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Purpose: Using agency theory and impression management theory, this study examines the impact of financial performance (FP) and corporate governance (CG) mechanisms on the extent of intellectual capital disclosures (ICDs) and the three components within the CEO statement – human capital (HC), structural capital (SC) and relational capital (RC). Design/methodology/approach: This study employs a sample of non-financial SPF-120 French listed firms to capture the relevant variables; it collects data for 2010–2017, using a panel data technique to run the random effects regressions. Findings: The study finds that FP, measured using both market (Tobin's q) and accounting (return on equity and return on assets) indicators, plays a vital role in the extent of ICDs and the three components in the CEO statement published by SPF-120 companies. This confirms its impact on the decision-making needs of stakeholders. Among the CG mechanisms, this study finds that cultural diversity and gender diversity affect some ICD components. Moreover, CEO characteristics such as age, education and role duality affect ICD, while institutional ownership drives the extent of such disclosures. Practical implications: Our findings have comprehensive implications for managers of French listed firms, the Autorité des Marchés Financiers, and stakeholders in general. Originality/value: This study provides significant insights by investigating the impact of FP, CG and company characteristics on the extent of the ICDs published in CEO statements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The present study sought to investigate whether tax management influences the cost of equity of Brazilian companies listed in Brazil, Methodology: The study included the analysis of the Proxie Book-Tax Differences (BTD) as a tool for identifying tax management, as suggested in the work of Moreira e Silva (2019), as well as the control variables, which are the return on equity (ROE), market value (QTOBIN), company size (LNAT) and company financial leverage (ALV). For data collection, the Bloomberg® database and the Reference Form available on the B3 website were used. For that, it was used the Multiple Linear Regression of the data type in balanced panel, resulting in a final sample formed by 630 observations. Results: Through the BTD proxie, referring to the difference between accounting profit and tax profit, and used to capture tax management in this research, it was not possible to identify any relationship with the cost of equity. Thus, for the purposes of this research, the theoretical adequacy and the statistical models used did not show that good tax management practices have a positive or negative effect on the cost of equity. Contributions of the Study: It is observed that Brazilian studies did not analyze the effect of tax management on the cost of equity in Brazilian companies using the Book-Tax Differences (BTD) indicator as a tool for identifying tax management and its influence on the cost of capital. So, this research followed the recommendation suggested by Moreira e Silva (2019), to analyze this cost with another indicator, in this case, Book-Tax Differences (BTD). According to the results, it was not possible to identify any relationship with the cost of equity, thus contributing to the consolidation of the findings by Goh et al. (2016) and Moreira e Silva (2019) who present CashETR as the best metric for tax management, given that the results presented using the variables ETR and BTD, demonstrated that the cost of capital required by investors was unrelated to the fiscal aggressiveness of companies. Bolsa e Balcão (B3) in the period from 2014 to 2018. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates six different equity pricing factors' performance in explaining the diversely constructed equity portfolio returns in Turkish markets between 2000 and 2018. For this purpose, we perform time-series regressions of the test portfolio returns formed by different methods on six equity pricing factors based upon market return, firm size, book-to-market ratio, operating profitability, investment, and momentum variables. The results are fivefold. First, even after controlling for six factors, we observe that some portfolios still have abnormal returns. Second, all test portfolios have high sensitivities to the market factor. Third, the portfolios incorporating small companies are more sensitive to SMB factor than portfolios incorporating big companies. Fourth, the significance of HML, RMW, and CMA factors in explaining portfolio returns depends heavily on how the test portfolios are constructed. Finally, the WML factor is not statistically significant in explaining the test portfolio returns; however, this finding can be explained by the fact that the momentum return has not been used as a ranking variable when constructing the test portfolios. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research background: The role of supplementary pension systems in providing adequate income in old-age is increasing significantly. They are frequently analysed, but rather in terms of architecture, product forms, assets under management or tax incentives than in terms of their efficiency, costliness or readability for individuals. Purpose of the article: The first aim of this paper is to evaluate individual retirement products in Poland regarding their linguistic readability and transparency, investment efficiency and costliness. Moreover, we examine whether there is any correlation between the analyzed characteristics of contracts that would suggest an intentional strategy by financial institutions to hide low efficiency and high costs. The second aim of the article is to assess which individual retirement products are similar to each other and which are significantly different. The research covers two types of individual retirement products (IKE and IKZE) offered at the beginning of 2017. Methods: We used the 'Jasnopis' linguistic analysis tool to assess the difficulty level of the language used in the contracts and we conducted desk-research to analyse their transparency. We indicated the costliness and efficiency of the products by calculating the 5-year cost ratios and real average 5-year rates of return. To examine the relations between the characteristics of pension contracts, we used the Spearman's rank correlation coefficient and then verified its significance with a non-parametric test. Moreover, to identify groups of products that are similar to or different from each other, Ward's method was used. The study includes nearly 90% of all individual retirement products offered in Poland. Findings & value added: For both types of retirement products studied (IKE and IKZE), we found that the more readable a contract is, the higher its rate of return is and the higher the costs charged are. Moreover, the more readable a contract is, the more transparent it is. The findings of the study provide financial institutions, the supervisor and creators of social policy with information on market imperfections and recommendations how to improve the individual retirement products offered on the market. Our research makes a unique contribution to the multidimensional research of supplementary pension systems. It also develops the understanding of how to successfully use linguistic tools in complex analyses of financial services. The results of the hierarchical cluster analysis proved that both IKE and IKZE products differ substantially and their features generally do not depend on the type of the financial provider. