Greed and grievance in civil war

We investigate the causes of civil war, using a new data setof wars during 1960–99. Rebellion may be explained byatypically severe grievances, such as high inequality, a lackof political rights, or ethnic and religious divisions in society.Alternatively, it might be explained by atypical opportunitiesfor building a rebel organization. While it is difficult tofind proxies for grievances and opportunities, we find thatpolitical and social variables that are most obviously relatedto grievances have little explanatory power. By contrast, economicvariables, which could proxy some grievances but are perhapsmore obviously related to the viability of rebellion, provideconsiderably more explanatory power.     

A METHOD FOR PRICING AMERICAN OPTIONS USING SEMI‐INFINITE LINEAR PROGRAMMING

We introduce a new approach for the numerical pricing of American options. The main idea is to choose a finite number of suitable excessive functions (randomly) and to find the smallest majorant of the gain function in the span of these functions. The resulting problem is a linear semi‐infinite programming problem, that can be solved using standard algorithms. This leads to good upper bounds for the original problem. For our algorithms no discretization of space and time and no simulation is necessary. Furthermore it is applicable even for high‐dimensional problems. The algorithm provides an approximation of the value not only for one starting point, but for the complete value function on the continuation set, so that the optimal exercise region and, for example, the Greeks can be calculated. We apply the algorithm to (one‐ and) multidimensional diffusions and show it to be fast and accurate.     

Top management conservatism and corporate risk strategies: Evidence from managers' personal political orientation and corporate tax avoidance

We investigate whether managers' personal political orientation helps explain tax avoidance at the firms they manage. Results reveal the intriguing finding that, on average, firms with top executives who lean toward the Republican Party actually engage in less tax avoidance than firms whose executives lean toward the Democratic Party. We also examine changes in tax avoidance around CEO turnovers and find corroborating evidence. Additionally, we find that political orientation is helpful in explaining top management team composition and CEO succession. Our paper extends theory and research by (1) illustrating how tax avoidance can serve as another measure of corporate risk taking and (2) using political orientation as a proxy for managerial conservatism, which is an ex ante measure of a manager's propensity toward risk. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

One model fits all? — On the moderating role of emotional engagement and confusion in the elicitation of preferences for climate change adaptation policies

Environmental economic and psychological studies often implicitly assume homogeneity of respondents' decision strategies in questionnaire-based surveys. However, social psychology and behavioural research suggest that there is a wide variety of approaches that individuals use to make such choices.We explore this heterogeneity against the backdrop of so-called ‘dual process models’, analysing participants' responses in a survey of public beliefs about and preferences for climate change adaptation policies. We find that the postulate of two different types of decision-making, the systematic-analytical and the heuristic-holistic, does indeed help us to understand patterns in respondent behaviour that are, in turn, underpinned by respondents' motivation and ability to process information. Participants who were motivated and able to process the information provided were more likely to express preferences in line with their beliefs about adaptation policies, whereas those less motivated and more confused were more likely to use generalised rules-of-thumb that were not specific to the policy issue at hand. Depending on the theoretical framework of a study, such heterogeneity in response consistency and use of generic rules-of-thumb might have implications for the usefulness of survey outcomes. We discuss the implications of our findings, and draw conclusions for survey-based environmental research.     

The effect of human capital, social capital, and perceptual values on nascent entrepreneurs�� export intentions

This study investigates the influence of human capital, social capital, and cognition on nascent entrepreneurs' export intentions. The results indicate that while human capital and social capital influence the level of intended export, cognitive characteristics, such as self-efficacy and risk aversion, do not seem to influence entrepreneurs' intended level of export. The study makes three original contributions to international entrepreneurship research. The first one is the focus on “Real” Born Globals, i.e. entrepreneurs who express export intentions in the prefounding phase. The second is the focus on the individual-level factors rather than firm-level factors that explain export. Finally, the effect of experience is investigated from a path-dependency perspective rather than a “the-more-the-better” perspective. Our study suggests that it may be productive for researchers to look further into the concept of intention, as entrepreneurs' decision to internationalize presupposes a conscious intention of carrying out the action. Thus, the factors influencing the decision to internationalize may have been present prior to the founding of the venture.     

Delegated portfolio management and optimal allocation of portfolio managers

In this article, we investigate whether the application of the mean-variance framework on portfolio manager allocation offers any out-of-sample benefits compared to a naïve strategy of equal weighting. Based on an exclusive data-set of high-net-worth (HNW) investors, we utilize a wide variety of methodologies to estimate the input parameters including exponentially weighted moving average (EWMA), generalized autoregressive conditional heteroscedasticity (GARCH) and Bayes–Stein shrinkage estimation. We apply nine different mean-variance models, but find that none of these present any consistent benefit over a naïve strategy of equal weighting.     

Bessere Kommunikation gefordert

Zusammenfassung  14. Interdisziplin?rer Pflegekongress Dresden — Die Gesundheitsberufe müssen besser und anders zusammenarbeiten, damit das deutsche Gesundheitswesen auch in Zukunft funktionieren kann. So lautete eine zentrale Botschaft anl?sslich des 14. Interdisziplin?ren Pflegekongresses, den Heilberufe am 10. und 11. April veranstaltete.     

Die langen Schatten des Krieges

Zusammenfasung  Re-Traumatisierungen in der Pflege alter Menschen — Der Tod der Mutter, der Verlust von Heimat und Geborgenheit, Bombardierungen und andere Gewalterfahrungen – die h?ufig verdr?ngten Kriegserlebnisse aus der Kindheit k?nnen im Alter wieder hochkommen. Geschichtliche Kenntnisse und ein sensibler Umgang mit re-traumatisierten Menschen sind eine Voraussetzung, um solche Situationen nicht eskalieren zu lassen.     

Mehr Autonomie für Pflegende

Zusammenfasung  Pflege 2008 — Kommt sie oder kommt sie nicht? Ulla Schmidt kam. Die Bundesministerin für Gesundheit stellte auf dem Heilberufe-Kongress Pflege 2008 nicht nur die Eckpunkte der Pflegereform vor, sie forderte auch mehr Autonomie für Pflegende. Anke Nolte fasst die Highlights des Kongresses für Sie zusammen.