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The Bitcoin futures market has grown rapidly since its 2017 introduction. Along with enabling institutional traders to access a regulated cryptocurrency product, futures provide a means to improve market efficiency by shorting Bitcoin. We examine trading behavior in Bitcoin futures utilizing the Commodity Futures Trading Commission Commitment of Traders report. Leveraged money traders tend to hold the largest positions, be net short, and their trading behavior plays a key role in the Bitcoin futures market. Our empirical results show that leveraged money traders display market timing ability, largely by adjusting their short positions. It seems that other trader types follow this "smart money" in adjusting their own positions in subsequent periods. We also demonstrate that it is possible to construct profitable trading strategies based on observed variations in leveraged money positions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the ever‐increasing danger of climate change, power plants are shifting from polluting fossil fuels to sustainable bioenergy fuels. As Malaysia continues to pledge to decrease glasshouse gas (GHG) emissions, quick and dramatic action should resolve the reliance on fossil fuel power plants. Furthermore, the coal‐fired power station is Malaysia's biggest supplier of energy and the final power plant to be decommissioned. In Malaysia, a significant portion of palm oil biomass has the potential to replace coal in the generation of renewable energy power. However, the deployment of palm oil biomass as a renewable energy source has not been fully achieved. Furthermore, the surplus of unutilized biomass from the palm oil milling process has emerged as the key talking point leading to environmental concerns. As estimated, this palm oil biomass can generate approximately 5000 MW of electricity under 40% of operation efficiency. This significant power potential has the ability to replace Malaysia's yearly reliance on coal. Nonetheless, the limitations of technological stability, budgetary constraints, and other government policy concerns have prevented the potentials from being fulfilled. This necessitates an integrated framework that synergizes the decarbonization drive in order to realize the primary advantages of energy renewability and carbon neutrality. Among the suggested actions to decarbonize the power generating sector is an integrated scheme of palm oil production, biogas plant for electricity and steam generation, and biofuel pellet manufacture. This review provides an in‐depth overview of palm oil biomass for Malaysian power production decarbonization. This article is categorized under:Sustainable Energy > BioenergyClimate and Environment > Net Zero Planning and DecarbonizationSustainable Development > Emerging Economies [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article is concerned with the likely future direction of social science, and especially economic, research in air transportation. To avoid excessive speculation, the assessment is based on as much factual information as possible. It assumes, for example, that much of the technology likely to be used in the near future is known today, although it may not yet be fully developed. To provide a structure, other than just a long list of research possibilities, the study considers three basic trends--continuing trends, trend breaks, and new trends--in air transportation. The approach adopted is also mainly demand driven in that it looks at the probable research needed to explore these various trends, and it says little about how this research may be resourced, or how research priorities are likely to be determined. It is positive in its approach, trying to be as objective as possible, and focusing more on the use of developments in economic and related analysis than on normative debates about what policies should be pursued. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By 2030, the European Union (EU) must have regulatory instruments in place that not only reduce greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture, but that also increase carbon sequestration, increase resilience of agricultural production, improve biodiversity in rural areas and contribute to providing nutritious and healthy food to a growing world population. This article seeks to explore the EU's regulatory options to pursue these goals. Relying on the theoretical framework on smart environmental regulation by Gunningham, Grabosky and Sinclair, this article assesses recent proposals by the European Commission under its European Green Deal and Farm to Fork policies, as well as other regulatory instruments that need to be considered as part of the instrument mix. It concludes that regulatory intervention needs to be stepped up, particularly through using several opportunities that the EU emissions trading system offers to complement the regulatory toolbox. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China's fund market is getting bigger and bigger. By September 2021, the number of funds in the market had exceeded 8000, with a net value of nearly 24 trillion yuan. Among them, the number of equity funds has doubled compared with 2015, and the net value has increased four times compared with 2015, and it still maintains a rapid growth momentum. Do mutual funds play a role in market stabilization? To demonstrate this issue, we combined the passive trading technique with the positive and negative feedback trading strategies and explained how the minimum position ratio of equity funds affects stock price volatility. Then, using empirical data, we apply the difference-in-differences model to analyze how shifting proportions of the equity funds' lowest shareholding affects stock volatility. The result shows that the volatility of high-institutional stocks was significantly reduced in comparison with other stocks after 2014. This result is further confirmed in the stocks held by large-scale funds. We used PSM-DID to solve potential endogenous problems and found that the results still support the hypothesis. This evidence supports the point of statement that the equity funds in the Chinese capital market can stabilize the market especially after 2014. