Transformed Securities and Alternative Factor Structures

Grinblatt and Titman (1985) reformulate a result of Chamberlain and Rothschild (1983) to show that the approximate factor structure of Chamberlain and Rothschild is asymptotically equivalent to the strict factor structure of Ross (1976) as long as investors can always repackage securities into an equal number of arbitrary portfolios. This paper uses a Procrustes rotation methodology that is compatible with the repackaging interpretation of Grinblatt and Titman to show that the empirical structure of stock prices is consistent with the convergency hypothesis.     

Rental-Purchase Agreements: A Preliminary Investigation of Consumer Attitudes and Behaviors

Customers are attracted to rental-purchase agreements by claims of low payments and by the promise of eventual ownership. This study found that customers were frequently confused and generally dissatisfied with the agreements. Participants had poor credit histories and appeared to be using rental-purchase agreements as substitutes for conventional forms of credit. These results are interpreted in the context of possibilities for expanded consumer protection and of the changes taking place in the market for consumer credit.     

The use of solar energy for cooking in developing countries

Solar cooking has received considerable attention recently as an alternative to cooking with woodfuel. This paper determines the effective solar collection area required, and examines the different design features to optimize the available heat from a small collection area. A quasi-parabola was developed and tested alongside two other prototypes. The locally-made cooker was preferred by Sudanese women for its speed of cooking. Solar cooking was seen to have potential as a complementary means of cooking, especially for light foods.