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - This paper aims to examine the relationship between cash holdings (CH) and expected equity return in a sample of firms of Pacific alliance countries. Design/methodology/approach - This paper constructed a panel of Pacific alliance firms for the period ranging from 2010 to 2016. This paper estimated different specification models using multivariate regression, and the statistical technique used to validate the hypothesis was panel data. Findings - Results showed that there is a positive relationship between CH and expected equity return (r). The relationship between CH and systematic risk (ß) was estimated and this paper found a positive and statistically significant association. Findings suggest that corporate liquidity contains underlying information that contributes to explain the expected equity return, which, if ignored, can produce quite misleading results. Originality/value - The results of this study have both academic and practical implications. First, the findings of the research contribute to a better understanding of the asset pricing models in emerging countries. On the other hand, the results obtained in this study can serve shareholders to make better estimations of the expected equity return, so investors can improve the risk-return trade-off due to the model allow a better estimation of the risk-return relation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Profitability is important for insurance companies as it is indicator of whether they are able to continue their activities and fulfill their obligations to policyholders. The aim of this study is to find out most important firm-specific and macroeconomic variables affecting profitability of non-life insurance companies in Turkey. The study for non-life insurance companies covers the period between 2006 and 2017 for 21 companies. ROA is used as measure of profitability. According to the fxed effects panel data model results: there is statistically significant positive relationship with size, liquidity, investment yield, age, GDP growth rate, interest rate and profitability while there is negative relationship with premium growth rate, loss ratio, leverage ratio, solvency and profitability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In these past two centuries, capitalism has driven substantial economic growth. However, this growth has not been responsible for the "thrivability" of our planet in terms of society and the environment. This economic model now threatens the continuation of the human species on planet Earth. In 2015, The United Nations created a paradigm shift. All the countries committed to reach 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030. Trillions of dollars are going to be invested annually in these goals. But a question remains as to how we can obtain the necessary funds. Long-term pension and insurance funds (including social security) are the perfect candidates: they need long-term investments to back up their commitments. A perfect match! Alas, each dollar invested in the SDGs will not bring high yields, because of "externalities" that are not taken into account. The prospective investor only receives economic profits, while others (government or the public) get the environmental and social benefits. The SDGs represent more than just economic goals, therefore, a dialogue with the capitalist model cannot happen. It will only work if there is an approximation, or new factors/metrics, incorporated into that model that can translate social and environmental benefits into monetary terms. If the SDGs become the business of governments, then they could facilitate an approximate solution. Governments must do this, as they manage the SDGs, and the regulation. If each country issues a special long-term bond which can cover SDG investments with a high yield, it may suffice to return a pension or a social security to the entire population. The cost of the plan is the difference between the rate of the bond yield and the return to the owner of said bond. National accountants know how to make this happen. This way, we finance the SDGs, and create a pension and jobs for millennials and future generations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article seeks to contribute to the existing critical debates on money and debt by advancing three main arguments. First, largely due to such debates' tendency for description, the article argues that in in the heterodox literature on money and debt there is no convincing critical theory of money creation. For this reason the authors introduce the theory of capital as power and how it can help us theorize the consequences of present money creation. Second, the authors demonstrate how the capitalization of money creation by a minority of investors not only leads to the political chase for unsustainable economic growth, but also how there is a differential distribution of interest upwards that helps generate greater economic inequality in the United States. Third, they argue that in an era of declining growth, dominant owners of capital seek to recapture their expected return on investments by extracting a greater share of the national income from the vast majority of citizens through a fiscal politics of austerity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) are a broad challenge for decision-makers. NCDs account for seven out of every 10 deaths globally, with 42 percent occurring prematurely in individuals under age 70. Despite their heavy toll, NCDs are underfunded, with only around two percent of global funding dedicated to the disease set. Country governments are responsible for funding targeted actions to reduce the NCD burden, but among other priorities, many have yet to invest in the health-system interventions and policy measures that can reduce the burden. This