Energy Price Shocks and Financial Market Integration: Evidence from New Keynesian Model

International Advances in Economic Research - The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of oil price shocks on economic activity. A dynamic stochastic general equilibrium model was applied...     

Demand for Environmental Quality: An Empirical Analysis of Consumer Behavior in Sweden

In this paper we estimate the income elasticity of demand for recreational services and other traditional groups of goods in Sweden and test for potential changes in such estimates over the twentieth century. Due to the difficulty of directly observing the demand for recreational services, we employ an indirect methodology by using the demand for some outdoor goods as a proxy for the demand for recreational services. In line with most prior research, our results confirm the expectation that recreational services, as a public good, is a luxury good in Sweden. Our results also show that the income elasticities for traditional goods are stable over time, indicating that consumer preferences for expenditure on these specific commodities do not change over time.      

SMALL FIRM AND VALUE EFFECTS IN THE CANADIAN STOCK MARKET

We examine the relation among average returns, market beta, firm size, and book-to-market value for Canadian stocks during 1975–92. We document a negative relation between average return and the market capitalization of firms, but find no relation between average return and market beta. While the small firm effect is significant during a period of reduced capital gains tax, it is noticeably lower than during the period leading up to the change. We find that average returns are positively related to book-to-market value especially during the period of lower capital gains tax.     

Ownership structure,information asymmetry and growth of the firm: Implications from nonfinancial firms listed in S&P500

This paper investigates the association between growth of the firm and ownership structure under conditions of information asymmetry. The objective is to show the effects of information asymmetry (favorable vs. adverse selection) on the choice of the ownership structure that helps firms grow. Our sample includes nonfinancial firms listed in the S&P500 over the period 2000 to 2016. The dependent variable is growth of the firm measured by growth in sales. The independent variables are proxies for changes in ownership structure, individual investors, investment managers, and brokerage firms. Observations are grouped according to level of information asymmetry (high or low) using three proxies for information asymmetry: beta of return on equity (ROE), probability of default of ROE, and q ratio. The results conclude that (a) changes in ownership structure affect growth of the firm positively and (b) the effect of ownership structure is more significant and consistent at low level of information asymmetry. The contribution of the paper is threefold. First, it extends the arguments of corporate governance by showing the impact of ownership structure on growth of the firm. Second, the paper offers robust evidence that growth of the firm is associated with low level of information asymmetry. Third, the paper shows that fundamental financial information can help lessen the level of information asymmetry and thus help firms grow.     

Sectoral sources of sub-Saharan Africa’s convergence

From 1970 to 2010, sub-Saharan African’s (SSA) labour productivity hovered at around 6% of the US level. This lacklustre performance, which remained stubbornly low despite the SSA’s growth spurt that started in the mid-1990s, masks a great deal of variations across sectors and countries. Using a structural decomposition, we examine, for a representative sample of SSA countries, the sectoral sources that hold back their convergence to the US frontier. Our results suggest the presence of strong – and possibly long-lasting – headwinds that have wiped out the favourable effects of substantial, yet circumstantial, tailwinds. Headwinds, quantified by the unfavourable within- and reallocation-effects, are indicative of significant capital-deepening and technology gaps, both of which are extremely hard to bridge. The tailwinds, represented by favourable between-effects, result from the convergence of the SSA labour force to sectors where some US sectors have seen a slowdown of their productivity relative to that of the whole economy – a development unrelated to the fundamentals underlying the SSA economy. Although few exceptions emerged out of this general pattern, these results are indicative of a bleak outlook for the SSA economic performance at least in the medium run.     

The role of social conventions in the diffusion of open source software: Implications for service industries

In information and service products such as open source software, increasing returns occur on the production or supply side, as well as network externalities on the demand side. For open source software, the social community element needs to be integrated with the framework of increasing returns. This paper attempts to show that social conventions, and social herding behaviour are fundamental to the growth of the open source software. Such social conventions legitimise value and provide identification in the global online community and have important implications for service industries in general.     

Price developments after a nominal shock: Benford's Law and psychological pricing after the euro introduction

Retail managers use psychological pricing to make the prices of goods appear to be just below a round number. The euro introduction in 2002, with its various exchange rates, distorted existing nominal price patterns while at the same time retaining real prices. We studied consumer prices before and after the introduction of the euro by using Benford's Law as a benchmark for price adjustments. Results indicate the usefulness of this benchmark for detecting irregularities in prices, and a clear trend towards psychological pricing after the nominal shock of the euro introduction. In addition, the tendency towards psychological prices results in different inflation rates in dependence of the price pattern.     

Corporate Governance and Institutional Transparency in Emerging Markets

This paper posits that differences in corporate governance structure partly result from differences in institutional arrangements linked to business systems. We developed a new international triad of business systems: the Anglo-American, the Communitarian and the Emerging system, building on the frameworks of Choi et al. (British Academy of Management (Kynoch Birmingham) 1996, Management International Review 39, 257–279, 1999). A common factor determining the success of a corporate governance structure is the extent to which it is transparent to market forces. Such transparency is more than pure financial transparency; as it can also be based on factors such as governmental, banking and other types of institutional transparency mechanism. There may also be a choice for firms to adopt voluntary corporate disclosure in situations where mandatory disclosure is not established. The Asian financial crisis of 1997–1999 and the more recent corporate governance scandals such as Enron, Andersen and Worldcom in the United States and Ahold and Parmalat in Europe show that corporate governance and business ethics issues exist throughout the world. As an illustration we focus on Asia’s emerging¹ markets, as, both in view of the pressure of globalization and taking into account the institutional arrangements peculiar to the emerging business system, these issues are important there. Particularly for those who have to find an accommodation between the corporate governance structures and disclosure standards of the Emerging system and those of the Anglo-American and Communitarian systems.     

Implementing the AHP multi-criteria decision approach in buying an apartment in Jordan

Buying an apartment or a house is an important step in everyone’s life worldwide, to reach a settled and stable life. Several criteria are considered when buying an apartment or a house. In Jordan, apartments are customers’ preferred choices because of financial circumstances. It is not easy for a person to decide on the apartment’s specifications such as location, design, building design and finances. This study assists people in selecting an appropriate apartment using the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP), which is considered an important multi-criteria decision-making approach. Data used in this study were collected in Jordan; however, people worldwide can benefit from this study. The methodology used is twofold. First, feedback was considered from five investors in the real estate sector in Jordan about specifications that customers consider when buying an apartment. Second, several customers were asked about their preferences in a dream apartment using a pairwise comparison questionnaire, which was collected from 305 participants to obtain the priorities of 10 different apartment alternatives found in the Jordanian real estate market. The AHP technique is used to analyse the collected data to assist customers in reaching the best purchase decision.