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Investments in firms related to environment, social responsibility and corporate governance (ESG) aspects have recently grown, attracting interest from both academic research and investment fund practice. This paper develops a simple new portfolio optimization approach to include ESG in portfolio formation. In addition to technical and practical advantages over a traditional mean--variance approach that incorporates ESG preferences, our approach allows us to follow competing explanations of the relation among risk, return and ESG. An extension of our portfolio optimization approach can even help distinguish competing explanations from the literature, i.e., between the preferences of investors for ESG firm characteristics and exposure to a common ESG risk factor. The proposed portfolio optimization approach is flexible enough to include additional risk factors and/or characteristics. We demonstrate the application of our approach to empirical data.

To estimate the spatial spillover effect of China’s carbon emissions trading (CET) launched in 2013 on carbon emissions reduction, this paper conducts a quasi-natural experiment with the combination of difference-in-differences method (DID) and spatial doberman model (SDM). Moreover, this paper decomposes the policy effect into direct part and spatial spillover part, further analyzes the mechanism from the perspective of energy use, energy structure and energy efficiency. The empirical results show that: (1) From 2013 to 2016, carbon emissions in pilots achieve reduction significantly through CET. Both the results of the robustness test and the endogenous analysis support the above conclusion. (2) Carbon emissions in neighbouring region of pilots are also reduced, which proves the existence of spatial spillover effects from CET. Compared with direct part, the spatial spillover part accounted for smaller proportion in spatial carbon emissions reduction effect. (3) The emission reduction effect of CET continues to increase over the long term, while the spatial spillover effect gradually decreases as distance increases. (4) The decline of fossil energy use is main path to reduce carbon emissions, while the CET fails to increase the use of clean energy, optimize energy use structure or improve energy efficiency.

For a century, zoning—the local-government regulation of land use, structures, and lots through the assignment of lots to distinctly regulated districts—has dictated how and where we live. As zoning enters its second century, there is a strong drumbeat for reform. Reformers have most explicitly targeted the elimination of single-family zoning, pointing to research showing that single-family zoning drives up development costs, degrades the environment, and makes communities too homogenous. While these negative effects are real, simply lifting bans on multi-family housing may not actually create more housing options, because zoning is far more complex than the number-of-units measure alone. Process requirements like mandatory public hearings and substantive requirements involving lot configuration, building size, and occupancy, among other things, play a significant role in determining whether and what residential development occurs. Understanding how all of these aspects of zoning codes affect the supply of housing is needed to truly understand what to advocate for. Yet high-quality, reliable data that could drive activism in general, and the most impactful types of reform more specifically, is missing. This Article’s central claim is that our simplistic approach to zoning reform results in part from the lack of sophisticated empirical data documenting about the many hidden constraints on housing embedded in zoning codes across jurisdictions. The Article exposes how both legal scholars and economists have drawn conclusions from unreliable or incomplete data. As a result, current zoning research cannot be relied upon to inform broad policy choices at any scale. Using a dataset that overcomes the reliability and comprehensiveness flaws of prior research, this Article shows how zoning kills housing by a thousand cuts in Connecticut. Mining this dataset, then replicating it elsewhere, will help us more definitively illuminate the effects of zoning nationally. This Article closes by reinforcing calls for a national dataset tracking how zoning codes treat housing, using the Connecticut methods and data collected as a starting point. Ultimately, this Article seeks to expose the hidden levers of zoning and to encourage both scholars and reformers to document and quantify the requirements that incrementally strangle the national supply of housing.

Kedungsapur, which is an ex-residency area of Semarang which includes Kendal, Demak, Ungaran, Salatiga, Semarang, and Purwodadi, is a densely populated area which means that the number of schools in this area is also quite dense and of course, schools in carrying out their activities cannot be separated from various problems such as law problem. Based on data obtained from LKBH PGRI Central Java shows that the number of teachers with legal problems related to their professional duties in the last 5 years (2015-2020) was more than 50 cases and these problems could be resolved with E-Law Consultinging. Kedungsapur area was chosen by the research team because of its strategic and representative location whereas the research method used in this research is juridical empirical heavily relies on empirical data taken from the field which in this case, The Teachers in Kedungsapur Area to then analyzed using triangulation data. The results showed that of 29 respondents in Kendal, Demak, Ungaran, Salatiga, Semarang, and Purwodadi, more than 90 percent were interested in the E-Law Consulting application and felt helped by this application as it is cheap, responsive, and reliable. The feedback received from respondents is to further improve the interface and increase the coverage of protection so that it is not only limited to providing services to teachers but also the general public so that the existing material needs to be expanded to include general criminal material to cover the law problem experienced in the community at the application development stage in the future.

This paper studies voting behavior in proportional representation systems. It proposes a model in which coalition formation cannot be accurately predicted once the distribution of seats in parliament is known. Voters care about policy outcomes, and are all assumed to be strategic. Identical agents who expect extremely similar electoral outcomes but expect different coalitions have radically opposed strategies. The model is tested against empirical data from Israel, 2006. Results suggest that agents with similar preferences who have reasonably similar expectations regarding the distribution of votes may use different voting strategies precisely when expect different coalitions. The implications of this are discussed.

