Has the “CEO effect” increased in recent decades? A new explanation for the great rise in America's attention to corporate leaders

We introduce a new explanation for one of the most pronounced phenomena on the American business landscape in recent decades: a dramatic increase in attributions of CEO significance. Specifically, we test the possibility that America's CEOs became seen as increasingly significant because they were, in fact, increasingly significant. Employing variance partitioning methodologies on data spanning 60 years and more than 18,000 firm‐years, we find that the proportion of variance in performance explained by individual CEOs, or “the CEO effect,” increased substantially over the decades of study. We discuss the theoretical and practical implications of this finding. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

基于图像分析光学伪装效果的定量评价系统

针对传统的伪装效果评价容易受到试验条件、时间、经费等多方面限制的问题,提出了一种基于图像定量评价光学伪装效果的方法。利用AHP对颜色和形状进行权重的分析,得出颜色和形状的权重系数W1和W2,通过颜色评价系数对伪装图案与背景的图像颜色相似度进行定量评价,利用横纵比差值来对伪装图案与背景的图像形状相似度进行评价,最终得出基于图像分析光学伪装评价效果的定量评价系统。实验结果表明,该评价系统可实现对伪装图案与背景的颜色和形状相似程度的定量评价。     

Voluntary disclosure,greenhouse gas emissions and business performance: Assessing the first decade of reporting

This study explores the empirical relationships between GHG emissions and an extensive range of business performance measures for UK FTSE-350 listed firms over the first decade or so of such reporting. Despite the popular and policy generated environmental imperatives over this period—along with growing evidence of the corporate added-value of having an ‘environmental conscience’, voluntary disclosure of emissions has been slow to adopt by firms. The leading contribution is to present clear evidence of a non-linear relationship, initially increasing with firm performance and then decreasing. An extensive pattern of non-reporting of emissions is also observed over time, and prior literature has introduced questions of endogeneity existing between firm performance and emissions. Steps are taken to ensure confidence/robustness of the results to these concerns. Accordingly, a two-stage (Heckman-type) selection model is used to analyse the emissions-performance nexus conditional upon the firm choosing to report (i.e. treating the choice to report as being endogenously determined with firm performance). From this—in addition to confirming the robustness of the non-linear relationship—it can be observed that the decision to report emissions is not directly influenced by wider social/governance disclosure attitudes of a firm, thus suggesting that firms disassociate environmental responsibility from social responsibility.     

上海自贸区的“光环效应”及问题分析--从自贸区“抢位”现象说起

中国（上海）自由贸易试验区自成立以来一直是人们关注的热点，人们在参与自贸区活动中存在着“抢位”等盲目行为，自贸区“光环效应”明显。不良“光环效应”遮蔽自贸区的内在发展，反映了我国在自贸区发展过程中存在系统性和前瞻性的宏观问题。文章从自贸区的本身、人们心理情感、政策环境和信息传递过程四个方面分析自贸区不良“光环效应”的产生原因，并揭示不良“光环效应”可能带来的弊端，如浪费资源、破坏市场秩序、影响社会稳定、降低政府公信力、增加政策执行难度、遮蔽自贸区本质、不利于长远发展等问题。最后，在健康生态的理念下从三个方面探求破解“光环效应”、回归上海自贸区发展“正道”的有效途径，包括信息传递过程要公开、透明、准确、快速；各活动主体需开阔视野、端正认识、回归理性；自贸区自身建设则要立足国际环境，激发内在动力，以制度创新为突破点，构建对接全球经济发展的市场生态。     

Food values and heterogeneous consumer responses to nanotechnology

Agricultural applications of nanotechnology are at a relatively early stage and little is known about consumer responses to the technology. Canadian consumer responses to food nanotechnology are examined through the lens of the Food Value Scale. Data from a survey of Canadian consumers are used to evaluate the relative importance of eleven food values to food purchase decisions. We find that taste, safety, nutrition, and price are among the most important food values to Canadians, however, consumers exhibit considerable heterogeneity with respect to the priority placed on these values. A discrete choice experiment (DCE) explores the effect of food values on choice behavior. The DCE is positioned as a sliced apple product with non-browning and antioxidant-enhanced features introduced through the use of nanocoating or a conventional coating method. Random parameters logit (RPL) and latent class models (LCM) confirm the existence of significant preference heterogeneity. The LCM identifies three classes of consumers: “supporters,” “doubters,” and “opponents” who differ in their reaction to nanotechnology and in the relative importance placed on food values such as naturalness, novelty, and convenience. The analysis shows that food values provide additional insights into consumers’ food choices and their attitudes toward novel food technologies.     

