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The rise of centralized mining pools for risk sharing does not necessarily undermine the decentralization required for blockchains: because of miners' cross-pool diversification and pool managers' endogenous fee setting, larger pools better internalize their externality on global hash rates, charge higher fees, attract disproportionately fewer miners, and grow more slowly. Instead, mining pools as a financial innovation escalate miners' arms race and significantly increase the energy consumption of proof-of-work-based blockchains. Empirical evidence from Bitcoin mining supports our model's predictions. The economic insights inform other consensus protocols and the industrial organization of mainstream sectors with similar characteristics but ambiguous prior findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We evaluate the impacts of tax policy on asset returns using the U.S. municipal bond market. In theory, tax-induced ownership segmentation limits risk sharing, creating downward-sloping regions of the aggregate demand curve for the asset. In the data, cross-state variation in tax privilege policies predicts differences in in-state ownership of local municipal bonds; the policies create incentives for concentrated local ownership. High tax privilege states have muni bond yields that are more sensitive to variations in supply and local idiosyncratic risk. The effects are stronger when local investors face correlated background risk and/or diminishing marginal nonpecuniary benefits from holding local assets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The price of new brand-name prescription drugs has been rising fast in the United States. For example, the Amgen cholesterol drug Repatha had an initial list price of $14,523 per year. Patients, even with insurance coverage, must pay out of pocket a significant portion of this price. The treatment might not be successful, and this possibility reduces risk-sensitive patients’ incentives to purchase the drug. The high price together with the chance of negative treatment outcomes may lead payers to deny coverage for the drug. Outcome-based pricing has been proposed as a way to reallocate the risks and improve both payer resource allocation and patient access to drugs. According to an outcome-based rebate contract between Amgen and Harvard Pilgrim Healthcare, if a patient on Repatha suffers a heart attack or a stroke, both patient and insurer are refunded the cost of the drug. We use a stylized model to analyze the effect of outcome-based pricing via rebates. Our model captures the interaction between heterogenous, price-sensitive, risk-sensitive patients who decide whether to purchase the drug; a payer deciding whether to provide coverage for the drug; and a price-setting pharmaceutical firm seeking to maximize expected profits. We find that, in many cases, a pharmaceutical firm and payer cannot simultaneously benefit from outcome-based pricing, and who will benefit is determined by the probability of treatment success. Outcome-based pricing thus appears unlikely to solve the issues of high drug prices and high payer expenditures. However, supplementing outcome-based pricing with a transfer payment from firm to payer can make payer and firm (but not necessarily the patients) better off than under uniform pricing when the drug has a low chance of success.

This study investigates the distinctive modeling of regret utility when compared with common utility. I also introduce the interplay between common utility and regret utility. Using this model, I examine the differences in decision making, which encompasses issues such as risk sharing and principal–agent dilemmas. Regret utility is set so that its risk aversion shows common utility’s prudence (i.e., downside risk aversion). This paper reveals, both qualitatively and quantitively and with a concrete model, that regret utility leads to a more balanced and optimal ratio of agent payouts to outputs compared with common utility, meaning when major outputs are kept by principal, there are relatively larger agent payouts, and when major outputs are kept by the agent, there are relatively smaller agent payouts. This means that regret makes a more balanced distribution, and regret utility is more conservative (not biased). In addition, preliminary empirical research was performed in which people were asked risk preference or averseness questions, and their risk averseness was calculated by using the CRRA (Constant Relative Risk Aversion) utility function. The regret condition leads to a more conservative attitude. Furthermore, the regret model can be used in other areas, like in conservative investment portfolio optimization.

Copyright of Contemporary Accounting Research is the property of Canadian Academic Accounting Association 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.)

