Contracts for dummies? The performance of investors in contracts for difference

Investors widely use contracts for difference (CFDs) to leverage and short sell underlying financial assets. We investigate the after cost performance of investors in Australian Securities Exchange listed share CFDs, and find that market order CFD trades earn small positive returns at the daily horizon, with negative returns reported for one month to one year horizons due to financing costs. Market orders also net sell positions, which suggests that investors use CFDs for shorting opportunities. Overall, we find that liquidity demanders in CFDs obtain favourable execution, which is inconsistent with the view that CFDs are used by naive individuals.     

Best practice interventions: Short-term impact and long-term outcomes

This paper uses empirical field research to examine whether short-term best practice interventions (BPIs) can lead to improvements that are sustained in the long term. In addition, this research investigates the implied conflict between striving for short-term results and achieving long-term development of capabilities. It also examines the tension between the lack of resources of the typical small and medium sized enterprise (SME) users of BPIs and the time required to develop a critical mass of capability. A longitudinal case-based study of eight SME contexts examined BPI outcomes and factors leading to short- and long-term success and sustaining best practices. The research identifies factors related to the intervention context, implementation and change-agent approach. The data indicate that in resource-limited SMEs BPIs are limited in their ability to develop adequate capability for long-term change.     

The Roles of Independent Research and Technology Organizations in the United Kingdom's Technology Transfer Mechanism to SMEs

Independent Research and Technology Organizations (RTOs) provide an increasing proportion of the UK's technology services requirements. RTOs, often former state research establishments spun out into the private sector, provide technology consulting and networking services to specific sectors or for generic technologies; some are membership-based organizations while others work for contract clients. In this paper we explore the roles and services provided by RTOs, together with the measures being taken to assist small firms that, for many RTOs, form a new and challenging market. The diversity of services and approaches to SMEs are related, in part, to the different origins of RTOs. The research indicates three forms of technology services market failure that suggest a need for ongoing external support for the market's mechanism.     

TRADE LIBERALIZATION AND GROWTH: Evidence from Mexican Cities

Applying the most recent methodology for explaining economic growth differences across countries (Barro, 1997), education, learning by doing, infrastructure, and knowledge spillovers due to specialization have been considered relevant in explaining productivity growth differences in Mexican urban manufacturing (de León, 1999). In this article, I evaluated whether there is a significant change in the relevance of these variables under trade liberalization. In particular, I evaluated the hypothesis that trade liberalization would promote productivity growth in the northern cities as result of the dynamic effect of trade given that these cities are close to the new central market for Mexican manufacturing and the loss of relevance in the previous accumulated growth factors (Livas and Krugman, 1992; Hanson, 1994). In contrast to that hypothesis, I observed that urban manufacturing close to the United States did not show a better performance than the rest of the cities as expected and that accumulated growth factors, such as education, learning by doing, and infrastructure are still relevant in explaining productivity growth across urban manufacturing in Mexico.     

An Exploratory Framework for Analysing International Retail Learning

It is argued that international retail research has overlooked an essential component of the retail internationalization process, notably learning. This paper proposes an exploratory framework that enables the application of learning theory to the study of international retailing. The paper provides a meaningful starting point for developing an overarching framework which would represent one sort of re-conceptualization of the retail internationalization process, and arguably a new perspective for reinterpreting, re-evaluating and refining the existing literature on international retailing. Alongside this exploratory framework, we present a series of research propositions that might serve as an agenda for research into international retail learning. The paper concludes with a summary of the key themes and ways in which the area of international retail learning may be investigated.     

The determinants of firm diversification in UK quoted companies

This paper examines the role of resource-based and governance factors in determining the boundaries of UK quoted companies, measured by both the probability and intensity of market diversification. Using a panel of over 2000 firms for the period 1988 to 2001 it is found that firm-level heterogeneity and industry characteristics account for the variability in diversification behaviour and that resource-based and governance factors interact in a complex manner not necessarily fully explained by the theoretical literature. The results also indicate that the degree of data aggregation has significant implications for the empirical modelling of market diversification.     

Panel Unit-Root Tests of OECD Stochastic Convergence

This paper uses three panel unit-root tests and finds that real per capita GDP for OECD countries and a European subsample converge stochastically for the period 1948–87 but not for the entire sample of 1900–87. For the postwar period, the differential in income gaps or speed of adjustment is eliminated at an annual rate of 4–8% for OECD economies, and 6–9% for European economies.     

Constrained Kalman Filtering: Additional Results

This paper deals with linear state space modelling subject to general linear constraints on the state vector. The discussion concentrates on four topics: the constrained Kalman filtering versus the recursive restricted least squares estimator; a new proof of the constrained Kalman filtering under a conditional expectation framework; linear constraints under a reduced state space modelling; and state vector prediction under linear constraints. The techniques proposed are illustrated in two real problems. The first problem is related to investment analysis under a dynamic factor model, whereas the second is about making constrained predictions within a GDP benchmarking estimation.