Review of the fed and Lehman brothers: setting the record straight on a financial disaster,by Laurence Ball

Business Economics -     

Spatial pricing in international trade: Some limited evidence

Zusammenfassung Regionale Preisdifferenzierung im internationalen Handel. Ein empirischer Befund. — In diesem Aufsatz wird versucht, die Bedeutung regionaler Preisdifferenzierung im internationalen Handel zu ermitteln, wobei die Frachtraten in der Seeschiffahrt und die f.o.b.-Durchschnittswerte für kanadische Exporte von Zeitungspapier, Aluminium-Barren, raffiniertem Kupfer und Asbestfasern verwendet werden. Die Daten umfassen mehrere Jahre. Die Ergebnisse der Regressionen zeigen, da? die Exporteure aller vier Produkte die Frachtkosten bis zu einem gewissen Grade absorbieren, und zwar wohl besonders h?ufig bei Zeitungspapier und Kupfer.

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Résumé La détermination des prix spatiaux au commerce international: Quelques preuves limitées. — Cette étude essaie d’évaluer l’importance de la détermination des prix spatiaux au commerce international en utilisant le fret maritime et les valeurs par unité franco bord concernant les exportations canadiennes pour le papier à imprimer, les lingots d’aluminium, le cuivre, et les fibres d’amiante. La base des données comprend plusieurs années. Les résultats de la regression indiquent que les exportateurs des quatre produits analysés absorbent partiellement le fret s’ils forment les prix mais il semble que la pratique est plus prépondérante concernant les prix de papier à imprimer et de cuivre.

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Resumen Política de precios espacial en el comercio international : cierta evidencia empírica limitada. — En este trabajo se intenta evaluar la importancia de una política de precios espacial en el comercio international utilizando tarifas de carga marítima y valores unitarios fob de las exportaciones canadienses de periódicos, lingotes de aluminio, cobre (tipos refinados) y fibras de asbesto. El banco de datos abarca varios a?os. Los resultados de las regresiones indican que una parte de la absorción de la carga ocurre en la política de precios para los cuatro bienes, mas en la práctica parece no prevalecer en la politica de precios para periódicos y cobre.

     

Site selection to test an integrated approach to agricultural research for development: combining expert knowledge and participatory Geographic Information System methods

The sub-Saharan Africa challenge programme is designed to address the problems of failures of agricultural markets, inappropriate policies and natural resource degradation, that contribute to the continuing deterioration of livelihoods and food security in the region. It is seeking to do this by redefining the roles of scientists and farmers through collaborative learning processes, addressing questions about the level, timing, type and formof participation, as well as themost effective approaches andmethods to foster them. The research domains of the programme deal with sustainable intensification of smallholder agriculture, the sustainable management of natural resources, the development of efficient markets, and the promotion of enabling policies. One question that was addressed in designing the initiative was deciding where to work so as to maximize the chances of successful testing of this new approach, so that it would lead to significant reductions of rural poverty. A participatory process was put in place to design a framework to accomplish this site selection, and then to apply it in west, east and southern Africa. A mixture of spatial data analysis and expert knowledge on spatial and non-spatial factors was used, and one primary site in each region was identified to form the basis for the next phase of the challenge programme. Several lessons were learnt from the process, including the importance of adapting themethods to actual conditions, the increased utility of targetting when the quantitative and the qualitative are freely combined, and the continued need for baseline spatial and non-spatial data to improve the targeting of research in the future that is designed to alleviate poverty in sub-Saharan Africa.     

Spousal surcharge programs--an overview

Spousal surcharge programs help employers whose goal is to provide "above-average" health benefit plans by limiting the potential "financial leakage" liabilities from covering the spouses of employees who are eligible for other health care coverage. Spousal surcharge programs are just one alternative available to help employers manage the rising cost of providing health care coverage to dependents. This article explores the prevalence, plan design, financial implications, administrative and other considerations in implementing a spousal surcharge program.     

Strategy and your stronger hand

There are two kinds of businesses in the world, says the author. Knowing what they are--and which one your company is--will guide you to the right strategic moves. One kind includes businesses that compete on a complex-systems model. These companies have large enterprises as their primary customers. They seek to grow a customer base in the thousands, with no more than a handful of transactions per customer per year (indeed, in some years there may be none), and the average price per transaction ranges from six to seven figures. In this model, 1,000 enterprises each paying dollar 1 million per year would generate dollar 1 billion in annual revenue. The other kind of business competes on a volume-operations model. Here, vendors seek to acquire millions of customers, with tens or even hundreds of transactions per customer per year, at an average price of relatively few dollars per transaction. Under this model, it would take 10 million customers each spending dollar 8 per month to generate nearly dollar 1 billion in revenue. An examination of both models shows that they could not be further apart in their approach to every step along the classic value chain. The problem, though, is that companies in one camp often attempt to create new value by venturing into the other. In doing so, they fail to realize how their managerial habits have been shaped by the model they've grown up with. By analogy, they have a "handedness"--the equivalent of a person's right- or left-hand dominance--that makes them as adroit in one mode as they are awkward in the other. Unless you are in an industry whose structure forces you to attempt ambidexterity (in which case, special efforts are required to manage the inevitable dropped balls), you'll be far more successful making moves that favor your stronger hand.     

Informed and uninformed trading on the Australian dollar

Using a high-frequency data set of the spot Australian/US dollar, this study examines the distribution of quotes, spreads, and returns across the trading day. By identifying the direction of trade and the subsequent quote returns from contributing banks, the segmented nature of the market into market-makers and informed and uninformed traders is investigated. The results suggest that the economic gain possible from private information is maximised over 2 to 5 quotes and is rapidly eroded by 20 quotes (about 2 min later during busy trading times) as other new information enters the market. Also, the analysis is revealing of discontinuities in trading and the volatility of pricing across the trading day.     

Osteopetrosis

This case study describes the fairly rare entity of osteopetrosis and points out how a seemingly insignificant "anemia" can, on thorough investigation, be found to be a very significant disease with a poor prognosis.