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In recent history, institutional investors have increased allocations to alternative assets in an effort to boost portfolio returns. The attention is now turning to individual investors. Significant partnerships, private platforms, and organizations have emerged to democratize access to alternative investments. In 2021, the US Department of Labor also took a position, suggesting that it might be prudent to include private equity in individual retirement accounts, such as in 401(k) and 403(b) plans. While institutional investors have decades of experience investing in alternative assets, the vast majority of individual investors do not. Consequently, relatively little is known about optimal alternative asset allocations for individual investors. This article presents historical risk and return characteristics from private investments including venture capital, private equity, private credit, and real estate, and constructs portfolios building on a traditional 60/40 (public equity/public debt) allocation, with varying levels of a private markets index, to examine portfolio risk and return trade-offs. Findings reveal that there are portfolio benefits to both returns and risk from adding a significant allocation to alternative investments and that wealth impacts can be sizable over time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the hedging and safe-haven characteristics across the various segments of non-fungible tokens (NFTs). It adopts the case study approach to blend the key study findings on the risk and return aspects of different NFT segments. The study finds that various segments of NFTs have mixed levels of correlations with traditional financial assets. Online games and metaverse segments of NFTs display a link to the crypto assets. Similarly, only the metaverse segment shows an association with the market sentiment. Art, online games, and collectibles segments within the NFTs space show mixed levels of hedging. However, all NFT segments under consideration show ambiguous safe-haven facets. Overall, the present study highlights some of the important aspects to consider while investing in the different segments of NFTs with respect to portfolio optimization, market dynamics, and risk management. JEL Codes: C12, C13, J64 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: In pursuit of objectives, under the European Green Deal, to channel capital flows to sustainable activities, the EU Taxonomy offers clarity, labelling real economic activities as "sustainable", based on technical screening criteria. This study of disclosure experiences aims to explore the role of co-evolutionary relationships in the Taxonomy's effectiveness. Design/methodology/approach: Co-evolution theory implies a dynamic interplay among sustainable finance stakeholders (SFSs), through adjustment to, impact on and operationalisation of the Taxonomy. Corporate disclosure experiences, including those of financial institutions and related SFS experiences, may reveal co-evolutionary processes. With significant Undertakings for Collective Investment in Transferable Securities (UCITS) and Alternative Investment Funds (AIFs), Irish SFSs provide contextual insight. Semi-structured interviews with a purposive sample of Irish SFSs capture inaugural corporate Taxonomy disclosure experiences. Findings: A thematic analysis reveals six co-evolutionary processes that facilitate Taxonomy implementation in pursuit of policy objectives: [1] cross-functional reporting; [2] iterative pre-empting and addressing compliance issues; [3] regulation as a catalyst for co-evolution; [4] advanced capacity building; [5] stakeholder adaptation and [6] graduated use of ESG data. Implications for sustainability policy development and management are significant. Practical implications: Whilst limited to just one EU jurisdiction, given limited prior empirical evidence for sustainable finance regulations from co-evolutionary perspectives, this study highlights a catalytic, yet precautionary role for co-evolution in their transformation effectiveness. As such, they must take account of their potential to stimulate co-evolution and to nurture it in pursuit of their policy objectives. Social implications: The findings of this study add to a small, but growing body of academic literature on the Taxonomy Regulation, which suggests that a co-evolutionary lens is important for gaining a comprehensive understanding of its early-stage dynamics. From an implementation perspective, the qualitative data reveals actionable implications for regulators and policymakers, such as building capacity, better anticipation of outcomes and investment in data infrastructure. Originality/value: Unlike existing analyses of disclosures, this study offers a co-evolutionary lens on Taxonomy contributions to sustainable development through qualitative accounts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study employs the Maximal Overlap Discrete Wavelet Transform technique to analyze the wavelet-based correlations between Bitcoin, bond markets, and thirteen sectoral stock indices in India over the period from 2O17 to 2O23, focusing on the comparison of pre -and post-COVID-19 pandemic effects. The aim is to investigate the dynamic interrelationships and to understand the impact of the COVID - 19 pandemic on these financial assets. The study period is divided into pre-COVID-19 and post-COVID-19. Findings from the study reveal a minimal negative correlation between Bitcoin, bond markets, and the sectoral stock indices in the pre -COVID era, indicating a lack of significant interdependence among these assets. However, the scenario changes markedly in the post-COVID period, shifting towards a positive correlation. This shift suggests that the COVID-19 pandemic has altered the relationship dynamics, leading to a more interconnected financial environment where movements in Bitcoin have begun to show a significant positive correlation with the movements in bond and sectoral stock indices in India. The study contributes to the existing literature by providing empirical evidence of how external shocks, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, can influence the correlation patterns among different financial assets. It highlights the importance of considering the changing dynamics in financial market correlations for investors, policymakers, and researchers in portfolio diversification, risk management, and financial stability analysis. Further, it underscores the role of alternative investments like Bitcoin in the evolving market landscape, particularly in response to global crises. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study adopts a composite threshold model that differentiates between the upside and downside betas of the major US-based renewable and non-renewable exchange-traded funds (ETFs) during heightened uncertainty. It is found that downside betas for both renewable and non-renewable energy ETFs are significantly greater than upside betas. However, in a highly uncertain market, renewable energy ETFs tend to enjoy higher upside gains than the fossil-fuel ETFs. The results suggest that renewable energy ETFs have great potential to generate high returns, but the downside risk associated with renewables should be mitigated by government incentivizing the use of renewables in both domestic and foreign markets. Investing in renewable energy is not only good for the environment but also compared to other investment alternatives (including fossil fuels) it provides better risk-adjusted returns. During the last 5 years, some renewable energy ETFs have even outperformed several well-established sectoral ETFs. This paper finds that there is a more favourable business case for investing in renewables than common perception would suggest. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Investment appraisal of agricultural projects (APs) is particularly demanding due to several factors. Namely, APs may have longer time horizons, higher external and internal volatility, and uncertainty caused by less control of production and external conditions (e.g., climatic conditions and market demand). Indeed, these APs may face high and different risks that should be managed properly. Nevertheless, both the literature and practice do not address such complexity and uncertainty conveniently. Thus, this research aimed to develop an integrative and easy-to-use framework to support the investment appraisal of APs, which goes beyond the traditional approach based on simple and deterministic models. This framework is based on an approach that includes several capital budgeting techniques integrating extended multi-index methodology (EMIM), Monte Carlo simulation (MCS), and real options analysis (ROA). This framework allows dealing with different risk and uncertainty scenarios and managerial flexibilities, which allow alternative and additional investment options. A simpler and easier approach can be particularly important for family agribusinesses, which usually do not use sophisticated decision-making tools. An AP in an agrosilvopastoral system (i.e., agriculture, livestock, forestry) was used to present and discuss the proposed methodology considering the relevance of such systems for sustainable agriculture and their higher risk and complexity when compared to traditional approaches. The main contribution of the framework is structuring a set of steps based on several tools to carry out investment appraisal in APs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a predictive approach to forecast future hedge fund performances and reporting stops to a commercial database within a subsequent year. We found that gradient boosting of decision trees is well suited to make a prognosis about the future development and reporting stops of hedge funds. The derived models are trained and evaluated using a panel of 5,592 individual hedge funds. We rank the impact of 22 variables that are computed out of hedge fund reporting (micro variables) and three different market environments (macro variables) on the predictability of hedge fund performance. In this way, we show the economic reasonability of the computed models and demonstrate the superiority of statistical learning algorithms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, liquidity issues in financial markets and portfolio asset management have attracted much attention among investors and scholars, fuelling a stream of research devoted to exploring the role of liquidity in investment decisions. In this paper, we aim to investigate the effects of introducing liquidity in portfolio optimization problems. For this purpose, first we consider three volume-based liquidity measures proposed in the literature and we build a new one particularly suited to portfolio optimization. Secondly, we formulate an extended version of the Markowitz portfolio selection problem, named mean–variance–liquidity, wherein the goal is to minimize the portfolio variance subject to the usual constraint on the expected portfolio return and an additional constraint on the portfolio liquidity. Thirdly, we consider a sensitivity analysis, with the aim to assess the trade-offs between liquidity and return, on the one hand, and between liquidity and risk, on the other hand. In the second part of the paper, the portfolio optimization framework is applied to a dataset of US ETFs comprising both standard and alternative, often illiquid, investments. The analysis is carried out with all the liquidity measures considered, allowing us to shed light on the relationships among risk, return and liquidity. Finally, we study the effects of the introduction of a Bitcoin ETF, as an asset with an extremely high expected return and risk. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the age of Business 4.0, cryptocurrencies have emerged as a popular alternative investment vehicle. Despite significant risks, they offer attractive perks. Poor decision-making can lead to investment losses, prompting this study to explore factors influencing cryptocurrency investment decisions. Using a quantitative methodology, data was collected from 106 respondents through questionnaires on popular bitcoin brokerage forums. The analysis employed structural equation modeling partial least squares with Smart PLS 4 software. Multiple group analysis was conducted based on investment experience (less than two years vs. more than two years). The results show that risk tolerance significantly affects investment decisions in cryptocurrency. For respondents with over two years of experience, heuristic bias impacts both risk tolerance and investment decisions, while herding behavior only affects risk tolerance. For those with less than two years of experience, heuristic bias influences investment decisions but not risk tolerance, and herding behavior has no significant effect on either. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The issue of carbon emissions can be addressed through environmentally friendly technological innovations, which contribute to the journey towards achieving net-zero emissions (NZE). The electrification of transportation by converting internal combustion engine (ICE) motorcycles to converted electric motorcycles (CEM) directly reduces the number of pollution sources from fossil-powered motors. In Indonesia, numerous government regulations support the commercialization of the CEM system, including the requirement for conversion workshops to be formal entities in the CEM process. Every CEM must pass a test to ensure its safety and suitability. Currently, the CEM testing process is conducted at only one location, making it inefficient and inaccessible. Therefore, most conversion workshops in Indonesia need to take investment steps in procuring CEM-type test tools. This research aims to determine the best alternative from several investment alternatives for CEM-type test tools. In selecting the investment, three criteria are considered: costs, operations, and specifications. By using the investment decision-making model, a hierarchical decision-making model is obtained, which is then processed using the analytical hierarchy process (AHP) and the technique for order of preference by similarity to the ideal solution (TOPSIS). Criteria are weighted to establish a priority order. The final step involves ranking the alternatives and selecting Investment 2 (INV2) as the best investment tool with a relative closeness value of 0.6279. Investment 2 has the shortest time process (40 min), the lowest electricity requirement, and the smallest dimensions. This research aims to provide recommendations for the best investment alternatives that can be purchased by the conversion workshops. