Wealth portfolios and elite professional athletes

Defined contribution pension plans typically rely on some type of lifecycle allocation investment strategy. This approach has recently been shown to be sub-optimal due to the portfolio size effect. The terminal wealth of individuals with steadily increasing earnings over time is significantly less when using a lifecycle strategy compared with a simple contrarian approach. The adverse effect of an inappropriate asset allocation strategy for investors with unorthodox earnings profiles, such as for professional athletes, can be greatly magnified. We demonstrate that strategies that exploit the portfolio size effect vastly dominates terminal wealth earned using lifecycle strategies for individuals who experience unorthodox earning profiles, particularly those generating high investable incomes early in life. While the lifecycle strategy contains some attractive features relating to risk aversion and diminishing utility from wealth, we demonstrate that for unorthodox earnings profiles the case for taking advantage of the portfolio size effect is particularly strong.     

早市的记忆

08年春天,我搬到通州区住。第一次走进早市,就爱上了这里。五六月份,一车一车粉红的水萝卜,一车一车金黄的桔子,水灵得让人恨不得整车都买走。早市在大运河与北京城连接的通惠河河边,挨着西海子公园,所以大家都叫它西海子早市。市场     

The Determinants and Consequences of Multinational Advertising Agencies

This article examines the determinants of multinational advertising agencies (MNAs) within the framework of foreign direct investment theory (FDI). The essence of FDI theory is that in deciding to go international, a company must have an advantage. Key advantages discussed here include the huge size of MNAs, their access to capital, the loyalty given to them by multinational advertisers, their knowledge and skill, and their ability to use their foreign locations to service regional markets. Internalization, the advantage of being able to coordinate markets better, provides another relevant strand to FDI theory. The key factors for MNAs involve protecting the home market as well as reacting to competition abroad, escaping contracts which forbid competitive accounts and constrain growth, maintaining quality control over international advertising, and raising profits and efficiency by controlling all or a significant part of the business of a multinational advertiser. A discussion of the consequences of MNAs is also provided.     

《the key》打开心房的钥匙

如今影响力逐渐式微的香港乐坛,陈奕迅每年推出唱片都是一件大事,也会夺取大多数人的注意力。去年的《3mm》因为复古的电子乐风和大量新晋填词人昕撰写的偏门题材使得流传度并不高,再庄前追溯,近年来陈奕迅的粤语唱片都充满实验性,很少颐及庞大的"KTV"听众群,因此也有乐迷表示不满。他也意识到这一点,昕以这次的《The Key》,他立志做一张能够有"全城大热金曲"的唱片。从悦耳度而言,《The key》是陈奕迅继2002年《The line-up》之后最好的一次。     

Technical and environmental efficiencies and best management practices in agriculture

An Input Distance Function (IDF) is estimated to empirically evaluate and analyse the technical and environmental efficiencies of 210 farms located in the Chaudière watershed (Quebec), where water quality problems are particularly acute because of the production of undesirable outputs that are jointly produced with agricultural products. The true IDF is approximated by a flexible translog functional form estimated using a full information maximum likelihood method. Technical and environmental efficiencies are disaggregated across farms and account for spatial variations. Our results show that there is a significant correlation between the two efficiencies. The IDF is used to compute the cumulative Malmquist productivity index and the Fisher index. The two indices are used to measure changes in technology, profitability, efficiency and productivity in response to the adoption of two selected Best Management Practices (BMPs) whose objective is to reduce water pollution. We found significant differences across BMPs regarding the direction and the magnitude of their effect.     

The role of income tax in student loan repayments

West keeps score of the continuing and growing inadequacies of the British student loan scheme to 1998 and shows how an income-contingent loan could better satisfy its aims. He explores a common objection to any form of student loan scheme, that students pay for their university education through progressive income taxes. West shows how this argument falls short, and hence that some form of income contingent loan is required if equity and efficiency are to be satisfied.     

如何为孩子选择兴趣班？

各种兴趣班都有其各自的教育价值。孩子参加兴趣班的整个过程,是孩子学习、发展的过程,不仅他自己要付出一定的努力,家长也要付出一定的精力去配合教育,这样效果才好。所以,您在选择兴趣班时应持慎重的态度,否则盲目地去跟风,让他应付差事地去学习,会使您投资很大,却收效甚微。那么该如何帮助孩子选择兴趣班呢？