Stability of international environmental agreements under isoelastic utility

There is now a growing consensus that ratifying International Environmental Agreements (IEAs) is the most effective way to tackle transboundary pollution problems. While the social benefit function (SBF) critically affects emission choices as well as decisions to ratify IEAs, the related economic literature has mainly concentrated on scenarios where the marginal SBF is linear. Using climatic data, I find that the linear marginal SBF case does not match data and isoelastic SBFs fit data better. In the more realistic, but not yet explored, context of isoelastic SBFs, I reconsider incentives to ratify IEAs. My analysis gives rise to novel conclusions. For instance, changes in the scale of damages do not affect the level of cooperation. When the scale of damages is small, variations of the SBF parameter reveal that large coalitions including the coalition of all countries are stable, but only when the potential gain from cooperation is sufficiently high.     

Internationalization through foreign listing: A review and future research agenda

This paper reviews and synthesizes literature on foreign listing from international business, management, and finance disciplines. A systematic review of 66 studies from 25 journals indicates fragmentation of the literature across the macro and firm-specific perspectives and a limited usage of current international business theories in research on foreign listing. We propose multiple developmental paths including use of institutional theory, especially institutional distance and institutional evolution to provide more comprehensive understanding of antecedents and contingent factors for foreign listing; supply-chain disaggregation of cross-border capital flow; integrate financial and strategic implications of foreign listing; and advancement of emerging market specific theories.     

Stock market comovements around the Global Financial Crisis: Evidence from the UK,BRICS and MIST markets

This paper analyses stock market co-movements around recent crises and explores the international portfolio diversification benefits available for UK investors holding a portfolio in the BRICS and MIST emerging markets. The application of conventional and regime-switch cointegration techniques suggests an absence of diversification benefits. Further evidence from application of a multivariate time-varying asymmetric model (i.e. AG-DCC) suggests that conditional correlation among the stock markets exhibits higher dependency when it is driven by negative shocks to the market. The asymmetric causality test provides supporting evidence of the decoupling hypothesis. The results indicate that the Chinese stock market is the most attractive option for the UK investor.     

内蒙古财经学院国际贸易专业全面实施双语教学分析

内蒙古财经学院国际贸易专业推行双语教学是顺应我区高等教育与国际接轨和改革发展和培养国际化高级人才的需要。本文从国际贸易专业的性质出发,分析了该专业实施双语教学的必要性。同时,对该专业实施双语教学中存在的问题进行探讨并有针对性地提出了发展双语教学的策略。     

Equity financing activities and European value-growth returns

This paper extends the U.S. evidence in Bali et al. (2010) to European stock markets. Like in the United States, European value-growth returns are strongly dependent on the valuation signals contained in the firm’s equity financing activities. The high returns of value firms are due to value purchasers, while the low returns of growth firms are due to growth issuers. Among value issuers and growth purchasers, there exists no value premium at all. The large return difference between value purchasers and growth issuers cannot be explained by common risk factors. However, employing Piotroski and So’s (2012) recently proposed market expectation errors approach shows that the observed value-growth returns can be attributed to mispricing.     

Tourism at Costalegre,Mexico: An ecosystem services-based exploration of current challenges and alternative futures

Tourism, as all human activities, is dependent on the natural environment and its respective ecosystem services (ES). Different user groups manage and consume these touristic ES differently, resulting in discrepancies and potential conflicts. Despite the urgency to find inclusive local approaches for sustainable development, tourism studies still analyze socio-economic and ecological impacts separately and lack integrated social–ecological approaches to improve foresight in tourism planning. Based on a growing concern regarding the future of Costalegre on the Jalisco coast of Western Mexico, we analyze through interviews, surveys, and participant observation the dependence of tourism on specific ecosystem services and conduct a scenario analysis which shows present and future implications for the social–ecological system. Furthermore, this analysis shows in detail how different scenarios change ES provision and people's livelihoods. Key findings include identifying freshwater provision and cultural ES as the most important touristic ES. At a regional scale, peasants in ejidos are the main ES stewards, whereas high-class tourism facilities constitute important local stewards. Benefits, mainly access to freshwater and the beach, are unequally distributed, provoking conflicts among different ES user groups that may escalate in the near future. Improved communication between all user groups and strengthening of key political actors seem to be the most immediate recommendations to ensure the long term sustainability of this particular region. This work may contribute to improved planning and decision-making as our ES based scenarios are a first step to integrate social–ecological knowledge into improved decision-making. At a local scale, the study reveals the most likely future development options and their social and ecological consequences. It could also serve as a baseline for informed policy making.     

Determining the integrated volatility via limit order books with multiple records

The integrated volatility plays an important role in risk management and portfolio selection, the estimation methods regarding the quantity have been widely investigated, either under low-frequency data or high-frequency data, or a combination of both. In this paper, we propose a measure for the integrated volatility via limit order book data with possible presence of multiple records. The estimator is valid under mild conditions and it is easily implemented. The finite sample performance of the proposed estimator has been verified by simulation studies and we apply the method to some real high-frequency data-sets as well.     

Illiquidity Premium in the MILA

This article analyzes the illiquidity premium in the MILA. Using seven proxies for illiquidity, we find a positive and significant illiquidity premium for our sample. A microstructure bias-free portfolio weighting based on past returns is critical in our finding of an illiquidity premium, which is robust to several methodological changes in our portfolio simulations. We also document that the premium is present only in small and high book-to-market stocks. Nonetheless, when we control for size and distress effects, the difference and significance in risk-adjusted returns between portfolios of high and low illiquidity stocks remains.     

Assessment of land use compatibility and noise pollution at Imam Khomeini International Airport

This study aimed to investigate land use planning around airports, by employing Remote Sensing (RS) and Geographic Information Systems (GIS), in conjunction with an optimization algorithm using an Integrated Noise Model (INM) software, to establish the potential effects of aircraft noise at Imam Khomeini International Airport (IKIA) in Tehran. We also checked for land use compatibility with the noise levels around IKIA and the residents' reaction to the noise. The research was carried out in three stages: a) the establishment of Strategic Noise Map (SNM) scenarios of the airport operation in the years 2011, 2020 and 2030 using the INM software; b) the assessment of the results with emphasis on the study area land uses and application of RS and GIS and the exposure of residents at different levels of environmental noise; and c) the assessment of the intensity of aircraft noise annoyance at various times of day and night. The results indicated that developing IKIA together with the residential development will increase airport noise. Hence proper management and control of noise at IKIA is essential.     

International educational tourism: Does it foster global learning? A survey of South African high school learners

International educational tourism has the potential to foster global learning; however, very little empirical research exists to support this claim. This study responds to the growing demand in the literature for rigorous empirical research to test the underpinning assumption of IET. A global learning survey instrument is developed and completed by 1152 Grade 11 learners in 16 South African exclusive high schools. In doing so, this paper demonstrates that some types of IET are more conducive to global learning than others. Furthermore, for significant global learning to occur, educational tourism needs to be facilitated and cultural difference needs to be experienced.Personality traits that include curiosity, altruism, and being open-minded to new experiences, are identified as predictors of global learning, but the effect of school-based academic achievement is small.Additionally, through the synthesis of educational tourism, international education, experiential learning and global learning theories, the concept of IET is developed.