article examines “investment cases” as a potential mechanism for catalyzing attention to—and funding for—NCDs. In Jamaica, using the UN inter-agency OneHealth Tool, we conducted an economic analysis to estimate the return-on-investment from scaling up strategic clinical interventions, and from implementing or intensifying policy measures that target NCD risk factors. In addition, we conducted an institutional and context (ICA) analysis, interviewing stakeholders across sectors to take stock of promising policy pathways (e.g., areas of general consensus, political appetite and opportunity) as well as challenges to implementation. The economic analysis found that scaling up clinical interventions that target CVD, diabetes, and mental health disorders, and policy measures that target tobacco and alcohol use, would save over 6,600 lives between 2017–2032, and avert JMD 81.3 billion (USD 640 million) in direct and indirect economic costs that result from mortality and morbidity linked to NCDs. The ICA uncovered government economic growth targets and social priorities that would be aided by increased attention to NCDs, and it linked these targets and priorities to the economic analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The following is one of many concluding sections from the whole system book 'Global System Change: A Whole System Approach to Achieving Sustainability and Real Prosperity'. The foundation for the strong positions taken here is established in more detailed and heavily referenced sections earlier in the book. Global and national financial systems strongly contribute to major problems, including concentration of wealth, unemployment and environmental degradation. Excessive speculation and high equity returns degrade society in many ways. This section summarizes important actions needed to implement a sustainable financial system that serves and truly benefits society. Non-judgment is a key system change principle emphasized throughout the book. The criticism in this section and throughout the book is never focused on individual leaders. It always is on the flawed economic and political systems that compel well-intentioned leaders to take actions that harm the environment and society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Franklin Templeton Investments is a worldwide asset management company that provides services to clients in more than 170 countries. Unlike investment funds, mutual funds do not have legal personality, therefore they are merely baskets that associate assets. High past equity returns are not a guarantee of future earnings. Individual funds are often praised for the positive results they have achieved in the past, but even experienced portfolio managers cannot guarantee future returns despite their past successes in the market. The main purpose of this paper is to compare the competitiveness of Franklin Templeton fund managers. Among the time-tested indicators and suitable markers for our research on the validation of an active mutual fund with its benchmark index, the information ratio and sharp ratio have been included in the present study. Recent studies suggest that fund managers cannot achieve better results than those set in their benchmark. Managers do not utilize a simple set-up with a given portfolio, and thus their competitiveness would seem to compare unfavorably to results achieved by so-called passive investment. It can be noted that over the course of 15 years, the longest single time period that was analyzed, out of 22 equity funds, only four sets of results exceeded the benchmark. However, if regular fees are also taken into consideration to reflect more pragmatically the benefits for the investor, none of the funds analyzed in the present study failed to overcome the set benchmark during this period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, I aim to explore the effect of good governance on equity returns, and empirically investigate if governance at the country level has asset pricing implications and contributes to the idiosyncrasy of price jumps. Jumps are found to be far less systematic than the smooth (non-jump) component of country price indexes. Hence, if jumps are more idiosyncratic, governance should primarily affect the jump risk component. This is good news for international investors, because diversification provides insurance against jumps. Relying on an equilibrium asset-pricing model in an economy under jump diffusion, I decompose the moments of the returns of international stock markets into a diffusive (systematic) risk and a (idiosyncratic) jump risk part. For a balanced panel of 52 countries, my results suggest that governance is an important determinant of (idiosyncratic) jump risk. Stock markets in poorly governed countries are characterized by higher volatility and more negative return asymmetry, primarily driven by the higher jump risk. Regulatory quality, the government effectiveness and the control of corruption appear to be most important. Results are robust to the inclusion of various controls for other country- or market-specific characteristics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we discuss a multiperiod portfolio selection problem with fuzzy returns. We present a new credibility multiperiod mean semiabsolute deviation portfolio selection with some real factors including transaction costs, borrowing constraints, entropy constraints, threshold constraints and risk control. In the proposed model, we quantify the investment return and risk associated with the return rate on a risky asset by its credibilitic expected value and semi- absolute deviation. Since the proposed model is a nonlinear dynamic optimization problem with path dependence, we design a novel forward dynamic programming method to solve it. Finally, we provide a numerical example to demonstrate the performance of the designed algorithm and the application of the proposed model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This project has been conducted at the Dairy Products Company of Ciego de Avila, with the purpose of estimating the investment necessary for a new line for the production of yogurt, based on an alternative that contributes to reduce heat losses, energy consumption and risks to the safety and health of the job. The new technological flow proposed, based on a new microlocalization, is viable and projects favorable criteria of effectiveness, economic efficiency of the investment and distribution in plant. The new distribution of the production line implies a technological investment that amounts to 118 349.5 pesos. The economic indicators of the inversion's efficiency, estimated for a 10-year scenario and less favorable prices of products, are competitive, reporting a net present value of $ 36 019.05, a positive amount, and an internal rate of return of 10.09%, higher than the interest rate of the National Bank of Cuba. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