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We study the nonlinear limits to arbitrage in a model. When mispricing is small, arbitrage activity increases with mispricing because of the higher cost‐adjusted return. However, at high levels of mispricing, arbitrageurs are deterred by larger mispricing as funding constraints become more binding. Testing the model predictions on the index spot‐futures arbitrage with a Markov‐switching model, we document an inverse U‐shaped relationship between mispricing and arbitrage activity. The extreme regime is with the largest mispricing but least arbitrage activity, and coincides with the market turmoil, suggesting that funding constraints become the main driver behind the limit to arbitrage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The impacts of COVID-19 have spread rapidly to global financial markets. In this context, combining the spillover index method introduced by Diebold and Yilmaz (2012) and the complex network analysis framework, we examined the volatility connectedness and the topological structure among the top ten cryptocurrencies before and during the COVID-19 crisis. The results revealed that the total volatility connectedness of the cryptocurrency market markedly increased following the outbreak of COVID-19; statically, Bitcoin, Ethereum, Cardano, and Bitcoin Cash were the net transmitters before COVID-19, while Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple, Litecoin, Cardano, and Stellar became the major net transmitters in the market after COVID-19. Dynamically, the dynamic performance of different cryptocurrencies during the COVID-19 pandemic was heterogeneous, and the possible driving factors are diverse. Moreover, from network analysis, we further found that the COVID-19 crisis has significantly changed the topological structure of the cryptocurrency market. Our findings may help understand the typical dynamics in the cryptocurrency market and provide significant implications for portfolio managers, investors, and government agencies in times of highly stressful events like the COVID-19 crisis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies the dynamic characteristics of an economic cobweb model whose producers adopt a gradient-based mechanism. The model's producers are taken to be boundedly rational, and then the model is studied as a 1D and 2D discrete time dynamical system. Due to the lack of information in the market regarding the function of demand, the producers depend on the estimation of the marginal profit variations so as to update their prices next period. The equilibrium price point is calculated, and its local stability conditions are discussed through analytical and numerical investigations. In the 2D model, where the memory factor is introduced, the equilibrium price is obtained, and it is shown that it can be destabilized through chaotic behaviors, which are formed due to period doubling and Neimark-Sacker bifurcation. Furthermore, we study the symmetric case when the producers update their prices based on the marginal profit in the past two time periods, and therefore, we investigate the influence of the speed of adjustment parameter on the stability of equilibrium price. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies the construction and development strategy of intelligent sports system in the context of Chinese National Fitness Program with methods of literature review and model construction. The research shows that there are four dilemmas in the implementation of intelligent sports in national fitness: data security, market monopoly, legal supervision, and product iteration. However, there are also three promoting factors in this regard, including policy guarantee, market demand, and industrial upgrading. Following the principles of scientificity, effectiveness, public welfare, and collaboration, this paper designs a system for intelligent sports in national fitness. The construction of the national fitness intelligent sports system mainly consists of four modules, including basic framework construction, function design, content design, and operation analysis. With the systematic analysis of the status quo of intelligent sports application in national fitness, this paper puts forward intelligent sports development strategies in the implementation of national fitness from four aspects: optimizing the top-level design of government, speeding up industrial transformation and upgrading, constructing market supervision mechanism, and establishing a talent training system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ResearchBackground. The process of economic globalization is accelerating, and the financial risks that listed companies need to face are more complicated. Research Purpose. In order to clarify the impact of shareholder equity pledge on financial leverage imbalance crisis, research on the analysis and prevention of financial leverage imbalance crisis of shareholder equity pledge based on the DANP model is carried out. Research Method and Process. The DANP financial leverage imbalance early warning model is introduced to analyze the impact of shareholder equity pledge on financial leverage imbalance crisis by combining the financial leverage effect and potential risks of shareholder equity pledge, optimize the financial leverage imbalance early warning evaluation index system, preprocess the early warning evaluation indicators, determine the constant weight of each evaluation index, and obtain the final financial leverage imbalance crisis early warning evaluation value based on the determined constant weight. Research Results. The DANP model can accurately analyze the financial leverage imbalance crisis in the case of shareholder equity pledges, clarify the company's financial status in the case of shareholder equity pledges, propose to standardize equity pledge behavior, improve the company's internal control system in response to the crisis of shareholder equity pledge financial leverage imbalances, and improve the three prevention and control measures of the independent director system to enhance the ability of enterprises to resist the crisis of financial leverage imbalance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We study the sensitivity of the leverage effect to changes of the volatility and the price, showing the existence of an analytical link between the latter and the price‐leverage covariation in settings with, respectively, stochastic and level‐dependent volatility. From the financial standpoint, the results we obtain allow for the interpretation of the price‐leverage covariation as a gauge of the responsiveness of the leverage effect to price and volatility changes. The empirical study of S&P500 high‐frequency prices over the period March 2018–April 2018, carried out by means of nonparametric Fourier estimators, supports this interpretation of the role of the price‐leverage covariation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Canadian Journal of Economics is the property of Wiley-Blackwell 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.)

