How much could refuges help us recover from a global catastrophe?

Some global catastrophes (such as nuclear wars, pandemics, or an asteroid collision) might destroy civilization. Some propose building well-stocked shelters constantly staffed with people trained to rebuild civilization in such cases. These “refuges” would have an unimpressive expected cost per life saved, but could conceivably have an impressive expected cost per future generation allowed to exist. From some ethical perspectives that highly value future generations, building refuges may therefore seem like a promising idea. However, several factors significantly dilute the potential impact of refuges, even if the proposed catastrophes occur. Government/private disaster shelters, people working on submarines, and isolated peoples who prefer to be left alone serve these purposes to some extent already. Many proposed catastrophes do too much/too little damage for refuges to help, affect the environment in ways that make refuges largely irrelevant, or otherwise give relatively limited advantages to the people in refuges. In global food crises or social collapse scenarios, refuges would add little to aggregate stocks of population, resources, food, and relevant skills; but they may add something unique in terms of isolation and coordination. These potential benefits of refuges seem the most promising, and may be worthy of further analysis.     

Corporate Stock and Bond Return Correlations and Dynamic Adjustments of Capital Structure

This paper analyses the effects of dynamic correlations between stock and bond returns issued by the same firm on the speed of adjustment towards target leverage. The results show that the estimated correlations are time varying, show persistence and differ among firms. Analysis of the potential explanatory variables reveals that the correlations decrease with negative expectations about future aggregate risks, but only for firms with a low default probability. In contrast, correlations are positively associated with specific risk measures, especially idiosyncratic stock risk and financial leverage. The positive relationship between the correlations and the leverage ratio suggests that target leverage can be achieved faster when the stock–bond correlation is high. Our results show that this is the case.     

Liquidity risk and policy options

On the basis of a liquidity management model, liquidity risks, defined as the probability of payment failures in a real-time gross settlement (RTGS) payment system, may either stem from liquidity management inefficiencies or insufficient cash balances. I will show that penalties charged on the amount of payment failures minimise liquidity risks without interfering with the bank’s technology preferences. I will instead show that liquidity requirements, although as effective as penalties to contain the risk of liquidity shortage, may distort the bank’s technology preferences and cannot stem liquidity management inefficiencies. I will also show that liquidity risks within RTGS payment systems are potentially smaller because they depend more on the liquidity management efficiency than on the randomness of cash inflows and outflows.     

Should we geoengineer larger ice caps?

The climate of Earth is susceptible to catastrophes that could threaten the longevity of human civilization. Geoengineering to reduce incoming solar radiation has been suggested as a way to mediate the warming effects of contemporary climate change, but a geoengineering program for thousands of years could also be used to enlarge the size of the polar ice caps and create a permanently cooler climate. Such a large ice cap state would make Earth less susceptible to climate threats and could allow human civilization to survive further into the future than otherwise possible. Intentionally extending Earth’s glacial coverage will require uninterrupted commitment to this program for millenia but would ultimately reach a cooler equilibrium state where geoengineering is no longer needed. Whether or not this program is ever attempted, this concept illustrates the need to identify preference among potential climate states to ensure the long-term success of civilization.     

Taking superintelligence seriously: Superintelligence: Paths,dangers, strategies by Nick Bostrom (Oxford University Press, 2014)

A new book by Nick Bostrom, Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies, is reviewed. Superintelligence explores the future of artificial intelligence and related technologies and the risks they may pose to human civilization. The book ably demonstrates the potential for serious thinking aimed at the long-term future. Bostrom succeeds in arguing that the development of superintelligent machines will, if not properly managed, create catastrophic risks to humanity. The book falls short in some respects, and some sections are more compelling and novel than others. Overall, however, Bostrom’s book succeeds in demolishing the “null hypothesis” according to which the possibility and risks of superintelligence can continue to be ignored, and is a must-read for those interested in the long-term future of humanity.     

Growth uncertainty,generalized disappointment aversion and production-based asset pricing

We study a production economy with regime switching in the conditional mean and volatility of productivity growth. The representative agent has generalized disappointment aversion (GDA) preferences. We show that volatility risk in productivity growth carries a positive and sizable risk premium in levered equity. Our model can endogenously generate long-run risks in the volatility of consumption growth observed in the data. We show that introducing leverage with a procyclical dividend process consistent with the data is critical for the GDA preferences to have a large impact on equity returns.     

江西科技风险投资机构问题探讨

本文通过对江西风险投资机构的数量、股权性质、从业时间和资本规模等现状进行研究,分析了风险投资机构存在的问题及其原因,并从增加风险投资机构数量、突破风险投资机构制度约束和降低风险投资机构风险三方面提出了完善江西风险投资机构的相应对策。     

湖北地方政府投融资平台的风险与重构研究

在预期利率水平走高和货币政策转向稳健的背景下,湖北某些地方融资平台还本付息压力陡增,必须谨防资金链断裂,从而避免资金危机和风险的倒逼。地方投融资平台的清理重构的基础条件是建立清晰的地方资产负债表和多样性的融资模式,但最终取决于地方政府自觉放弃在过多领域的投资主导,唯如此,才能在属于自己的领域规范地完成融资任务。