminates the ways that present tourism discourse, which is produced within an ideological milieu that is celebratory of diversity and multiculturalism and within a political–economic milieu that recognizes the marketability of diversity, draws upon traditional characterizations of Chinatown as Other, while reconstructing this Otherness in a way that appears friendly to tourists. It thus contributes to our understanding of how discourse about an ethnic urban enclave evolves with changing ideological and political–economic conditions, such that traditional imagery is both reinforced and revised.     

Constraints facing tourism entrepreneurs in South Africa: a study in the Gauteng and Mpumalanga provinces,South Africa

The current study is an investigation into tourism entrepreneurship of small, medium and micro enterprises in Gauteng and Mpumalanga. Through Principal Factor Analysis, the paper identifies a three-factor instrument that could be used as a diagnostic tool to investigate how government policies and support, the tourism industry's products and services, and perceptions about South Africa could advance or constrain the development of small, medium and micro tourism in South Africa. Such a tool can be used to identify problematic areas in order to take remedial action to manage sustainable tourism in South Africa and prevent the leakage of profits.     

Price Impact Asymmetry of Block Trades: An Institutional Trading Explanation

This article develops a theoretical model to explain the permanentprice impact asymmetry between buyer- and seller-initiated blocktrades (the permanent price impact of buys is larger than thatof sells). The model shows how the trading strategy of institutionalportfolio managers creates a difference between the informationcontent of buys and sells. The main implication of the modelis that the history of price performance influences the asymmetry:the longer the run-up in a stock's price, the less the asymmetry.The intensity of institutional trading and the frequency ofinformation events affect the asymmetry differently dependingon recent price performance.     

The Economic Consequences of Perk Disclosure

In December 2006, the SEC issued new rules requiring enhanced disclosure by public U.S. firms of perquisites granted to their executives. The rules applied to perquisites granted in fiscal year 2006 and thereafter. Because the rules were implemented quickly, the perks disclosed for 2006 reflect the arrangements firms made under prior disclosure rules: firms could not revise perks to reflect the new rules until 2007. For firms that disclose for the first time in 2006, we predict and find that perks decrease in 2007, reflecting both the costs of increased disclosure and enhanced monitoring. This decrease in perks is offset by higher levels of non‐perk compensation, however. We also predict and find that the effect of perk disclosure by formerly non‐disclosing firms in 2006 leads to higher perks in 2007 for firms that were disclosing perks prior to the rule change.