Financialization is persuading academics and policy-makers that the growth of SMEs can be unleashed by promoting their quotation on stock markets. Is it true? Answering can give clues on the functions that stock markets actually perform in the financialized world, from collecting finance for productive investments, to providing opportunities for value extraction; from a selection device to a risk-sharing mechanism. The associated effects may be amplified in segments catering to companies that do not satisfy the listing requirements of the official list, such as junior markets. In this article, we test hypotheses linking the shape of the firm growth rates distribution to the functions performed by a junior stock market, through quantile regressions. We use a sample of UK manufacturing companies listed on Alternative Investment Market (AIM), the junior segment of the London Stock Exchange, and comparably small and young unlisted companies. We find that the operating revenues and total assets of AIM-listed gazelles grow faster than for their unlisted peers, after controlling for lagged values of size, age, and growth. Yet, there is a loss reinforcing effect for companies listed on the AIM. After controlling for endogeneity by estimating instrumental variable quantile treatment effects, our findings dismiss the existence of a treatment effect of AIM and are consistent with the stock market attracting relatively risky companies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Psychiatric disorders and common epilepsies are heritable disorders with a high comorbidity and overlapping symptoms. However, the causative mechanisms underlying this relationship are poorly understood. Here we aimed to identify overlapping genetic loci between epilepsy and psychiatric disorders to gain a better understanding of their comorbidity and shared clinical features. We analysed genome-wide association study data for all epilepsies (n = 44 889), genetic generalized epilepsy (n = 33 446), focal epilepsy (n = 39 348), schizophrenia (n = 77 096), bipolar disorder (n = 406 405), depression (n = 500 199), attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (n = 53 293) and autism spectrum disorder (n = 46 350). First, we applied the MiXeR tool to estimate the total number of causal variants influencing the disorders. Next, we used the conjunctional false discovery rate statistical framework to improve power to discover shared genomic loci. Additionally, we assessed the validity of the findings in independent cohorts, and functionally characterized the identified loci. The epilepsy phenotypes were considerably less polygenic (1.0 K to 3.4 K causal variants) than the psychiatric disorders (5.6 K to 13.9 K causal variants), with focal epilepsy being the least polygenic (1.0 K variants), and depression having the highest polygenicity (13.9 K variants). We observed cross-trait genetic enrichment between genetic generalized epilepsy and all psychiatric disorders and between all epilepsies and schizophrenia and depression. Using conjunctional false discovery rate analysis, we identified 40 distinct loci jointly associated with epilepsies and psychiatric disorders at conjunctional false discovery rate <0.05, four of which were associated with all epilepsies and 39 with genetic generalized epilepsy. Most epilepsy risk loci were shared with schizophrenia (n = 31). Among the identified loci, 32 were novel for genetic generalized epilepsy, and two were novel for all epilepsies. There was a mixture of concordant and discordant allelic effects in the shared loci. The sign concordance of the identified variants was highly consistent between the discovery and independent datasets for all disorders, supporting the validity of the findings. Gene-set analysis for the shared loci between schizophrenia and genetic generalized epilepsy implicated biological processes related to cell cycle regulation, protein phosphatase activity, and membrane and vesicle function; the gene-set analyses for the other loci were underpowered. The extensive genetic overlap with mixed effect directions between psychiatric disorders and common epilepsies demonstrates a complex genetic relationship between these disorders, in line with their bi-directional relationship, and indicates that overlapping genetic risk may contribute to shared pathophysiological and clinical features between epilepsy and psychiatric disorders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Uncertain yield and demand often result in unbalanced revenue and risk sharing among agriculture supply chain (ASC) members. Agricultural cooperatives help smallholder farmers enhance their bargaining power via revenue and risk sharing and are a significant bridge between farmers and retailers. Therefore, this study aimed to design a contractual mechanism considering a cooperative's participation in the coordination of ASCs that face random yield and demand in pursuit of risk and benefit equivalence. We first compared two- and three-echelon decentralized ASCs with a centralized system, and the results indicate that the cooperative's participation is conducive to redistributing profit between the retailer and farmer. As a verified revenue-sharing (RS) contract cannot coordinate a two-echelon ASC under uncertain yield and demand, we developed a double revenue-sharing (DRS) contract, which has been demonstrated to coordinate an ASC system with the cooperative's participation. A numerical analysis was conducted to show that the cooperative can influence profit distribution among the upstream and downstream members via wholesale prices. Therefore, equivalence of risk and benefit is realized and fairly allocated among the members under the DRS contract, which is of great significance to the ASC system's stable and sustainable development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies the redistributive and risk-sharing effects of intergovernmental grants at the municipal level, taking advantage of the 2015 reform of the Italian municipal equalization system. The reform introduces formula grants to equalize the fiscal gap only in municipalities in standard regions, but not in municipalities located in special autonomous regions. We can, therefore, use difference-in-differences estimators to identify the causal relationship between formula grants and local gross domestic product thanks to this asymmetric pattern. The final results show that formula grants lead to greater redistribution than pre-reform transfers. On the contrary, new transfers have low risk-sharing effects due to the lag in data available to evaluate fiscal capacity and expenditure needs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Our findings suggest that risk-sharing is 24.6% higher within Brazilian federal states than between a sample of South American countries. This "border effect" occurs irrespective of the geographical distance between regions which, in turn, decreases risk-sharing (by 2.3% per thousand kilometers). We report that the variance of state disposable income is between 73.1 and 78.5% lower than the variance of gross state product in Brazil. Our results show that fiscal federalism promotes risk-sharing by reducing the volatility of disposable income. The tax-transfers system is progressive as income persistently flows from rich to poorer Brazilian states. We conclude that the benefits from increasing international integration within South America will be higher than in the intranational case. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of National University of Defense Technology / Guofang Keji Daxue Xuebao is the property of NUDT Press 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.)