Does economic uncertainty promote the implementation of structural reforms? We answer this question using one of the most exhaustive cross‐country panel data sets on reforms in six major areas and measuring economic uncertainty with stock market volatility. To identify causality, we exploit exogenous differential variation in countries' exposure to foreign volatility shocks due to predetermined and time‐invariant bilateral characteristics. Across all specifications, we find that stock market volatility has a positive and significant effect on the adoption of reforms. This result is robust to the inclusion of a large number of controls, such as political variables, economic variables, crisis indicators, and a host of country, reform and time fixed effects, as well as across various approaches for accommodating heterogeneous trends and contemporaneous shocks. Overall, this evidence suggests that times of market turmoil, which are characterized by a high degree of uncertainty, may facilitate the implementation of reforms that would otherwise not pass. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Public companies in the US stock market must annually report their activities and financial performances to the SEC by filing the so-called 10-K form. Recent studies have demonstrated that changes in the textual content of the corporate annual filing (10-K) can convey strong signals of companies' future returns. In this study, we combine natural language processing techniques and network science to introduce a novel 10-K-based network, named Lazy Network, that leverages year-on-year changes in companies' 10-Ks detected using a neural network embedding model. The Lazy Network aims to capture textual changes derived from financial or economic changes on the equity market. Leveraging the Lazy Network, we present a novel investment strategy that attempts to select the least disrupted and stable companies by capturing the peripheries of the Lazy Network. We show that this strategy earns statistically significant risk-adjusted excess returns. Specifically, the proposed portfolios yield up to 95 basis points in monthly five-factor alphas (over 12% annually), outperforming similar strategies in the literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Information asymmetry and extreme events shocks can lead to the phenomenon of significant carbon market contagion. However, the existing studies mainly focus on the low-order moment of carbon price, making it difficult to reveal the risk contagion characteristic caused by irrational behaviors and policy shocks. This article takes market skewness and kurtosis into the research framework and constructs the FR, CS, and CK statistical model to detect the contagion in correlation channel, coskewness channel, and cokurtosis channel, respectively. The contribution of this article is to reveal the significant high-order moment contagion channel and strength of carbon market to its infected market under different market volatility trends. The results show significant contagion is widespread from the carbon market to its infected markets through the channels of coskewness and cokurtosis in different volatility trends. Additionally, the contagion strength in volatility rapid and slowly rise trend is generally higher than in the volatility rapid and slowly decline trend. That is to say, the shock of market irrationality and external events in the carbon market measured by the high-order moment contagion channels are essential risk factors that affect its infected markets. Those results convince that the acceptance of significant contagion sourced from the carbon market varies for different infected markets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to solve the problem that corporate financial risks seriously affect the healthy development of enterprises, credit institutions, securities investors, and even the whole of China, the K-means clustering algorithm, the risk screening process, and the Gaussian mixture clustering algorithm, the risk screening process, are proposed; experiments have shown that although the number of high-risk companies selected by the K-means algorithm is small, only 9% of the full sample, the high-risk cluster can contain nearly 30% of the new "special treatment" companies. If the time period is extended to the next 5 years, this proportion will be higher. Finally we found that if the prediction of "special handling" events is used as the criterion for evaluating high-risk clusters, then K-means clustering can effectively screen out those risky companies that need to be treated with caution by investors. The validity of the experiment is verified. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many firms simultaneously develop multiple alliances with different partners and face the challenges of managing a complex alliance portfolio that contains both strong and weak ties. How does this dispersion of tie strength affect alliance portfolio performance? This study examines the effect of tie strength dispersion on alliance portfolio performance, as well as the contingent effects of CEOs' experience. The empirical analyses, using a dataset consisting of 748 funds initiated by 62 fund management firms over a 10‐year period (2002–2011), reveal an inverted U‐shaped relationship between tie strength dispersion and alliance portfolio performance. The analyses also reveal that CEOs' political experience weakens, while their international experience strengthens, this inverted U‐shaped relationship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper offers a more nuanced analysis of employee promotion decisions; specifically, how they are affected by firm size, gender and stages within the business cycle. Drawing on data from Portugal, we find that during times of adverse macroeconomic conditions, promotion prospects in all firms decline. Within large firms, women are more likely to be promoted during economic downturns, reflecting the 'glass cliff' hypothesis. In small and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs), overall promotion rates are less affected by adverse economic conditions, however, women are less likely to attain promotions. Our results emphasize the importance of market volatility and firm heterogeneity in promotion and importantly, reveal differing forms of gender discrimination. In large firms women are, in effect, afforded greater responsibility for the effects of market volatility whilst SMEs invest more confidence in male employees to manage during crises. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The hybridization of socialist state control with increasingly complex financial markets has generated unusual features in China's financial regulatory regime. Using the 2015–2016 stock market crisis as a case study, this article draws on the Legal Theory of Finance (LTF) to analyze the state‐market interface and crisis governance in China's stock market. It illustrates the shift of China's stock market governance away from traditional administrative hierarchies to more plural and hybrid forms of ownership, control, and regulatory governance. By examining the policy process, market dynamics, and crisis management in the evolution of China's 2015–2016 stock market crashes, it identifies the endogenous dilemmas of regulatory elasticity and campaign‐style enforcement in China's hybrid regulatory regime, which have amplified policy noises and led to a destabilizing feedback loop between policy‐induced market turbulence and market‐induced organizational turbulence inside the regulatory bureaucracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In an attempt to combat global warming, many countries have been introducing carbon trading schemes, which, in turn, has led to increased research interest in carbon price forecasting as accurate predictions can provide valuable decision references for governments and investors. Therefore, this paper proposes an optimal hybrid forecasting framework to ensure accurate long‐term carbon price series predictions for which empirical mode decomposition (EMD) was used to decompose the original data and a novel optimal combination developed to predict each decomposed part, which involved the integration of autoregressive moving average‐type (ARMA‐type) models and least squares support vector machines (LSSVMs) optimized by 10‐fold cross validation and particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm. The effectiveness of the optimal EMD‐ARMAs‐LSSVMs framework was then verified using an empirical example from the EU emissions trading system (EU ETS). The long‐term forecast results and comparisons with other forecasting methods demonstrated the stability and validity of the proposed framework. The results indicated that ARMA‐type models are more suitable for low frequency and trend components, and LSSVMs were more suitable for high frequency components. It was also found that the proposed optimal framework was able to effectively reduce the error accumulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The instability of financial market will have a great impact on money, bonds, and stocks and affect the economic development of society and people's lives. Therefore, it is very necessary for us to study and predict the financial stability. According to the forecast results, we will analyze and make a series of preparatory measures. First, we make a series of analyses on the structure and significance of policy uncertainty and financial stability. This paper introduces the advantages and disadvantages of the P/L model, the KLS signal method, and the BP neural network model for financial stability early warning, It is clearly pointed out that the BP neural network is more reliable and accurate, Then, the BP neural network, the ant colony algorithm, and the genetic algorithm are used to predict the opening price, closing price, highest price, and lowest price of KDJ index of Cathay Pacific Group's 5-day data. Compared with the real value, we find that the BP neural network is almost the smallest in forecasting the opening price and closing price, or the lowest price and the highest price, and has good stability, which once again proves the feasibility of applying the BP neural network to the research and prediction of financial stability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Healthy investor sentiment has an important impact on stock market volatility. To avoid extreme volatility in the stock market, it becomes crucial to focus on the sentiment health of investors. Therefore, we establish the realized volatility model, the implied volatility model, and the historical volatility model, respectively, introduce investor sentiment and market liquidity into these models, and empirically study the forecast effects of future daily and weekly frequency volatility to play a role in the development of the physical industry and the improvement of organizational performance. The study found that the HAR-RV model has the strongest predictive ability, while the GJR-GARCH model's predictive effect is not ideal; market liquidity and high investor sentiment can improve the predictive effect of most models; compared with long-term (one-week) volatility, the effect of predicting short-term (one-day) volatility is better. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on the close relationship between real estate and capital financing, this paper specifically discusses the impact of interest rate changes in China on real estate market transactions. Housing price regulation has been a hot and focused topic of economics research. It is important to explore the effect of interest rate on real estate market transactions, for the interest rate is an important tool for the government to carry out macrocontrol of the real estate market and affects residents' consumption choices of goods. Currently, most scholars believe that interest rate changes have a significant impact on house prices, but their studies are often based on empirical analysis of macro data, making it difficult to exclude the effects of economic differences, geographic characteristics, and other factors. Also, some scholars believe that it is difficult for interest rates to have a long-term impact on real estate prices. This paper applies the experimental economics method to simulate real estate transactions in the real market and control the irrelevant variables to study the movements of housing prices, transaction volumes, consumer transaction intentions and bubble indices under different deposit and lending rates. The results show that: (1) The level of deposit interest rate has a significant inhibitory effect on housing price and a significant promoting effect on real estate market transaction volume and traders' house-buying behavior. The higher the level of deposit interest rate is, the better the degree of regulating house prices deviating from the theoretical price is and the better the effect of inhibiting market bubbles. (2) The level of lending rate has a significant inhibiting effect on the volume of real estate transactions and a significant promoting effect on the house-buying behavior of traders, but its effect on housing prices and market bubbles is not significant. The higher the level of lending rate is, the better the degree of regulating housing prices deviating from the theoretical price is. (3) The effect of deposit interest rate and lending rate policies on the house selling behavior of market traders is not significant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Real estate is potentially contributing to the economic growth. It has a strong correlation between property owners and beneficiaries. The accurate forecast of future property prices is particularly important. Therefore, real estate prices are reflecting the economic level of counties, and their price ranges are of great interest to both buyers and sellers. Developing a land‐price forecast model could significantly assist in predicting future land prices and setting real estate regulations. In contrast, machine learning (ML) algorithms have demonstrated a great potential to perform predictions. Motivated by these assumptions, we develop in this article a set of ML algorithms to build models capable to increase the effectiveness of land price estimation. The ML algorithms adopted in this work include the decision tree, random forest (RF), and linear regression. We collected data from 5946 lands localized in the northern area of Riyadh, KSA. This data has been collected using GeoTech's DAAL website. The performance of the developed models has been assessed based on state‐of‐art performance metrics including mean absolute error, mean squared error, and median squared error. The experiments show that the RF based model outperforms the remaining models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