R3 has built a global consortium to focus on the application of distributed-ledger technology (DLT), which can help banks combat low return on equity and alleviate pressure on their operating costs. The authors explain the conditions that led to interest in DLT and introduce Corda, R3’s shared ledger for recording and managing financial agreements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using 5-minute high frequency data from the Chinese stock market, we employ a non-parametric method to estimate Fama-French portfolio realized jumps and investigate whether the estimated positive, negative and sign realized jumps could forecast or explain the cross-sectional stock returns. The Fama-MacBeth regression results show that not only have the realized jump components and the continuous volatility been compensated with risk premium, but also that the negative jump risk, the positive jump risk and the sign jump risk, to some extent, could explain the return of the stock portfolios. Therefore, we should pay high attention to the downside tail risk and the upside tail risk. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research background: The liquidity of assets in the financial market is understood generally as costs, and the easiest way in which different types of assets can be converted into cash, or to put it simply, sold at the currently available price on the market. For a considerable period of time this category had not been duly considered in the framework of modern finance theory. As a result, a number of basic models constructed within the framework of this theory in its classical form did not include problems with liquidity. This applies to a number of aspects related to liquidity, with one of the most important being the relationship between the liquidity of trading in shares and the results obtained from these rates of return. Purpose of the article: The aim of the article is to determine whether the rate of return on shares increases with the increase in share liquidity and the incremental rate of return on this account decreases with increasing liquidity. The applied research methodology is similar to that described by Pastor and Stambaugh (2003). The model used in the empirical study is the expanded model of Fama and Francha (1993) for the liquidity factor. Methods: In this paper I present various factors which will affect the liquidity. The paper will also provide the results of research concerning the relations between spread and stock return on the Warsaw Stock Exchange (WSE). The evidence drawn from WSE stock returns over the period 2004-2012 indicates that Amihuda measure and other variables have a significant effect on stock return using the multifactorial Pastor-Stambaugh model. Findings & Value added: In the case of the Polish market, it can be stated that in the analysis based on the Pastor-Stambaugh model not all the variables included in this model are statistically significant. However, directional parameters associated with liquidity risk were statistically significant in all analyzed periods, which allows us to confirm the hypothesis that liquidity has a significant influence on the rate of return on shares listed on the Stock Exchange in Warsaw. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses the relation between firms' life cycles stages according to Dickinson's (2011) definition and accounting and financial ratios. We applied multinomial logistic regression analysis on a sample of 1,515 observations of public companies listed on BM&FBOVESPA between 2005 and 2012. Based on the literature about firms' life cycle stages (YAN; ZHAO, 2010; MILLER; FRIESEN, 1984; FAMA; FRENCH, 2001) the accounting and financial ratios used were dividends distribution, leverage, market-to-book, return on equity, firm size and revenue growth. The results show that leverage, dividends distribution, market-to-book, return on equity, firm size and revenue growth could be used as explanatory factors to classify firms' life cycle stages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the stylized facts, correlation and interaction between volatility and returns at the 5-minute frequency for gold, silver, platinum and palladium from May 2000 to April 2015. We study the full sample period, as well as three subsamples to determine how high-frequency data of precious metals have developed over time. We find that over the full sample, the number of trades has increased substantially over time for each precious metal, while the bid-ask spread has narrowed over time, indicating an increase in liquidity and price efficiency. We also find strong evidence of periodicity in returns, volatility, volume and bid-ask spread. Returns and volume both experience strong intraday periodicity linked to the opening and closing of major markets around the world while the bid-ask spread is at its lowest when European markets are open. We also show a bilateral Granger causality between returns and volatility of each precious metal, which holds for the vast majority subsamples. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using an agent-based model we examine the dynamics of stock price fluctuations and their rates of return in an artificial financial market composed of fundamentalist and chartist agents with and without confidence. We find that chartist agents who are confident generate higher price and rate of return volatilities than those who are not. We also find that kurtosis and skewness are lower in our simulation study of agents who are not confident. We show that the stock price and confidence index—both generated by our model—are cointegrated and that stock price affects confidence index but confidence index does not affect stock price. We next compare the results of our model with the S&P 500 index and its respective stock market confidence index using cointegration and Granger tests. As in our model, we find that stock prices drive their respective confidence indices, but that the opposite relationship, i.e., the assumption that confidence indices drive stock prices, is not significant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Financial decisions are among the most important life-shaping decisions that people make. We review facts about financial decisions and what cognitive and neural processes influence them. Because of cognitive constraints and a low average level of financial literacy, many household decisions violate sound financial principles. Households typically have underdiversified stock