Extraordinary body-self narratives: sport and physical activity in the lives of transgender people

Physical activity and sports can be regarded as particularly challenging social practices for transgender people, regarding the centrality of the body, gendered structures like changing rooms and competitions, and normative gender ideologies. In the emerging body of literature on transgender people and sport, the main focus has been on mainstream, competitive sports as non-inclusive. In this article, I present body-self narratives in physical activity and sports (PA/S) during different stages of their gender transition, based on interviews with 12 transgender people in the Netherlands. The results confirm that mainstream sports and physical activity spaces like swimming pools are often experienced as relatively unsafe by transgender people, both pre- and post-transition and especially during the ‘liminal’ transition phase. However, apart from places of shame for or control of the ‘wrong’ body-object and places of felt/enacted stigma, the body-self narratives also indicated that PA/S had been important enabling and empowering activities at different times in the lives of transgender people. For example, regarding gender (dis)identification or as coping strategy in de pre-transition phase and for ultimately gaining body-subject awareness, gender recognition and pride of the ‘right’ body-self.     

A green winner's curse? Investor behavior in the market for eco-certified office buildings

This paper contributes to the growing literature on the economics of green buildings: by merging auction theory and hedonic regression analysis we investigate the relationship between market concentration and price premiums in the American market for eco-certified real estate assets. Auction theory is used to model price formation where eco-investors may differ in their valuation of assets. Controlling for a large number of features, the empirical results provide evidence of a significant and positive relationship between investors’ eco-certified market share and prices of eco-certified space. Contributing to the recent debate over the nature of the green premium, we find that eco-investors are creating clientele effects and that they may be subject to a green winner's curse.     

Earnings management strategies in Brazil: Determinant costs and temporal sequence

This paper describes a study that analyses earnings management strategies involving accounting choices or real activities in Brazil. An analysis is conducted of the relationships between earnings management strategies their determinant costs and of the temporal sequence in which these management strategies are applied. The results of empirical tests indicate that adoption of management strategies is dependent on their relative costs. There is a temporal relationship between the two types of strategies for manipulation of year-end results, with real activities preceding accounting choices. It was also observed that the level of manipulation by accruals (real activities) reduced (increased) after adoption of the IFRS in Brazil.     

Measurement of the Severity of Opportunistic Fraud in Injury Insurance: Evidence from China

This article assesses the effects of claimant demographics and other claim characteristics on the measurement of the severity of opportunistic fraud using 96 excess claim lawsuits in personal injury insurance in China in 2000–2012. The empirical result indicates that severe opportunistic fraud that results in death is more numerous than it is for fraud that leads to disability and nondisability, which may be due to the fact that more severe injury may create greater openings for opportunistic fraud. Second, the severity of opportunistic fraud in provincial cities is lower than that in small or midsize cities because the former does not imply greater severity of opportunistic fraud. Third, the severity of opportunistic fraud in injuries from daily activity is greater than that for injuries from work and traffic accidents, implying that a higher excess claim probability and greater severity of opportunistic fraud in injuries from daily activity are consistent.     

Demographics and real interest rates: Inspecting the mechanism

The demographic transition can affect the equilibrium real interest rate through three channels. An increase in longevity—or expectations thereof—puts downward pressure on the real interest rate, as agents build up their savings in anticipation of a longer retirement period. A reduction in the population growth rate has two counteracting effects. On the one hand, capital per-worker rises, thus inducing lower real interest rates through a reduction in the marginal product of capital. On the other hand, the decline in population growth eventually leads to a higher dependency ratio (the fraction of retirees to workers). Because retirees save less than workers, this compositional effect lowers the aggregate savings rate and pushes real rates up. We calibrate a tractable life-cycle model to capture salient features of the demographic transition in developed economies, and find that its overall effect is a reduction of the equilibrium interest rate by at least one and a half percentage points between 1990 and 2014. Demographic trends have important implications for the conduct of monetary policy, especially in light of the zero lower bound on nominal interest rates. Other policies can offset the negative effects of the demographic transition on real rates with different degrees of success.     

