Using a Bootstrap to Measure Optimum Mixed-Asset Portfolio Composition:

Liang, Myer and Webb (1996) have offered bootstrap simulation as a tool for quantifying the uncertainty in the optimum composition of portfolios. Unfortunately, the confidence intervals produced were so large, they were unable to provide any new insight to the question, “How Much in Real Estate?”. In this comment, adjustments have been made to the methodology they proposed and as a result have produced findings which lead to very different conclusions. More specifically, the results suggest that investors with a low risk preference should hold very little real estate.     

Behavioral effects of fairness in performance measurement and evaluation systems: Empirical evidence from France

The measurement and evaluation of employee performance are crucial aspects of the management accounting system because of their effects on employee motivation. It is therefore important for management accountants to understand how such effects occur. Fairness may be a key explanatory factor. This study proposes that the effects of the fairness of employee performance measurement and evaluation procedures on employee job satisfaction and organizational commitment are indirect. The results, based on a sample of 60 French managers, support these expectations. For the relationship between procedural fairness and job satisfaction, the effects are indirect through trust and fairness of outcomes. For the relationship between procedural fairness and organizational commitment, the effects are indirect through fairness of outcome, trust and job satisfaction. The results also indicate that affective effects through trust and satisfaction are substantially stronger than that through fairness of outcome. Fair performance evaluation procedures therefore do more than the mere provision of equitable outcomes among French managers.     

Shifting Paradigms in Carbon Pricing

The first pillar of the old paradigm of carbon pricing is the assumption that an emissions trading scheme is the most cost-efficient way to achieve a certain emission reduction target. However, it has become obvious that the old paradigm is unable to solve a number of challenges, e.g. market participants’ myopia.     

Vom „Zürcher“ Banking zur exquisiten Privatbank — Schärfung der Value Proposition und der entsprechenden kommunikativen Umsetzung dargestellt am Beispiel von Bank Leu

Was soll man tun, wenn die eigene Marke vom Kunden in zentralen Markenpositionen anders wahrgenommen wird als man eigentlich beabsichtigt? Wie soll man reagieren, wenn die Marke kein klares Profil hat und die aktuelle strategische Ausrichtung nur mangelhaft unterstützt? Wie kann man von einer eher generischen Positionierung mit unterdurchschnittlicher Markenperformance wegkommen und seine Value Proposition entscheidend st?rken?     

Gravity models of trade-based money laundering

Several attempts have been made in the literature to measure money laundering. However, the adequacy of these models is difficult to assess, as money laundering takes place secretly and, hence, goes unobserved. An exception is Trade-Based Money Laundering (TBML), a special form of trade abuse that has been discovered only recently. TBML refers to criminal proceeds that are transferred around the world using fake invoices that under- or overvalue imports and exports. This article is a first test on the well-known prototype models proposed by Walker and Unger to predict illicit money laundering flows and to apply traditional gravity models familiar in international trade theory. To do so, we use a dataset of Zdanowicz of TBML flows from the US to 199 countries. Our test rejects the specifications of the Walker and Unger prototype models, at least for TBML. The traditional gravity model that we present can explain TBML flows worldwide in a plausible manner. An important determinant is trade in which TBML is hidden. Furthermore, our results suggest that criminals use TBML in order to escape the stricter anti-money laundering regulations of financial markets.     

Structuration of precarious employment in economically constrained firms: the case of Dutch agriculture

Precarious employment practices such as short‐term contracts, low pay and lack of voice have undesired outcomes for workers, because these impede employees in their ethical rights to freedom, well‐being and equality. Still, precarious employment practice is common in sectors with restrained economic conditions, such as Dutch agriculture. However, in every restrained industry, examples of more socially responsible employment management are reported. The question why some firms develop more socially responsible employment systems when economic conditions predict the use of low cost, precarious employment systems is central in this article. Structuration theory provides a lens to understand how employers position their employment practice in the wider (institutionalised) social context. Insight in the reproduction circuits that link employers' actions with their social context (product, market, institutions and policies, demographics) can reveal where, at a sector level, change to avoid unethical employment practice could start.