Compliance in the domain of CSR differs from financial compliance in that mere abidance to legal rules is insufficient. By its very nature, CSR compliance is a socially constructed phenomenon. Public expectations regarding CSR evolve over time but are also driven by how the majority of firms behave. CSR non-compliance is constituted by not meeting these expectations. Firms meeting or exceeding public expectations receive a bonus in terms of public support, firms not meeting public expectations get punished, and firms respond to this by choosing their CSR engagement. Using an agent-based-model, we simulate this interaction. For firms, we presume simple decision rationales based on benefits and costs. We vary model parameters, like CSR-related costs, but also the public’s ability to perceive CSR-related out-/under-performance and the magnitude of the punishment and rewards associated with this. Of interest are CSR levels in the firm population, how firms adapt their CSR engagement, depending on the parameters chosen but also, which parameter constellations correspond to observations of CSR levels in reality. Looking at differences between a setting in which the public predominantly punishes under-performance as opposed to a setting in which the public predominantly rewards out-performance we see different implications. For constellations with a high malus for under-performance, firms which substantially lag in terms of CSR quickly catch up to avoid reputational costs. In the long run, in particular after the laggards caught up, the CSR development responds to the bonus associated with outperforming the average in terms of CSR. For constellations with a substantial bonus for CSR out-performance, firms with very low costs of CSR engagement specialize in CSR, set high initial levels of CSR engagement and constantly out-perform the rest of the population and pull the CSR average upwards. Comparing constellations with empirical data, we see that the catching-up effect can be found in the development of the CSR engagement of firms as measured by data from the Thomson-Reuters-Eikon Database, while there is no corresponding CSR escalation of high performers.

In this paper we first want to understand what the main drivers of European market fragmentation are, based on the relative characteristics of the different orderbooks across venues. We show that with just two variables – “first limit prices” and “available quantities” – we can estimate the primary market share with a 70% R-Squared. We then tackle the question of market fragmentation at a trade level. In other words, on which venue is the next trade most likely to happen? We show that across venues that offer enough quantity to match the future trade at the best price, the next trade is equally likely to happen on any of these venues. This model seems much closer to empirical data than a model based on a probability proportional to the available quantity present on each venue. All these analyses are based on c. 580.000 SOR (Smart Order Router) market data observations from May 2019 that register best limits across main venues existing at a given point in time. These are synchronised observations that enable brokers’ SORs to implement best execution policies.

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) amongst Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) is often characterised in the literature as unstructured, informal, and ad hoc discretionary philanthropic activities. Drawing insights from recent theoretical/analytical frameworks (i.e. Crane, Matten, and Spence, 2013; and Valente and Crane, 2010), and on empirical data collected from both Nigeria and Tanzania, we found that CSR practices in SMEs are much more nuanced than previously presented. In addition, SMEs undertake their CSR practices to varying degrees in multiple spaces – i.e. the workplace, marketplace, community and the ecological environment. These CSR practices go beyond philanthropy and in some instances involve institutional works aimed at addressing some of the institutional gaps in the environments where these SMEs operate. The paper makes a contribution by drawing attention to the multiple spaces of CSR practices amongst SMEs, and the institutional works they do, which are often taken for granted in the extant literature. We provide a unique perspective – by arguing that what is frequently conceptualised as philanthropic CSR in Africa is (or may include) ‘institutional works’.

Since the learning is an activity which is comprised of accepting, processing and retaining the data which are collected through stimuli and interpreted well in accordance with the situations. Hearing and listening since stand on the extreme poles where learning is a complex activity which can be better prompted with an outside source. Such a source having a building block of sufficient talent management results in a proper percentage for the learning process to happen for the receiver. The objective of this research is to study the theoretical framework for talent management and assess how talent management of key personnel’s enhances the learning cues of its beneficiaries. In the first part of the paper discusses an overview of talent management and its dimensions, empirical data is examined in the second part, and finally analysis and interpretations is elaborated. Feedback and results of this empirical study can better serve as a great resource for decision making about effective talent management practices for college administrators and policy makers. Findings of this study provide data and information that will enhance the learning cues of its beneficiaries.

The empirical data indicate that a relatively small increment of additional USPTO investment in prior art search at the initial examination stage could be a cost-effective mechanism for improving accuracy in the patent system. This contribution argues that machine learning provides a promising arena for such investment. Notably, the use of machine learning in patent examination does not raise the same potent concerns about individual rights and discrimination that it raises in other areas of administrative and judicial process. That said, even an apparently easy case like prior art search at the USPTO poses challenges. The most important generalizable challenge relates to explainability. The USPTO has stressed transparency to the general public as necessary for achieving adequate explainability. However, at least in contexts like prior art search, adequate explainability does not require full transparency. Moreover, full transparency would chill provision of private sector expertise and would be susceptible to gaming.

This paper analyses a newly constructed individual level dataset of every English death and probate from 1892-2016. The estimated top wealth shares match closely existing estimates. However, this analysis clearly shows that the 20th century's `Great Equalization' of wealth stalled in mid-century. The probate rate, which captures the proportion of English with any significant wealth at death rose from 10% in the 1890s to 40% by 1950 and has stagnated to 2016. Despite the large declines in the wealth share of the top 1%, from 73% to 20%, the median English person died with almost nothing throughout. All changes in inequality after 1950 involve a reshuffling of wealth within the top 30%. Further, I find that a log-linear distribution fits the empirical data better than a Pareto power law. Finally, I show that the top wealth shares are increasingly and systematically male as one ascends in wealth, 1892-1992, but this has equalized over the 20th century.