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Kerala faces a paradox in sustainable housing finance and investment. The increasing number of vacant homes, due to youth migration abroad, presents significant environmental, economic, and social challenges. These properties, once heritage symbols, now lead to resource wastage, energy inefficiency, inflated real estate prices, and weakened community bonds. Simultaneously, there is a demand for housing, especially for young professionals moving from rural areas for job opportunities. To address these issues, this article delves into UN-aligned sustainable development goal-related sustainable finance and investment alternatives. The study will analyze Kerala's vacant housing crisis and the potential of sustainable finance to mitigate this issue, demonstrating how housing investments aligned with SDGs can drive economic growth, reduce inequalities, and support environmental sustainability. It will propose policy recommendations for the government, financial institutions, and real estate developers to encourage community-centered housing solutions that prioritize long-term sustainability and social well-being. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Because senescence impairs the ability of older males to compete successfully for mates, male reproductive strategies are expected to change with age. The terminal investment hypothesis proposes that older males, who could die soon, should take greater risks to obtain mating opportunities. Another possibility is that older males avoid such risks, adopting alternative reproductive tactics, such as increased affiliation with females, increased reliance on coalitions or sexual coercion to continue to compete with younger animals. We tested these hypotheses in wild chimpanzees, Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii , of the Kanyawara community, Kibale National Park, Uganda, where old males sire offspring at relatively high rates. Our data set included >40 000 incidents of male aggression and >5800 copulations observed between 2005 and 2017. We found that, even as their dominance status declined, old males maintained relatively high copulation rates, especially with established mothers. There was no evidence for terminal investment in response to ageing. Males became generally less aggressive as they aged. Neither did old males form affiliative bonds with females, nor use sexual coercion more frequently, as alternative reproductive tactics. Old males did, however, participate in coalitionary aggression at higher rates than young males and increased the proportion of their aggression that was coalitionary over time. Coalitions were positively associated with mating success, particularly for low- and middle-ranking males. These results support the hypothesis that ageing male chimpanzees use coalitions as an alternative reproductive tactic. The lack of evidence for terminal investment in response to ageing appears to reflect a broader mammalian pattern in which males who rely on fighting to secure mating opportunities avoid excessive risk taking as their formidability wanes. • Old male chimpanzees mated frequently with attractive females. • Old males were less aggressive and did not take greater risks in mating competition. • Old males did not groom females at high rates. • Old males were not more sexually coercive towards females. • Old males formed coalitions at high rates and these predicted mating success. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aviation sector, essential for global trade, tourism, and cultural interaction, has evolved from a luxury to a vital economic component, generating billions annually. However, the Covid-19 pandemic has drastically reduced air travel demand and revenue, leading many airlines into financial distress, insolvency, and potential bankruptcy. This study examines the legal and policy frameworks addressing aviation insolvency, historical and contemporary causes of financial distress, and the impact on airline employees, clients, and suppliers. It evaluates government bailout programs and the role of aviation leasing companies and financiers in the bankruptcy process. Additionally, the study analyzes cross-border bankruptcy issues and their effects on global coordination. Besides discussing alternative funding and investment models for the industry’s recovery, the paper offers insights and recommendations for policymakers, to ensure the aviation sector’s long-term viability and resilience postpandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Shariah-compliant security tokens can play an important role in developing innovative solutions to resolve voluntary and involuntary financial exclusion in Muslim societies. This paper aims to present features of Shariah-compliant security tokens and supporting ecosystems that can provide additional sources of financing for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and create alternative investment opportunities for retail investors. Design/methodology/approach: This conceptual paper presents the building blocks of security tokens, their ecosystem and key functions and activities and then examines these features from Islamic perspectives. This is done by reviewing the contemporary literature on cryptoassets and their ecosystems and analysing these in light of Islamic legal and ethical values and principles. Findings: The paper provides a framework of how Shariah-compliant asset- and equity-based security tokens can be used by SMEs to raise funds quickly and efficiently on crypto exchanges. Given the novelty and complexity of the technology involved and the lack of understanding and skills to develop blockchain-based systems among SMEs, this paper suggests developing security tokens and exchanges in a controlled manner under the supervision of a nation's stock markets. Originality/value: Although several studies examine cryptocurrencies from Islamic perspectives, literature on other cryptoassets and their role in financial inclusion is scant. This paper identifies Shariah-compliant asset- and equity-based security tokens and supporting ecosystems that can contribute to the development of digital capital markets where SMEs can raise funds efficiently and retail investors can invest in alternative asset classes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study offers an innovative technique for diversifying the downside risk by selecting green stocks for investments. Investors fancy green stocks due to their ability of generating sustainable returns. Pursuing such arguments, this study provides a comparative analysis of green and non-green stocks to measure whether green stocks help investors secure their investments during the downward movement of the market, by applying multivariate regression after collecting the data for stocks listed at AIM over the period of 2012 to 