Coupling smiles

The present paper addresses the problem of computing implied volatilities of options written on a domestic asset based on implied volatilities of options on the same asset expressed in a foreign currency and the exchange rate. It proposes an original method together with explicit formulae to compute the at-the-money implied volatility, the smile's skew, convexity, and term structure for short maturities. The method is completely free of any model specification or Markov assumption; it only assumes that jumps are not present. We also investigate how the method performs on the particular example of the currency triplet dollar, euro, yen. We find a very satisfactory agreement between our formulae and the market at one week and one month maturities.     

Tax credits,labour participation and home production in the Netherlands

We set up a dynamic reduced form model of labour market participation for women who balance career and motherhood. The model accounts for the occurrence of future child birth and early retirement, and includes home production; however, it does not require the estimation of a structural model. Careful implementation of pension institutions can return optimal life patterns of participation without the need of a structural approach. The weaker theoretical framework is compensated by the rich spectrum of possible policy simulations. As illustration, we simulate the effect of two tax credits policy options on the hazard rate out of work.     

Scale,Technique and Composition Effects in Manufacturing SO<Subscript>2</Subscript> Emissions

Combining two data sources on emissions with value-added and employment data, this paper constructs six data bases on sulfur dioxide (SO₂) intensities that vary across countries, sectors and years. This allows us to perform a growth decomposition exercise where the change in world manufacturing emissions is decomposed into scale, composition and technique effects. The sample covers the period 1990–2000, and includes 62 countries that account for 76% of world-wide emissions. While manufacturing activity has increased by a rough 10% (scale effect), we estimate that emissions have fallen by about 10%, thanks to the adoption of cleaner production techniques (the technique effect) and a small shift towards cleaner industries (between-sector effect). As output and productivity gains have been biased towards large emerging countries like China and India, which are both clean in terms of emissions per unit labor and dirty in terms of emissions per dollar, the sign and magnitude of the between-country effect depends on the choice regarding the scaling factor ( − 2% for employment,  + 25% for value-added, with a corresponding adjustment of the technique effect). The paper also shows that these estimates are robust to changes in aggregation across entities (regions or countries) and across industries, and that composition changes are correlated with changes in prices and trade intensities.

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Electronic supplementary material  The online version of this article (doi:) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.      

Cost-effectiveness analysis of a sealing hemostat patch (HEMOPATCH) vs standard of care in cardiac surgery

Background: A recent randomized controlled trial showed that patients undergoing ascending aorta surgery treated with HEMOPATCH to control bleeding had a significantly better hemostasis success rate than with dry or wet gauze compression or similar standard of care (SOC).

Objective: To compare the cost-effectiveness using two different agents for hemostasis (HEMOPATCH vs dry or wet gauze compression or similar SOC) in cardiac surgery from the European hospital perspective.

Methods: A literature-based cost-effectiveness model estimating average cost per successful hemostasis event was developed based on the hemostasis efficacy difference (HEMOPATCH?=?97.6%, SOC?=?65.8%, p?<?.001). Additional clinically significant end-points studied in the trial (blood transfusions and surgical revisions) were also analyzed. It was assumed that each surgery utilized two units of HEMOPATCH (dimensions of 4.5?×?9?cm) and two units of SOC. Product acquisition costs for HEMOPATCH and SOC were included along with outcome-related costs derived from the literature and inflation-adjusted to 2017 EUR and GBP. Results are presented for an average hospital with an annual case load of 574 cardiac surgeries. One-way and probabilistic sensitivity analyses were performed.

Results: Considering only product acquisition cost, HEMOPATCH had an incremental cost-effectiveness ratio (ICER) of €1,659, €1,519, €1,623, and £1,725 per hemostasis success when compared to SOC for Italy, Spain, France, and the UK, respectively. However, when considering the cost and potential difference in the frequency of transfusions and revisions compared to SOC, the use of HEMOPATCH was associated with an annual reduction of six revisions and 60 transfusions, improving the ICER to €1,440, €1,222, €1,461, and £1,592, respectively. Sensitivity analysis demonstrated model robustness.

Conclusions: This analysis supports the use of HEMOPATCH over SOC in cardiac surgery in European hospitals to improve hemostasis success rates and potential cost offsets from reduced transfusions, complications, and surgical revisions.     