Artificial intelligence is having a transformative effect on the business world. Among others, legal services industry is susceptible to these transformations, but being a part of the legal system, it adopts novelties more slowly than other service-based industries. The issue of AI acceptance for legal services is widely discussed in Russia. The opportunities and threats of AI implementation are the subjects of academic research, business enquires, experts' assessments, and professional community discussions. Still, all those pieces of evidence are biased by the objectives of specific research and methodology used, mostly have no or little empirical data to ground conclusions on. The absence of empirical evidence on the state-of-the-art of AI in legal services and users’ expectations on AI implementation hinders further research in various topics – from legal firms’ management and legal innovations to the lawyering process and access to justice. This paper confirms expert opinions regarding AI technologies and their implementations for legal services, suggesting the cooperation of lawyer and AI in legal service rendering rather than competition. Russian lawyers appear to have the experience of using very advanced AI solutions, including those that are unavailable directly on the Russian market. The expectations of lawyers as users of AI technologies could be described as uncertain, which means that further extension of the AI implementation is still a disputable issue.

The report presents new insights and data on stablecoins, an innovative and rapidly evolving sector of the cryptocurrency ecosystem. Stablecoins, as the name suggests, are cryptocurrencies that are designed to minimize price volatility. The findings in this research study build on an earlier 2018 empirical study and are based on the analysis of a new data set for 57 individual stablecoins. Empirical data was gathered from both public and non-public sources. The total number of active projects makes stablecoins one of the largest cryptoasset categories, and as shown in the report stablecoins are also a leading category across a number of other key metrics (e.g., venture funding). The level of interest and resources devoted to stablecoins is striking and indicates that stablecoins are viewed as a very important part of the digital assets ecosystem. Indeed, stablecoins are often thought of as a foundational or infrastructure layer, one that could significantly expand the cryptoasset userbase from our current estimate of approximately 30-40 million individuals. New in this year's report: - new research primers on three leading stablecoins: Paxos Standard, Stasis and Reserve; - a new in-depth comparison of Paxos Standard, USD Coin and Gemini Dollar; - expanded data profiles for many stablecoins and new stablecoins added to the data set (the 2019 report is twice the length of its predecessor); - refreshed data and analysis across the full report to reflect the substantial changes observed over the last six months; and - an overview of how exposure by investors to the growing use of stablecoins is being obtained.

The aim of this paper is to transfer the findings of the research project “Challenges to Dialogue in Ukraine” (2016-2017) to dialogue experts and actors on the ground. Empirical data from 40 in-depth interviews and three focus groups, revealed six patterns and possible risks if the patterns are continued: facilitated dialogues present only a minor part of all dialogue projects in Ukraine; they are focused on technical issues; concentrated in the Eastern part of Ukraine; and often implemented through impactless approaches with a deficient inclusion of women and “the other Ukrainians.”

Aligning with the broader discussion of migration, seasonal migration also resembled a multifold phenomenon ranging from reasons of temporal movement to settling down process at the place of destination. In this paper, seasonal migration was portrayed in between the ‘alarmists’ view and ‘skeptic’ view of migration, holding a new position called ‘opportunistic migration’ that seemed to offer benefits to the seasonal migrants characterizing by gaining social knowledge and earning money from the place of destination. The empirical data, face-to-face in-depth interviews, showed that both social and economic aspects of seasonal migration were dominated by the pull factors, and environmental aspects were linked with the push factors. This paper also highlighted that social network played an active role for seasonal migrants, in particular, the workers who seasonally migrated into the brickfields of southwest coastal Bangladesh. While migratingfrom the rural to the urban context, two-tier verbal agreements took place in between the brickfield owners with the contractors, and the contractors with the brickfield workers. Though those verbal agreements seemed to contain some extent of the failure of expectations by the above-mentioned actors related to seasonal migration, it also held optimism of development for every actor. Finally, this paper reused the term ‘collateral promise’ with a slighter social tone to understand the informal interactions among the employers, contractors, and the seasonal migrants. KEYWORDS: Seasonal migration, social network, collateral promise, and qualitative method.&nbsp

As many African countries are liberalising, deregulating their economies and allowing more freedom, many others are on the opposite side - restricting and showing a digressing media atmosphere. The aim of this study is to examine why the media in two Eastern African countries Sudan and Ethiopia fail or have failed in the past decade and how the international community could assist their sustainability. Both countries have strong state owned media but very weak private (free) press. In the overarching study, archival and official national data analysis and semi-structured interviews are conducted to collect empirical data from each country. Theoretically, as there is no media related theory available to study mass media sustainability, theories from economics such as Systems Theory and the Four Capital Model have been consulted. The study has found that due to “contextual” reasons most media outlets fail in the countries and shows what the international community could do to assist sustainability in the countries.

The report presents new insights and data on stablecoins, an innovative and rapidly evolving sector of the cryptocurrency ecosystem. Stablecoins, as the name suggests, are cryptocurrencies that are designed to minimize price volatility. The findings in this research study are based on the analysis of a new data set for 57 individual stablecoins. The empirical data utilized in the analysis was gathered from both public and non-public sources. The total number of active projects makes stablecoins one of the largest cryptoasset categories, and as shown in the report stablecoins are also a leading category across a number of key metrics (e.g., venture funding). The level of interest and resources devoted to stablecoins is striking and indicates that stablecoins are viewed as a very important part of the digital assets ecosystem. Indeed, stablecoins are often thought of as a foundational layer or infrastructure, one that could significantly expand the cryptoasset userbase from our current estimate of approximately 20-30 million individuals.

This White Paper summarises currently available empirical data about attitudes and opinions of citizens and state actors regarding cybersecurity. The data emerges from reports of EU projects, Eurobarometer surveys, policy documents of state actors and additional scientific papers. It describes what these stakeholders generally think, what they feel, and what they do about cyber threats and security (counter)measures. For citizens’ perspectives, three social spheres of particular interest are examined: 1) health, 2) business, 3) police and national security.