2020. The findings of the study prove that green stocks reduce the downside risk as compared to non-green stocks and compensate investors by providing them sustainable returns for holding the stocks with negative returns. However, non-green stocks also have a strong association with downside risk but have less effect on downside risk than green stocks. The study has strong implications for investors who are searching for new exotic asset classes to reduce the risk and improve the returns, particularly during downward recessions of the market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Concepts are introduced and applied for analyzing and selecting arbitrage portfolios in the face of uncertainty about initial positions and risk preferences. A stochastic arbitrage opportunity is defined as a zero-cost investment portfolio that enhances every feasible host portfolio for all admissible utility functions. The alternative to the existence of such investment opportunities is the existence of a solution to a dual system of asset pricing restrictions based on a class of stochastic discount factors. Feasible approaches to numerical optimization and statistical inference are discussed. Empirical results suggest that equity factor investing is appealing for all risk-averse stock investors with a wide range of initial position and sufficiently low transactions costs by mixing multiple factor portfolios with high after-cost appraisal ratios, low mutual correlation, and negative exposures to the relevant host portfolios. These findings weaken the case for risk-based explanations for the profitability of factor investing. This paper was accepted by Kay Giesecke, finance. Supplemental Material: The data files are available at https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2023.4892. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We investigate how the presence of a college affects local educational attainment. As counterfactuals for current college locations, we use historical "runner-up" locations that were strongly considered to become college sites but were ultimately not chosen. We find that winning counties today have college degree attainment rates 56% higher than runner-up counties and more private-sector employment in human-capital-intensive industries. These effects are not driven primarily by recent in-migration of educated adults, and alternative public investments did not have similar effects on local educational attainment. The results indicate that colleges played an important role in shaping long-run local outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Research Papers of the Wroclaw University of Economics / Prace Naukowe Uniwersytetu Ekonomicznego we Wroclawiu is the property of Uniwersytet Ekonomiczny we Wroclawiu and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

In Russia, art trading on auctions is considered to have features of the developing market that does not always follow global trends. Given that the potential of studying the national art market is not sufficiently fulfilled, the author has set the following purposes in this article: to study characteristics of investing in the Russian avant-garde artists and to build an econometric model (on the example of the “Knave of Diamonds” society). The Russian avantgarde is for the first time examined as an area forming general and unique pricing trends. The article analyses the peculiarities and trends of demand for avant-garde painting in 2000–2021, describes the geography of auction sales as well as the level of liquidity of art assets and provides price dynamics of the national and world markets. For these purposes, statistical analysis and visualisation are used, an econometric model is built using censored Heckman regression (Tobit-2). The average yield of M.Z. Chagall’s oil painting has been calculated in the article with the method of repeat sales. The nominal yield of his works, according to the author’s calculations, is 5.1 % which significantly lags behind the same indicator of financial assets. Investing in painting is viewed as a complex phenomenon with unique properties that distinguish the art market from other investments. The article is addressed to investment managers, bankers, collectors, appraisers, and specialists in economy of art.

Fama's "proxy" hypothesis and Liquidity Preference Theory suggest that there is an inverse relationship between interest and inflation rates and stock prices/returns. On the other hand, according to the Fisher hypothesis suggests that there is a positive interaction between the stock market returns and inflation rate. The increase in the interest rate, on the one hand, due to the increase in the discount rate and, on the other hand, due to the alternative cost of investment, reduces the interest towards the stock market and increases the tendency towards the bond market, causing share prices to fall. However, it is seen that the relationships in question are far from certain, and the findings obtained from different samples with different methods give results that do not match the expectations implied by the hypotheses. The nexus between the stock market and interest and inflation rates in Türkiye, which has been faced with high interest rates and inflation for many years except short-term periods, has been examined using different time series methods in the empirical literature. In this study, the subject is investigated in a different way through the Quantile Regression (QR) method. In the study, where the effect of the nominal interest rate on stock prices was examined by dividing it into two components: real interest and inflation rates, a four-fold sub-sector distinction was made, namely service, financial, industrial and technology indices. When it comes to the effect of nominal and real interest rates on returns in QR estimates, it is seen that the service and industrial sectors differ in terms of both tail and sign. The similarities between Least Squares estimates and QR estimates are striking. However, the potential of the volatility level of variables to create differentiation in relationships is also a point that should not be overlooked. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we analyze the downside risk of alternative investment funds (AIFs) in a cross-country setting over a period of 2015–2021, using popular Value-at-Risk (VaR henceforth) models, and test the efficacy of such models in capturing the volatility posed by these funds. We estimate VaR in the presence of three error distributions, including normal distribution, Student's t distribution, and GED distribution. Using weekly return data of 991 AIFs from 28 countries, over the period 2015–2021, we find that most of the funds, irrespective of country representation, exhibited a significant proportion of their weekly returns to be negative. To statistically validate our findings we use three backtesting approaches, i.e., Jorion's failure rate, Kupiec's proportion of failure (POF) tests and Christoffersen's independence test. Our findings indicate the presence of significant downside risk for AIFs, which these popular VaR models are unable to capture. These findings highlight the need for investors and fund managers to be cautious when relying solely on popular VaR models to manage downside risk in AIF and suggest that further research is needed to develop more effective risk management strategies for AIF, particularly in light of their complex structure and asymmetric return distributions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Leasing valuation is a topic that has aroused considerable interest in business circles. This paper examines leasing from the point of view of the lessor who can decide to leave the contract due to default. We analyze in introducing a model in which the lessor decides whether or not to terminate the contract at a given point in time, comparing it with the cost of capital of alternative investments. The proposed model is stochastic, and it is strongly based on correlated random walks, making it more adaptable to real-world circumstances. Furthermore, we propose a recombinant binomial tree based on correlated random walks, performing numerical simulations starting from CIR and Vasicek models. We will point out that as the rate of cost of capital of an alternative investment increases, the optimal boundary curve decreases, so the lessor leaves, while as the past interest rates increases, the curve rises and the lessor will have a concrete interest in maintaining the contract. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In today's competitive world, a lot of investment alternatives in banking are being provided by both public sector and private sector financial institutions. But we have no idea about how much people are aware of these opportunities and able to access those services especially in rural villages. This study also facilitates to analyse various guiding factors for making a good banking decision. The aim of this study is to examine the behaviour of the middle-income class people in ICICI bank and also to identify various factors influencing their banking decisions. So analyzing and evaluating various guiding factors that influences their behaviour of middle class people. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Prior research has investigated the benefit of companies that engage in cause-related marketing initiatives. However, this prior research has not adequately examined cause-related marketing situations when brands raise awareness for a cause without contribution of tangible resources to the cause (i.e. awareness marketing); thus, the purpose of this paper is to introduce and test awareness marketing as a new type of cause-related marketing. Design/methodology/approach: Through four experimental studies with different sample sources, the authors introduce and examine a new type of cause-related marketing (awareness marketing) as well as identify mediating explanatory mechanisms. Findings: Awareness marketing produces similarly heightened purchase intentions to other types of cause-related marketing (e.g. financial donation) when compared to situations where cause-related marketing is not used. Awareness marketing can also lead to higher brand authenticity and brand originality perceptions in some situations when compared to cause-related marketing incorporating a financial donation component or when no cause-related marketing is used. Brand perceptions and consumers' perceived self-brand connection mediate the relationship from cause-related marketing to purchase intentions. Research limitations/implications: This research is limited by conducting studies in only experimental conditions and in one culture. Theoretical implications are provided to the literature on brand authenticity and self-brand connection. In doing so, the authors explain why awareness marketing is evaluated differently than other types of cause-related marketing or marketing without any cause reference. Practical implications: Marketers would benefit from using awareness marketing (i.e. raising awareness for a cause without direct contribution to the cause) as a lower investment alternative to traditional cause-related marketing efforts. Originality/value: To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first research to introduce awareness marketing as a new type of cause-related marketing and compare it to traditional types of cause-related marketing, thereby providing novel contributions as to how cause-related marketing can effectively increase purchase intentions without making a financial, product or other tangible contribution to a cause. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the soaring interest in art as an alternative investment approach and an asset class, there has been a remarkable rise in the volume of artwork transactions globally. However, trading in the art market differs from the traditional financial market; the cost of taxes, logistics, storage, and other transaction services is enormous for collectors, stimulating the emergence of related businesses, such as warehousing, bonded exhibitions, and art financial services. As an exceptional area serving the offshore economy, art freeports have become an essential venue for art trading and a 'one-stop-shop' centre that converges all art market participants. This article critically analyses the current literature and conducts empirical research on Shanghai FTZ International Culture Investment and Development Co., Ltd. (FTZART). It can be concluded that the current research on art freeports is limited and excludes FTZART from those that specialise in storing artworks, overlooking its potential influence in the Asian market. The art freeport has distinctive features that differ from traditional freeport models, and the context, business model, and operations of FTZART match these characteristics. Therefore, as a hub in the art market, the global art freeport agenda should not overlook FTZART, and it is essential to complement this gap in knowledge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aims to investigate the relationship between returns and risk of Islamic stock under stable economic conditions, crises, and pandemics within the scope of Indonesian and Asian Islamic capital markets. How do economic conditions affect the risks and returns of investors in the Indonesian and Asian Islamic capital markets? Verification of the veracity of the Islamic capital market serves as a more resilient option for alternative investments. This study uses Granger causality to determine exogenous and endogenous variables when building the model. The model that is formed is then analyzed using regression with dummy variables of stable economic conditions, crises, and pandemics. The first research findings on differences in crisis, stable and pandemic times in the Asian stock market show that there is no significant difference in effect between stable times and during a crisis, but there are differences in the effect during stable and pandemic times. The second research finding states that the return on Asian market Shariah stocks has no influence on increasing or reducing the value of risk or value at risk. The third finding explains that Islamic stocks in Indonesia have a greater risk value during pandemics and crises than in stable times, but the effect of pandemic and crisis conditions is not as