京津冀城市大气环境竞争力评价

从大气环境与城市竞争力的关联性入手,将大气环境风险、现状和治理纳入评价指标体系,基于组合权重的大气环境竞争力评价模型,对2013-2017年京津冀13个城市的大气环境竞争力水平进行了测评,并结合空间自相关分析和障碍度模型揭示了其空间效应及障碍因素。结果显示:京津冀城市大气环境竞争力存在明显的空间差异,呈"北部高、南部低、局部跳跃"格局,城市差距逐渐缩小;京津冀城市大气环境竞争力呈显著的空间集聚效应且存在正向相关性,空间分布格局相对稳定。     

Resurrecting the size effect: Evidence from a panel nonlinear cointegration model for the G7 stock markets

Firm size is known to be an important factor affecting stock returns. This study proposes a panel threshold cointegration model to investigate the impact of the size effect on stock returns for the panel of G7 countries: Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the U.K., and the U.S. over the period 1991:1–2012:12. The empirical analysis is based upon the nonlinear cointegration framework using the asymmetric ARDL cointegration methodology (Shin et al., 2011). This methodological approach permits a much richer degree of flexibility in the dynamic adjustment process toward equilibrium, than in the classical linear model. Our findings indicate the presence of asymmetric adjustment around a unique long-run equilibrium. In particular, the empirical analysis provides evidence of asymmetric effects between stock returns and the size effect, while controlling for the book-to-market ratio and the price-to-earnings ratio.     

Understanding the travel motivation and patterns of international students in Korea: using the theory of travel career pattern

This study examined the travel motivation of international students in Korea using the theory of travel career pattern (TCP). In particular, latent profile analysis (LPA) was applied to identify latent classes within international students. Based on the results, four latent profiles were derived and named “Core,” “Longing,” “Middle,” and “Veteran.” The results described the travel motivation and patterns across these four profiles to enhance the understanding of international students in the context of tourism. There were significant differences in travel patterns (i.e. travel companion and information sources) among the profiles segmented by motivation. This study has expanded travel motivation research by (a) applying TCP to an understudied population (i.e. international students in a non-English-speaking country); (b) comparing travel careers between the home country, Korea (i.e. a study abroad destination), and the third countries; and (c) highlighting LPA as a clustering tool to understand travel motivation.     

Forecast on silver futures linked with structural breaks and day-of-the-week effect

Silver future is crucial to global financial markets. However, the existing literature rarely considers the impacts of structural breaks and day-of-the-week effect simultaneously on the volatility of silver future price. Based on heterogeneous autoregressive (HAR) theory, we establish six new type heterogeneous autoregressive (HAR) models by incorporating structural breaks and day-of-the-week effect to forecast the volatility. The empirical results indicate that new models’ accuracy is better than the original HAR model. We find that structural breaks and the day-of-the-week effect contain much forecasting information on silver forecasting. In addition, structural breaks have a positive effect on the silver futures’ volatility. Day-of-the-week effect has a significantly negative influence on silver futures’ price volatility, especially in the mid-term and the long-term. Our works is the first to combine the structural breaks and day-of-the-week effect to identify more market information. This paper provides a better forecasting method to predict silver future volatility.     

Energy efficiency promotion backfires under cap-and-trade

Major climate-cum-energy policies and respective impact projections rest on the widespread belief that increased energy efficiency can be equated with savings in energy use and emissions. This belief is flawed. Due to the rebound effect emissions savings from energy efficiency improvements will be generally less than what is technically feasible, or even be reversed. By means of an analytical general equilibrium model we demonstrate the latter to be true in a case that is both stark and relevant: if electricity generation is subject to a cap-and-trade scheme with partial coverage, increased efficiency of electric devices leads unambiguously to increased carbon emissions. The result implies that a proper distinction between the energy rebound and the carbon rebound is warranted, and that public policy must carefully consider the interactions between energy efficiency promotion and carbon pricing.