Many of the most well-known corporate scandals were associated to related party transactions such as Enron, Wordcom or Parmalat. However, transactions between entities and related parties must be adequately disclosed in the financial statements of the reporting entity. Although IAS 24 is endorsed over two decades, a general observations in the literature is that these transactions are not properly disclosed in all instances (Mackenzie et al., 2014). IAS 1 demands to fully comply with all IFRS, which also relates to materiality. Related party transactions are very often prescribed by local requirements and listing standards e.g. Form 20-F of the SEC, which have to be disclosed in parallel to the IAS 24 disclosures. This empirical study will focus on the comparison between those IFRS Related Party Transactions (IRPT) and Non-IFRS related Party Transactions (NIRPT) for a sample of 100 companies listed on the NYSE. The research question is if based on empirical data it is possible to support the hypothesis that IRPRT are not properly disclosed as material NIRPT are missing for IFRS purpose. The results are mixed, as the majority of the companies in the sample provide a summary disclosure for IFRS and SEC-related related party disclosures within the notes, however there are also selective corporations, which strictly separate IFRS IAS 24 disclosures from SEC related party disclosures without any reverse effect.

This paper seeks to extend the understating of how performance information (PI) is used in the university context and is intended to contribute to the current debate on the use of PI in the context of faculty performance management (PM). Empirical data was gathered through two in-depth case studies. This approach allows a multi-level analysis based on neo-institutional theory and legitimacy theories. The results of this study are also compared with the literature on PI use. PM practices at universities have become increasingly popular on an institutional, group, and individual basis. The results indicate that PI is used in universities; however, the extent and the scope of PI use by various actors can differ at various levels. How PI is used seems to be motivated by the influences coming to the national and international accrediting and rating agencies. In general, universities use PI to legitimize themselves externally as research-oriented institutions, and their practices are gradually becoming isomorphic. However, analysis at the internal level reveals different attitudes and approaches related to the use of PI. We found evidence of decoupling from the existing performance regulation in the case of more traditional university. In the case of more entrepreneurial universities, mimetic isomorphic practices are more evident. This paper focuses on two case studies, which are still undergoing change. Analysis could be reinforced by studying more cases, the use of different data collection methods, and cross-country and between-country comparative analysis. The use of PI is discussed in the specific context of the higher education system in Poland. Also, the cases of two business schools facilitate the analysis of the differences in how PI is used in the context of traditional and entrepreneurial universities.

Public reporting of medical treatment outcomes is being widely adopted by policymakers in an effort to increase quality transparency and improve alignment between patient choices and provider capabilities. We examine the soundness of this approach by studying the effects of quality transparency on patient choices, hospital investments, societal outcomes (e.g., patients' social welfare and inequality), and the healthcare market structure (e.g., medical or geographical specialization). Our results offer insights into why previous public reporting efforts have been less than fully successful and suggest ways in which future efforts can be more effective. Specifically, our analytical and simulation results calibrated with empirical data reveal that increasing quality transparency promotes increased medical specialization, results in decreased geographical specialization, and induces hospitals to invest in their strengths rather than their weakness. Furthermore, increasing quality transparency in the short-term typically improves social welfare and reduces inequality among patients. In the long-term, however, we find that increasing transparency can decrease social welfare, and fail to yield socially optimal outcomes even under full transparency. Hence, a policymaker concerned with societal outcomes should accompany increasing quality transparency with other policies that correct the allocation of patients to hospitals. Among these, we find that policies that incentivize hospitals are generally more effective than policies that incentivize patients. Finally, our results indicate that, to achieve maximal benefits from increasing quality transparency, policymakers should target younger, more affluent, or urban (i.e., high hospital density area) patients, or those requiring non-emergency treatment.

The push for gender diversity on public companies' boards has been gaining traction. Advocacy groups, institutional investors, regulators and companies themselves have all recognized the need for more diverse boards. However, gender parity is still absent from most public companies' boards, and a significant number of companies still have no women on their boards. Current public and academic discourse has focused on the number of women serving on the board and their percentage compared to men as the litmus test for gender diversity. However, academic studies and the public push for more diversity have mostly failed to account for another important measure of board gender diversity - the actual role and clout that female directors have within the boardroom. This is what the Article terms as substantive gender diversity. Substantive gender diversity matters. It is at the core of both the social cause and the business case for gender diversity on boards. This Article explores this substantive component of board gender diversity through empirical data relating to the role that men and women play on corporate boards. The Article finds statistically significant differences between the roles of female and male directors. Building on these findings, the Article asserts that regulators, investors and companies must focus not only on increasing the number of women on boards but also on ensuring that female directors enjoy similar parity once elected. The Article then proposes a shift towards a Substantive Gender Diversity Disclosure regime, which would measure and report the substantive aspect of gender diversity in boardrooms.

In this paper we consider the reasons for and the costs of limited collaboration between academic researchers and private sector firms. We focus, in particular, on one type of knowledge transfer between the two realms, namely, academic consulting to the private sector. We argue that academics do not understand the value their expertise, methodological approach and soft skills can have for industry. We also argue that industry actors are not fully aware that rigorous, evidence-based advice can be obtained from academics and that, in some cases, advice from academics will either exceed or compare favorably with services obtained from leading consulting companies. The paper is organized as follows: part I surveys the different forms that collaboration between academia and industry can take. Part II examines the empirical data on how much collaboration is actually happening. Part III explores the reasons for the broad disconnect between industry and academia. Parts IV and V argue that the lack of such collaboration results in missed opportunities for both academics and industry and thus constitutes a market failure. Part VI raises suggestions for increasing collaboration.