New Environmental Markets I focus on two new environmental markets: carbon markets (the buying and selling of emission credits) and biodiversity offsetting (compensating for the adverse impact on nature of an economic development with another nature conservation project). This is a specific case - voluntary trading between companies in a high-income region - but it shows that there I can be i acceptable environmental markets, in particular when goods (for example, homogenous ones) and actors (for example, companies) fit market norms. A combination of existing markets, new markets (for example, carbon trading), and hypothetical markets (environmental valuation and cost-benefit analyses) should allow for socially optimal outcomes. Should there be markets for environmental goods?. [Extracted from the article]

Section 624.424(10) of the Florida Statutes requires insurers doing business in the State of Florida to file quarterly residential property insurance reports (commercial and residential) to the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation via the Quality Supplemental Report (QUASR) system. The data are reported quarterly at the county level for 13 distinct lines of business and include information on policies in force (and underlying changes in polices during the quarter), premiums, and exposures. The QUASR data are unusual in their level of granularity and as such, should be of potential value to researchers pursuing research topics in the areas of market competition, insurance market development, and insurer/insurance market performance as well as to instructors considering projects involving data management, market and insurer‐level analysis, missing data imputation methods, forecasting, or projects that examine changes across periods of market disruptions and recovery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The recent disbursement of COVID‐19 pandemic‐related federal relief funds to businesses and individuals under the CARES Act exposed significant problems in the U.S. system of money and payments. U.S. banks' wealth maximization objectives clashed with the federal government's goals of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). The discriminatory, self‐interested behavior of banks, which essentially served as the federal government's long arm in these transactions, worsened the pandemic‐induced economic crisis for many, especially women and minorities, and intensified racial injustice. The U.S. government's inability in 2020 to successfully execute its stimulus plan and give all its intended recipients the benefits it had designated due to the role played by banks begs the question: Should U.S. banks be subject to any legal obligations when they help the government execute its fiscal goals? This article argues that U.S. banks should help advance the federal government's fiscal policy, including the DEI social agenda, especially during critical junctures such as the economic crisis instigated by COVID‐19, and proposes an agency theory approach to mandate the implementation of government social policy goals among commercial banks via a CAMELS rating‐like system that includes social goals, such as DEI. This DEI rating system would create public consequences for noncomplying banks, including depositors withdrawing their funds from lower‐rated banks and redepositing them in top‐rated banks, resulting in higher‐rated DEI banks overtaking lower‐rated banks. This DEI rating system will also provide an incentive for banks to compete for more diversity and inclusion, which would solve many of the systemic discrimination‐related issues that led to economic inequality and intensified the 2020–2021 crisis. Lastly, DEI‐based scores could help prevent banks from finding themselves on the losing side of the growing public banking movement in the United States, enabling banks to reposition themselves and avoid future radical changes in the banking industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

I reflect on the progress of policy analysis for sustainable rural development over my professional lifetime, and the implications for the future. In so doing, I emphasise the distinction between policy analysis and policy evaluation, and the importance of enabling and facilitating transformation to improve resilience in a time of climate crisis; both of which highlight the need for more inclusive analytical tools, concepts and approaches. The central focus is on the development of a conceptual framework which is dynamic, interactive and holistically systemic, elucidated through, especially, comparative case studies and social‐ecological concepts. Recognition of the diversity of contexts and the heterogeneity of individual characters embedded in institutional cultures, which are of our own making, leads to a much richer and more resilient conceptual framework for analysis and effective diagnosis than the abstract and severely reductive textbook economic tradition. Future research priorities for agricultural economists are suggested: in new rural governance, mapping food systems, and enhanced performance assessment for farming businesses. In that context, a call is made for increased labour and skills in future UK farming. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We investigate the nonlinear spillover and portfolio allocation characteristics of the US and Canadian energy equity portfolios. Our empirical study based on directional spillover index and non‐convex portfolio optimization show that the spillover effects in the aggregate are smaller for the US portfolio across time. However, when only the largest spillover transmitters and receivers are considered, the total spillover effects are lower for the Canadian portfolio relative to the US portfolio. These portfolio optimization results indicate lower portfolio allocation risk for the Canadian energy equities during the global financial crisis of 2008 and for the full sample period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Economists generally study financial regulation in a 'market failure' context. Market failures, as defined in undergraduate textbooks, are identified and government action is proposed to remedy those failures. Quite apart from objections to the market‐failure model that can come from many perspectives, this approach ignores the ways in which regulatory institutions can develop within financial markets. Indeed, such institutions were the norm in the UK until the mid‐1980s, and they still exist today. This article proposes that economists should take this observed reality into account. When considering the appropriateness of government intervention, they should first study the relative advantages and disadvantages of private and government regulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since 2011, Saudi foreign policy has shifted from its traditional position of self‐restraint and reliance on soft power to an assertive and adventurous one that prioritizes expanding security alliances and use of force. Particularly, after the advent of King Salman