great as Islamic stocks in Asia as a whole. In order to stabilize markets and reduce risks, regulatory bodies and governments frequently employ a variety of actions during times of crisis. When applied to trading volume, risk, and return patterns, these findings can help determine the appropriate policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Growth rate maximization is an important fitness strategy for microbes. However, the wide distribution of slow-growing oligotrophic microbes in ecosystems suggests that rapid growth is often not favored across ecological environments. In many circumstances, there exist trade-offs between growth and other important traits (e.g., adaptability and survival) due to physiological and proteome constraints. Investments on alternative traits could compromise growth rate and microbes need to adopt bet-hedging strategies to improve fitness in fluctuating environments. Here we review the mechanistic role of trade-offs in controlling bacterial growth and further highlight its ecological implications in driving the emergences of many important ecological phenomena such as co-existence, population heterogeneity and oligotrophic/copiotrophic lifestyles. Trade-offs play a key role in controlling bacterial growth and shaping microbial phenotypes, which further drives the emergence of ecologically relevant phenomena including co-existence, population heterogeneity and oligotrophic/copiotrophic lifestyles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies the impacts of geographic proximity and investment connection on the outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) decisions by Chinese multinational firms, including both greenfield investment and cross‐border merger and acquisition. We model firms' OFDI expansion with the lagged spatial structure, and collect outward FDI data of 3479 Chinese multinational firms from 2002 to 2013 whose investment destination covers more than 160 countries. We find that the spatial expansion of firms' existing OFDI play an important role in shaping their future investment decisions. Firstly, firms tends to invest in destinations that are closer to China, and expand further into destinations that are geographically closer to their existing OFDI locations. This is the geographic network effect. Secondly, we also find that firms are more likely to invest in countries with more intense FDI from China, and extend their OFDI networks to destinations with stronger investment connections with their existing subsidiary locations. This is the investment network effect. We show that these two effects are robust to alternative investment and geographic network measures and further controls. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cryptocurrencies have emerged as a good tool for investment/trading in the last decade. The investors have achieved promising gains with the long-term investments made at reasonably good price/time. However, investment in cryptocurrencies is also exposed to extremely high volatility. Due to this, the investment may suffer from a high drawdown as the price may fall. In this work, we proposed optimized Greedy-cost averaging based trading (OG-CAT) a novel trading framework as an alternative to long-term investment in cryptocurrencies. The approach exploits the wavy structure of the price movement of cryptocurrencies, the high volatility of price, and the concept of cost averaging. Furthermore, the parameters of the approach are optimized with the simulated annealing algorithm. The approach is evaluated on the two prominent cryptocurrencies: bitcoin and ethereum. During the evaluation, OG-CAT not only outperformed the buy-and-hold investment approach in terms of profit but also demonstrated a lower drawdown. The profit percentage in the case of trading BTC with OG-CAT is 1.63 times more and the max drawdown is 1.62 times less than compared to the buy-and-hold strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper assesses the impact of alternative assets on the performance of Brazilian asset portfolios. Although alternative assets are largely studied throughout the world, that is not the case for Brazil as there are just a few studies on the topic. As the Brazilian capital markets are growing at a fast pace, the high correlated aspect of the market calls for measures to ensure balanced returns for the long run, therefore, the insights of the study may support investors during the process of asset allocation. In this study the alternative assets were divided into two categories: Brazilian alternative assets and international alternative assets. Performance measures were obtained from a portfolio comparison and through a Markowitz frontier analysis. The results show that adding alternative assets (Brazilian or international) to a portfolio usually generates higher returns with lower risks, leading to better risk adjusted results and an overall more balanced portfolio. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The alternative investments of college and university endowments have detracted from the schools' performance across the board since the Global Financial Crisis of 2008. Large endowments—ones with greater than $1 billion in assets—appear to have handled their alternative investing better than smaller ones. But whatever skill the big ones might bring to bear has not been enough to make them winners with these controversial investments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The future path of interest rates is highly uncertain, but we can at least be fairly confident that the level of rates will be substantially higher in the medium term than it has been in recent decades—in the United States and many other major economies. What, if any, are the implications for asset allocation? Does a higher-cash-rate tide lift all asset return boats? This article presents a simple empirical analysis covering stocks, bonds, and alternative investments and compares those historical patterns to yield-based expected returns as of early 2024. One result is clear: Equity markets have earned slimmer excess returns on average when the cash baseline is higher. The author discusses the role of so-called cash-plus liquid alternative strategies—overlooked beneficiaries of higher cash rates—and concludes with a simple allocation case study. In a higher-rate world that investors haven't seen for many years, diversification away from equities may prove to be especially valuable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the endogenous market choice and its impact on underwriter spread if Alternative Investment Market (AIM) IPOs that meet Main Market (MM) listing requirements had issued equity in the MM during the 1995–2021 period. We find that the spread is 1.33% higher in the AIM than the MM for IPO listings that meet the MM listing requirements. This finding suggests that AIM companies, meeting the MM listing requirements, could have saved more than £100 million by going public through the MM than the AIM market. We also find that this spread differential is attributed to the issuing firms' market self‐selection. We demonstrate that listing requirements in the MM have an impact on the gross spread. The Propensity