holdings and low retirement savings rates. Investors overextrapolate from past returns and trade too often. Even top corporate managers, who are typically highly educated, make decisions that are affected by overconfidence and personal history. Many of these behaviors can be explained by well-known principles from cognitive science. A boom in high-quality accumulated evidence–especially how practical, low-cost ‘nudges’ can improve financial decisions–is already giving clear guidance for balanced government regulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary Global food markets demand adherence to food standards by farmers in developing countries, such as GlobalGAP and organic certifications. This paper analyzes the adoption and profitability of certified farming, using farm-level data of 386 Ghanaian small-scale pineapple farmers. We employ an endogenous switching regression model to examine the adoption and impact of organic certification on the return on investment (ROI) in pineapple farming. The empirical results indicate that both organic and GlobalGAP certification achieve a positive ROI. However, organic-certified farming yields a significantly higher ROI than GlobalGAP-certified farmers, mainly due to the price premium on the organic market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ecological rehabilitation is subject to a variety of risks affecting the likely return on investment. We propose an options approach to allocating scarce conservation funds that explicitly allows for the irreversibility of investment and risks to investment payoffs. The approach captures ecosystem dynamics from extinction debt, as well as ecological and climatic risks at the project scale. Climatic risks are introduced through three channels: the effects of climate change on species loss, future rehabilitation benefits and frequency of catastrophic events. Our results suggest that allocating voluntary rehabilitation contracts on the basis of real options criteria increases cost-efficiency and delivers greater value for money for the Government when compared with the conventional cost-effectiveness criterion as it is illustrated for the case of Box Gum Grassy Woodland rehabilitation in Australia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This paper considers a multi-period portfolio selection problem imposed by return demand and risk control in a fuzzy investment environment, in which the returns of assets are characterized by fuzzy numbers. A fuzzy lower semi-deviation is originally defined as the risk control of portfolio. A proportion entropy constraint is added as the divergence measure of portfolio. Based on the theories of possibility and necessity measures, a new multi-period portfolio optimization model with return demand and risk control is proposed. And then, the proposed model is transformed into a crisp nonlinear programming problem by using fuzzy programming approach. Furthermore, an improved differential evolution algorithm is designed for obtaining the optimal strategy. Finally, a numerical example is given to illustrate the practicality and efficiency of the proposed model and the corresponding algorithm. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The article discusses the impact of budget cuts on U.S. community colleges and the ways these cuts effect educational quality. Topics discussed include the return on investment of community colleges, the costs associated with a U.S. college education, and the impact of U.S. education policies on community colleges.

Diversification and portfolio selection are integral parts of a finance curriculum. In this article, a multifactor capital asset pricing model is fit for components of the Dow Jones Composite Index using data from Yahoo! Finance. Along with the capital asset pricing model's Beta, other statistics that are common criteria for portfolio selection are calculated: historic standard deviation (total risk), total return, average daily return, and Sharpe and Treynor measures. Two new commands are introduced, fetchcomponents and fetchportfolio, that automate the entire process. A third new command, fetchyahoooptions, is provided to download and parse equity options data from Yahoo! Finance webpages and, optionally, to calculate the implied volatilities for the downloaded options. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: A weighted benefit–cost analysis (BCA) supports prioritization of animal health surveillance activities to safeguard animal agriculture industries and reduce the impact of disease on the national economy. We propose to determine the value of investment in surveillance by assessing benefits from: avoiding disease incursion and expansion modified by the probability of occurrence of the disease event, the sensitivity of systems to detect it, and the degree to which we can mitigate disease impact when detected. The weighted benefit–cost ratio is the modified value of surveillance as laid out above divided by the cost of surveillance. We propose flexible, stream-based surveillance that capitalizes on combining multiple streams of information from both specific pathogen based and non-pathogen based surveillance. This stream-based type of system provides high value with lower costs and will provide a high return for the funds invested in animal health surveillance. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

European global banks intermediating U.S. dollar funds are important in influencing credit conditions in the United States. U.S. dollar-denominated assets of banks outside the United States are comparable in size to the total assets of the U.S. commercial bank sector, but the large gross cross-border positions are masked by the netting out of the gross assets and liabilities. As a consequence, current account imbalances do not reflect the influence of gross capital flows on U.S. financial conditions. This paper pieces together evidence from a global flow of funds analysis, and develops a theoretical model linking global banks and U.S. loan risk premiums. The culprit for the easy credit conditions in the United States up to 2007 may have been the 'Global Banking Glut' rather than the 'Global Savings Glut.' [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Meetings are a significant investment for organizations and the groups that comprise them, but the small group literature has often neglected the direct study of meetings. This article closes the special issue on work meetings by exploring the costs associated with unnecessary or poorly facilitated meetings and proposes a three-stage model that groups and organizations may use to assure that the time invested in meetings is more likely to deliver a return on the resources invested. