Measurement of market integration and arbitrage

We develop a measurement theory of market integration, basedon two notions of 'integrated markets'. First, two markets cannotbe perfectly integrated in any sense if one can construct twoportfolios, one from each market, that have identical payoffsbut different prices. In that case, the law of one price isviolated across the markets. Second, they cannot be integratedin a stronger sense if there are cross-market arbitrage opportunities.Two measures of market integration are developed, respectivelyreflecting these notions. The smaller the measures, the moreclosely integrated (in the respective senses) the markets. Amongother things, they are interpreted as measuring pricing discrepancybetween markets.     

How to identify your enemies before they destroy you

We've all heard the stories about corporate giants who ignored disruptive innovations and paid a steep price: Think what the personal computer did to Digital or Japanese economy cars did to the Big Three automakers. Big companies now spend a lot of time and money trying to make sure they don't get blindsided by their smaller, leaner counterparts. But it's not easy to distinguish genuine threats from also-rans as they emerge. Most of the nascent technologies that typically bombard executives will not amount to competitive threats and deserve to be ignored. As a result, disruptions are usually not taken seriously until they become obvious--when it's often too late. A disruptive innovation is a technology, product, or process that creeps up from below an existing business and threatens to displace it. Usually, the disrupter offers lower performance and less functionality at a much lower price. The product or process is good enough to meet some customers' needs; others welcome the disruption's simplicity. Gradually, it improves to the point where it displaces the incumbent. But, the authors argue, disruption isn't inevitable. They have developed a tool that can help companies detect potential disruptive innovations while management still has time to respond effectively. The tool's decision-making methodology harnesses the organization's collective wisdom to determine how likely it is that a particular innovation will seriously damage an incumbent's business. The methodology has two components: an analytical instrument and an organizational process. There's nothing magical about it--but it gets managers to think systematically about identifying and addressing threats to the core business. And the tool's rigorous approach can spell the difference between flailing around and acting effectively in the face of a serious competitive threat.     

On the Allocation of Possible EU Total Allowable Catches (TAC) for the Mediterranean Swordfish: An Envy‐Free Criterion and Equitable Procedure

This paper examines the allocation of entitlement rights for the management of common property resources. In particular, the case of allocating a Total Allowable Catch quota for the Mediterranean swordfish is examined as a case study. The proposed approach comprises three steps. First, there is a bargaining procedure between the European Union (EU) and the rest of the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) countries. As soon as an initial agreement is possible, the EU considers various equitable rationing methods to allocate its share to the European Member States. These rationing methods draw upon two different streams of the literature, bankruptcy and ‘burden sharing’. Finally, the European Member States reach a fair agreement through minimising an envy‐free index. The allocation rule which is defined as the weighted average of equal proportion and equal share rationales represents the best compromise solution.     

Co-ordinated environmental regulation: controlling non-point nitrate pollution while maintaining river flows

Environmental policy often addresses multiple targets, yet much economic analysis of pollution control is based on a single-target objective. In this paper, we present an analysis of policies to control non-point source nitrate pollution in the presence of minimum river flow restrictions. A non-linear bio-physical economic optimisation model of an intensively cultivated Scottish agricultural catchment was constructed. The presence of minimum river flow controls in the catchment was found to reduce nitrogen pollution. However, by themselves, river flow controls were found not to be a cost effective means to reduce non-point pollution. We quantify the improved social welfare from coordinating the environmental regulation of river flows and pollution, and determine the conditions under which such coordination is beneficial. The paper also investigates whether the benefits of such coordination can be sustained under wetter (winter) weather conditions implied by current climate change predictions.     

Administrative Costs and Instrument Choice for Stochastic Non-point Source Pollutants

This paper extends the empiricalanalysis of non-point source pollution to thecase where the pollutant is stochastic andalternative regulatory instruments havedifferent administrative costs. It also appliesa method of stochastic programming whereemissions are log-normally distributed. Forthe Kennet catchment in South West England werank a range of policies in terms of abatementcosts alone, and total costs (abatement andadministrative costs). On the basis ofabatement costs alone, a uniform emission taxis the cost minimising policy, but on the basisof total cost a nitrogen input tax is theleast-cost policy. Furthermore, the policyranking, based on total costs, changes as thereliability standard increases.     

Stock returns and inflation with supply and demand disturbances

We account for the relation between stock returns and inflationwith two independent disturbances: supply shocks and demandshocks. Supply shocks reflect real output shocks and cause anegative relation between stock returns and inflation, whiledemand shocks are mainly due to monetary shocks and generatea positive relation between stock returns and inflation. Weshow, both theoretically and empirically, that the stock return-inflationrelation varies over time and across countries, depending onthe relative importance of the two types of shocks. Our empiricalevidence is based on pre- and postwar periods in the UnitedStates, as well as the postwar period in the United Kingdom,Japan, Germany.     

Spatial economic development in South Africa: an overview and evaluation of the platinum spatial development initiative

The Platinum Spatial Development Initiative (Platinum SDI), located in the North West province of South Africa, is examined in this article. The article commences with a historical synopsis of industrial policy and regional industrial development policy in South Africa. Thereafter the trade and industrial policies of the North West Provincial Government are discussed in the contexts of its economic development strategies ‘North West 2001’ from 1997, and the ‘North West Economic Development and Industrialisation Strategy’ from 2002. Various arguments for and against the viability of the Platinum SDI are put forward.     

Portfolio performance measurement: theory and applications

Any admissible portfolio performance measure should satisfyfour minimal conditions: it assigns zero performance to eachreference portfolio and it is linear, continuous, and nontrivial.Such an admissible measure exists if and only if the securitiesmarket obeys the law of one price. A positive admissible measureexists if and only if there is no arbitrage. This article characterizesthe (infinite) set of admissible performance measures. It isshown that performance evaluation is generally quite arbitrary.A mutual fund data set is also used to demonstrate how the measurementmethod developed here can be applied.     

Litigation risk, intermediation, and the underpricing of initial public offerings

We formally examine the role of litigation risk in initial publicoffering (IPO) pricing. The underwriter's pricing decision tradesoff current revenue against expected future litigation costs,both of which are increasing in the IPO price. Given a time-consistencyconstraint and rational expectations on the part of investors,however, the 'standard' litigation risk argument does not leadto equilibrium underpricing. We develop a richer model thatprovides sufficient conditions under which there is equilibriumunderpricing. The issuer's choice of employing an underwriterversus floating the IPO on its own is examined, and varioustestable implications of the model are developed.