Robust min–max portfolio strategies for rival forecast and risk scenarios

We consider an extension of the Markowitz mean–variance optimization framework to multiple return and risk scenarios. It is well known that asset return forecasts and risk estimates are inherently inaccurate. The method proposed provides a means for considering rival representations of the future. The optimal portfolio is computed, simultaneously with the worst case, to take account of all rival scenarios. This is a min-max strategy which is essentially equivalent to a robust pooling of the scenarios. Robustness is ensured by the noninferiority of min–max. For example, a basic worst-case optimal return is guaranteed in view of multiple return scenarios. If robustness happens to have too high a cost, guided by the min–max pooling, it is also possible to explore other pooling alternatives. A min–max algorithm is used to solve the problem and illustrate the robust character of min–max with return and risk scenarios. We study the properties of the min–max risk–return frontier and compare with the potentially suboptimal worst-case where the investment strategy and the worst case are computed separately.     

A novel approach to legacy donations with long-term benefits supported by numerical illustrations

Philanthropic donors face challenges in matching the causes to which they donate, the time horizon—and thus impact—of their donations, and the charitable vehicles they choose for making contributions. Wealthier donors may elect to create their own foundations and customize their charitable support. Less wealthy donors have limited choices: they may contribute to a nonprofit's current operations or to existing nonprofit endowments. We present a novel approach for making charitable donations, blending aspects of each of these strategies. Our approach has potential long-term financial benefits, allows donors to control their charitable donations in a convenient and easy-to-implement manner, can be established through an existing nonprofit organization, expands opportunities for more donors because it requires a smaller corpus contribution with lower management costs than creating a foundation, provides tax savings in the United States and other countries (e.g., the UK, Canada, and Australia) comparable to other planned giving vehicles, and may be implemented during one's lifetime using donor advised funds or as part of a legacy plan through the donor's estate documents, which is when the long-term benefits accrue.     

Pay discrimination and imperfect competition in the labor market

Recent work has shown the prevalence of monopsony power in labor markets characterized by low pay. Monopsony has long been offered as a potential explanation of labor market discrimination. Yet, in the case of gender discrimination, most studies suggest that female labor supply is more elastic than that of males which, in a standard monopsony model, would imply higher pay for females. In the current paper we develop a theoretical framework capable of reconciling these empirical phenomena. We also attempt to explain: (i) the puzzle regarding the apparent trade-off between profits and discrimination in the standard neoclassical treatment of discrimination associated with the work of Becker (1957) and Arrow (1973) and (ii) the apparently paradoxical increase in female relative employment at a time of a significant rise in the relative price of female labor.     

How Internet technologies impact information flows in R&D: reconsidering the technological gatekeeper

Previous studies have firmly established the technological gatekeeper to be a key node in the innovation process – acquiring, translating, and disseminating external information throughout the R&D unit. However, the gatekeeper concept has received modest attention in recent times. We argue that the concept needs to be re‐examined in light of the recent advances in Internet technologies that have dramatically altered how knowledge workers source and share their information. Drawing on social network analysis and interview evidence from a medical devices R&D group, we find that the gatekeeper role is still vital, but no longer needs to be performed by a single individual. Instead, the modern R&D group can keep abreast of the latest technological advances through a combination of Internet‐enabled internal and external communication specialists. This study makes a number of important contributions. The gatekeeper theory is extended through the development of an updated conceptual framework. We also discuss the practical implications of our findings and advise R&D managers on how to organise resources to maximise optimal information flows.     

On market mavens and consumer self‐confidence: A cross‐cultural study

Market mavens are attentive to media and important diffusers of marketplace information. This study examines the relationships between cultural individualism, general and consumer self‐confidence, and market mavenism in the context of two distinct cultural systems, the United States and South Korea. The examination of cross‐cultural equivalence of the constructs under study provides evidence for both configural and full or partial metric invariance. The results indicate that cultural individualism is positively related to general self‐confidence, general self‐confidence is positively related to consumer selfconfidence, and consumer self‐confidence is positively related to market mavenism. Additionally, this research shows that these relationships hold in both the U.S. and South Korean samples. The results of this study indicate that market mavenism, and thus levels of confidence about marketplace knowledge and speed of diffusion of such information may be more prevalent among the more individualistic than collectivistic consumers. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

The landlocked island: Information access and communications policy in Nepal

This paper examines information access in Nepal, its current limitations, and opportunities for expansion, particularly in rural areas. It argues that government policies and the regulatory environment have failed to create the competition necessary for rapid expansion of information access through information and communication technologies (ICTs), particularly in rural areas. Furthermore, restrictive approaches to licensing and exorbitant fees have hindered the ability of civil society organizations, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to provide information access at the local level. This has resulted in very limited access to information outside a few urban centers and created some of the world's highest access costs in one of its poorest countries. To successfully address this situation, the newly installed republican government will need to create an environment that promotes competition in less lucrative rural markets while negotiating the demands of existing license holders.     

Landscape as a Focus for Integrating Human and Environmental Processes

The landscape has long been an important object of rural policy, particularly in terms of protecting scenic areas. Increasingly, however, landscape is seen as a multifunctional and holistic entity, which provides a framework for the governance and interdisciplinary study of spatial units. A central dilemma in the maintenance of cultural landscapes is that the historical practices which produced them are often obsolete, and new social and economic forces may fail to reproduce their valued properties. Sustainable development strategies therefore seek to instil ‘virtuous’ circles in cultural landscapes, linking society and economy to environmental service functions and land uses, in order to generate mutually reinforcing feedback loops resulting in socially preferred outcomes. We explore ways of investigating these linkages as a basis for future rural research and policy. We conceptualise cultural landscapes as ‘socio‐ecological systems’ (SESs), and consider their capacity for resilience and stability. Noting that resilient systems are characterised, not by simple equilibria, but by ‘basins of attraction’, we argue the need to understand the ways in which SESs stabilise within a particular basin, or move to an alternative. In particular, we reflect on the dynamics of ‘adaptive cycles’ that may lead to changes in system state. Finally, we discuss the development of appropriate models as tools for investigating whether a landscape is trending towards stability within a ‘vicious’ or a ‘virtuous’ circle, and evaluating potential interventions to alter this trajectory.