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This paper is a case study which examines the finances of a proposed installation schedule of 500MW of a wave energy device type in Ireland. The novel aspects of the analysis were the modelling of the combined influence of learning curves, supply and demand rates as well as future cost of cash on the phased deployment over the 10 years. There are many studies which have examined the economics of renewable energy project installations, including wave energy. However, there is lack of research in the impact and implications of phased installations over time, especially when using a feed-in tariff (FIT) revenue mechanism. The goal of the study was twofold. The first goal was to assess the viability of the current Irish feed-in tariff within the context of a phased installation program for the wave energy device chosen for the study, and measures required to produce a positive rate of return. The second aim was to assess the impact of learning curve, supply/demand curves and future cost of cash on phased project installations. The wave energy device chosen for the study was the Pelamis P1 and the economic model used was NAVITAS, created by HMRC. The assessment was based on net present value and internal rate of return. The wave energy data for the study was 2007 from M4 of the west coast of Ireland, obtained from Marine Institute, Ireland. Results from the case study indicated that the high initial costs for the case study wave energy device had a significant impact on financial returns. Results of the case study indicate that higher tariffs may be required than the current Irish, static, nonindex linked, FIT to foster positive returns for future wave energy projects, especially if phased installations are considered, which are susceptible to future cash and supply/demand factors. The large range of sensitivity factors assessed in the case study demonstrates the vulnerable nature of these large scale projects when estimating financial returns. Further studies will be required to assess multiple device types, update initial costs for wave energy devices, provide reliable power matrices, as well as appropriate learning curve and supply demand rates. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

As a mental characteristic, vertical representation bias is introduced to portfolio choice model, to research its influence to investors' portfolio decision. This paper proposes Representation Return concept, and gives an investors' utility function of two variables -- final return and Excess Representation Return, from the principle of expected utility maximization. Then establishes optimal portfolio model based on vertical representation bias, and give an empirical analysis showing that the model can obtain efficient frontier of investment portfolio. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Neste artigo, a teoria de cópulas é utilizada para analisar os co-movimentos entre os mercados de capitais do Brasil e dos EUA. Na finalidade de implementação de uma estratégia de alocação de ativos é importante entender os eventos extremos - tanto os positivos (boom) como os negativos (crashes) - e seus efeitos sobre os mercados. Os índices de mercado usados são o IBOVESPA e o S&P 500 cobrindo o período de 03/2001 a 04/2007. A aderência aos log-retornos das principais cópulas encontradas na literatura financeira é avaliada. Os seguintes critérios foram escolhidos: o Log-likelihod, o critério de informação de Akaike e o critério de informação bayesiano. Os resultados mostram que a cópula de Joe-Clayton simetrizada é a mais adequada para modelar a estrutura de dependência entre os log-retornos do IBOVESPA e os do S&P500. Este trabalho difere de alguns estudos já realizados [e.g. Mendes e Moretti(2005) e Canela e Collazo(2005)], pois leva em consideração a modelagem de cópulas dinâmicas introduzida por Patton (2006). Finalmente, através dos índices de dependência caudal ao longo do tempo, pode-se concluir que a ocorrência de eventos extremos negativos (crashes) no mercado norte-americano tende a afetar mais o mercado brasileiro quando da comparação da ocorrência dos eventos extremos positivos (booms). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective is to construct fund-of-funds (FoFs) that follow an absolute return strategy and meet the requirements imposed by the value-at-risk (VaR) market risk measure. We propose the VaR Black–Litterman model which accounts for the VaR and trading (diversification, buy-in threshold, liquidity, currency) requirements. The model takes the form of a probabilistic integer, non-convex optimization problem. We first derive a deterministic reformulation of the probabilistic problem, which, depending on the information on the probability distribution of the FoF return, is the equivalent, or a close approximation, of the original problem. We then show that the continuous relaxation of the reformulated problem is a second-order cone optimization problem for a wide range of probability distributions. Finally, we use a specialized nonlinear branch-and-bound algorithm which implements the portfolio risk branching rule to construct the optimal FoF. The practical relevance of the model and solution method is shown by their use by a financial institution for the construction of several FoFs that are now traded worldwide. The computational study attests that the proposed algorithmic technique is very efficient, outperforming, in terms of both speed and robustness, three state-of-the-art alternative solution methods and solvers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This paper examines the link between over-subscription and pre-listing information in fixed-price IPOs. We find a strong negative relation between investors'' opportunity cost of fund and over-subscription. Since investors are required to make upfront payment at the time of IPO applications, lengthy offer period increases investors'' opportunity cost of fund and thus reduces their interests in the IPOs. To increase over-subscription, firms should time their IPOs to coincide with periods of large positive initial returns and low volume of IPO activity. We find that over-subscription is negatively correlated with offer price but is not significantly related to issue size. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The article discusses additionality in carbon reduction projects as of 2011. According to the author, carbon reduction credits should be awarded to greenhouse gas reduction initiatives that would not have been developed without them, and initiative certification standards should focus on sectoral rather than financial additionality. Topics include returns on investments and corruption.

