Primary and secondary values of wetland ecosystems

Wetlands are continuously degraded in many parts of the world. One reason is the lack of the appropriate valuation of the multifunctionality of wetland. In an attempt to improve the understanding of the importance of this feature of wetlands an alternative classification of values is suggested; primary and secondary values. Primary value refers to the development and maintenance of ecosystems — their self-organizing capacity. Secondary values are defined as the outputs, life-support functions and services, generated by wetlands. Methods for measuring these values are discussed. Three case studies are presented which use different valuation methods and which to different degrees capture the primary and secondary values. It is concluded that only part of the total wetland value can be captured in monetary terms.     

Human resource management in the public sector

This article charts the currents in public sector reform and examines how contemporary HRM articulates to the change agenda pursued in the public sector. It notes the differences between the traditional bureaucratic model and the new management approach of public sector operation and activity. It explores how the institutional, policy and organizational changes delivered a new paradigm of managing members of public service organizations.     

Gerschenkron Revisited: The New Corporate Russia

Our analysis is based on firm-specific data compiled from the Russian Trading System stock exchange and SKRIN (CKPиH in Russian) database. We seek to identify the factors behind Russia’s dramatically improved corporate sector performance from the beginning of the 2000s to December 2007. We argue that improved long-term corporate performance was a consequence of several policy initiatives associated with the state-dominated banking sector, which enabled statesubsidized investment funds to be channeled from a structurally reengineered energy sector to targeted investment projects located in other industries. We claim that Russia’s industrial strategy closely conforms to Alexander Gerschenkron’s catch-up theory.     

The determinants of China's lending rates and interest rates pass-through: A cointegration analysis

Based on quarterly data between Q4, 2008–Q4, 2017, this study examines the interest rates pass-through from policy rate to lending rates, and more broadly, the determinants of lending rates in China. The results show that while there is a certain level of pass-through from money market rates to lending rates, and the interest rates pass-through has improved after the interest rate liberalization completion on October 2015, this pass-through is also negatively affected by the asset quality of commercial banks and shadow banking activities as well. This study also finds that the macroeconomic condition also affects the lending rates.     

Factors Associated with Students' Academic Motivation in Agricultural Economics Classes

A study of undergraduates at Texas A&M University, Purdue University, and the University of Florida reveals that students viewing grades as a contributor to career success tend to be more academically motivated. Several measures of academic motivation are examined by means of general linear and also nonlinear models. Electronic entertainment, socializing, and time spent working are all negatively associated with academic motivation. Greater academic motivation exists among females. To the extent that additional work is needed for the support of increased tuition costs, students have the potential to be less academically motivated.     

Liquidity,exchange listing,and common stock performance

The liquidity of securities—the relationship between volume of trading and changes in market price—has won increasing recognition as an element of investment strategy in recent years. Relatively high liquidity is deemed to be a desirable characteristic of a stock, especially for the institutional investor, who typically trades in large volume. Thus, firms can generally be expected to seek means of enhancing the liquidity of their shares. One of the supposed means of accomplishing this is by listing one's stock on a national securities exchange. This paper examines the relationship of common stock liquidity to both exchange listing and price behavior during major up and down movements in the market. Our conceptual and empirical analyses indicate that liquidity is linked to price behavior; and we suggest that the view held by at least some corporate officers—that exchange listing increases liquidity—may be erroneous. More specifically, it appears that when the amount of firm capitalization is taken into account, exchange listing does not result in greater stock liquidity.     

Why Does the Negotiable Certificate of Deposit Matter for Chinese Banking?

The Negotiable Certificate of Deposit (NCD) is a major financial instrument in China; the value of outstanding Chinese NCDs was approximately RMB8 trillion (equivalent to USD1.2 trillion) in mid‐2017. This article reviews the most recent developments in the Chinese NCD, including its effect on interest rate pass‐through and money creation. Empirical results show that the introduction of the NCD in 2014 influenced the relationship between the policy rate and the lending rate of Chinese commercial banks, and the interest rate pass‐through from the policy rate to the lending rate of commercial banks improved subsequently. However, this process has also been accompanied by maturity mismatch, increasing leverage, and decreasing credit ratings for the assets of banks and other financial institutions. Consequently, systemic risk in the Chinese banking system has increased.     

Illiquidity and Pricing Biases in the Real Estate Market

This article addresses the micro-analytic foundations of illiquidity and price dynamics in the real estate market by integrating modern portfolio theory with models describing the real estate transaction process. Based on the notion that real estate is a heterogeneous good that is traded in decentralized markets and that transactions in these markets are often characterized by costly searches, we argue that the most important aspects defining real estate illiquidity in both residential and commercial markets are the time required for sale and the uncertainty of the marketing period. These aspects provide two sources of bias in the commonly adopted methods of real estate valuation, which are based solely on the prices of sold properties and implicitly assume immediate execution. We demonstrate that estimated returns must be biased upward and risks downward. These biases can be significant, especially when the marketing period is highly uncertain relative to the holding period. We also find that real estate risk is closely related to investors' time horizons, specifically that real estate risk decreases when the holding period increases. These results are consistent with the conventional wisdom that real estate is more favorable to long-term investors than to short-term investors. They also provide a theoretical foundation for the recent econometric literature, which finds evidence of smoothing of real estate returns. Our findings help explain the apparent risk-premium puzzle in real estate—that is, that ex post returns appear too high, given their apparent low volatility—and can lead to the formal derivation of adjustments that can define real estate's proper role in the mixed-asset portfolio.