score matching results show that AIM firms that meet the MM market listing requirements pay a 0.921% higher spread which is significant at a 1% level compared to the MM market IPOs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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In recent years, the COVID-19 pandemic has increased investment scams as individuals seek alternative investment opportunities. This study employs emotion analysis to examine the emotional expressions of scammers in investment scams and proposes an investment scam detection model to identify fraudulent behavior. Using data from seven real-world investment scam chat rooms, we perform a two-stage analysis to evaluate the emotional fluctuations of scammers and construct a machine learning-based investment scam detection model. Our findings reveal distinct patterns of emotional fluctuation in investment scam chat rooms according to the established Investment Scam Life Cycle (ISLC), which portrays the progression of fraudulent behavior. We confirm the applicability of machine learning in scam detection, and the emotion analysis presented in this study can assist researchers and fraud examiners in identifying scam scenarios and reducing financial losses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite all the attention paid to alternative investments in recent years, there has been little study of their impact on the performance of institutional investment portfolios, for example, those of pension plans and endowed institutions. This article attempts to help fill the void. It shows that, since the Global Financial Crisis of 2008, US public-sector pension funds realized a negative alpha of approximately 1.2% per year, virtually all of which is associated with their exposure to alternative investments. While exposure to private equity neither helped nor hurt, both real estate and hedge fund exposures detracted significantly from performance. Institutional investors should consider whether continuing to invest in alternatives warrants the time, expense and reduced liquidity associated with them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Institutional investors can be segmented into investors that hold simple portfolios of traditional equities and bonds, and investors that manage complex strategies in public and private markets. Investors implementing active portfolio management and holding diversified portfolios of equities and bonds are more likely to invest in alternative asset classes. The performance of institutional investors in alternative assets is significantly lower than in equities, suggesting that investors accept lower returns in exchange for diversification benefits. Institutions delegate 90% of their alternative investments to external managers and funds-of-funds. These intermediaries capture large part of the potential diversification benefits through higher fees and lower returns. (JEL G11, G23) Authors have furnished an Internet Appendix , which is available on the Oxford University Press Web site next to the link to the final published paper online. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, portfolio performance, risk, and return are compared between the cryptocurrency Bitcoin and equities and gold as alternative investments in the digital age. This type of quantitative study uses comparative approaches. Monthly closing price data was located online or on websites for the secondary data used in this study. The saturation sampling approach was used to get 180 data from the sampling of samples. The analytical approach utilized with the SPSS 26.0 for Windows application comprises quantitative analysis, normality testing, homogeneity testing, and hypothesis testing. The study’s findings reveal that: (1) the returns offered by bitcoin, IDX30 shares, and Antam gold are not significantly different; (2) the risks offered by bitcoin, IDX30 shares, and Antam gold have significant differences; (3) the performance offered by bitcoin. There are significant differences between IDX30 shares and Antam gold with the Sharpe method; and (4) the performance offered by bitcoin, IDX30 shares, and Antam gold with the Treynor method has a significant difference. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study will perform a cost analysis of using synthetic and natural gypsum by using the traditional costing method and to determine the investment analysis of the initiative strategy of gypsum synthetic. The research purpose is to compare the impact of gypsum synthetic implementation cost and gypsum natural consumption cost, and to find out whether the savings cost from gypsum synthetic consumption can cover the investment costs of implementing strategy. The existing calculation cost of material consumption products uses traditional costing methods, so this research is using this method that will compare the consumption costs between both Gypsum. Net present value and interest rate return methods are to determine the levels of investments needed to overcome problems in the consumption of synthetic gypsum. According to this research, the result of the net present value methods was IDR 1,543,004,654 and the interest rate return reaches 17.09%, for the planned case of 10 years, which means that this initiative is accepted and feasible to apply, it means that to produce cement, for the application of gypsum synthetic consumption as initiative strategy and application of 3 alternative strategies for these investment will result in positive impact for long-term decision. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, we introduce The p, q-quasirung orthopair fuzzy Dombi operators, including p, q-quasirung orthopair fuzzy Dombi weighted averaging (p, q-QOFDWA), p, q-quasirung orthopair fuzzy Dombi ordered weighted averaging (p, q-QOFDOWA), p, q-quasirung orthopair fuzzy Dombi weighted geometric (p, q-QOFDWG), and p, q-quasirung orthopair fuzzy Dombi ordered weighted geometric (p, q-QOFDOWG) operators. These operators effectively manage imprecise and uncertain information, outperforming other fuzzy sets like the Pythagorean fuzzy set (PFS) and q-rung orthopair fuzzy set (q-ROFS). We investigate their properties, including boundedness and monotonicity, and demonstrate their applicability in multiple criteria decision-making (MCDM) problems within a p, q-quasirung orthopair fuzzy (p, q-QOF) environment. To showcase the practicality, we present a real-world scenario involving the selection of investment alternatives as an illustrative example. Our findings highlight the significant advantage and potential of these operators for handling uncertainty in decision-making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Even though portfolio diversification has been extensively studied, it remains a dynamic field necessitating ongoing research. The challenge of diversifying investment portfolios with commodities is resurfacing, given the increasing complexity of optimizing portfolios due to the integration of financial markets, among others, caused by occurrence of systemic crises. We focus our attention on the impact of Covid-19 crisis on the diversification benefits of commodities. Several types of commodity investment