Assimilation of Hong Kong Immigrants in Canada

A flood of emigration from Hong Kong to Canada was observed prior to the handover from Britain back to China in 1997. I pool Canadian Census data from 1991 to 2006 to study the labour market assimilation of Hong Kong immigrants. The findings suggest that these immigrants faced a significant negative wage gap upon entry in comparison with Canadian‐born individuals, and this was larger for cohorts arriving closer to 1997, suggesting a decline in cohort quality. The results also indicate that earnings convergence with the Canadian‐born was slow for the majority of these immigrants.     

Energy Saving and Tourism Sustainability: Solar Control Window Film in Hotel Rooms

This paper investigates solar control film as an energy saver in the fast growing hotel sector in southern China. It investigates claims made for this low-cost retrofitted material in hotel rooms, calibrating reductions in solar gain in summer. It provides reliable and independent data about the performance and economic viability of solar control film in real hotel environments. The study found that, by limiting solar gain, the film helps limit tourism's impact on global warming and climate change. The paper also foreshadows new technical glazing developments.     

A Study on Pollutant Emission Through Gas Consumption in the Hong Kong Hotel Industry

A survey of 11 hotels in Hong Kong was carried out to collect three years' energy consumption data. Regression analysis indicated that gross floor area was a major and statistically acceptable factor in explaining the gas consumption in new hotels. Based on past consumption data and some established pollutant emission factors, the amount of sulphur dioxides, nitrogen dioxides, carbon dioxides and particulate created by the Hong Kong hotel industry's gas usage during a 10-year period from 1989–1998 was estimated. The study predicts the increase in these amounts in 1999–2003 accompanying the rise in the number of hotels. The findings indicate that emissions will rise by nearly 40% in the next few years, requiring urgent discussions. The study also finds that a heat pump running on coal-fired electricity and with a coefficient of performance (COP) greater than 3 could produce lower level emissions than a gas-fired boiler. It is further suggested that an effective method to reduce the emissions is to substitute naptha with natural gas as the fuel for generating town gas and electricity. We believe the hotel industry should adopt a more proactive approach to reduce gas usage and propose the inclusion of environmental reporting in trade journals.     

Energy-saving Supporting Tourism Sustainability: A Case Study of Hotel Swimming Pool Heat Pump

Based on energy-related measurements, this article evaluates the thermal performance, energy-saving, indirect emissions and financial feasibility of using heat pumps for hotel out-door swimming pools in subtropical climates. A rooftop pool of a city-centre hotel was investigated. It was found that the average coefficient of performance (COP) was around 2.0. The measured electricity consumption was 24.6 MWh and the total heat output was 49.1 MWh for the heating season studied (mid-December to the late April). Compared with conventional electric boilers and gas-fired condensing/non-condensing boilers, the total energy savings during the heating season ranged from 26.5 to 32.5 MWh. Greenhouse and noxious emissions can also be indirectly reduced by about 12,000 kg. A discounting approach was adopted to compute the net present value of fuel costs over a lifecycle of 10 years. It was found that, over a 10-year lifecycle, the energy cost could be reduced by HK$226,400 when a heat pump with an average COP of 2.0 was used instead of a conventional electric boiler. Derived from the energy cost saving over other conventional type of water heating equipment, the simple pay-back period can be about 2 years and the lowest internal rate of return can be 39%.     

Options pricing under the one-dimensional jump-diffusion model using the radial basis function interpolation scheme

This paper will demonstrate how European and American option prices can be computed under the jump-diffusion model using the radial basis function (RBF) interpolation scheme. The RBF interpolation scheme is demonstrated by solving an option pricing formula, a one-dimensional partial integro-differential equation (PIDE). We select the cubic spline radial basis function and adopt a simple numerical algorithm (Briani et al. in Calcolo 44:33–57, 2007) to establish a finite computational range for the improper integral of the PIDE. This algorithm reduces the truncation error of approximating the improper integral. As a result, we are able to achieve a higher approximation accuracy of the integral with the application of any quadrature. Moreover, we a numerical technique termed cubic spline factorisation (Bos and Salkauskas in J Approx Theory 51:81–88, 1987) to solve the inversion of an ill-conditioned RBF interpolant, which is a well-known research problem in the RBF field. Finally, our numerical experiments show that in the European case, our RBF-interpolation solution is second-order accurate for spatial variables, while in the American case, it is second-order accurate for spatial variables and first-order accurate for time variables.     

A note on “Modelling exchange rate returns: which flexible distribution to use?”

Corlu and Corlu [Quant. Finance, 2014, doi: 10.1080/14697688.2014.942231] provided a novel modelling of exchange rate data for nine currencies using five flexible distributions. They stated that the generalized lambda, skew t and normal inverse Gaussian distributions ‘do a good job’. Here, we reanalyse the data and show that a distribution simpler than all of these fits at least as well as these distributions. We also find that the normal inverse Gaussian distribution provides good fits for only one of the data-sets.     

On the asymptotic normality of some unbiased estimates

Abstract

Let X _m(n) =(X _j , n, ..., X _{j m,n} ) be a subset of observations of a sample X_n = (X_1n X _2n ... , X _nn ). Here the X_jn 'S in Xn are not necessarily independent or identically distributed, and m(n) mayor may not tend to infinity as n tends to infinity. Suppose the joint density function h_n =h_n (x _m (n); θ) of the X _jn 's in Xm(n) is completely specified except the values of the parameters in the parameter vector θ = (θ1 θ2, ... , θ _k ), where θ belongs to a non-degenerate open subset H of the k-dimensional Euclidean space Rk and k?m(n).     

Factor pricing in commodity futures and the role of liquidity

This paper empirically investigates the pricing factors and their associated risk premiums of commodity futures. Existing pricing factors in equity and bond markets, including market premium and term structure, are tested in commodity futures markets. Hedging pressure in commodity futures markets and momentum effects is also considered. This study combines these factors to discuss their importance in explaining commodity future returns, while the literature has studied these factors separately. One of the important pricing factors in equity and bond markets is liquidity, but its role as a pricing factor in commodity futures markets has not yet been studied. To our knowledge, this research is the first to study liquidity as a pricing factor in commodity futures. The risk premiums of two momentum factors and speculators’ hedging pressure range from 2% to 3% per month and are greater than the risk premiums of roll yield (0.8%) and liquidity (0.5%). The result of a significant liquidity premium suggests that liquidity is priced in commodity futures.