This report contains follow on research from the 2015 study examining the nature of private commercial mediation in New Zealand. The aim of this research project is to examine gatekeepers’ perspectives on commercial mediation. There is a lack of empirical information on the nature and use of commercial mediation in New Zealand. This project aimed at gathering empirical data from lawyers working within this field to gain a picture of the current market. Overall conclusions include:• Lawyers know about commercial mediation and support it, but largely on their own terms. They are not undermining it. Lawyers believe they are contributing positively to the mediation process.• Clients have a more limited knowledge of mediation but usually follow their lawyer’s recommendations. Thus lawyers play a key role as gatekeepers to commercial mediation.• The main reason lawyers recommend mediation is cost ie it is cheaper than litigation.• Lawyers prefer legal trained mediators with experience and a good reputation. • Lawyers report high mediation settlement rates and high overall quality of mediation. Lawyers are generally happy with the standard of commercial mediation in New Zealand.• It appears that while mediators believe it would be advantageous to expand commercial mediation in NZ, lawyers are generally satisfied with the level and quality of commercial mediation. The group that has not yet been surveyed is clients and potential clients of commercial mediation.

Expenditure on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) was made mandatory under a 'comply or explain' approach by the Companies Act, 2013, applicable from year ending 2014. The Act also specifies various heads under which a company can spend. Using business school students, we conduct an experiment to examine two things (1) the impact of companies' choices regarding how much to spend, and (2) companies' choices regarding which head to spend under, on investor likelihood of investment. Our results show that investors neither value nor discount companies that spend more than the minimum amount on CSR and further that they are less likely to invest in companies that spend on incubation and they value such companies lower as compared to companies that spend on education or gender issues. Our results are in line with the empirical data pertaining to the amounts spent by companies.

Although the measurement of individual propensity to participate in anti-government protests in autocracies is strategically consequential for both the government and the opposition, its prediction by scholars remains a challenging task. Individual responses about intention to participate in anti-government protests can be vastly polluted by measurement error, namely social desirability bias, preventing respondents from openly revealing their preferences. Amplifying this problem is the fact that individuals tend to condition their own participation in protests on the perceived magnitude. Our research attempts to bypass these problems by offering a set of list experiments adopted to the study of protests, preserving full anonymity for the respondent. The use of two experiments allows us to manipulate the size of the protests the respondents are exposed to. Together, these factors mitigate social desirability bias. A set of auxiliary follow-up questions helps us to measure the contributions an individual is willing to make when deciding to participate in the anti-government protest. The empirical data analysis is based on the data sample collected by VCIOM, a national polling agency in Russia, in Winter 2016.

How much does it cost individual Canadians to seek civil justice? This article compiles empirical data about the monetary, temporal, and psychological costs confronting individual justice-seekers in this country. The analysis considers the hourly rates of Canadian lawyers relative to American lawyers, and the costs confronting justice-seekers in family courts relative to other civil courts, among other topics. The article suggests that analysis of private costs can improve access to justice in two ways. First, it can help public sector policy-makers reduce these costs. Second, it can help lawyers and entrepreneurs identify new, affordable ways to reduce the costs that are most onerous to individuals with different types of civil legal need.

Arguments about turnover and retention risk play a key role in executive compensation decision making, but it’s rare to see those arguments supported with empirical data. A recent academic paper highlighted that the Execucomp database tracks executives across firms and analyzed the impact of “job hopping” on the pay of the executives continuing to work at the job hopper’s old firm. In this paper, we show how the same tracking data can be used to improve peer group selection and measure the impact of premium pay, unvested deferred compensation and stock ownership on retention risk. Key findings from our analyses are: (1) commonly used peer group selection models, including the ISS model, capture less than a quarter of job hop “landing” spots, (2) job hoppers experience a wide range of pay outcomes, with more than a third having lower pay, but the vast majority move to a position with a market rate within 10% of their old position’s market rate, (3) companies experiencing job hop turnover increase their pay (vs market) by 5% on average, with bigger increases at lower paying firms and firms with more turnover, and (4) stock ownership is associated with lower job hop turnover but the impact of pay (vs market) is paradoxical: high pay is associated with higher job hop turnover and low pay is associated with lower job hop turnover. We discuss alternative explanations for the pay/turnover paradox, show how to improve peer group selection, develop better market rates and find a competitive positioning that’s not “stuck in the middle” with target pay levels that are too high to be cost-efficient vs low payers and too low to be effective vs high payers.

The working paper is based on research findings concerning the functioning of 35 Russian technology parks in 2013 – the first half of 2015. The analysis of the performance of these technology parks has been carried out on the basis of the CANVAS framework, proposed by Osterwalder and Pine in 2010. The research was conducted in the domain of 9 key blocks business model of technology parks, including infrastructure and services provided, companies’ residents, cooperation with partners, including regional and federal authorities, scientific and education institutions, financial and economic indicators of technoparks and key performance indicators used. On the basis of empirical data 7 business models of functioning of Russian technology parks were revealed, including IT-park, university park, 2 types of facilitators of innovation processes in a region and 3 types of entrepreneurial technoparks. The classification allows differentiating the nature and level of support of technology parks as objects of innovation infrastructure. Detailed profile of business models reveals the competitive advantages and weaknesses of technoparks, as well as mechanisms to improve the efficiency of these objects of innovation infrastructure.

