Globalization,Skill Accumulation and the Skill Premium

We analyze the impact of globalization upon the skill premium (inequality) in advanced countries from a two‐goods North–South model with skill accumulation. Globalization consists of an increase in the size of the South. Its impact on inequality depends on its intensity and on the pre‐globalization proportion of skilled workers. The post‐globalization inequality is a non‐monotonic function of the pre‐globalization proportion of skilled workers and of the globalization intensity. The impact is different for the generation in work and for the following generations. There is a threshold value of the skill endowment under (above) which inequality is lower (higher) after than before globalization.     

Mean-Reversion in REITs Discount to NAV &; Risk Premium

REITs discount to NAV is a puzzling regularity. The sharp increase in volatility of REITs prices over the past few years has spurred a relatively new concern amongst academics, managers and investors about the consequences of, and causes of, property risk premium on discount to NAV. The two interrelated questions arising from the recent increase in volatility of REITs prices are: Is the increased volatility responsible for the observed widening in discount to NAV? What does the observed private and public risk premium tell us about discount to NAV? We attempt to address these questions by analysing risk premiums in private and public real estate markets. The analysis is conducted in the most recent years of high stock price volatility. Our analysis reveals two major results: a tendency for discount to NAV to revert to the long term mean value of 20% and, more significantly, a lower risk premium in equivalent yields in private market than in public market. These results suggest that investors in public market have a different conception of property risk and complexity of lease options than what is conveyed by private property valuation.     

Adaptive learning in an asymmetric auction: genetic algorithm approach

Agent-based simulations are performed to study adaptive learning in the context of asymmetric first-price auctions. Non-linearity of the Nash equilibrium strategies is used to investigate the effect of task complexity on adaptive learning by varying the degree of approximation the agents can handle. In addition, learning in different information environments is explored. Social learning allows agents to imitate each other’s bidding strategies based on their relative success. Under individual learning agents are limited to their own experience. We observe convergence to steady states near the predicted equilibrium in all cases. The ability to learn non-linear functions helps the agents with a non-linear equilibrium strategy but hurts the agents with an almost linear one. Better information about the opponent population has a relatively modest impact. A larger number of strategies to experiment with and an ability to systematically compare strategies by holding a number of factors constant have a comparatively stronger beneficial effect.     

TESTING THE QUANTAL RESPONSE HYPOTHESIS

We develop a nonparametric test for consistency of player behavior with the quantal response equilibrium (QRE). The test exploits a characterization of the equilibrium choice probabilities in any structural QRE as the gradient of a convex function; thereby, QRE‐consistent choices satisfy the cyclic monotonicity inequalities. Our testing procedure utilizes recent econometric results for moment inequality models. We assess our test using lab experimental data from a series of generalized matching pennies games. We reject the QRE hypothesis in the pooled data but cannot reject individual‐level quantal response behavior for over half of the subjects.     

Further Evidence on the Performance of Funds of Funds: The Case of Real Estate Mutual Funds

Funds of funds (FOFs) are created when investment companies invest in other investment companies. Although the additional layer of fees incurred by FOFs has a negative effect on returns, there is empirical evidence that real estate FOFs generate superior performance net of fees and risk adjustments. The evidence is inconsistent with a growing consensus that most actively managed mutual funds do not, on average, generate excess returns after adjusting for fees and risk. This study explains this apparent contradiction and finds that most real estate FOFs do not outperform their benchmarks under alternative risk adjustment specifications.     

Managerial academic experience,external monitoring and financial reporting quality

This study examines the effect of managerial academic experience on firms’ financial reporting quality. Using data from China, we find that firms with top managers possessing academic experience exhibit lower levels of both accrual and real earnings management, along with a lower probability of future restatements. This effect is more pronounced for firms with inefficient external monitoring, suggesting that the higher financial reporting quality is mainly explained by the managers’ intrinsic motivation to report truthfully. The results hold when we use firm fixed‐effect regressions, instrumental variable two‐stage regressions, and a propensity score matching (PSM) approach to mitigate the omitted variable and endogeneity concerns. Our study suggests that academic experience can serve as a source of valuable expertise for corporate executives.     