There are two reasons why mental health, now more appropriately termed behavioral healthcare, is declining: (a) a lack of understanding among psychotherapists of healthcare economics, particularly the intricacies of medical cost offset, and (b) our failure as a profession to see the importance of behavioral interventions as an integral part of the healthcare system inasmuch as the nation pays for healthcare, not psychosocial care. This paper will briefly describe the rapid changes in the economics of healthcare during the past 75 years, including the post World War II enthusiastic espousal of psychotherapy by the American public which was followed by a precipitous decline as our outcomes research in behavioral care remained ignorant of financial outcomes, leaving it to the government and managed care to arbitrarily curtail escalating mental health costs. At the present time psychology is on the cusp of becoming part of the healthcare system through integrated behavioral/primary care, renewing the primacy of financial considerations such as return on investment (ROI) and medical cost offset, as well as an urgency that we avoid the mistakes that are emerging in some flawed implementations of integrated care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Innovations that show signs of becoming successful are very likely to be widely imitated. Therefore, making intellectual assets proprietary and taking control over them may be critical in terms of getting adequate returns on investments. There are several mechanisms a firm can use to build a protective fence around its innovations. These mechanisms are very different in terms of their availability and strength in protecting intangibles, for example and their efficiency on the strategic level, meaning their suitability for the aims of the company also varies a lot. These three dimensions of appropriability are, therefore, worth closer examination. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the relation between corporate environmental performance and corporate financial (economic) performance in North America’s forest products industry to determine whether there is a firm-level environmental Kuznets curve (EKC). An unbalanced panel of firm-level observations is constructed using data from PricewaterhouseCoopers, the US Environmental Protection Agency, and Environment Canada. The analysis focuses on methanol and formaldehyde emissions because these are the only pollutants for which consistent firm-level data are available in forestry. We find strong evidence of a firm-level EKC. The evidence is considerably weaker if endogeneity related to the effect of past pollution on current pollution or endogeneity resulting from a possible circular relationship between rate of return and pollution is taken into account, although the available time horizon is too short to conclude that endogeneity is a problem. Even so, there remains evidence of a negative relationship between financial performance and environmental performance for formaldehyde. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: In this paper, we describe market in the projective geometry language and give the definition of a matrix of market rate, which is related to the matrix rate of return and the matrix of judgements in the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP). We use these observations to extend the AHP model to the projective geometry formalism and generalise it to an intransitive case. We give financial interpretations of such a generalised model and propose its simplification. The unification of the AHP model and projective aspect of portfolio theory suggests a wide spectrum of new applications for such an extended model. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Financial returns are often modeled as autoregressive time series with innovations having conditional heteroscedastic variances, especially with GARCH processes. The conditional distribution in GARCH models is assumed to follow a parametric distribution. Typically, this error distribution is selected without justification. In this paper, we have applied the results of Thavaneswaran and Ghahramani [A. Thavaneswaran, M. Ghahramani, Applications of combining estimating functions, in: Proceedings of the International Sri Lankan Conference: Visions of Futuristic Methodologies, University of Peradeniya and Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT), 2004, pp. 515–532] on identification of GARCH models to a number of financial data sets. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

In this article, we extended Goyal's model to develop an Economic Order Quantity (EOQ) model in which the supplier offers the retailer the permissible delay period M, and the retailer in turn provides the trade credit period N (with N ≤ M) to his/her customers. In addition, we assume that (1) the retailer's selling price per unit is necessarily higher than its unit cost, and (2) the interest rate charged by a supplier or a bank is not necessarily higher than the retailer's investment return rate. We then establish an appropriate EOQ model with trade credit financing, and provide an easy-to-use closed-form solution to the problem. Furthermore, we find it is possible that a well-established buyer may order a lower quantity and take the benefit of the permissible delay more frequently, which contradicts to the result by the previous researchers. Finally, we perform some sensitivity analyses to illustrate the theoretical results and obtain some managerial results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article aims at enhancing current understanding of the history of investment evaluation criteria based on discounting. Their emergence constitutes a challenging issue for scholars devoted to the history of financial economics, as well as to fundamental tools of economic analysis. Their history is analysed in a comparative perspective, starting with the neglected contribution of Duvillard as a reference case. More than two centuries ago, this French language scholar developed, by an optimizing analytical machinery, a financial measure technically similar to Modified Internal Rate of Return (MIRR). In order to assess his theoretical contribution in a comparative perspective, the author will try to briefly account for the different contexts where the financial measure has been invented twice. This approach, indeed, is concerned with the institutional changes and the theoretical developments they