The importance of shareholder activism in widely held public companies is already broadly recognized. Less well understood, however, is the role that activist hedge funds play in public companies with a controlling shareholder, and the common view has been that dispersed stock ownership is typically a precondition for activist intervention. To fill this gap, this Article presents the first comprehensive account of hedge fund activism in controlled companies in the United States. Using empirical data and illustrative examples from recent years, the Article finds a surprising number of activist engagements with controlled companies, and unveils the variety of channels through which activism is deployed as well as the limitations of these channels. It concludes by offering regulators and institutional investors some suggestions for further empowering activists in controlled companies, such as granting investors unaffiliated with the controllers the right to elect minority directors.

Over the years, a number of regulations have been adopted at EU level in an attempt to facilitate and simplify access to justice in cross-border litigation. Despite the various actions undertaken by the European legislator to establish a uniform procedural framework with regard to certain types of cross-border claims, numerous di! erences continue to exist. " e recent e! orts to digitalise cross-border procedures through the e-CODEX project in order to allow electronic # ling of European uniform procedures claims between Member States have raised awareness of the complexity and the impact of national procedural rules on the application of the European uniform procedures. Empirical data on the service of documents rules applicable in the European Order for Payments claims as well as domestic procedures used for equivalent purposes was collected in 16 EU jurisdictions. " is paper investigates the way in which the implementation and coordination between the national service of documents rules and the service standards set by the Regulation impact on the application of the European Order for Payment and, subsequently, on the parties ' access to justice. To conclude, the paper focuses on the possible solutions and actions that could mitigate the difficulties encountered in the present legal framework.

This paper would like to add to the empirical research in relation to leniency programs. The purpose of this paper is to inform the reader on what is at play in Japan. This paper does not yet aim at connect conclusions to the empirical data. The empirical data obtained needs to be further checked with a qualitative study. The reason for already making the findings public is twofold. First, there is a wealth of information available on the use of the Japanese leniency program but only in Japanese language. Second, the quantitative study has shown great parallels between the answers of lawyers and cartel participants.

Knowledge intensive business services (KIBS) are characterized by high concentration in large urban areas due to the presence of more developed infrastructure, higher human capital development, proximity to the large customer, etc. However, companies in the KIBS sector have potential for development (new knowledge, experience) in collaboration with agents located in other regions.This paper is focused on the spatial aspects of the knowledge intensive business services sector in Russia. The study is based on a unique empirical data from mass surveys of Russian producers and consumers of KIBS. Comparative analysis of the incoming and outgoing flows of KIBS in Russian regions helps us to classify federal districts by their involvement in KIBS exchange, and to map the intensity of these flows. We have identified regions that are actively involved in both the purchase of services and their delivery outside the regional boundaries (Volga and Central Districts); active regions of consumption with an average level of production (Northwestern and Siberian Districts); and the passive regions, who are only weakly involved in inter-regional exchange of knowledge intensive business services (Ural and Southern Federal Districts).

In this paper, we report our findings from a pilot project, where we examined the relationships between copyright, publicly funded arts and humanities research, and research processes in the digital era. Our examination was based on case studies of six different AHRC-funded projects: three funded under the Digital Transformations theme, and three funded by one of the Knowledge Exchange Hubs for the Creative Economy, Research and Enterprise in the Arts and Creative Technologies (REACT). To study the six cases, we conducted semi-structured interviews with selected participants from each of these funded projects. We used this empirical data to address the following research questions: (1) How do researchers engage with copyright during the research process and in the production of creative works, and what copyright related challenges emerge? (2) How is researchers’ engagement with copyright affected by digitisation, collaboration, legislation, and government policies? (3) Does copyright provide benefits to researchers as they undertake publicly funded research? (4) What range of works is produced during research, what do researchers identify to be of value in their projects, and can any of the benefits provided by copyright be mapped onto these values?

This study aims to explore the impact of Employee Service Innovation Behavior (ESIB) on New Service Development (NSD) among hotels’ employees. A research model was proposed in which one hypothesis was developed. The empirical data were collected from employees who are working in four- and five-star hotels in Jordan. A total of 332 questionnaires were returned and the data were analyzed using a single regression to determine the relationship between ESIB and NSD. The results supported the proposed model that there is a significant relationship between ESIB and NSD, and it also found that service innovation performance is exited in the hotel industry. The theoretical and managerial implications were drawn based on the study findings, and recommendations for future researchers were made, and limitations and conclusions are discussed.

In times of increased market dynamics, companies must be capable of initiating and implementing innovation projects that vary greatly in type, speed and degree of innovation. Many companies do not succeed. This paper introduces an innovation management framework that allows companies to successfully face this challenge. Using empirical data from 200 staff members employed by German, Austrian and Swiss companies, four types of innovation cultures were determined, each of which foster a different degree of organizational creativity. Proactive innovators (21%) promote organizational creativity at a high level and across all categories. Strategic innovators (26%) foster innovation by focusing on their strategy and their value system. Innovative optimizers (36%) promote more adaptive levels while operational innovators (16%) promote low levels of organizational creativity. Each type enables a company or a business unit to manage different degrees of innovation projects. The holistic innovation management model introduced in this paper will enable companies to better meet the challenges of rapidly changing markets.

The probability of informed trading (PIN) is used widely as a measure of information asymmetry. Relatively little work has appeared on how well PIN models fit empirical trade data. We reveal structural limitations in PIN models by examining their marginal distributions and dependence structures represented by copulas. We develop a distribution-free test of the goodness-of-fit of PIN models. Our results indicate that estimated PIN models have generally poor fit to actual trade data. These results suggest that researchers should be cautious when PIN estimates are plugged into empirical models as explanatory variables.

