Estimation of global systematic risk for securities listed in multiple markets

In this era of rapid globalization of financial markets there has been a substantial increase in cross-listings of stocks in foreign and regional capital markets. As many as a third to a half of the stocks in some major exchanges are foreign listed. The multiple listings of stocks has major implications for the concept of systematic risk. This paper demonstrates that the estimator for systematic risk and the methodology itself changes when stocks are listed in multiple markets. The paper suggests general procedures, using maximum information from the multiple markets, to obtain the estimator of beta under a variety of assumptions about the error terms of the market models in the different capital markets. The assumptions pertain both to the volatilities of the abnormal returns in each market, and to the relationship between the markets.     

Sale of monopoly information and behavior of rivaling clients: A theoretical perspective

This paper studies a three-stage Bayesian-Cournot game where rivaling firms sign contracts with an information monopoly to purchase proprietary information. The rivaling firms use the external information to create competitive advantage over one another. Knowing the rivalry among its clients, the information monopoly can exploit them by playing one client against another. The information-selling strategy depends on the clients' in-house information technology, the uncertainty of the economic environment, and the number of potential clients. The existence of an information market makes rivaling producers worse off and consumers better off. It is possible that the service of the information monopoly is a private good but a social bad.     

Spread behavior around board meetings for firms with concentrated insider ownership

For a set of firms with concentrated insider ownership, we find that (a) the bidask spread changes significantly around the board meeting dates, and (b) the actual number of transactions by insiders increases following the board meetings. We also find that there is a statistically significant relationship between spread and the number of insider trades surrounding the board meeting dates. Furthermore, neither an increase in the number of insider transactions nor any significant relationship between insider trading and the spread is observed for the same set of firms around non-board meeting dates.     

Intern newcomers’ global self-esteem,overall job satisfaction,and choice intention: Person-organization fit as a mediator

This study examines an integrative mediation model, in which person-organization fit (PO fit) mediates the effects of global self-esteem (GSE) on choice intention (CI) and overall job satisfaction (OJS), respectively. Intern newcomers who just finalized their placement in hospitality and tourism organizations responded to self-completed questionnaires. They were 336 senior undergraduates from two institutes of higher learning in China's Hainan Island. Structural equation modeling results indicated that PO fit mediates the relationship between GSE and CI fully, and between GSE and OJS partially. The study's findings as well as its implications are discussed within the context of newcomers’ organizational socialization, in general, and human resource development practices in the hospitality and tourism organizations, in particular.     

GIS-based highway maintenance prioritization model: an integrated approach for highway maintenance in Nepal mountains

Roadside slope failures often result in day to week-long traffic disruption and are a major problem in Nepal so that timely maintenance of roadside slopes needs greater priority for smooth operation of traffic. In this paper, we develop a Geographic Information Systems (GIS)-based maintenance model considering pavement and roadside slope stability conditions. A pavement maintenance priority map is prepared based on pavement condition. International Roughness Index (IRI) is used as the pavement condition index. Similarly, a roadside slope maintenance priority map is produced by analyzing slope stability condition. An integrated maintenance priority map is produced by combining both pavement and roadside slope maintenance priority maps with consideration of weighting of each maintenance component. The integrated maintenance priority index developed in the research lies from 1 to 3, and is distributed heterogeneously. Higher index values qualify for higher priority in maintenance planning. Thus, a conventional method of maintenance planning under the constraints of budget, time and resources can be improved by incorporating the actual condition of pavement and roadside slope failure susceptibility, which has the potential to improve significantly the serviceability of the road system. The study shows that GIS, which can manage and visualize different types of data together or separately, can help the decision making process for road maintenance planning in the Himalayan regions.     

Excess Savings Are Recession-Specific and Compensatory: Evidence From the US

Intereconomics - There is a consensus among academics and policymakers that the excess savings built up by households during the past couple of years are specific to the pandemic. Based on data...     

The nutrition transition to 2030. Why developing countries are likely to bear the major burden

Considerable increases in food consumption, shifts in consumption patterns and changes in the entire food system have occurred globally. These changes, initially limited to the industrialized world, are now being experienced at an even faster pace in many of the advanced economies of the developing world. The past evolution of this transition in nutrition and lifestyles is by now well documented. Based on FAO's outlook for global food and agriculture, this paper outlines the likely future changes in food consumption patterns and the global trajectory of the nutrition transition over the next 30 years. It presents the main drivers of the nutrition transition and examines their influence on the prospective changes in consumption patterns. The paper illustrates how the current burden of undernourishment and malnutrition in developing countries is likely to compound the adverse effects of the nutrition transition, notably the increasing prevalence of obesity and non-communicable diseases (NCDs); it shows how and where the current problem of undernutrition could create a growing future burden of overweight, obesity and NCDs and that both undernourishment and overnutrition are likely to co-exist for a long time in the vast majority of developing countries, creating a widespread double burden of malnutrition.     

The effects of festival impacts on support intentions based on residents’ ratings of festival performance and satisfaction: a new integrative approach

Festivals can provide an effective vehicle for sustainable tourism. It is therefore necessary to examine the impacts of festival tourism as well as their consequences in order to manage their relevance to the local community. The lack of a multiple mediation approach, however, has hampered research on the psycho-social process through which festival impacts (perceived benefits, costs, and affective impact) influence resident support. We propose a new integrative approach in which resident-rated festival performance and satisfaction are putative mediators that transmit the effects of the three festival impacts to support for future festivals. The theoretical foundations of this integrative approach or model are jointly built on social exchange theory, the affective theory of social exchange, and the theory of reasoned action. The integrative model was successfully validated using eight sample festivals within China, which included 353 observations with 10,000 bootstraps. The empirical findings reveal that 14 out of the 17 hypotheses received empirical support in this study, and it thereby contributes significantly to new understanding in the literature.     

Risk Taking and Performance of Public Insurers: An International Comparison

We investigate how investor protection, government quality, and contract enforcement affect risk taking and performance of insurance companies from around the world. We find that better investor protection results in less risk taking, as do higher quality government and greater contract enforceability. However, we find only limited evidence that these factors influence firm performance. We conclude that better overall operating environments result in less risk taking by insurers without the concomitant decline in performance. These results imply that better investor protection environments benefit policyholders and outside stockholders by preventing corporate insiders from expropriating wealth from policyholders and outside stockholders.