fostered. It analyses concepts such as time preference, techniques such as discounting and issues such as the ‘reinvestment problem’. On the one hand, the Past (especially around the eighteenth century) and Duvillard's contribution is explored. On the other hand, the Present is reconstructed (in particular the late Fifties and later), especially the recent debate that re-invented the MIRR. This article will conclude with some comparative results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we introduce a new Fourier method for computing value-at-risk for a portfolio with derivatives and for return models with fat tails. The new method does not assume that the characteristic function for the return model is known explicitly. We define a class of admissible models for returns and present statistical evidence that supports our approach. We discuss the details of the algorithm. The paper concludes with two applications of value-at-risk. Both examples illustrate the effect that changes in the models for portfolio value and for risk factor returns have on the value-at-risk surface. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A profit-making financial system is introduced into the Pasinetti model of growth and distribution with the aim of showing that Pasinetti's formulation implicitly incorporated a well-defined theory of finance. In a golden age, the financial sector must set the rates of interest below the rate of profit to compensate for the remuneration of risks of enterprise generated by expectations realized in the broad, but not at the level of individual firms. If there exists a relationship between investment and finance, intermediaries contribute to the determination of the rates of profit and growth. Their decisions may not allow a competitive economy to return to the golden age once pushed away from it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the (a)symmetry of several individual stock returns at different investment horizons: daily, weekly and monthly. While some asymmetries are observed in daily returns, they disappear almost completely in weekly and monthly returns. The explanation for this fact lies in the convergence to normality that takes place when the investment horizon increases. These features allow one to question several financial models; in particular, they question the preference for positive skewness as a factor for investments in stock markets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on study related to estimation of financial return on a veterinary education. Topics discussed include tangible and intangible benefits provided on practicing veterinary medicine, estimation of financial return by estimating net present value and return on investment and estimation of age-earnings profiles difference between veterinarians and college graduates to calculate cost of education.

This paper investigates the impact of IT investments and worker composition on the productivity of life insurance companies. The majority of previous IT productivity studies follow a technological imperative, hypothesizing a direct relationship between higher IT investments and increased productivity. This paper shifts the focus toward the organizational imperative, which views returns on IT investments as a result of the alignment between technology and other critical management choices. Specifically, the study focuses on the alignment between IT investments and worker composition, measured in terms of relative numbers of clerical, managerial, and professional positions to the total number of employees. Hypotheses are tested using a data set compiled over a 10-year period for 52 life insurance companies. With respect to prior research, the study is novel in its adoption of a model of productivity that accounts for both separate and combined effects of IT investments and worker composition. Premium income per employee and total operating expense to premium income are used as indicators of productivity. Study findings show that increases in IT expenses are associated with productivity benefits when accompanied by changes in worker composition. Life insurance companies that have decreased their proportion of clericals and professionals while at the same time investing in IT have experienced productivity improvements. On the other hand, companies decreasing their proportion of managers while investing in IT are found to have reduced productivity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author critiques an article by Damian Kulash on the economic importance of investments for the transportation sector published in the Summer 1997 issue of the periodical "Transportation Quarterly." The work relies heavily on the work of economists in claiming that certain transportation investments outperform private investments by a large margin in the 1950s and the 1960s. There is a strong inference in Kulash's article that major public investment in the transportation systems will produce substantial returns in the future only if the investment is focused. To conclude, the work contends that investment in a transportation network rather than isolated projects will contribute to growing economy is sound.

Public investments in transportation have always been seen as a spur to growth in the immediate localities where the new transportation facilities are located. What has not always been recognized is that these investments, taken as a whole produce a network that benefits all other parts of the system, including economic activities far removed from the location of the investment. Analysis of the past patterns can help target future transportation investments to achieve the greatest economic impact. Future investments can produce the greatest economic return if they are targeted to programs that will preserve or expand network capacity.

The author evaluates the points made in the article by Damian Kulash on the economic importance of investments for the transportation sector published in the Summer 1997 issue of the periodical "Transportation Quarterly,". There are indications that Kulash is spinning an ex post story to rationalize the numbers that related economic studies on the topic are producing. In spite of the plausibility of the story that Kulash tells, there are many plausible stories to explain a single set of numbers, many of which are contradictory. In the end, policy decisions can only be enriched with a more multidimensional, inter-disciplinary and contextual approaches.