Happiness and its molecular fingerprints

Happiness and well-being are in part heritable, but modifiable traits. The promotion of well-being and happiness, much like the primary prevention of non-communicable diseases (NCD), will become increasingly important in a world that is facing an NCD epidemic due to demographic aging and urbanization. The costs for the often lifelong treatment of NCDs are already high and may increase further with the arrival of expensive personalized medicine. The effective promotion of happiness at the individual and population level in order to guide policy requires a causal and mechanistic understanding of its modifiable determinants. With more than half of the world’s population living in cities, it becomes, for example, important to understand how environmental, social, and lifestyle characteristics of urban life influence well-being. Yet, the correlation between many of these factors and the fact that they act in concert poses a large challenge in causal inference. The -omics biomarkers which form a pillar of personalized medicine are at the same time essential research instruments of modern-day observational epidemiology. The paper discusses how they can be applied to overcome the challenges researchers face in studies on the association of complex risk and protective patterns with specific well-being phenotypes and their relation to diseases. Important concepts are discussed in the context of well-being that were recently developed by epidemiologists to stimulate more investments into the understanding of the modifiable part of health (e.g., Exposome; Meet-in-the-Middle; Mendelian Randomization) to match the huge investments that went into genetic research.     

Structural gravity equations with intensive and extensive margins

Abstract .  Recent trade models with heterogeneous firms have changed the interpretation of gravity equations. Chaney (2008) shows that the effect of distance on the number of exporters and average exports depends on key parameters characterizing the elements of market structure. We use firm-level export data to estimate the structural parameters of Chaney's model. Controlling for the fixed costs of exporting, our estimated parameters match, for 28 out of 34 industries, the model's theoretical predictions. Our industry parameters allow us to evaluate separately the effect of transport costs and tariffs on trade, without having to resort to detailed data on trade frictions.     

The interplay of governance mechanisms in complex procurement projects

Although many studies have investigated governance in inter-firm relationships, little is known about the simultaneous use of several governance mechanisms in complex procurement projects and their impact on project outcomes. In a case study about a complex procurement project in the Norwegian oil and gas industry, we investigate the interplay of contractual incentives, authority and relational governance. The project faced many problems with cost overruns and schedule delays. The study clearly illustrates the interrelationships between governance mechanisms and their effect on project outcomes. The findings suggest that relational governance (trust) is only beneficial for project outcomes when it is accompanied by contractual incentives and control systems (authority). Relational governance in itself does not guarantee an effective and beneficial interplay of all three mechanisms in a way that positive project outcomes are generated.     

Sustainability in shipper-logistics service provider relationships: A tentative taxonomy based on agency theory and stimulus-response analysis

The paper contributes to research on sustainability in dyadic buyer–supplier relationships of logistics services. It presents deeper knowledge on why and how suppliers choose to behave sustainably. The research analyzes how shippers stimulate their LSPs and how LSPs respond by conducting sustainability activities. Agency theory and the stimulus–organism–response model are applied as the theoretical foundations for an explorative case study analysis of three large and five small and medium-sized European logistics service providers (LSPs) active in road transport services. Significant differences are found between the sustainability efforts of SMEs and large LSPs and a tentative taxonomy of the sustainability response types of LSPs is derived. The taxonomy contributes to theory-guided research in sustainable supply chain management and procurement. Thereby, mismatches of stimuli and responses are identified and related agency problems in dyadic relationships in terms of sustainability are discussed. From a managerial point of view, the findings may serve as a starting point for purchasers of logistics services to develop adequate sustainability selection criteria and incentives.     

Sustainability Management within Supply Chains – A Resource Dependence View

Proceeding from three basic concepts of resource dependence theory – organizational effectiveness, interdependence and external control – we conducted a multiple‐case study to investigate factors that facilitate and hinder sustainability management within supply chains. Our empirical observations highlight that focal firms do not necessarily transfer their own corporate sustainability agendas into control mechanisms for managing the sustainability of their suppliers. Based on this insight, we develop a new theory that explains how intra‐ and interorganizational sustainability management is affected by a firm's business case for promoting sustainability, control mechanisms, trade‐offs, trust and market liberalization. The theory offers new insights into drivers and barriers for effective interorganizational sustainability management, whereas previous theories could not fully explain the reasons for diverging sustainability management practices in supply chains. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment     

Start ‘Em Early: Pastoral Power and the Confessional Culture of Leadership Development in the US University

We apply a critical perspective on leadership development discourses and practices to the case of student leadership development programs in the US universities and colleges. We leverage the first author’s personal experiences as a facilitator in such programs to focus on the manner in which they adapt and deploy a variety of commodified pop and positive psychology techniques—including prominently among them icebreakers and psychological assessment tests—that encourage participants to share personal and emotional insights about themselves as the necessary prerequisite for becoming leaders. We draw on Foucault’s notion of pastoral power to argue that these quasi-therapeutic practices help to produce and to normalize what we describe as a confessional culture of leadership development that prepares would-be student leaders to submit themselves to similarly or even more psychologically demanding regimes of governmentality in the workplace after they graduate. We conclude with a call for future research on the central role of such leadership development practices—and the institutions, industries, and actors that promote them—in folding together the ways that individuals seek to claim agency and to develop themselves as leaders with the ways that organizations function to constrain that agency and to govern them as willing but compliant subjects.