This paper presents the results of research into the values and norms which are adhered to a Russian tour operator, the employees’ personal business values, and the level of their adherence to company regulations. The empirical data of this research includes the company’s internal documents, four in-depth interviews with senior management employees, and a survey of 98 employees. The value and norm profiles of the organization and its employees were identified, as well as the areas in which they converged and diverged. This research shed some light on those values and norms which are characteristic of a tourism organization, and attempted to fill the gap in the extant knowledge on this topic in the academic literature.

The study is focused on the cooperation of Russian companies with research organizations in implementing R&D projects during technological innovation. Taking into account behavioral changes, authors carry out a micro-level analysis based on empirical data of executive survey of over 600 Russian industrial firms (2011—2012) and about 350 research organizations and universities (2012). The authors emphasize the key factors of firms’ demand for outsourcing R&D reveal the main barriers to the development of university-industry cooperation and their particularities for different cooperation actors. The analysis shows that there is a positive relation between the size of a company and R&D outsourcing. As for the factor of age, the highest cooperation activity of Russian firms is observed among enterprises founded over 20 years ago. As far as concernes cooperation activity of research organizations, large ones are significantly more likely to cooperate with business. A common prerequisite for research organizations' R&D cooperation with business is sufficient academic ranking. Business and science evaluate differently various obstacles to effective cooperation. For firms, the main problems are the inflated costs of national R&Ds, insufficient research organizations’ orientation at company needs, and low quality of developments. As for representatives of research organizations, they mention as barriers primarily the lack of companies' receptivity to innovation and inadequate information about promising developments. Businesses are more optimistic about cooperation with science if they already have a relevant experience of interaction. In the case of research organizations we observe a different pattern: most problems seem more significant to organizations conducting R&D in business interests.

The evolution of mobile is reshaping the future of communication in the digital age. This report identifies emerging patterns of mobile communication and the factors that are shaping its future, including its societal implications. This analysis is used to speculate on alternative scenarios for the future of mobile communication and key developments on which these futures depend. The analyses of trends, and the emerging scenarios they support, are based on a critical overview of existing literature, empirical data on mobile adoption and use, and interviews with experts in mobile and related technologies, communication, and information services. While this review is limited, both with respect to the data available and the range of interviews conducted, it suggests fruitful directions for further research on the future of one of the most important areas of innovation in our digital world.

PhD education in Spain has experienced rapid structural changes. Then, how have the PhD education changed over time? Two steps have been followed to answer this research question. First, I explore objectives and the structure stipulated in three main Royal Decrees (RDs), 185/1985, 778/1998 and the 99/2011 – related to the PhD education. With this analysis, the changes in the objectives and structure are identified. Second, some dimensions have been taken from these RDs to analyze them empirically, so I can illustrate the changes in the PhD education in Spain. Dimensions are examined using empirical data from the Human Resource Survey (HHRR2006) and using data from the Observatory of the Spanish Research Activity (IUNE). Main results show that the objectives and structure of the PhD education in Spain have changed. Objectives of the RDs have evolved considering historical facts. This means that objectives of the PhD education have pointed out Spain as a single nation in the RD 185/1985 and even in the RD 778/1998. However, big changes have been experienced in the RD 99/2011 where Spain is already looking at as a member of the European Union. Moreover, the empirical analysis evidenced an increase in the number of new professors and researchers along time. Also, the publication of scientific articles in the Institute for Science Information (ISI) has increased and become relevant with the RD 99/2011.

This paper examines a number of widely used liquidity measures to assess the consistency and reliability of the measures across different liquidity scenarios. A review is conducted of the various measures (based on Gabrielsen, Marzo and Zagaglia, 2011). This paper expands upon their review, by simulating liquidity scenarios using TraderEx software and comparing the sensitivity of the measures to the simulated data. Additionally, empirical data are tested on low and high liquidity assets from the S&P 500 to assess if the differences in empirical data are transferrable (and consistent) with differences in the simulations. Results indicate that the current measures are quite limited due to the inflexibility they exhibit with respect to number of assets, time dependence and time structure dependence. This paper proposes to design new measures for liquidity identification and measurement in simulated environments, which can then be applied to empirical markets, which do not require the rigid assumptions associated with traditional time-series methods.

People litigate for various reasons. Some want to right wrongs, others – make precedents. But most, at least in the civil realm, sue to protect economic interests; and they are motivated by pragmatic considerations rather than abstract notions of justice. One fruit of the mercantile approach to civil litigation is the nascent market where third parties provide financing for litigants (or their lawyers) and profit from a successful resolution of the funded claims. Through the lens of a third-party funder, justice is a mass-market commodity, and its value depends on laws of men and laws of probability alike.The ways of litigation funders create multiple points of tension for the legal process and its participants, and laws on the book offer little guidance on how third-party interests should be treated. Resulting procedural and ethical dilemmas have stirred a debate among scholars who rushed to offer conflicting opinions and advice. Critics demand that litigation investing be banned, calling it a travesty of justice that turns courts into casinos. Enthusiasts want the practice formally recognized, asserting that it levels the playing field for weaker parties.The discussion on litigation financing does not lack vigor; but it does lack hard facts. Drawing from first-hand empirical data on the practice of litigation funding in the United States, this paper explains how the market for legal claims actually works. First, I describe the entire ecosystem of actors who apply the logic of asset management to uncertainties of individual lawsuits – litigants; litigators; funding companies and their investors; and their “entourage” providing additional, specialized services. Then I segment the market and explore different strategies of third-party investing. Finally, I list American litigation funders and group them based on what they do.Based on the descriptive findings, I claim that modern civil litigation engages multiple, often undisclosed stakeholders with complex financial motivations. I argue that such interests should be recognized by the legal system as legitimate and ultimately regulated. The first step in that direction should be making sure that third-party involvement in a dispute is disclosed.

