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The main purpose of this study is to review practical experience and provide guidance on the use of Stock-Trak software (trading virtual assets of various types of investment assets) by students to make investment decisions under uncertainty. The article uses such scientific methods of analysis as analysis, synthesis, comparison, abstraction, and modeling. The information base for the study is students enrolled in bachelor’s degree programs in economics at Northeastern State University (USA). Based on the analysis of students’ reports for the period 2014-2017, it is established that the most common mistakes in the study of socio-economic processes include the neglect of transaction costs and the non-accounting of dividends in the calculations. For the most part, students have difficulty calculating financial ratios correctly because they are not sufficiently familiar with the procedure for acquiring investment assets using margin, and are unable to determine the initial amount of investment when purchasing assets using margin and have difficulty separating the profit option. Previous studies of methods and models of mastering knowledge of investment activities show that gamification of the educational process, an interactive form of practical exercises helps to improve the quality of communication of learning subjects, improve the overall level of learning effectiveness, as well as better mastering of knowledge through their practical use in the beginning. mode and subsequently in further professional activity. The results of the study may be useful to teachers in the financial and economic disciplines in terms of a detailed analysis of the major difficulties encountered by students in using the program and avoiding these errors in their activities. Keywords: investments, mutual fund, options, portfolio, stock, Stock-Trak.

This paper summarizes the arguments and counterarguments within the scientific discussion on the issue of mutual funds’ composition across the business cycle. The main purpose of the research is to determine whether mutual funds alter their investments across the business cycle. Systematization of the literary sources and approaches for solving the problem of the relationship between the business cycle and the composition of mutual funds indicates that five-star rated mutual funds may have an investment strategy that is different from lower-rated funds. Investigation of the topic of the relationship between the business cycle and composition of mutual funds in the paper is carried out in the following logical sequence: First, we classified each quarter as an “improving” or a “worsening” business condition period based on the Aruoba-Diebold-Scotti Business Conditions Index. As a result, we had seven “improving” and seven “worsening” business condition periods during our sample period. Then, we compared each star group (one-star to five-star) investments in common stocks, preferred stocks, convertible bonds, warrants, corporate bonds, municipal bonds, government bonds, other securities, and cash across the “improving” versus the “worsening” periods. The methodological tools utilized in this research were nonparametric tests. The objects of the research are the mutual funds listed in the CRSP quarterly mutual funds dataset for the 2003-2006 period. The paper presents the results of empirical analysis for these mutual funds, which showed that five-star funds tend to have a different strategy when compared to lower-rated funds. The research empirically confirms and theoretically proves that the five-star funds tend to invest more in riskier assets and they tend to better adjust to the conditions (i.e. invest more in common stocks and less in bonds in improving periods) when compared to the other groups. This explains their success: higher NAVs compared to the other groups and higher star ratings. On the other hand, our results show that the lower-rated funds do not adjust their investments in main asset classes like stock and bonds during “improving” versus “worsening” business condition periods. Overall, our results indicate that mutual funds’ star ratings and NAVs are linked to these funds’ success in their adaptation to the macro-economic environment. The results of the research can be useful for investment firms or individual investors that consider investing in U.S. mutual funds. Keywords: mutual fund, portfolio, business cycle, recession, net asset value.

We examine the impact of the Global Crisis on entrepreneurial aspirations and entrepreneurial attitudes. We focus on three aspiration variables (Growth Expectation early-stage Entrepreneurial Activity, New Product early-stage Entrepreneurial Activity, and International Orientation early-stage Entrepreneurial Activity), and eight attitude variables (Entrepreneurial Intention, Entrepreneurship as Desirable Career Choice, Fear of Failure Rate, High Status Successful Entrepreneurship, Know Startup Entrepreneur Rate, Media Attention for Entrepreneurship, Perceived Capabilities, and Perceived Opportunities). Our results show that, two of the attitude variables have changed significantly three years after the crisis. Entrepreneurial Intention is significantly higher in 2011 (i.e. three years after the crisis started) when compared to 2008, and Know Startup Entrepreneur Rate is significantly lower in 2011 when compared to 2008. On the other hand, we find no significant change in any of the aspiration variables.

In this study, we examine the impact of the 2008-2009 Global Crisis on poverty rates across the globe. Our results are mixed. We find that, after the crisis, there was a marginally significant increase in the number of the poorest group of people (living on less than $1.25 a day at 2005 international prices) across the world. However, we do not find any significant increase in the number of people in the other low-income categories (living on less than $2, $2.50, $4, or $5). Although we do not find any significant increase in the poverty headcount ratios (the percentage of poor people in the population living on less than $1.25, $2, $2.50, $4, or $5), our results show that, interestingly, there has been a significant decrease in the national poverty headcount ratios (percentage of people living below the national poverty line which is based on estimates from household surveys) after the crisis. Overall, we suggest policymakers to focus on the poorest group of people during these hard times since this group is affected the most.