Purpose: Islamic banks, despite being Shariah-compliant, have long been criticized for mimicking conventional banks in terms of their products and processes (Khan, 2010; Kuran, 1996). However, several Islamic banks do engage in philanthropy (zakat and charity) and risk-sharing financing (mudarabah and musharakah) instruments that better meet their raison d'etre, the fulfillment of Maqasid al-Shariah (Jatmiko et al., 2023). These contracts, however, are more susceptible to moral hazard and adverse selection problems than traditional debt-based finance (Azmat et al., 2015) and may impair Islamic bank stability. This paper explores the relationship between social finance and the stability of Islamic banks, and whether institutional quality moderates this relationship. Design/methodology/approach: Using hand-collected annual data on social finance from 12 Islamic banks in four countries: Bangladesh, Bahrain, Indonesia and Malaysia, between 2006 and 2019, the authors employ the feasible generalized least squares and the panel-corrected standard errors methods for the analysis. The Stata version 16 software was used to analyze the data for the study. Findings: The results indicate that mudarabah and musharakah financing raises the stability of Islamic banks. The authors also found that mudarabah and musharakah expose Islamic banks to more risk-taking behavior amidst the conditioning effect of institutional quality. On the other hand, charity induces the stability of Islamic banks, while zakat increases the risk-taking behavior of the banks. Further, when the quality of institutions was used as a moderator, both zakat and charity induced the stability of Islamic banks. The results were robust when liquidity risk was used and partially robust when portfolio risks were employed as measures of stability. Research limitations/implications: One concern regarding the application of Islamic social finance is that it might be a risky strategy for Islamic banks. In terms of research implications, the available evidence suggests that the use of Islamic social finance instruments is not detrimental to the stability of Islamic banks. Hence, regulators and policymakers should not penalize Islamic banks for using Islamic social finance instruments that help provide financial solutions to the underserved and unserved. In terms of research limitations, the study could not include other relevant Islamic social finance instruments such as waqf and qard al-hassan. Furthermore, data availability restricts the analysis to only 12 Islamic banks in fourcountries. As more Islamic banks in different countries venture into Islamic social finance, and the quantity and quality of information improve, future studies could explore the issue further. Social implications: The available evidence suggests that the use of Islamic social finance instruments does not worsen the stability of Islamic banks. Given the dominance of sale- and lease-based contracts in Islamic financing (Aggarwal and Yousef, 2000; Šeho et al., 2020), these findings should encourage other Islamic banks to provide financial solutions using other Shariah-compliant contracts including those based on risk-sharing and philanthropy. This would be a better reflection of the Islamic banks' value proposition as it helps boost social activities that have a high impact on the activities of small businesses, contributing to the real economy and promoting well-being in society. Originality/value: Previous studies mainly relied on mudarabah, mushakarah and zakat separately as they relate to the performance of Islamic banks. This study explores the impact of social finance which includes charity and zakat to examine their impact on Islamic banks' stability. Further, the authors use institutional quality as a moderating variable in the relationship between Islamic social finance instruments and the stability of Islamic banks. Peer review: The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/IJSE-06-2022-0441 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We consider a sharing economy over a network in which each vertex agent allocates resources to its neighbors in response to their contributions. General equilibrium theory can be applied here to solve the problem of deciding how to fairly and efficiently allocate resources among agents as resource sharing over the network can be modeled as a pure exchange economy. It is known that proportional sharing dynamics converges to a market equilibrium solution. We are particularly interested in proportional sharing dynamics as a mechanism for network resource sharing. Our focus is on the key issue in internet market design: whether an agent may manipulate its report of its own private information to gain more resources under this mechanism. This work establishes the first mathematical proof that such a practical distributed network resource-sharing protocol is truthful against the manipulative strategies of feasible weight misreporting and edge deletion applied both individually and together. Funding: This work was supported by the National Nature Science Foundation of China [Grants 11871366, 62172012]; Beijing Outstanding Young Scientist Program [Grant BJJWZYJH012019100020098]; the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities; the Research Funds of Renmin University of China [Grant 297522503709]; and the Intelligent Social Governance Platform, Major Innovation & Planning Interdisciplinary Platform for the "Double-First Class" Initiative, Renmin University of China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Fly Ash Comprehensive Utilization is the property of Hebei Fly Ash Comprehensive Utilization Magazine Co., Ltd. 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.)