中国固体矿产储量/资源新的分类标准和联合国储量/资源分类框架

文章论述和对比了中国新的固体矿产储量/资源分类标准和联合国储量/资源分类框架、矿山和冶金研究所协会成员国分类标准以及俄罗斯分类标准的共同点和差别及其兼容性.作者认为,中国新的分类标准体系符合联合国储量/资源分类框架和三维结构、各类标准的主要定义和数码,认为联合国分类框架中按"G"轴划分储量的方法是错误的.中国专家使用的标准不是地质评价的阶段,而是用不同储量等级(确定资源,推定资源和推测资源)反映的地质可靠程度本身.作者提出的对联合国分类框架的修正方案以及俄罗斯新的分类标准基本上是以中国的分类方法为蓝本的.作者想借此敦促国际间的合作,以使各主要采矿大国的分类标准趋向一致,使之既适用于编制矿产储量/资源报告,又适用于编制经济发展规划,通过共同努力来完善联合国储量/资源分类框架,并使其能在不同的矿种和不同类型地质的矿床中试行.作者提议创建一个中俄统一的工业储量/资源分类标准体系,完善有关标准的术语和定义,并共同努力对联合国储量分类框架予以改进.     

An investigation of skill requirements for business and data analytics positions: A content analysis of job advertisements

Presently, analytics degree programs exhibit a growing trend to meet a strong market demand. To explore the skill sets required for analytics positions, the authors examined a sample of online job postings related to professions such as business analyst (BA), business intelligence analyst (BIA), data analyst (DA), and data scientist (DS) using content analysis. They present a ranked list of relevant skills belonging to specific skills categories for the studied positions. Also, they conducted a pairwise comparison between DA and DS as well as BA and BIA. Overall, the authors observed that decision making, organization, communication, and structured data management are key to all job categories. The analysis shows that technical skills like statistics and programming skills are in most demand for DAs. The analysis is useful for creating clear definitions with respect to required skills for job categories in the business and data analytics domain and for designing course curricula for this domain.     

The Effectiveness of Local Government Active Labor Programs: The Case of the Benefits-to-Wages Program in Russia

This paper presents the results of an implementation evaluation of a Benefits-to-Wages (BtW) program operated in Perm, Russia. In part because of the low level of support for Active Labor Market Programs (ALPs) by Russian national and regional governments, municipalities have begun implementing ALPs of their own. Participation in the BtW program is limited to an unemployed adult in very low income family where at least one child is present. The program appears to be highly successful, with 74% of applicants finding jobs while still participating in the program. The assessment found that participation in the program, and job acquisition in particular, were important in raising participant families' incomes. Nevertheless, only about 10% of participants with jobs were lifted out of poverty. Receipt of certain social services and Employment Services, including training, had little impact on which participants succeeded in finding a job. Similarly, person attributes, such as education and prior work experience paid no statistically significant role. This pattern is consistent with a situation in which job requirements are modest and are met by most program participants. Various patterns indicate the program did have a positive effect on job acquisition, although the absence of a control group prevents any stronger statement.     

Equilibrium with Profit-Rate Maximizing Producers

We consider a general equilibrium model with producers maximizing their profit rates and using some fraction of profit for investment. Under some assumptions a stationary equilibrium exists and, in the case of generalized Leontief technologies, the equilibrium prices can be found by means of the cost-minimizing procedure. If at least one active producer uses some fraction of his profit for dividends, and therefore not investing all his profit, an equilibrium allocation is technologically inefficient. We also consider a multi-regional variant of the model and study the existence of the equilibrium problem from another point of view. Namely, we fix wage rates in the regions and equalize labor demand and labor supply by varying the fractions of profit used for investment.