Does the law of one price hold in international financial markets? Evidence from tick data

This paper investigates the validity of the law of one price (LOP) in international financial markets by examining the frequency, size and duration of inter-market price differentials for borrowing and lending services (‘one-way arbitrage’). Using a unique data set for three major capital and foreign exchange markets that covers a period of more than seven months at tick frequency, we find that the LOP holds on average, but numerous economically significant violations of the LOP arise. The duration of these violations is high enough to make it worthwhile searching for one-way arbitrage opportunities in order to minimize borrowing costs and/or maximize earnings on given funds. We also document that such opportunities decline with the pace of the market and increase with market volatility.     

The temporal relationship between derivatives trading and spot market volatility in the U.K.: Empirical analysis and Monte Carlo evidence

This article examines empirically the dynamic relationship between spot market volatility, futures trading, and options trading in the context of a trivariate simultaneous equations model. The empirical analysis provides strong evidence that significant simultaneity, in addition to feedback, characterizes the relationship between the proxy for time-varying spot market volatility and derivative trading. Also, futures trading and options trading are found to affect spot market volatility in opposite directions in the structural model proposed. The results, corroborated by Monte Carlo evidence, suggest that the failure to account for any contemporaneous interaction between the variables under consideration, as well as the omission of any of the two derivatives trading activities examined in this study, may generate serious misspecification and ultimately produce misleading estimation results and statistical inference. © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Jrl Fut Mark 19: 245–270, 1999     

中国养活自己能力的长期预测:技术和政策分析

中国拥有世界五分之一强的人口 ,收入又在迅速增长。因此 ,国际上很自然地会考虑或推测她在今后的几十年是否有能力养活自己。中国的人口预计将从 2 0 0 0年的 1 2 8亿增长到 2 0 2 0年的 1 4 6亿 ,和 2 0 3 0年的 1 4 9亿。与此同时 ,人均收入的增长将导致对家畜和鱼类产品更大的需求 ,因而对饲料的需求也将有很大的增长     

Multichannel marketing: the operational construct and firms’ motivation to adopt

Multichannel marketing has been gaining attention to its importance in both practice and research in the recent years with the rapid diffusion of Information Communication Technology. Due to the relative recency and rapid proliferation of research in the subject, the literature lacks a well-defined construct of multichannel marketing generalizable to different types of firms, and lacks understanding of the actual reasons that firms adopt multichannel marketing. Through comparing and complementing the extant literature with practitioners’ perspectives from interviews with 32 Italian firms, the authors propose a comprehensive and generalizable framework of the multichannel marketing construct, and identify and categorize the firms’ motivations to adopt the multichannel marketing practice. Furthermore, some unforeseen but interesting factors emerged from the interviews. Future research opportunities and managerial implications of the study are discussed.     

Smile,Dictator, You're on Camera

We investigate the degree to which people in a shopping mall express other‐regarding behavior in the dictator game. Whereas many studies have attempted to increase the social distance between the dictator and experimenter and between the dictator and recipient, we attempt to minimize that social distance between random strangers by video recording the decisions, with the permission of the dictators, to display their image on the Internet. Offers made by dictators are high, relative to other experiments, and a nontrivial number give the entire experimental windfall away. However, a nontrivial number of people keep everything as well.     

PRODUCTIVITY IN PUBLIC SERVICES

Abstract.  This paper discusses issues arising in the measurement of productivity in public services. Compared to measuring productivity in the private sector difficulties arise because the output of public services is often unpriced and because some public services are consumed collectively. A key problem is measuring the full range of outputs and quality improvements delivered by public sector organizations that are valued by society. Without comprehensive measures of output, productivity statistics may be misleading. I outline methods used in the measurement of both private and public sector productivity and discuss the measurement of public sector productivity in practice. Finally I discuss studies that examine factors underlying productivity differences and productivity growth in public and private sector organizations. Public sector reforms and the use of pilot schemes in public sector organizations present opportunities for research to identify causal effects on productivity.     

Hospitality Staff Attitudes to Guests with Impaired Mobility: The Potential of Education as an Agent of Attitudinal Change

This study aims to determine whether the attitudes of students (and therefore future employers) towards people with physical disabilities can be modified by exposing them to the needs of disabled people, or whether perceptions of the needs of the disabled are too entrenched for education to effect any change. It also evaluates whether attitudinal changes are enduring and therefore continue to influence students' responses to the disabled after a period of time has elapsed.     

Cross-border Mergers and Acquisitions in China: An Industry Panel Study, 1991–2005

Employing a panel database, this article investigates empirically the behaviour, at an industry level, of cross-border mergers and acquisitions (M&As) in the People's Republic of China for the period 1991–2005. The study reports that many of the cross-border M&As over the past decades in China have been driven by broad fundamental factors, such as industry size and profitability. Moreover, technological intensity is significantly associated with the level of acquisition activity, indicating the tendency that intangible resources and intellectual capability favour more acquisition into China. It is found that deregulation, as a specific industry shock, affects acquisition activities significantly. The findings, it is concluded, have important managerial and policy implications.     

Austerity measures in crisis countries — results and impact on mid-term development

Since the onset of the sovereign debt crisis, the crisis-stricken countries in Europe have been pushed to take drastic steps to consolidate their finances and reduce their budget deficits. Despite strong public opposition and largely damaging short-run effects, the countries have undertaken many of the internationally recommended/mandated reforms and spending cuts. In this Forum, authors from Greece, Ireland, Italy, Spain and Portugal report on the fiscal consolidation achieved in their respective countries — and the sacrifices that have made it possible. Furthermore, the authors detail what remains to be done to resolve the crisis.