A new perspective on the exporter productivity premium: online trade

We use a unique firm-level data set including 9000 companies from 26 European Union countries covering four different sectors to take a close look at the relationship between online exports and productivity. The online exporter productivity premium is estimated using different techniques (ordinary least squares, quantile regressions and robust estimation). Results consistently indicate that the estimated online exporter productivity premium is statistically different from zero, positive and significant from an economic point of view. European online exporters, according to these results, are approximately 2% more productive than non-online exporters. Productivity differences between firms could be related to variables that are not included in the empirical model. More research would be needed to address this issue in the future.     

Measuring volatility with the realized range

Realized variance, being the summation of squared intra-day returns, has quickly gained popularity as a measure of daily volatility. Following Parkinson [1980. The extreme value method for estimating the variance of the rate of return. Journal of Business 53, 61–65] we replace each squared intra-day return by the high–low range for that period to create a novel and more efficient estimator called the realized range. In addition, we suggest a bias-correction procedure to account for the effects of microstructure frictions based upon scaling the realized range with the average level of the daily range. Simulation experiments demonstrate that for plausible levels of non-trading and bid–ask bounce the realized range has a lower mean-squared error than the realized variance, including variants thereof that are robust to microstructure noise. Empirical analysis of the S&P500 index-futures and the S&P100 constituents confirms the potential of the realized range.     

Creating financial statements using FRx within Microsoft Dynamics GP: Learning vs. teaching

This project requires you to create financial statements using FRx within Microsoft Dynamics GP, an enterprise system. The project emphasizes the learner-centered paradigm rather than a teacher-centered educational paradigm. Researchers have found great importance in the learner-centered approach in educating students, especially in information systems (Landry, Saulnier, Wagner, & Longenecker, 2008; Saulnier, Landry, & Wagner, 2008). Major differences exist between the two approaches; for example, the professor gives information and evaluates, and emphasizes the right answer in a teacher-centered approach. The professor coaches and facilitates, and emphasizes that students generate good questions and learn from mistakes in a learner-centered approach. This project utilizes the learner-centered approach, an effective approach for you to use in today’s environment.     

全球化水平与经济脆弱性关系研究——基于欧洲统计数据的分析

在本文中,我们验证了这样一种假设,即:在欧洲全球化水平较高的国家和全球化水平较低的国家当面对经济危机时,同样脆弱。我们用马斯特里赫特全球化指数(MGI)来界定各国的全球化水平,用五个关键的经济指标来衡量经济危机的严重程度。结果表明:一方面,全球化水平的提升增加了国家面对经济危机时的脆弱性;另一方面,较高的全球化水平也增加了解决危机的机会。     

Whose firm is it anyway? Analyzing ownership effects on IPO performance

This study revisits current practice that ownership holding at IPO has a homogeneous impact on IPO performance. Using signalling theory, we develop and test a conceptual model explaining the relationships between the aggregated ownership structure and IPO price premium. We argue that aggregated ownership has a direct effect on issue price premium, and offer specific hypotheses on the effect of the shares sold during the offering by each type of owner on IPO performance. We use archival data from a sample of US firms that issued IPOs between 1996 and 2000 and find a significant direct effect of ownership configuration, namely, heterogeneity in effect of each ownership type on IPO performance as well as interaction effects between different ownership types. Copyright © 2013 ASAC. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Astroturfing Global Warming: It Isn’t Always Greener on the Other Side of the Fence

Astroturf organizations are fake grassroots organizations usually sponsored by large corporations to support any arguments or claims in their favor, or to challenge and deny those against them. They constitute the corporate version of grassroots social movements. Serious ethical and societal concerns underline this astroturfing practice, especially if corporations are successful in influencing public opinion by undertaking a social movement approach. This study is motivated by this particular issue and examines the effectiveness of astroturf organizations in the global warming context, wherein large corporate polluters have an incentive to set up astroturf organizations to undermine the importance of human activities in climate change. We conduct an experiment to determine whether astroturf organizations have an impact on the level of user certainty about the causes of global warming. Results show that people who used astroturf websites became more uncertain about the causes of global warming and humans’ role in the phenomenon than people who used grassroots websites. Astroturf organizations are hence successful in promoting business interests over environmental protection. In addition to the multiple business ethics issues it raises, astroturfing poses a significant threat to the legitimacy of the grassroots movement.     

Autotelic need for touch,haptics, and persuasion: The role of involvement

Previous research has shown that a touch or haptic element attached to a persuasive appeal can increase persuasion, particularly for individuals who have a clear preference for touch to enjoy its sensory feedback (high autotelics). This research extends previous work by including involvement in the context of an appeal by a nonprofit. We find, in an experiment where we manipulate involvement, that when a haptic element is present, high autotelics are more persuaded regardless of their involvement with the message. However, for low autotelics, a haptic element increases persuasion under conditions of low versus high involvement with the message. A second experiment measures involvement and finds that again, under low involvement conditions, both high and low autotelics are persuaded by a touch element. Finally, a field study with a local symphony orchestra is conducted in which involvement with the message is low but involvement with the company is high. In this case, a touch element is only persuasive for high autotelics. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Deposit Insurance and Risk Management of the U.S. Banking System: What is the Loss Distribution Faced by the FDIC?

We examine the question of deposit insurance through the lens of risk management by constructing the loss distribution faced by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC). We take a novel approach by arguing that the risk management problem faced by the FDIC is similar to that of a bank managing a loan portfolio, only in the FDIC’s case the risk arises from the potential for loss of the individual banks in its portfolio. We explicitly estimate the cumulative loss distribution of FDIC insured banks using two variations of the Merton model and find that reserves are sufficient to cover roughly 99.85% of the loss distribution, corresponding to about a BBB+ rating. However, under different stress scenarios (higher correlations, fat-tailed bank returns, increased loss severity) that level can be much lower: approximately 96% corresponding to about a B+ rating.JEL classification: G210, G280.Any views expressed represent those of the author only and not necessarily those of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York or the Federal Reserve System.     

Tree‐Based Intercropping in Southern Ontario,Canada

Tree‐based intercropping (TBI) integrates tree production within annual grain cropping. The system is widely used in tropical regions, but is not common in temperate regions. This study evaluates the annualized return from TBI systems in southern Ontario, Canada against annual grain crop production. The TBI systems include hybrid poplar, Norway spruce, and red oak. The annualized return for all TBI systems is less than for annual cropping using the base prices; however, when tree prices are high and grain prices low the hybrid poplar TBI system has a higher return than annual cropping. Grants for planting trees, technologies to reduce the cost of establishing and maintaining trees, and improving the returns from tree production will be required for producers in temperate regions to adopt TBI systems. Un système de cultures intercalaires (SCI) intègre la production d’arbres dans la culture annuelle de céréales. Ce système est largement utilisé dans les régions tropicales, mais peu courant dans les régions tempérées. La présente étude évalue le rendement annualisé des SCI dans le sud de l’Ontario, au Canada, par rapport à celui de la production annuelle de céréales. Les SCI intègrent le peuplier hybride, l’épinette de Norvège et le chêne rouge. Le rendement annualisé des SCI est inférieur à celui des cultures annuelles si l’on utilise les prix de référence. Toutefois, lorsque les prix des arbres sont élevés et que les prix des céréales sont faibles, le SCI qui intègre le peuplier hybride obtient un rendement supérieur à celui des cultures annuelles. Pour que les agriculteurs des régions tempérées adoptent les SCI, il faudra offrir des subventions à la plantation d’arbres, offrir des technologies qui permettront de réduire les coûts de plantation et d’entretien des arbres et améliorer les rendements/revenus de la production d’arbres.