Background and aims: Heavy metal (especially for potentially toxic element) contamination in soil has frequently been associated with plant invasion. However, the mechanisms underpinning plant invasion under potentially toxic element contamination remain unclear. Here we studied how differences in clonal traits of invasive and native plants affect their response strategies to stresses of potentially toxic element contamination. Methods: We manipulated clonal integration of two pairs (Alternanthera philoxeroides - A. sessilis, and Sphagneticola trilobata - S. calendulacea) of congeneric invasive and native plants by either severing stolons between ramet pair or not severing, and grew them in soils contaminated by three levels of Cd and three levels of Pb. Results: Our results show that the combination of Cd and Pb contamination decreased plant growth of recipient ramets of Alternanthera species. Under Pb stress, invasive S. trilobata is Pb-hyperaccumulation and benefits more from clonal integration than native S. calendulacea. Similarly, under Cd stress, invasive A. philoxeroides shows higher Cd risk sharing and benefits more from clonal integration than native A. sessilis. In contrast, clonal integration decreased the performance of A. sessilis under high Cd stress. Conclusion: These results suggest that invasive species such as A. philoxeroides and S. trilobata are able to alleviate the toxic effects of Cd and Pb co-contamination via clonal integration, thus becoming more invasive in contaminated environments with potentially toxic elements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article contributes to the debate concerning pension financialization and how countries are adapting their pension systems to respond to demographic ageing. We do so by examining the statutory pension systems of Canada and Finland, which diverge interestingly from current international trends. The Canadian and Finnish public pension schemes reflect two tendencies often associated with pension financialization: an increasing reliance on financial markets and an investment policy with a diversified asset allocation. However, unlike in many other countries, this has not resulted in heightened individual risks in old‐age income security caused by a shift from defined benefit to defined contribution pensions – an otherwise common trend internationally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic has been unlike any other crisis that we have experienced in that it hit all economies in the world at the same time, compromising the risk-sharing ability of nations. At the onset of the pandemic, the World Bank (WB) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) jointly pledged 1.16 trillion U.S. dollars to help emerging economies deal with COVID-19. Would this amount have been enough to preserve financial stability in a worst case scenario, and what were the fiscal implications of the pandemic? In this article we aim to answer these questions by documenting the size of the fiscal measures implemented by different countries, the aid they received from the IMF and the WB to finance those fiscal measures, and the resulting changes in gross debt, debt composition and maturity, and fiscal deficits. We find that given the amount of debt that was maturing in Asia and Latin America in 2020 and 2021, if there had been a rollover crisis due to lack of demand for their newly issued debt, then what was pledged by the WB and IMF at the onset of the pandemic would not have been enough to preserve financial stability. However, there was no rollover crisis, and although fiscal deficits got considerably worse in 2020, they improved in 2021, albeit leaving gross debt at higher levels than those observed before the pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies group lending with joint-liability contracts offered by Microfinance Institutions (MFIs). We develop a model of group lending where heterogeneous agents form groups, obtain capital from the MFI, and share risks among themselves. We show that the composition of the groups is not always homogeneous once risk-sharing is introduced, rationalizing the empirical evidence of risk heterogeneity within groups. Moreover, we find that joint liability introduces inefficiency for risk-averse borrowers, which explains why MFIs are moving away from joint-liability contracts. Surprisingly, the first-best outcome can be achieved even in the presence of information asymmetry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The increasing need for innovative ideas, technologies and products leads to the usage of new approaches and methods fostering innovative work. As it is found, the sharing economy covers not just consumption and customers' behaviour, but finance (crowdfunds), research (co-creation areas), entrepreneurship (co-working areas) and etc. As academic entrepreneurship often is not given priority in the university policy and goals, the paper aims to present specific requirements of the specific open space inside the universities/open entrepreneurial academic centre/that uses co-working and co-creation approaches. Thus, the paper is focused on the basics of open entrepreneurial centres (paragraph 1), indicators for their entrepreneurial success (paragraph 2) and organization of the crowd-working space (paragraph 3). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Equity-based financing (EBF) is an Islamic bank (IB) financing type that promotes justice, spirituality, and Islamic values. However, data shows that IBs still have low EBF. The researcher noted that with EBF, there is information asymmetry, agency problems and the potential for moral hazards, meaning EBF may be a risky type of transaction. This study aims to empirically show whether EBF is a risky transaction by looking at the role of EBF in non-performing financing (NPF), the z-score, and the return on average assets (ROAA). The research sample consisted of 54 IBs from 19 countries, with an observation period of 11 years (2009 to 2019). This study finds that EBF has a positive effect on NPF and does not affect the z-score and ROAA. The subsample test shows that EBF is riskier for large IBs than for small IBs. EBF has a positive effect on NPF and a negative one on ROAA for large IBs. In contrast, EBF has a negative effect on the z-score of small IBs. This research examines the robustness of these findings by employing other models as well as the generalised method of moment (GMM) to address any endogeneity problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Problem definition: We study the use