were studied as to provide insight into which type of commodity investment show better diversification performance under crisis duress. The performances of four portfolios diversified with alternative commodity investments were analysed and compared to performance of traditional portfolio comprised of stocks and bonds, both in pre-pandemic and pandemic period. We employed correlation analysis, mean-variance method and Sharpe ratio for this purpose. Our findings show that adding commodities to traditional portfolio results with diversification benefits in the form of higher realised excess return for each unit of risk and those benefits to be the highest for commodity futures. However, those benefits are slightly lower in times of crisis when considering all but the portfolio diversified with commodity indices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Transition to alternative energy sources is increasingly recognized as a vital component of global efforts to mitigate climate change and foster sustainable development. This study examines the impact of alternative energy investments on employment, focusing on the renewable energy sector's role in generating job opportunities. Paper explores the mechanisms through which investments in alternative energy projects, such as wind, solar, hydroelectric, and biomass, influence employment outcomes. Key factors influencing employment generation, including technological innovation, infrastructure development, policy frameworks, and market dynamics, are analyzed to understand the complex interplay between alternative energy investments and labor markets. The study highlights the potential for alternative energy investments to create diverse employment opportunities across various sectors. Furthermore, it examines the socio-economic benefits of renewable energy projects in terms of job creation, skills development and income generation. By elucidating the relationship between alternative energy investments and employment, this research contributes to a deeper understanding of the transformative potential of renewable energy transition in devising strategies to maximize the socio-economic benefits of sustainable energy development. Findings show upward trend in average monthly nominal wages and salaries within the sector reflects positive growth in labor compensation, potentially influenced by factors such as rising demand for skilled labor and productivity improvements. Additionally government agencies and international organizations are main drivers of green investments and sustainable development in Azerbaijan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Accounting and finance are intricately intertwined with the global quest for environmental sustainability by applying accounting and finance tools for carbon reduction initiatives. Clean energy financial investment is one of the many alternative tools through which accounting contributes to carbon reduction. Accordingly, this paper analysed the impact of separate and integrated clean energy investment alternatives on carbon reduction. Data on clean energy financial investment and carbon emission per capita were collected from the International Energy Agency (IEA) and Our World in Data archives, respectively. Data was analysed by using multiple pooled OLS to evaluate the impact of individual clean energy financial investments on carbon reduction and the impact of integrating the various clean energy financial investment alternatives on carbon reduction separately. Findings show that individual clean energy financial investments may not separately offer desired carbon reduction, hence, albeit some negative coefficients, individual clean investments showed no significant impact on carbon reduction. However, furthering the test by pooling all the clean energy financial investment alternatives shows a significant negative effect of clean energy financial investment on carbon reduction at a P-value of 0.05. This shows that an integration of different alternatives of clean energy financial investment may offer an enhanced reduction of carbon emission, which outweighs the effect of relying on a single clean energy investment alternative. The findings offer significant insight for policy makers' future strategies towards a combination of multiple clean energy financial investments. Furthermore, the findings from this paper are a further testament that accounting and finance are connected with the global quest for environmental sustainability through the application of accounting and financial investment tools in conducting clean energy financial investment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We comprehensively study the impact of oil market volatility on mutual fund flow. In particular, using an extensive dataset on Saudi Arabia covering virtually all equity funds over 2006–2017, this paper provides the first analysis of the linkages between fund flow and oil market volatility. Our main findings show that investors shift substantially their asset allocation to the equity mutual fund sector in periods of high volatility. Our further evidence suggests that flow to high oil-exposed funds is more sensitive to oil volatility than low oil-exposed funds. This is consistent with investors valuing professional management highly during risky periods in a setting where alternatives to equity investment are limited. Our study provides new evidence for a fast-growing market and reveals important implications for the mutual fund market which helps investors, academics and regulators to better understand the behaviour of this market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The challenge posed by historically low-interest rates is particularly significant for insurance companies, especially those specializing in life insurance. This study investigates a potential solution by analyzing the impact of introducing low correlation alternative investments into traditional investment portfolios. The research employs two methods: firstly, optimization using the Markowitz model, and the multicriteria optimization model is utilized to test the advantages of including alternative investments. Secondly, the study assesses the effects of interest rate fluctuations on both traditional and alternative investments through the Vector Autoregressive (VAR) model. The results from both optimization models during the analyzed period confirm the hypotheses, indicating that integrating alternative investments positively influences portfolio returns, risk management, and overall efficiency. Additionally, the study explores the influence of interest rate changes on domestic stocks, bonds, hedge funds, and managed futures. While there were theoretical expectations of a significant impact, confirming that interest rate changes have a stronger effect on bond and stock yields compared to hedge funds and futures yields remains inconclusive. Nevertheless, the research underscores the significance of diversifying investment portfolios with low-correlation alternative assets in the face of a low-interest rate period. These findings offer valuable insights for insurance companies seeking strategies to navigate the complexities of financial markets.