Regulations are shown to have a significant impact on entrepreneurial activity, especially on startups by smaller firms. Higher compliance costs are shown to deter small firms entering a new industry. In this study, using state-level regulation data in the U.S., we examine whether different types of regulations (including “health and safety regulations”, “employment regulations”, “tax code”, “licensing regulations”, “environmental regulations”, and “zoning regulations”) in each state deter smaller firms to do business in that state. We also examine whether each type of regulation deters firms to do business in certain industries or to operate in more or fewer states. Besides size, operational area, and industry, we also examine whether each type of regulation deters younger firms to do business in each state. Our results show that “health and safety regulations”, “employment regulations”, “tax code”, “licensing regulations”, and “environmental regulations” in a state affect firm size and industry, but do not affect operational area and firm age. In the states with high scores in these areas, there are fewer single-employee firms but more 2-20 employee firms when compared to the other states. Also, in the states with a high score in “environmental regulations”, we find fewer firms with 51 to 100 employees when compared to the other states. On the other hand, “zoning regulations” affect firm age and industry, but not operational area and firm size. In the states with high scores in “zoning regulations”, we find fewer firms that are established less than a year ago. Finally, in the states with high scores in regulations, generally, we find that more firms are in the “Business” industry and fewer firms are in the “Writing” industry. Overall, we show how each type of regulation deter certain types of firms operating in each state. This is important because if a state wants to attract certain types of firms (i.e., younger, or older firms, larger or smaller firms, or firms in certain industries), the officials in that state need to improve the corresponding regulations first.

In this study, we examine how the 2008-2009 Global Crisis has affected the informal payments/gifts paid by retailers in Eastern Europe and Central Asia. We look at the overall incidence of bribes, the incidence of bribes in customs/imports, the incidence of bribes in courts, and the incidence of bribes in tax payments. We compare the crisis period to the post-crisis period and found that these firms believed that the incidence of bribes went down significantly after the crisis ended. When we differentiate the retailers with respect to size, structure, legal form, gender of the owners, gender of the top manager, and whether or not they held an international quality certification, we found that, the results hold for all classifications of retailers. When we go into more detail and examine the incidence of bribes in customs/imports, courts, and taxes/tax collection, we found that the respondents saw a significant drop in the incidence of bribes in all areas after the crisis ended. However, our results show that, for bribes in customs/imports, the results do not hold for some of the classifications (i.e. medium-sized and the largest small firms, the firms that are part of a larger firm, the shareholding firms trading in the market, the partnerships, and the firms with an internationally recognized quality certification). For bribes in courts, the results do not hold for the largest small firms and the partnerships. For bribes in taxes/tax collection, the results do not hold for the partnerships and the firms with a quality certification. Our findings are consistent with the low rankings of these countries in Transparency International’s annual Corruption Perception Index data. Our findings are also consistent with previous studies’ findings that document high-levels of corruption in developing (or less developed) nations.

In this study, we attempt to find the factors that influence small business owners’ optimism as well as their company’s success. For this purpose, we use a survey done by Kauffman foundation. This survey asks business owners about their state’s performance in areas like “ease of starting a business”, “ease of hiring”, “regulations”, and “training and networking programs”. It also asks business owners questions about their firm’s performance and their optimism for the future. We run several tests to see if business owners are more optimistic and more successful in states with a high score in each “business friendliness” area. We show that, in the states with a higher business friendliness composite score, both growth in revenue and growth in employees are higher and also owners tend to be more encouraging to others. Regression analyses support these findings (except for growth in employees). Our results indicate that growth in revenue is driven mainly by the Ease of Start score. In other words, the revenues of small businesses grow faster in the states with a better initial registration/establishment process. Our results also indicate that growth in the number of employees is driven mainly by the Overall Regulations score. In other words, small businesses grow faster (in terms of the number of employees) in the states with more favorable regulations. With respect to whether or not the owners would encourage others to start a business in their state, our results show that all subcomponents (Ease of Start, Ease of Hire, Overall Regulations, and Training and Networking programs) are important. The owners are more encouraging to others when Ease of Start, Ease of Hire, Overall Regulations, and Training and Networking programs are all favorable. Overall, we conclude that while all components of business friendliness have a positive relation with the small business owners’ optimism, the link between the business friendliness score and firm performance is weaker. Ease of Start is important for growth in revenues and optimism, Ease of Hire is important for optimism only, Overall Regulations are important for growth in the number of employees and optimism, and Training and Networking Programs are crucial for optimism. Keywords: regulations, business friendliness, small business, entrepreneurship, firm performance.

We examine the impact of the 1997 Asian Crisis on governance. We look into how the crisis affected High-Income OECD, High-Income Non-OECD, Upper-middle Income, Lower- Middle Income, and Low Income Countries. For measures of governance, we use the World Bank’s Governance Indicators dataset which includes six measures of governance. We find that pre- and post-crisis, the ranking of each income group has not changed except for year 2004 when the High-Income Non-OECD Countries surpassed the High-Income OECD Countries in “Political Stability and Absence of Violence” category. In other words, our results show that, other than that exception in 2004, both pre- and post-crisis, the High-Income OECD Countries had the best governance measures, the High-Income Non-OECD Countries had the second best measures, and so on, in the order shown above. One point to note here: The High-Income Non- OECD Countries performed much better than the other groups after year 1998. After 1998, this group improved in all six dimensions of governance. We conclude that although crises affect all income groups, because of certain characteristics of the High-Income Non-OECD group, they tend to better react to crises.