of nonmonetary incentives based on reciprocity to facilitate capacity sharing between two service providers that have limited and substitutable service capacity. Academic/practical relevance: We propose a parsimonious game theory framework, in which two firms dynamically choose whether to accept each other's customers without the capability to perfectly monitor each other's capacity utilization state. Methodology: We solve the continuous-time imperfect-monitoring game by focusing on a class of public strategy, in which firms' real-time capacity-sharing decision depends on an intuitive and easy-to-implement accounting device, namely the current net number of transferred customers. We refer to such an equilibrium as a trading-favors equilibrium. We characterize the condition in which capacity sharing takes place in such an equilibrium. Results: We find that some degree of efficiency loss (as compared with a central planner's solution) is necessary to induce reciprocity. The efficiency loss is small when the two firms have similar traffic intensity even if they are different in service-capacity scale, whereas the efficiency loss can be considerably large when the two firms have significantly different traffic intensities. The trading-favors mechanism, surprisingly, can outperform the perfect-monitoring benchmark when the two firms exhibit high asymmetry in terms of service-capacity scale or traffic intensity because the smaller firm tends to deviate from collaboration. Managerial implications: Firms should consider engaging in nonmonetary reciprocal capacity sharing if regulations, transaction costs, or other market and operational frictions make it difficult to use a capacity-sharing contract based on monetary payments. The trading-favors collaboration can improve the firms' payoff close to the centralized upper bound when the firms have similar traffic intensities. However, when their traffic intensities are highly different, firms are better off with a monetary-payment contract to induce more capacity sharing and are worse off investing in increasing their visibility to each other's real-time available capacity, namely investing in perfect monitoring. Funding: X. Hu thanks Faculty of Business and Economics of the University of Hong Kong and R. Caldentey thanks the University of Chicago Booth School of Business for financial support. Supplemental Material: The online appendix is available at https://doi.org/10.1287/msom.2023.1203. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A quantification of the financial implications of the design of a funded, collective defined contribution (CDC) pension scheme is presented and illustrated. It is done through an attribution analysis, which allows the importance of various elements of CDC scheme design to be determined. The model of a CDC scheme analysed is based lightly on the first CDC scheme set to be approved in the UK. In the CDC scheme analysed, contributions are fixed and the initial benefit accrued by each contribution is fixed. Once accrued, benefits are subsequently adjusted annually in response to changes in assumptions and returns. An attribution of the benefit payments shows that this design gives higher benefits to the first generations and lower benefits to the last generations, for a scheme which starts with no members. The contributions paid also affect the balance of benefits paid between generations. Too high a contribution is to the advantage of the first generations. Too low a contribution is in the interests of the later generations. The conclusion, within the simple model considered, is that a constant benefit accrual is an important design choice. Its financial consequences across all generations should be carefully analysed, if it is intended to be implemented. Additionally, contributions should be reviewed regularly in such a CDC scheme, to ensure that cross-subsidies are not borne excessively by particular generations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Global disruption positions risk mitigation at the centre of survival strategies. Social risk mitigation strategies display relationships of trust, responsibility and culture. Insurance in global markets expands as bi-polarism began to contract from the early 1990s, but the massive external shocks of the pandemic and the rising interest environment impact negatively on this advance. What is likely the nature of risk mitigation responses in the post-pandemic era? How have societies, especially in developing regions such as some African societies, responded to the growing risk and existential threats? This paper explores African risk mitigation strategies in the past and the potential for future alignment of global insurance products to the demands of 21st Century African markets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The analysis of optimal risk sharing has been thus far largely restricted to nonexpected utility models with concave utility functions, where concavity is an expression of ambiguity aversion and/or risk aversion. This paper extends the analysis to α‐maxmin expected utility, Choquet expected utility, and cumulative prospect theory, which accommodate ambiguity seeking and risk seeking attitudes. We introduce a novel methodology of quasidifferential calculus of Demyanov and Rubinov (1986, 1992) and argue that it is particularly well suited for the analysis of these three classes of utility functions, which are neither concave nor differentiable. We provide characterizations of quasidifferentials of these utility functions, derive first‐order conditions for Pareto optimal allocations under uncertainty, and analyze implications of these conditions for risk sharing with and without aggregate risk. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we derive the optimal cyclical design of a target benefit (TB) pension plan that balances the sustainability and the benefit stability using the optimal control approach. The optimal design possesses a linear risk sharing structure with cyclical parameters. We observe that the optimal design should be pro-cyclical in the usual circumstances, but counter-cyclical when the pension plan is severely in deficit. We compare the TB plans with the defined benefit plans and conclude that a more aggressive investment strategy should be adopted for the TB plans. In the end, we provide a cautionary note on the optimal control approach in the study of the TB plans. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We study an online platform's demand information sharing strategy in a distribution channel where a manufacturer distributes products through both platform and seller channels. Information sharing becomes increasingly important in recent years as online platforms gather massive consumer information that is typically invisible by upstream manufacturers and competing sellers/retailers. We study an online platform's demand information sharing strategy in a distribution channel where a manufacturer distributes products through both platform and seller channels. We consider two different selling structures: the conventional reselling model (in which the platform acts as a reseller) and the agency/marketplace model (in which the platform acts as an agency). We find that for both selling formats, the platform always has incentives to share information with at least one party (either manufacturer or seller or both). The marketplace selling format gives the platform stronger incentives to share information with the seller. With low competition in the reselling model, the platform may not share information with the manufacturer, whereas it always does in the marketplace model. Interestingly, the forecasting accuracy does not structurally change optimal information sharing in the reselling model but induces the platform to share information with both the manufacturer and the retailer when it is high or low in the marketplace model. Our findings provide useful guidelines for an online platform on when and whom to share demand information with. History: Yuxin Chen served as the senior editor and Zsolt Katona served as associate editor for this article. Funding: This research was supported in part by the National Natural Science Foundation of China [Grants 71971205, 72188101, 71671173, 72091210/72091215, and 71731010]. Supplemental Material: The online appendices are available at https://doi.org/10.1287/mksc.2022.1397. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper builds a difference‐in‐difference model (DID) to study the impact of government risk sharing policies on corporate innovation investment. High‐tech firms are used as the experimental group to test the effect of policy shocks. It is shown that government risk sharing may ease financing constrains, which will increase corporate innovation investment. The results suggest that the effect of government risk‐sharing policies on bank credit is short‐run, while the effect on corporate innovation investment is more sustainable. In addition, the government risk‐sharing ratio is inversely proportional to the loan rates and the success rate of innovation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Viewing the domestic downside risk as a "pushing" factor for outward foreign direct investment (OFDI), this study aims to examine the surge in Chinese cross-border acquisitions (CBAs) between 2008 and 2017, a unique window when private firms in China were allowed to conduct CBAs. Design/methodology/approach: This study examines the effect of down-side risk on cross-border acquisition performance by using the sample of Chinese A-share listed companies from 2008 to 2017. Specifically, this study considers three kinds of systemic risk, systematic risk and idiosyncratic risk, and respectively examines their impact on CBAs activities; this study also investigates their subsequent results after CBAs activities. The contingency effect of state ownership on the above relationship is also discussed. Findings: The findings reveal that pre-CBA systemic risk explains the volume of CBA activities; CBAs are followed by a reduction in systemic risk; the interactions between systemic risk and CBAs decrease with the level of state ownership; and the above results do not hold for traditional risk measures (i.e. systematic risk and idiosyncratic risk). Originality/value: This study contributes to the literature by revealing the role of systemic risk as a "pushing" factor in the context of OFDI and suggesting an alternative explanation for CBAs from China: Chinese firms (especially private firms) took advantage of the rare opportunity between 2008 and 2017 given by the government to transfer assets overseas through CBA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A preliminary resource assessment of Seulawah Agam geothermal prospect in Aceh, Indonesia indicates strong geothermal potential with thermal energy produced ranging from 150 to 300 MW. However, for the first phase only a 55 MW geothermal power plant is planned. A public-private partnership (PPP) arrangement was adopted for the tendering process with the aim of providing a risk sharing scheme to reduce the amount borne by the private sector and therefore improve financial feasibility under the current tariff regime. In this study we explore the effectiveness of the financial support provided for the Seulawah Agam project in achieving these aims. We employ a Monte Carlo simulation to examine the project cash flow to assess the impact of the government supports involved including convertible grants, equity contributions and guaranteed loans on project viability as indicated by project NPV and IRR. The simulation results show that under the current tariff regime, the extent of government financial supports provided is unable to improve the project viability to the targeted levels. Therefore, we explore the level of financial incentives required for the project to be viable. We find that in the case of the government only providing an exploration grant, the government should bear all the costs of exploration activities. Moreover, if full loan guarantee is also provided by the state, the extent of exploration grants can be reduced to 30% of the total exploration cost required. However, in the case of partial loan guarantee options, a guarantee attached to 40% of loan financing and 60% of exploration grant is proposed as the optimal basis for taking the project forward. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper reflects on some of the premodern protection instruments against dangers, apprehended as protoforms of insurance technology. Knowing that the insufficiency of these instruments to cover the daily risks incurred by individuals, created the need to devise new ways to protect resources, we problematize the role played by maritime insurance, seeking to capture (i) the regulatory norms to which they were subject, (ii) the traits that brought them closer to/distant from other instruments used for risk sharing and (iii) the criteria gradually used to evaluate the price to be paid for the risks experienced. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We employed the risk information seeking and processing (RISP) model to identify socio-cognitive factors motivating hunters' information seeking, sharing, and discussion of the risks of using lead ammunition for hunting. Values, risk perceptions, and informational insufficiency similarly predicted individual- and societal-level informational behavioral intentions. In contrast, knowledge and explicated informational subjective norms (descriptive, dynamic, and injunctive norms) differentially influenced them. Interestingly, there were discrepancies found between theoretical predictions of information sharing and self-reported willingness to share a risk communication video on lead ammunition for hunting, which offers insights about the utility value of the RISP model for practitioners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nowadays, business connection between firms becomes rather common so that one firm stores not only its information asset but also some of other firms' information asset. The management of information security is vital for these resource-sharing firms. This paper constructs a game-theoretic model between two resource-sharing firms and one hacker to examine their strategic interaction when the firms face budget constraint on security investment. We consider security information sharing between the firms, which can improve their overall security effort but meantime facilitate the hacker's learning to reduce attack costs. We find that although a tight budget constraint can help save investment cost, the firms always suffer from a poorly secure environment. It shows that although security information sharing is usually encouraged, the firms may be hurt when security information sharing is excessive so that fierce cyber-attacks are induced. We finally design an optimal compensation mechanism, in which the compensation fund is shown to increase with the degree of resource sharing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The war in Ukraine draws renewed attention to the question of whether the international monetary and financial system is moving towards a more 'multipolar' character. The euro has been the second most important global currency since its creation, and well-placed to help diversify the global financial architecture. This article reviews the evolution of the euro's international role along with the evolution of the institutional architecture to support it. Previous and ongoing reforms in the European Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) can support the common currency on the international stage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper argues that the Covid recession, and aggressive monetary tightening in the US accompanying the post-Covid recovery, are likely to cause a sovereign debt overhang in emerging market economies—i.e. debt which is unlikely to be fully repaid. A sovereign debt reconstruction mechanism (SDRM) seems necessary to avoid widespread disorderly debt write-downs. We discuss a range of procedures that are available, building upon Anne Krueger's proposal for an SDRM in 2002 (Krueger, 2002 a , b). At that time Krugman (1988) had already argued that any SDRM should incentivize debtors so that they put in effort to clear their debts (a Krugman contract). Menzies (2004) went further than this to show that these effects should be further sharpened, creating what he called 'hyper-incentive effects' (a Menzies contract). The International Monetary Fund has argued that risk-sharing between debtors and creditors will also be important (IMF, 2020). But we show that risk-sharing will—in general—pull in the opposite direction to incentive effects, and we doubt the extent to which the IMF has recognized this trade-off. Finally, we argue that collective action clauses (CACs) increase the probability of achieving any agreement, whatever it might be. They will help avoid the alternative of disorderly debt write-downs, outcomes which will deliver neither incentive effects nor risk-sharing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Megaprojects are facing great challenges and traditional project governance theories are gradually showing inadaptability. The purpose of this study is to investigate the dynamic impact of megaproject governance and project performance using a dynamic approach based on a fuzzy cognitive map (FCM). From the existing governance review, six governance factors for megaprojects were identified: government coordination, government supervision, risk sharing, revenue distribution, relationship maintenance, and cultural development. Then the causal relationships and weights between megaproject governance and performance were established through a questionnaire survey of experts, thus the FCM model was constructed. Finally, the dynamic interactions between megaproject governance factors and performance were investigated through predictive analysis, diagnostic analysis, and sensitivity analysis. The findings indicate that (1) each of the six governance factors are positively correlated with project performance; (2) revenue distribution has the greatest positive impact on the project performance of megaprojects, which is also the fundamental factor for changes in project performance; and (3) the impact of governmental governance on project performance cannot be ignored during the implementation of megaproject management. This study contributes to (1) analyzing the key factors influencing project performance by exploring dynamic interactions between governance factors and performance, and ultimately promoting project success; and (2) providing new perspectives to improve performance and guide governance practices for megaprojects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies informal risk-sharing regimes in a unified framework by examining intertemporal consumption behavior of rural households in Tanzania. We exploit  a theoretically-consistent link between interest rates and cross-sectional consumption moments to test alternative risk-sharing models without requiring data on interest rates or assuming a restriction to eliminate the need for such data, which are often unavailable in developing economies. We specify tests that allow us to distinguish among models even with temporal dependence in income shocks. Our analysis shows that the consumption pattern in rural Tanzania is consistent with the self-insurance regime, and that risk aversion varies substantially across districts. Imposing a strict condition on interest rates, as often done in prior literature, misses their intertemporal heterogeneity and biases the estimation of risk aversion.