As part of Russia’s transformation process of the last decade, the preconditions for the emergence of philanthropic institutions were created. However, there is a limited amount of research devoted to the philanthropic activity of Russians. This deficit stems from a lack of empirical data on the subject. This article seeks to partly rectify this deficit of empirical information on the topic. We examine the level of Russian citizens’ involvement in making cash donations and reveal the socio-demographic factors that influence it. Empirical data were collected within the framework of the monitoring of Russian civil society that has been conducted since 2006. We found that giving is a rather well-developed civic practice in Russia, even based on the number of Russians who make donations. To activate charity, a favorable institutional environment needs to be created in Russia.

Strategic decisions can be uncertain and intractable, so decision-makers commonly seek advice from peers. Yet finding a skilled advisor is tricky: People are poor judges of skill, even more so in the wicked environments where many strategic decisions happen. Starting from micro-level empirical data, we craft a theoretical model of strategic advice-taking and its consequences. We show that if decision-makers were perfect judges of skill, then advice-taking is always beneficial. But under experimentally validated assumptions of skill misjudgment, peer advice benefits the less-skilled while harms highly skilled decision-makers. As this bifurcation propagates through an organization, it degrades skill and harms performance. Turning to solutions, we propose when limiting advice-taking is beneficial for individuals and organizations.

Even though it is well known that patients often arrive early and out of turn for scheduled appointments in outpatient clinics, no research has been undertaken to establish whether an idle provider should see an early patient right away (preempt) or wait for the patient scheduled next. In practice, this problem is typically resolved using a first-come-first-served policy, which consists of seeing the early patient. By contrast, we analytically determine the time intervals where it is optimal to preempt and those where it is optimal to wait. Our analysis indicates that the first-come-first-served policy is never optimal, although it is a good heuristic under certain circumstances, e.g. when overtime charges are high, appointment lengths are short, or if patients are likely to arrive very late. Compared to the first-come-first-served policy, our method dramatically reduces patient waiting times at the cost of a modest increase in overtime. Our results are obtained analytically and validated with simulated and empirical data. A software program is provided that clinics can readily use to solve the wait-preempt dilemma.

Interbank activities including bilateral deposits and loans are widely considered a direct channel for financial contagion. Through this channel, the failure of one bank may trigger the insolvency of other banks, causing a systemic failure or large loss of assets. This research empirically tests for the possibility of contagion in Southeast Asian banks in the context of the increasingly more integrated ASEAN Economic Community (AEC). Data on bilateral deposits and loans between 234 banks located in all ten Southeast Asian countries are collected. Simulations based on empirical data are performed to examine the potential for contagion. In the simulations, the bankruptcy of a single bank is initially assumed. Then, bankruptcy and losses incurred to other banks via the aforementioned interbank exposures are estimated. Allen and Gale (1998, 2000) contagion model and Upper and Worms (2004) model are extended to account for the characteristics of the ASEAN financial network. The findings indicate that the more integrated and more complete ASEAN banking system under AEC is more tolerant to contagion than individual national banking networks.

This article proposes that scientific inquiry regarding questions of fact should have an autonomous zone that is protected from politics. Although many scholars promote the idea that science is politicized, little empirical data exists to support this conclusion. This article contains an empirical study that demonstrates that the public received inaccurate information in the debate over a highly politicized and controversial area of scientific inquiry, embryonic stem cell research. This article utilizes the data from the empirical study and public choice theory to explain that there are process defects; this economic model can help explain, but cannot be used to resolve the process defects. Instead, this article articulates reasons why scientific inquiry should have an autonomous zone and that political actors should play a limited role in oversight. This article proposes solutions to balance the roles of elected officials with the expertise of scientists.

The purpose of this study is to determine the scale, technical and overall efficiency of the banking system of Ukraine using the DEA method in dynamics in the post-crisis period. The DEA method belongs to the group of non-parametric methods based on front’s technology analysis and allows considering the totality of impacts both the input parameters (resources) and output (products / services). The structure of banks included 24 banks of Ukraine with total assets amounted to 806.7 billion UAH (72 % of banking system assets). Banks were classified into state-owned banks and banks in which the state has a controlling interest, banks with domestic capital, banks with Russian capital and banks with foreign capital (excluding Russia). Empirical data analysis demonstrated that over the period of analysis the effectiveness of large-scale banks increased, while pure technical remained at a moderate level. Most of the banks included in the sample operate with average effective or ineffective.

This study analyses Chinese outbound investment into the US since 2004, the year when the Chinese made their initial major acquisition of a US owned organisation. The empirical data is from 2004-2012 inclusive, and extends across M&A/equity investments as well as major Bank Loans and major Trade Agreements. The data has been assembled solely from public sources, and in many cases, from the Grisons Peak China Outbound database. In this study, we posit that there are three distinctive stages of Chinese outbound investments into the US: (1) an initial phase (2004-2006), (2) financial services brands via equity/funds Investments (2007-2009), and (3) a shift to trade agreements (post financial crisis). For each phase we discuss the main transactions and their characteristics.