Occupant-use factors influencing optimal results from energy conservation strategies

Although residential conservation strategies can have a dramatic impact on energy consumption, the involvement of the occupant can have a deterring and/or an enhancing influence on optimal results. Occupant impact on the use of residential heating conservation strategies was assessed by monitoring use factors and energy-consumption data of nine families living in an energy test house. The families tested two supplemental space heating strategies, use of a sunspace and a woodstove. The families used each strategy separately for one-week periods. User- and energy-consumption data for the use of flow-restricting showerheads, a hot-water conservation strategy, were used by nine families — seven involved in the testing of the heating strategies and two who tested cooling strategies in the summer months. The families used the showerheads either for a one or two-week period. Energy-consumption data were compared against a baseline week in which none of the conservation strategies were used. A computer-based data acquisition system tracked energy consumption as well as room temperatures and other environmental data. Questionnaires, completed daily and weekly, were used to collect user-behaviour data, including evaluations of user involvement, resulting thermal comfort, and impact on family routines and habits. The results showed that resident implementation of strategy requirements was related to energy savings. Energy savings varied with being at home in order to open/close sunspace doors for optimal heating, with the level of previous experience of the woodstove strategy, and with compensating behaviour such as taking baths instead of using the flow-restricting showerheads.     

Finance Research Productivity and Influence

This study examines differences in finance research productivity and influence across 661 academic institutions over the five-year period from 1989 through 1993. We find that 40 institutions account for over 50 percent of all articles published by 16 leading journals over the five-year period; 66 institutions account for two-thirds of the articles. Influence is more skewed, with as few as 20 institutions accounting for 50 percent of all citations to articles in these journals. The number of publications and publication influence increase with faculty size and academic accreditation. Prestigious business schools are associated with high publication productivity and influence.     

Optimal Futures Positions for Large Banking Firms

In this paper, we extend earlier work on hedging models so that uncertainty about both deposit supply and loan demand is incorporated as well as random rates of return on loans and CD's. Our model suggests that the optimal forward position is the sum of three ratios that should be estimated simultaneously. Using bank-specific data, the optimal hedge ratios are estimated in both the pre-deregulation and deregulation subperiods. Our results show that previous studies of bank hedging with interest rate futures have greatly overstated (a) the volume of short futures positions that banks should take and (b) the degree of homogeneity of optimal hedge ratios across the banking system. Similarly, deregulation has not uniformly affected the interest rate risk borne by different institutions.     

Was It Real? The Exchange Rate-Interest Differential Relation over the Modern Floating-Rate Period

In this paper, we explore the relationship between real exchange rates and real interest rate differentials in the United States, Germany, Japan, and the United Kingdom. Contrary to theories based on the joint hypothesis that domestic prices are sticky and monetary disturbances are predominant, we find little evidence of a stable relationship between real interest rates and real exchange rates. We consider both in-sample and out-of-sample tests. One hypothesis that is consistent with our findings is that real disturbances (such as productivity shocks) may be a major source of exchange rate volatility.     

An Econometric Model of the Term Structure of Interest-Rate Swap Yields

This article develops a multi-factor econometric model of the term structure of interest-rate swap yields. The model accommodates the possibility of counterparty default, and any differences in the liquidities of the Treasury and Swap markets. By parameterizing a model of swap rates directly, we are able to compute model-based estimates of the defaultable zero-coupon bond rates implicit in the swap market without having to specify a priori the dependence of these rates on default hazard or recovery rates. The time series analysis of spreads between zero-coupon swap and treasury yields reveals that both credit and liquidity factors were important sources of variation in swap spreads over the past decade.