A note on asset management and market risk

The textbook view on risk in asset management companies is summarized by Hull (Risk Management and Financial Institutions, p. 372, 2007): “For an asset manager the greatest risk is operational risk.” Using evidence from various panel regression models, we show that asset management revenues carry substantial market risks, a finding that challenges not only academic risk management literature on the predominance of operative risks, but also the current industry practice of not hedging market risks that are systematically built into the revenue-generation process. For asset management companies to return to an annuity model, these risks need to be managed more actively. Shareholders do not want to be exposed to market beta by investing in asset management companies; they want to participate in these companies’ alpha generation and take advantage of their fund-gathering expertise as financial intermediaries.     

Rewriting History: the Early Sherman Act Monopolization Cases

This paper reviews two early precedent–setting US antitrust decisions and asks a series of counter–factual questions. What if the Standard Oil Company had not been broken into 34 pieces? What if the United States Steel Corporation had been fragmented? It traces the qualitative evolution of the Standard Oil fragments, following the 1911 divestiture decision, and the corresponding history of United States Steel. It then undertakes quantitative analyses of the survivors' market share trends and the comparative productivity growth, average plant sizes, price — cost margins, and net exports for petroleum refining, blast furnaces and steel from 1899 through 1939. At first, the post–divestiture performance did not differ much between the two subject industries. However, by the 1930s, competition intensified in petroleum refining and the decline of the Standard Oil fragments' market shares came to a halt. In the steel industry, however, competition continued to be mild. A lethargic United States Steel held a price um brella over its rivals and steadily lost market share. Steel companies were ill–prepared for rising import competition during the 1960s and 1970s. The paper concludes that the 1911 break–up of Standard Oil had few deleterious short–run consequences and, by shaping a more competitive environment, it had a decidedly positive long–run effect.     

Wer z?hlt die Toten, kennt die Orte

Results of news research generally show that, apart from the countries?? status, regionalism is the most dominant factor in foreign reporting. Such results are usually based on studies that exclude the effect the characteristics of events can have on news coverage. Therefore, the relevance of these results is limited because they do not allow comparing the influence of country characteristics and event characteristics. Our study takes a different path by attempting to isolate the effect of event characteristics from that of country characteristics. To this end we analyzed the coverage on earthquakes in three leading German news media. The results show: The effect of event characteristics heavily outweighs the effect of country characteristics. Nevertheless, the latter also proved to be relevant, especially for television, sometimes disassociated and sometimes interacting with event characteristics to manifest their effect.     

OSHA inspections: Process and outcomes in programmed inspections versus complaint-investigated inspections

Inspections are an important tool for enforcing OSHA regulations. As with any enforcement procedure, OSHA inspections are an effective tool to the extent that they are conducted in a consistent manner. In this study we compared 3,000 inspections randomly initiated by OSHA with 3,000 inspections conducted by OSHA in response to an employee complaint. Significant differences in both process and outcome variables were found between the two types of inspections. We discuss the findings in terms of the “threat effect” as a tool for enforcement of OSHA safety standards.     

Das neue Medien-Menü: Fernsehen und WWW als funktionale Alternativen?

As new media technologies develop and become established, the supply of media services expands. Along with this development, the question arises of how this affects traditional media. As other new media have, the Internet, too, has triggered debates about the future of the «old» media. This paper discusses whether the proliferation of the World Wide Web can have effects on television use. To do this, both relevant theoretical approaches and the state of empirical research are introduced and discussed. Present research results do not consider the systematic difference between cognitive schemata concerning media use as they are reproduced in face-to-face interviews on the one hand, and actual media use on the other. An innovative research concept is developed that takes this critique into account and differentiates between gratification expectations and situational gratifications sought and obtained. As regards gratification expectations, television is superior to the World Wide Web. It is more powerful on all gratification dimensions. Considering actual use, though, the World Wide Web has already outstripped television on some of the dimensions. It is used more often to satisfy specific needs. Thus, cognitive schemata of media use lag behind the actual changes in every day life.