In this study, we examine the regional impacts of the 1997 Asian Crisis on Governance. We use World Bank’s Worldwide Governance Indicators (i.e. WGI) which includes six dimensions of governance. These six dimensions are “Voice and Accountability”, “Political Stability and Absence of Violence”, “Government Effectiveness”, “Regulatory Quality”, “Rule of Law”, and “Control of Corruption”. The seven regions that we examine are North America, Europe and Central Asia, Latin America and Caribbean, East Asia and Pacific, South Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa, and Middle East and North Africa. Our findings show that, due to the crisis, while the overall rankings of Latin America and Caribbean, and Sub-Saharan Africa improved, the overall rankings of Europe and Central Asia, East Asia and Pacific, South Asia, and Middle East and North Africa declined. There was no change in the ranking of North America due to the crisis. Both pre- and post-crisis, North America has the highest ranking in all six measures of governance.

In this study, we examine the impact of the 2008 Global Crisis on “access to finance” in high-income OECD, high-income non-OECD, middle-income, and low-income countries. We use three measures of access to finance. These are “Number of bank branches per 100,000 adults”, “Value traded of top 10 traded companies to total value traded (%)”, and “Market capitalization outside of top 10 largest companies to total market capitalization (%)”. During the run-up to the crisis and immediately after the crisis, we do not find any significant change in any of the three “access to finance” measures. We find that, during the crisis, only middle-income countries were affected significantly. These countries were affected in only one of the measures which is “Value traded of top 10 traded companies to total value traded (%)”. This measure went up and this change is marginally significant. We conclude that the global crisis only affected “access to finance” in middle-income countries.

This paper documents the empirical relationship between ownership concentration and monetary policy to fill out the picture for when ownership concentration is likely to change within U.S. publicly traded firms. Our sample is drawn from the Dlugosz et al. (2006) data set for firms between 1996 and 2001. The authors explore the patterns between the Federal Reserve’s policy position and ownership concentration rather than asserting causal direction between the two. This empirical paper tests alternative theories on blockholder activism by examining whether “voice” or “exit” is more dominant under contractionary monetary policy. Using the series of same direction changes in the Federal Funds Rate to establish time periods as a proxy for monetary policy in the U.S., nonparametric tests show that there are more blockholders per firm, the sum of their blockholdings in percentage terms is higher, and the total percentage held by the blockholder in U.S. firms is greater under contractionary policy periods. This supports an active theory of blockholder behavior in corporate governance.

The outside blockholder has become an important agent in the corporate governance literature in the United States. Understanding how his monitoring role changes as economic circumstances deteriorate is rarely considered. In this study, we examine whether the number of certain types of blockholders, as well as their ownership concentrations, will increase during recessions. By categorizing blockholders by type: affiliated, outside, employee (through Employee Stock Ownership Plans), non-officer director, and officer director, we are able to track how blockholder composition changed within firms when the economy moved from expansion in 1999 to recession in 2001. Using nonparametric tests, we show that the number of outside blockholders and their ownership stake go up during the recessionary period examined. This suggests a more important monitoring role for the outside blockholder when the economy worsens. Though we do not find a statistically significant change overall in the average number of blockholders or the total percentage of shares held across the firms in our sample for the other blockholder types when the economy moves from expansion to recession, we do see noteworthy changes in the behavior of the affiliated and ESOP blockholder at specific ownership concentration levels when the economy shifts.

In this study, we examine telecommunication auctions and develop a framework of U.S. satellite spectrum licensing, foreign reactions to U.S. decisions, business assessments of opportunities and the feedback to the FCC's policy. This framework views the international licensing process as a series of actions, reactions, and feedbacks. We recommend policy makers to use this framework as a guide. We also recommend future studies on telecommunication auctions to use this framework as their starting point.

We examine the impact of the 2008 Global Crisis on 142 “Less-Developed” Countries as defined in Closset, Feindouno, and Goujon (2014). We look at the Human Assets Index (i.e. HAI), as well as each of its four components that include two health dimension indicators (i.e. the Undernourishment Index and the Under-five mortality index) and two education dimension indicators (i.e. the Adult Literacy Rate and the Secondary Enrollment Index). First, we look at how the index and each of its components have changed over the 1980-2011 period. We find that there has been a gradual improvement in all of the HAI indicators. Then, to examine the impact of the Global Crisis, we compare the three-year period just before the Global Crisis and the three-year period just after the Global Crisis. Our results show that, for the overall sample, the Global Crisis has not had a significant impact on any of the indicators. However, further examination reveals that the relatively developed countries within the sample have actually improved their HAIs after the crisis. Therefore, we conclude that crises tend to have different effects on a country’s development depending on how developed the country is before the crisis begins.