Interdaily Volatility in a Continuous Order-Driven Market

Since Amihud and Mendelson (1987) documented a higher open-to-open return volatility compared to close-to-close return volatility in the US market, there have been various explanations offered, such as call auction opening, a long halt of trade, and specialist systems. No consensus has been reached so far. As an order-driven dealership market, the Hong Kong stock market provides another dimension for examination. If halt of trade is the major cause of the open-to-open volatility in the Hong Kong market, this volatility should also be higher. This is not observed. Positive autocorrelation of the open-to-open return series also suggests that there is no temporary price deviation at market opening. We view these as consistent with the specialist argument put forth by Stoll and Whaley (1990).     

Perceptions of Stakeholding: The Case of an NHS Trust

This article considers the significance of stakeholding for an NHS trust. The trust concerned was confronted with significant changes in its environment which posed a threat to its services and, therefore, its contract income. The trust appeared to be in a vulnerable position because it had not given adequate consideration to its relationship with its stakeholders. To establish where the trust needed to improve relations with stakeholders, the article adopts a model drawn from Johnson and Scholes (1993) and presents an analysis of the view of key individuals through the use of structured interviews.     

An Evaluation of the Impact and Effectiveness of Environmental Legislation in Small and Medium‐Sized Enterprises: Experiences from the UK

With small‐ and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) accounting for 99.7% of the 4.7 million UK businesses, they can have a huge collective impact on the environment, which in turn is being increasingly regulated. This study investigated the impact and effectiveness of environmental legislation on UK SMEs as well as determining if ‘compliance’ results in improved environmental protection. Interviews were conducted with SME management, site staff, regulators, policy officials and support organisations. Forty‐four SMEs from the north‐west of England participated in the study, and overall a total of 99 individuals were interviewed. The study clearly indicates that the impact of environmental legislation on SMEs is overstated and impact increased commensurate with effort to comply and enforcement action. Only one of the SMEs studied had been prosecuted and only two had been inspected. Compliance issues identified in those SMEs subject to direct regulation did not correlate with previous compliance audits conducted. In general, SMEs had poor awareness of compliance issues; non‐compliance was only really recognised and acknowledged if identified by a regulator and only regarded as serious if prosecuted. Regulation of the environment is clearly only effective if complied with; understanding compliance levels can help measure the link between legislation and environmental protection. The effectiveness of environmental legislation can only be understood if SMEs are subject to regular regulatory contact. Recommendations to improve SME compliance control systems are provided. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.     

An analysis of the automatic stabilizers associated with taxes and transfer payments

This paper examines the question of the stability of automatic stabilizers in the United States. Based on a statistical test suggested by Brown, Durbin and Evans, the analysis concludes that the magnitude of automatic stabilization of economic activity afforded by personal tax receipts has remained virtually invariant over the period 1939–86. The automatic stabilization effectiveness of transfer payments, however, had increased, since 1964. This is attributed to the implementation of various Great Society programmes beginning in 1964.