中国饰品市场分析及竞争策略

饰品行业是从珠宝首饰、工艺礼品行业中分离出来而形成的一个新兴产业。饰品作为新经济的增长点,在发达国家已逐步走向成熟。世界四大时尚之都巴黎、纽约、伦敦、米兰以及亚洲的汉城、东京、香港等国际著名的饰品之都,年贸易总量(包括转口贸易)近1000亿美元,已形成一个庞大、规     

Pricing futures on geometric indexes: A discrete time approach

Several futures contracts are written against an underlying asset that is a geometric, rather than arithmetic, index. These contracts include: the US Dollar Index futures, the CRB-17 futures, and the Value Line geometric index futures. Due to the geometric averaging, the standard cost-of-carry futures pricing formula is improper for pricing these futures contracts. We assume that asset prices are lognormally distributed, and capital markets are complete. Using the concepts of equivalent martingale measure and the risk-neutral valuation relationships in conjunction with discrete time methodology, we derive closed-form pricing formulas for these contracts. Our pricing formulas are consistent with the ones obtained via a continuous time paradigm.

Hail,Procrustes! Harmonized accounting standards as a Procrustean bed

This article finds that the use of a harmonized accounting standard, such as the International Financial Reporting Standards, increases the information available to markets only if institutional differences across countries using the harmonized standard are insignificant. In all other cases, harmonization of reporting standards destroys information rather than increasing it. This article also contributes to methodology, introducing techniques for studying nonpartitional information structures.     

钻石令人目眩神迷

近年来,内地市场对于昂贵消费品的需求一直大幅度增加,加上早前内地对钻石宝石的进口政策更趋严谨,钻石及有色宝石的价格也在直线上升。     

Structural breaks and GARCH models of exchange rate volatility

We investigate the empirical relevance of structural breaks for GARCH models of exchange rate volatility using both in‐sample and out‐of‐sample tests. We find significant evidence of structural breaks in the unconditional variance of seven of eight US dollar exchange rate return series over the 1980–2005 period—implying unstable GARCH processes for these exchange rates—and GARCH(1,1) parameter estimates often vary substantially across the subsamples defined by the structural breaks. We also find that it almost always pays to allow for structural breaks when forecasting exchange rate return volatility in real time. Combining forecasts from different models that accommodate structural breaks in volatility in various ways appears to offer a reliable method for improving volatility forecast accuracy given the uncertainty surrounding the timing and size of the structural breaks. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The endowment effect and the reference state: Evidence and manipulations

Recent reports suggest that the “endowment effect” may be due to conditions under which it is observed and explained by incentives long recognized in standard theory. Evidence from new experiments, reported here, provides empirical support for the role of the economic environment on people's perceived reference state and consequently on their valuations, as suggested by Köszegi and Rabin [Köszegi, B., Rabin, M., 2006. A model of reference-dependent preferences. Quarterly Journal of Economics 121, 1133–1165], and indicates that the disappearance of the valuation disparity is more likely due instead to conditions that weaken the perception of reference states. Further, these conditions appear to be poor approximations of those that prevail in most cases for which valuations are normally made.     

The effect of knowing a second language and experience working with non-English speakers on job performance

Managing a multicultural workforce involves a thorough understanding of individual and cultural differences. One strategy to successfully manage non-English speaking employees is to recruit or train managers who have the appropriate skill set. This study utilizes experimental methods to examine the effect of two skills related to multicultural competence – (1) the ability to speak a second language and (2) having frequent interactions with non-English workers at their current job – on job performance in an environment of communication barriers in a food service context. Job performance was measured through temporal performance or the speed of completing a dish, food quality, and food accuracy. The findings showed that employees were able to complete recipes by an average of 7.23 min faster when led by a manager who had the two multicultural skills. Teams led by a manager who had the two multicultural skills also scored higher quality food ratings on the measures of presentation, temperature, taste, aroma, and the degree to which the meal was fully cooked. The measure of accuracy was only significant at the 90% confidence interval and is worth further investigation. The results showed that the managers who had the two multicultural skills used more pointing and demonstration than the managers who did not have the two multicultural skills during the task.