The nexus between firm-supply-chain relationships and the potential for tourism development: A case study approach

This exploratory study examines the importance of firm-supply chain relationships for tourism development. Based upon prior observations, two firms seeking to boost their tourism offerings and operating in a popular Vietnamese tourist destination were selected. Semi-structured face-to-face and online interviews were conducted and complemented by on-site visits, and firm information. Various salient dimensions emerged from the data analysis. The ‘performance catalyst’ and ‘detectable value adding’ dimensions underscore the supply chain's benefits, while the ‘discerning relations’ dimension highlights deeper relationships through mutual support, building trust, or demonstrating care. Conceptually, the study proposes a framework with associated theoretical and practical implications.     

Higher-Order Systematic Comoments and Asset Pricing: New Evidence

We provide evidence supporting Rubinstein's (1973) model that if returns are not normal, measuring risk requires more than just measuring covariance. Higher-order systematic comoments should be important to risk-averse investors who are concerned about the extreme outcomes of their investments. Our paper shows that the Fama-French factors [SMB (return on small stocks less the return on big stocks), HML (return on high book-to-market stocks less the return on low book-to-market stocks)] as well as the momentum and market liquidity factors can be explained by the higher-order systematic comoments, and it lends support to the traditional covariance risk-based theory without having to resort to behavior assumptions.     

Productivity Gains from Farmer Education in China

Regression results for five Chinese provinces provide stronger empirical support than hitherto for the role of farmer education in productivity gains. However, these results are largely due to the inclusion of two small groups of outliers: one consists of very poor households whose heads have no education and the other, relatively well-off households whose heads have only three years of education. This article illustrates the need for a cautious interpretation of the regression results of earlier studies, because they could be affected by problems of outliers, multicollinearity and omitted variable bias.     

General stopping behaviors of naïve and noncommitted sophisticated agents,with application to probability distortion

We consider the problem of stopping a diffusion process with a payoff functional that renders the problem time‐inconsistent. We study stopping decisions of naïve agents who reoptimize continuously in time, as well as equilibrium strategies of sophisticated agents who anticipate but lack control over their future selves' behaviors. When the state process is one dimensional and the payoff functional satisfies some regularity conditions, we prove that any equilibrium can be obtained as a fixed point of an operator. This operator represents strategic reasoning that takes the future selves' behaviors into account. We then apply the general results to the case when the agents distort probability and the diffusion process is a geometric Brownian motion. The problem is inherently time‐inconsistent as the level of distortion of a same event changes over time. We show how the strategic reasoning may turn a naïve agent into a sophisticated one. Moreover, we derive stopping strategies of the two types of agent for various parameter specifications of the problem, illustrating rich behaviors beyond the extreme ones such as “never‐stopping” or “never‐starting.”     

Trade classification algorithms for electronic communications network trades

Ellis et al. [Ellis, K., Michaely, R., O’Hara, M., 2000. The accuracy of trade classification rules: Evidence from Nasdaq. Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis 35 (4), 529–551] find that trade classification rules have limited success in classifying trades which execute inside the quotes. We reconfirm this result and propose an alternative algorithm to improve the classification accuracy for trades inside the quotes. This alternative algorithm improves the overall success rate for classifying trades, especially for trades that occur inside the quotes. Additionally, we show that the Lee and Ready [Lee, C., Ready, M., 1991. Inferring trade direction from intraday data. Journal of Finance 46, 733–747] and Ellis et al. (2000) trade classification algorithms provide biased estimates of the actual effective spreads and price impacts, while our algorithm provides statistically unbiased estimates of actual effective spreads and price impacts.     

Getting bank financing: A study of Vietnamese private firms

Private firms in transition economies are operating in an extremely uncertain environment, with underdeveloped market institutions, poorly defined property rights, and absence of reliable business data. This raises a very basic question of how owners of these firms persuade bankers to make much needed loans. This study employs an institutional perspective and argues that firms' legitimacy positively influences their accessibility to bank financing. Specifically, this study develops a model that links networking, professional management practices, and growth stage with bank financing and tests that model using a sample of Vietnamese private firms. The results support the hypotheses that growth stage and networking greatly influence firms' accessibility to bank financing, and that the impact of networking on financing is contingent on the growth stage.     

The dynamic effects of fiscal and monetary policies under bond financing: A theoretical simulation approach to crowding out

This paper uses simulation methods to analyze the effectiveness of fiscal and monetary policy within a reasonably rich dynamic macroeconomic model, characterized by secular inflation. The most clear cut result to emerge is that fiscal expansion, specified as being an increase in government expenditure, leads to instability. This finding confirms the conclusions obtained from more formal analyses of simpler systems. In most of the sample sets considered, the instability takes the form of crowding out, whereby the initial expansion creates subsequent recessionary pressures. However, in a minority of cases, the nature of the instability is reversed and takes the form of an explosive boom.     

Inflation and relative prices: A system–wide approach

The paper introduces a system-wide model for the analysis of the effects of inflation on relative prices. This enables the identification of those commodities whose relative prices are distorted by inflation. The model provides measures of the natural rate of relative price variability, which is associated with zero inflation, and the inflation rate which minimizes relative price variability. An illustrative application with Australian data is provided.     

Bank consolidation before and after the 2008 crisis

This article statistically tests the impact of the financial crisis and of Dodd-Frank on the decade-long trends in banking consolidation in developed countries. The results show that though the trends have been consistent, widespread and powerful, the financial crisis was significant enough to increase the rate of decrease in commercial banks. However, the crisis seems to have moderated the trend towards greater concentration as measured by the Herfindahl Index. The identification of the global nature of these trends and their recent changes is critical in directing future research targeted to resolving the debate over the social good of bank concentration.     

Return home and start new businesses: internal migration in China

Internal migration patterns in China are characterised by rapid urbanisation and cross‐regional movement and more recently by the return of migrants to their native counties. This study investigates the drivers of migrants' permanent return and their likelihood of starting new businesses in their counties of origin. The results suggest that migrants are discouraged from permanent resettlement in urban areas because of family ties and the aspiration to start businesses in their villages of origin. The study also provides evidence that the probability of starting a business upon return is affected by the migrants' accumulation of work experience, business experience, the savings earned while away, financial stability, and the social capital they have in their home counties. The results provide important insights for emerging countries in overcoming rapid urbanisation and imbalanced regional economic growth.