Stock Returns,Productivity, and Corruption in Eight European Fast-Emerging Markets

This article addresses the impact of productivity, corruption, and trade openness on the stock returns of 265 industrial companies listed in eight Eastern European fast-emerging markets, over the 2004-2013 period. Through a three-factor model that includes both measures at firm level and macro-level control variables, our findings suggest that country corruption index is negatively correlated with the total annual return of the stocks of the listed industrial companies of our sample. Moreover, the most productive firms are featured by higher stock returns, while leverage seems not to be a key predictor of stock returns. In addition, the article uncovers innovative evidence about trade openness that is negatively correlated with stock returns due to its connection with the recent financial crisis. That is, firms operating in markets that are more open to trade show a higher degree of interconnection with other economies and are more likely to undergo the effects of negative fluctuations from foreign markets during the economic crisis. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Estimation of Small Reservoir Storage Capacities with Remote Sensing in the Brazilian Savannah Region

Small reservoirs play an important role in supporting the local economy in the savannah areas of Brazil and are primarily used for the provision of water for irrigation and watering livestock. Hundreds of small reservoirs have been built in the last few decades in the Preto River Basin, but efficient water management and sound planning are hindered by inadequate knowledge of the number, storage capacity and spatial distribution of reservoirs in the basin. The main reason for the lack of this information is that current methodologies for quantifying the physical parameters of reservoirs are laborious, time consuming and costly. To address this lack of data, a simple method to estimate reservoir storage volumes based on remotely sensed reservoir surface area measured with LANDSAT was developed. The method was validated with a subset of reservoirs in the Preto River Basin for which surface areas, shapes and depths were determined with ground-based survey measurements. The agreement between measured and the remotely sensed reservoir volumes was satisfactory, indicating that remotely-sensed images can be used for improved management of water in the Brazilian Savannah region. With the newly developed methods we found that the Preto River Basin’s 147 small reservoirs can store 19 × 10⁶ m³ of water at full capacity.     

Shifts in Portfolio Preferences of International Investors: An Application to Sovereign Wealth Funds

We develop a dynamic general equilibrium model to analyze the macroeconomic effects of a shift in portfolio preferences of foreign investors. The model has two countries and two asset classes (equities and bonds). It is characterized by imperfect substitutability between assets and allows for endogenous adjustment in interest rates and asset prices. To illustrate the mechanics of the model, we calibrate it to analyze a transfer of reserves from central banks to sovereign wealth funds (SWFs). We look separately at two diversification paths: a shift away from dollar assets (path 1), and a shift away from US bonds to US equities (path 2). In path 1, the dollar depreciates and US net debt falls on impact and increases in the long run. In path 2, the dollar depreciates and US net debt increases in the long run.     

Economics and the treatment of AIDS: a preliminary assessment

This paper applied cost-effectiveness analysis to the use of drug therapy in the treatment of AIDS. The empirical approach adopted overcame the facts that the samples of patients had varying clinical prognoses, had variable entry dates into the samples and, because AIDS is a terminal disease, had variable exit dates. Holding these variables constant, administration of the drug AZT proved to be a less costly alternative than other existing palliatives for AIDS. The sub-sample of patients treated with AZT had lower hospitalization costs, lower caring costs and sufferers had an increased ability to continue to participate for longer as economically active members of society.     

THE 'BROKEN WINDOWS' THEORY AND THE NEW YORK EXPERIENCE RECONSIDERED

The undeniable success of order-maintenance policing (also community policing or broken windows policing) is despite the deficiency in the theory which propelled the practice into policy: Wilson and Kelling's broken windows theory. We discuss what is wrong with the theory and why it nevertheless works when put into practice.     

May’s theorem in an infinite setting

We generalize May’s theorem to an infinite setting, preserving the elementary character of the original theorem. We define voting scenarios and generalized voting scenarios, and prove appropriate versions of May’s theorem. The case of generalized voting scenarios specialized to a countably infinite set of voters and the collections of all coalitions that have asymptotic density, shows that majority rule is the only aggregation rule that satisfies neutrality, irrelevance of null coalitions, anonymity, and positive responsiveness.     

Calculation of policy-values for different rates of interest

Abstract

If we calculate the Policy-Values of a Whole Life Assurance for a given Age at Entry and a given Duration, but for several equidistant rates of interest, we find that the proportion of two successive values is very nearly constant. This fact is illustrated by Tables 1 a and 1 b, giving certain Policy Values on the basis H^M and A 24–29 respectively, for the rates of 3, 4, 5 and 6 % of interest. Tables 2 a and 2 b show, that the same applies, if to a smaller degree, to Endowment Assurances.     

Tourism and economic development: Which investments produce gains for regions?

Across three decades numerous metropolitan regions have made substantial investments in different tourist amenity packages. These investments were made to either capture a portion of the growing tourism market or establish an image that attracted the human capital needed to advance economic development. This article analyzes the returns for the tourism industry and for economic development from different amenity packages and finds those related to sports and amusements generated the most significant gains for regions.