to power, the Kingdom experienced various turning points in its foreign policymaking such as its pursuit of increased military engagement in the post‐Arab Spring countries, its normalization of relations with Israel and adopting a new armament program. This unusual shift in the Saudi foreign policymaking inevitably raises the question: "What led Riyadh to adopt policies that completely broke away from its traditional position?." A closer look at the recent developments unfolding in the region since the Arab uprisings reveals that the Saudi foreign policy decisions are primarily guided by its perceived threat from Iran. Against this backdrop, this article first investigates why Saudi Arabia views Iran as the biggest threat to its survival. Second, it analyzes the new Saudi foreign policy orientation and its implications in light of balance of threat theory. Finally, the article looks into how the change in the US administration and the end of unconditional US support to Saudi Arabia influenced the Kingdom's discourse and tone vis a vis Iran. The article mainly proposes that Saudi Arabia's increasing threat perception from Iran sheds light on the Kingdom's reasoning and motivation behind its more proactive and assertive policies while the Kingdom's discourse and policymaking is heavily restricted by the ambivalence in the US posture in the Middle East and particularly its stance toward Riyadh's policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After 2007, many US households suffered significant financial losses when their mortgages were foreclosed upon and homes repossessed. Much of this lost value ended up in the hands of institutional investors who bought repossessed homes at the bottom of the market. Using the case of the biggest such investor, Blackstone, as an exemplar, this article argues that the state was implicated in this value transfer in several crucial ways: its failure to better assist distressed borrowers ensured the availability of large numbers of homes for investors to buy; it privileged such investors over other categories of potential buyer; and its taking of action to support recovery of the housing market coincided with such investors beginning to buy at scale. The article draws on the critical macro‐finance literature to conceptualise the state's role in terms of the "de‐risking" of financial markets that are increasingly integral to contemporary social and economic governance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines that how China's antidumping actions against other counties affect the returns to capital of involved industries. Using CSMAR from 1997 to 2015, we estimate the excess returns of a firm's equity by three different methods. Then combining with the Global Antidumping Database, we conduct an empirical analysis. Our empirical results show that China's antidumping investigation in specific industries promotes the return on equity of listed companies in the industry, meaning antidumping has positive impact on returns to capital. Antidumping promotes the marginal and average market value of firms' investment, thus showing excess returns on their equity, and then firms invest. As the investment stock increases, firms tend to be in equilibrium and excess returns fall. Furthermore, this paper conducts a series of heterogeneity analyses from the perspectives of capital intensity, capital specificity, and corporate ownership, and proves that antidumping measures can significantly increase the rate of return on capital in the industries involved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Atypical work has been proven to worsen employment conditions, reduce labour productivity and hinder firms from competing in higher quality market segments, yet companies still hire atypical workers to provide flexibility in response to unstable market conditions. Previous research has examined the relationship between specific job features and the incidence of atypical work. Using a fuzzy‐set qualitative comparative analysis technique, we analysed interviews of service firms' managers to identify configurations that limit the use of atypical workers. We found evidence that firms limit the use of atypical contracts not only in cases of firm‐specific and complex tasks but also in cases of simple and nonspecific tasks when supported by human resource management practices that aim to increase internal flexibility. Firms can take advantage of a stable workforce by strategically using human resource management flexibility practices as an alternative to labour market flexibility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article seeks to contribute to International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) literature by examining the effects of adopting IFRS on stock market performance worldwide from the diffusion of innovation theory perspective. Our study revealed several interesting findings after using combinations of unique panel data sets from 110 countries worldwide and conducting a robust empirical analysis from 1995 to 2014. First, we found a positive association between late mandatory IFRS adoption and stock market integration in Europe. Second, our findings indicate a significant negative association between early IFRS adoption and the following financial indicators: stock market trading volumes, stock market capitalization, market turnover, and market return. Third, our study reveals an insignificant association between early IFRS adoption and stock price volatility alongside stock market development. Our findings are robust and have significant practical and policy implications for regulators and policymakers of multinational corporations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As in many other fields, UK‐EU relations in financial services are set on a path of ever greater divergence. This follows logically from Theresa May's Lancaster House speech in January 2017 announcing that the UK would leave the single market. The City‐based policy community then quickly moved from hoping to keep passporting rights to the EU market, towards searching for access based on 'equivalence'. But as negotiations became more acrimonious following Boris Johnson's arrival in Downing Street and (Lord) David Frost's appointment as Chief Negotiator for Exiting the European Union in 2019, the prospects for a deal on financial services slipped away—perhaps surprisingly, given the centrality of finance to the British economy. For its part, the EU has been increasingly reluctant to reach a deal on financial services, taking instead the path to greater financial autonomy and regulatory control within the European Union and the Eurozone in particular. As a result, UK‐based firms no longer have access to the EU market, although there is still a tug‐of‐war of some consequence over the location of euro‐denominated derivative trading. Incremental divergence is now at work, as Britain pursues a strategy of competitiveness based on better regulation, within the international framework established after the global financial crisis of 2007–2009. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Country‐specific recommendations (CSRs) were introduced by the Stability and Growth Pact and offered guidance to countries in fiscal policies. Coordination was very limited and unsystematic in terms of policies and obligations. In the aftermath of the euro area financial crisis, the European Union reinforces the pre‐existing policy cycle with the European Semester. Why do countries implement CSRs? Are there explanatory differences in their implementation before and after the introduction of the European Semester? We argue that the study of the entire history of the CSRs provides a unique chance to unravel opposite causal mechanisms. Employing an original dataset, we show that, in the first period, electoral proximity reduces implementation. We find also that, if a country is in (out of) the euro area, it is more (less) inclined to adhere to the CSRs as inflation increases. In the European Semester, instead, inflationary pressure and higher costs of enforcement increase implementation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, we evaluated the growth performance, body composition and feed efficiency, muscle and gut histology, blood haematology and plasma biochemical parameters and the activity of antioxidant enzymes in the liver of Nile tilapia fed diets supplemented with betaine. Increasing doses (0.00, 0.50, 1.00 and 2.00 g kg−1) were added to a basal diet and randomly assigned to three groups, composed of 12 fish (27.76 ± 1.31 g) in each experimental units. The fish were fed to satiation four times a day during 100 days. Dietary inclusion of 0.50 g kg−1 of betaine resulted in greater results in weight gain, daily weight gain, specific growth rate, as well as energy retention rate. Dietary inclusion of betaine resulted in less height, width and thickness of the tunic of the gut folds. Fish fed 0.50 and 1.00 g kg−1 of dietary betaine showed higher plasma glucose. The concentration of substances reactive to thiobarbituric acid was lower in fish fed with 0.50 g kg−1 of dietary betaine, while those fed with 1.00 g kg−1 dietary betaine show greater activity of the catalase enzyme. The dietary inclusion of 0.50 g kg−1 of betaine improves growth performance probably by reducing lipid peroxidation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the rapid development of the Internet and changes in consumer buying habits, many manufacturers are increasingly relying on online channels to sell their products as opposed to traditional retail channels. In this study, we innovatively investigate the impact of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and consumer green preferences (CGP) on supply chain performance and product green level in the dual-channel green supply chain (DCGSC). Specifically, four models of DCGSC (centralized, independent CSR, cooperative CSR, and collaboration contract) are investigated. Next, we use game theory to investigate the optimal product green level, online and offline selling prices, social welfare, profits of supply chain enterprises, and the whole supply chain under the four models. We give numerical examples to demonstrate the effectiveness and viability of the four models. We find several interesting conclusions. First, increasing the attention to both CSR and CGP by supply chain enterprises is conducive to stimulating innovation and improving product green level. Second, when supply chain enterprises actively execute their CSR, they can reasonably control online and offline selling prices and increase consumer surplus and the profits of whole supply chain and social welfare are increased. Third, it is beneficial to increase the value of supply chain enterprises to enhance CSR within a certain threshold, but when CSR is higher than the threshold, the profitability of supply chain enterprises is weakened. Finally, collaboration contracts are capable of coordinating DCGSC and guaranteeing the profitability of supply chain enterprises. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper seeks to deepen our understanding of financial industry lobbying efforts that result in specific regulatory rules being dropped from the regulatory agenda, or what we call 'rule omission'. Critically, existing research either ignores rule omission or characterizes it as the pinnacle of lobbying success. We argue that only in carefully mapping out industry preferences and tracking what happens to rules following their omission can we say something about the extent to which finance wins or loses in its effort to shape regulation. Our analysis is based on two in‐depth case studies from the European Union: (1) solvency rules in the Institutions for Occupational Retirement Provision Directive (IORPP II), where rule omission does reflect a strong case of industry influence; and (2) short selling rules in the Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive (AIFMD), a case of rule omission resulting in more stringent rules over industry activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Option Shock was a notable 2010 manipulation in Korean stock and derivatives markets. Motivated by Option Shock, we examine the effectiveness of the conditional random‐end (RE) trading mechanism during the opening or closing call auction on the Korea Exchange. We find the conditional RE trading mechanism promotes price stabilization, but with some reservations, and improves price discovery and efficiency at the open, but causes overshooting at the close. We also find it somewhat effective in filtering out spoofing orders, but failed to stabilize the market in the extreme case of Option Shock, which motivated a change to an unconditional RE trading mechanism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines long‐run dependence and causality between oil and precious metal (gold, silver, platinum, palladium, steel, and titanium) prices across quantiles by exploiting their time series properties with the help of novel econometric techniques. The empirical results for the period 1990–2019 indicate that oil and metal prices are nonstationary across different quantiles and that cointegration patterns differ widely across quantiles. Causality running from oil to metal prices is quantile‐dependent and differs according to the metal, whereas upward and downward movements in metal prices have no causal effect on oil prices. These results have implications for investors and policymakers in terms of portfolio and risk management decisions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article points to gaps between academic research and the needs of accounting standard‐setters. In part it attributes those gaps to the academic literature seeming to be inaccessible and oriented to ideas apparently unrelated to the policy‐making issues facing standard‐setters. As a means of partially reducing that perceived inaccessibility, the paper provides a way for standard‐setters to identify and classify the various forms of academic accounting research so that they can evaluate their usefulness. Two prominent strands of research (agency theory/costly contracting and value relevance) are, as illustrations, analysed so that standard‐setters can see how they might approach those strands. The paper suggests a users' needs/demand driven approach to improving understanding, rather than a supply (by academics) driven approach. Finally, the paper explains how the performance metrics faced by academics can be inconsistent with the readiness expressed by standard‐setters to have academics assist them. The paper provides a suggestion as to how there could be some alignment of academic performance metrics and standard‐setters' needs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper constructs a model of an Emission Trading Scheme (ETS) market using bid‐ask spreads. We show that when such a market is dominated by a small number of traders with substantial market power, they tend to maximize their profits by widening bid‐ask spreads, thereby reducing market liquidity. We argue that adding more market participants, including derivatives traders, can alleviate this illiquidity problem. Policy changes at the European Union's ETS illustrate our theory, as the market significantly increased liquidity by enacting liquidity‐provision policies to attract more participants as it transitioned from Phase 1 to Phase 2. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many global climate change mitigation pathways presented in IPCC assessment reports rely heavily on the deployment of bioenergy, often used in conjunction with carbon capture and storage. We review the literature on bioenergy use for climate change mitigation, including studies that use top‐down integrated assessment models or bottom‐up modelling, and studies that do not rely on modelling. We summarize the state of knowledge concerning potential co‐benefits and adverse side effects of bioenergy systems and discuss limitations of modelling studies used to analyse consequences of bioenergy expansion. The implications of bioenergy supply on mitigation and other sustainability criteria are context dependent and influenced by feedstock, management regime, climatic region, scale of deployment and how bioenergy alters energy systems and land use. Depending on previous land use, widespread deployment of monoculture plantations may contribute to mitigation but can cause negative impacts across a range of other sustainability criteria. Strategic integration of new biomass supply systems into existing agriculture and forest landscapes may result in less mitigation but can contribute positively to other sustainability objectives. There is considerable variation in evaluations of how sustainability challenges evolve as the scale of bioenergy deployment increases, due to limitations of existing models, and uncertainty over the future context with respect to the many variables that influence alternative uses of biomass and land. Integrative policies, coordinated institutions and improved governance mechanisms to enhance co‐benefits and minimize adverse side effects can reduce the risks of large‐scale deployment of bioenergy. Further, conservation and efficiency measures for energy, land and biomass can support greater flexibility in achieving climate change mitigation and adaptation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: Increased global integration of firm, production, and financial networks has the potential to benefit growth but also amplify the transmission of crises. We test whether higher global connectedness is associated with robust (beneficial) or fragile (harmful) behavior using networks derived from firm equity returns across all industries (1991–2016). More globally connected firms are less likely to be in distress, with higher profit, revenue, and equity price growth; however, they are more exposed to direct contagion from distressed neighboring firms. Our analysis reveals the centrality of finance, increased globalization, and greater potential for crises to spread globally when they do occur. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By putting into conversation theories of capital devaluation, the scholarship on the socioecological fix, and critical energy studies, this paper offers a conceptual framework to study the phase‐out of fossil fuel energy infrastructure. The concept of moral devaluation is presented, which emphasises the interaction of economic, political, and socioecological dimensions shaping the main forces, constraints, and regulatory mechanisms to devalue emission‐intensive fixed capital. This notion of moral devaluation is useful to inform empirical research on the institutional arrangements through which the devaluation of fixed fossil fuel capital is resisted and organised. Moreover, this notion complements current studies about the possibility of a capital switch to renewable energies as a socioecological fix to the climate and other entangled crises of capitalism, by emphasising that the devaluation of fixed capital represents a constraining condition for the rapid emergence of a socioecological fix based on fixed capital formation in the low‐carbon energy sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We investigate the intra‐industry spill‐over effect of defaults in the Chinese bond market by using a sample of public corporate debt securities for the period 2014–2018. We find that both industry portfolios and individual firms witness a strong contagion effect, which further spreads to the primary bond market, triggering a surge in the debt financing cost for default industries. Moreover, this contagion effect is stronger for low‐competition industries and regulated industries, as well as when a default happens to state‐owned enterprises. Better information access and higher bond liquidity alleviate the contagion effect, lending support to the information updates and liquidity dry‐up hypotheses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Markov chain models are widely used for capturing the switching behavior of economic agents and its impact on the prospective market developments in various industries. The aim of this paper is to analyze the customers' altered behavior on the Motor Third Party Liability Insurance market in Republic of North Macedonia for the period of 2016–2018, in a setting where the policy tariff rates are equal for all the Insurance providers, that is, prices are excluded as a factor of transition. For that purpose, a stationary, homogeneous, first‐order Markov Chain model is deployed to detect the flows and the reasoning behind the decisions for customers' transition across companies. This approach is applied for the first time on the Macedonian Insurance Market and the findings offer valuable information to many interested parties including policymakers, insurance providers, as well as researchers in the field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Prior to the Affordable Care Act (ACA), insurance companies could charge higher premiums, or outright deny coverage, to people with preexisting health problems. But the ACA's "guaranteed issue" provision forbids such price discrimination and denials of coverage. This paper seeks to determine whether, after implementation of the ACA, nongroup private insurance plans have experienced adverse selection. Our empirical approach employs a copula-based hurdle regression model, with dependence modeled as a function of dimensions along which adverse selection might occur. Our main finding is that, after implementation of the ACA, nongroup insurance enrollees with preexisting health problems do not appear to exhibit adverse selection. This finding suggests that the ACA's mandate that everyone acquire coverage might have attracted enough healthy enrollees to offset any adverse selection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]