An Empirical Investigation of the Demand for Bank‐Owned Life Insurance

Key employee life insurance in the banking industry is called bank‐owned life insurance (BOLI). Banks use BOLI to provide financial support to help reduce disruptions due to the death of a key executive and as a part of the executive compensation package. We investigate the characteristics of banks related to the amount of BOLI purchased. We find that BOLI purchases are positively related to bank size and leverage and negatively related to tax rates and employee salaries. We also find that BOLI purchases are related to bank ownership structure and profitability.     

Stepping Stones for Biological Invasion: A Bioeconomic Model of Transferable Risk

We investigate three sources of bias in valuation methods for ecosystem risk: failure to consider substitution possibilities between goods, failure to consider nonseparability of ecosystem services with market goods, and failure to consider substitution possibilities between ecosystems. The first two biases are known in the literature, and we offer insight on the size of the bias for a specific example. Our work on spatially transferable risk is novel. We develop the concept and show how it may undermine typical invasion prevention strategies. We find three key results. First, partial equilibrium estimates of welfare loss are significantly overestimated relative to general equilibrium estimates. If ecosystem services and market goods are substitutes the partial equilibrium bias is greater than if they are compliments. Second, well-intended policies do not necessarily reduce overall risk; risk reduction actions can transfer risk to another time or location, or both, which may increase total risk. Third, policies of quotas and inspections have to be extreme to improve welfare, with inspections having advantages over quotas.     

Preparations for the Euro by U.K. SMEs with Trading Links with the Euro Currency Area

This paper examines euro preparations by U.K. SMEs with trading links with the euro currency area. It suggests, notwithstanding the U.K.'s decision not to join the euro in the first wave, that SMEs with euro area trade links are particularly likely to have had to make some adjustments for the introduction of the euro. The paper assesses this level of preparation and seeks to understand if it is contingent upon the characteristics of the business, its geographic location, its business orientation and the type of trade link (e.g. importer/exporter). The paper finds, contrary to previous research, that business characteristics, geographic location and business orientation are, on the whole, of limited value in explaining euro preparation. What, instead, seems more significant is the type of link with the euro area: importers, exporters and those with subsidiary businesses in the euro area appear more likely to have made preparations for the euro than U.K. SMEs that are part of a euro supply-chain or are a subsidiary of a euro area business.     

Expanding international trade beyond the RTA border: The case of ASEAN's economic diplomacy

We examine the roles of regional trade agreements (RTAs) not only in regionalization processes but also in globalization of trade. Results from various specifications of the gravity equation model confirm that a country can noticeably increase directional trade through diplomatic relations as well as through membership.     

Agricultural technologies for climate change in developing countries: Policy options for innovation and technology diffusion

Climate has obvious direct effects on agricultural production. The reverse is more apparent than ever as greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture are tallied. The development and effective diffusion of new agricultural practices and technologies will largely shape how and how well farmers mitigate and adapt to climate change. This adaptation and mitigation potential is nowhere more pronounced than in developing countries where agricultural productivity remains low; poverty, vulnerability and food insecurity remain high; and the direct effects of climate change are expected to be especially harsh. Creating the necessary agricultural technologies and harnessing them to enable developing countries to adapt their agricultural systems to changing climate will require innovations in policy and institutions as well. Potential constraints to innovation involve both the private and public sectors in both developing and developed countries. The process of transferring agricultural innovations across agroecological and climatic zones is often subject to agronomic constraints. Often, the most binding constraints occur at the adoption stage, with several factors that potentially impede poor farmers’ access to and use of new technologies. Based on discussions of these constraints, we derive six policy principles and use these principles to suggest several specific investments and policy priorities.     

Relative Effectiveness of Bilateral and Multilateral Aid on Development Outcomes

Aid donors are interested in understanding whether allocating aid via bilateral or multilateral channels might be more effective for achieving development goals. We review 45 papers that empirically test the associations between bilateral and multilateral aid flows and various development outcomes including gross domestic product growth, governance indicators, human development indicators and levels of non‐aid investment flows. Findings suggest that differences between countries and regions, time periods, aid objectives, and individual donor organizations all may influence the effectiveness of aid delivered bilaterally and multilaterally. We find, however, no consistent evidence that either bilateral or multilateral aid is more effective overall.     

Forecasting With Temporally Aggregated Demand Signals in a Retail Supply Chain

Suppliers of consumer packaged goods are facing an increasingly challenging situation as they work to fulfill orders from their retail partners’ distribution facilities. Traditionally these suppliers have generated forecasts of a given retailer's orders using records of that retailer's past orders. However, it is becoming increasingly common for retail firms to collect and share large volumes of point‐of‐sale (POS) data, thus presenting an alternative data signal for suppliers to use in generating forecasts. A question then arises as to which data produce the most accurate forecasts. Compounding this question is the fact that forecasters often temporally aggregate data for consolidation or to produce forecasts in larger time buckets. Extant literature prescribes two countervailing statistical effects, information loss and variance reduction, that could play significant roles in determining the impact of temporal aggregation on forecast accuracy. Utilizing a large set of paired order and POS data, this study examines these relationships.     

The impact of product market competition on training provision: Evidence from Canada

While standard models of training focus on how input market affects firms' training decisions, this paper investigates the impact of product market competition on training provision. Using the longitudinal data from Statistics Canada's Workplace and Employee Survey, we find that increased competition is strongly associated with more training provision. This association is unlikely to be driven by unobserved heterogeneity, specific measures used and other relevant factors. To the extent that training is a significant source of human capital and industry competitiveness, our results suggest that increasing training is an important channel through which competition raises productivity.