Investor heterogeneity,trading account types and competing liquidity channels for Malaysian stocks

This paper examines the relationship between various investor groups and stock liquidity for Malaysian public listed firms over the 2002–2009 sample period. Using the Amihud illiquidity ratio, we extend the literature by addressing the issues of investor heterogeneity, trading account types and the interactions of competing liquidity channels. The analysis reveals that only local institutions and local individual investors who trade through the direct accounts are significantly associated with the liquidity of domestic firms. In contrast, the significant liquidity effect for foreign investors operates through the nominee accounts. While institutional ownership exhibits a linear negative relationship, our findings on local individuals and foreign nominees differ greatly from previous studies in that their relationship with stock liquidity is non-monotonic. Apart from the widely-researched information asymmetry and trading effects, we find that liquidity is also driven by the largely ignored information competition channel. An important insight from our findings is that the large shareholdings by any particular investor group is detrimental to stock liquidity as they exacerbate information asymmetry, reduce the degree of competition and lower the level of trading activity.     

A cross-national investigation of IPO activity: The role of formal institutions and national culture

Why does IPO activity vary across countries? This study proposes that the variation is attributable to differences in the overall quality of formal institutions and in the informal institutional effects of national culture directly and interactively. The empirical analysis of IPO activity in 45 countries from 2001 to 2011 indicates that the quality of formal institutions and high levels of performance orientation each have positive effects on the level of IPO activity. Further, the positive relationship between the quality of formal institutions and IPO activity is amplified in cultures that encourage and reward performance achievement (high performance orientation) and those that favor the use of rules, and laws to enhance the predictability of future events (high uncertainty avoidance). This study provides theoretical and practical implications for understanding what motivates IPO activity around the world.     

Protection of coastal areas in Italy: Where do national landscape and urban planning legislation fail?

Italian coastal areas have been subject to strong anthropogenic pressure and urbanization processes over the past 60 years. Urbanization of the protected 300-m strip from shoreline has reached levels of over fifty per cent in some parts of the country. This article, by building on previous quantitative analyses and by providing some more quantitative data on the urbanization processes of coastal land at the provincial level, seeks to understand whether a con-cause that has led to a considerable urbanisation process is to be found in the way national landscape legislation has been designed, in its relationship with urban planning, and in the institutional and administrative fragmentation that characterise the management of coastal areas in Italy. After analysing landscape legislation and assessing its relationship with urban planning functions, following an approach based on concept of nomotropism the article highlights, for Italy as a whole, that national landscape legislation while seeking to protect and safeguard coastal areas paved the way for increased urbanization and development. Drawing on regional data on illegal development, the concept of nomotropism is also used to emphasise the impact that building amnesty laws have had on the practice of illegal development so contributing to increased urbanization processes.     

Exchange rate regimes and real exchange rate volatility: Does inflation targeting help or hurt?

This paper revisits the comparison of the effects of inflation targeters versus hard fixers and intermediate exchange rate regimes. In particular, we are interested in exploring the impact of inflation targeting (IT) on real effective exchange rate (REER) volatility for a panel of 62 developing countries over the period 2006–2012. We also analyze the impact of IT regimes on REER in terms of its two component parts, i.e. relative tradable prices across countries as well as sectoral prices of tradables and nontradables within countries. The paper accounts for self-selection concerns regarding policy adoption and examines the effects of commodity exports and foreign exchange intervention. Notably, IT regimes seem to have experienced greater REER volatility, largely driven by external prices in developed countries. For developing countries, IT regimes show no difference in REER volatility, though there is some evidence that they have lower volatility in internal prices.     

女大学生参与课外体育活动状况调查与分析

课外体育是学校体育的重要组成部分,是体育课的延伸和补充,参加课外体育锻炼的意义不能仅停留在态度和理解上,只有切实投身于课外体育活动中才能真正体会到其价值所在。本研究就女大学生参与课外体育活动的状况进行调查与分析,并提出相应对策,以期切实改善和提高其课外体育活动的质量,促进身体健康。