This paper studies informal risk-sharing regimes in a unified framework by examining intertemporal consumption behavior of rural households in Tanzania. We exploit  a theoretically-consistent link between interest rates and cross-sectional consumption moments to test alternative risk-sharing models without requiring data on interest rates or assuming a restriction to eliminate the need for such data, which are often unavailable in developing economies. We specify tests that allow us to distinguish among models even with temporal dependence in income shocks. Our analysis shows that the consumption pattern in rural Tanzania is consistent with the self-insurance regime, and that risk aversion varies substantially across districts. Imposing a strict condition on interest rates, as often done in prior literature, misses their intertemporal heterogeneity and biases the estimation of risk aversion.

Abstract Background China expanded health coverage to residents in informal economic sectors by the rural new cooperative medical scheme (NCMS) for rural population and urban resident basic medical insurance scheme (URBMI) for non-working urban residents. Fragmentation of resident social health insurance schemes exacerbated the health inequity and China started the integration of urban and rural resident medical insurance schemes since 2016. Beijing finished the insurance integration in 2017 and has been implementing a unified urban and rural resident basic medical insurance scheme (URRBMI) since the beginning of 2018. This study aims to examine changes in health care utilization and financial protection after integration of the rural and urban social health insurance schemes. Methods We used household survey data from Beijing Health Services Survey in 2013 and 2018. Respondents who were 15 or older and covered by URBMI, NCMS or URRBMI were included in this study. Our study finally included 8,554 individuals in 2013 and 6,973 individuals in 2018, about 70% of which were rural residents in each year. Descriptive analysis was used to compare the healthcare utilization, healthcare expenditure and incidence of catastrophic health expenditure between different groups. A series of two-part regression models were used to analyze the changes of healthcare utilization, healthcare expenditure and incidence of catastrophic health expenditure. Results From 2013 to 2018, urban–rural disparity in outpatient care utilization seemed widened because urban residents’ utilization of outpatient care increased 131% while rural residents’ utilization only increased 72%; both rural and urban residents’ spending on outpatient care increased about 50%. Utilization of inpatient care changed little and poor residents still used significantly less inpatient care compared with the rich residents. Poor residents still suffered heavily catastrophic health expenditures. Conclusion From 2013 to 2018, residents’ utilization of healthcare, especially outpatient care, increased in Beijing. Health insurance reforms increased residents’ utilization of healthcare but failed to reduce their healthcare financial burden, especially for poor people. Our study advocates more pro-poor insurance policies and more efforts on the efficiency of health system.

The sustainable development of cooperatives is essential to agricultural sustainability and is determined mainly by cooperation longevity. The risk sharing and benefit distribution mechanisms are important governance arrangements that affect cooperation longevity in member-heterogeneous cooperatives. However, the relationship between cooperatives’ risk sharing and benefit distribution arrangements and cooperation longevity is not well understood. To address this research gap, we provide a conceptual framework to illustrate the relationship between risk sharing, benefit distribution, contract form and cooperation longevity. By conducting 23 interviews with three dairy cooperatives in China using a multiple-case-study method, we find that cooperation longevity is influenced by the alignment of the combination of risk sharing and benefit distribution for cooperatives and their members. Following the principles of risk-benefit equivalence and strategy-risk preference matching, we discuss four scenarios of match or mismatch of combinations of risk sharing and benefit distribution. We suggest that the government needs to strengthen risk mitigation capabilities for cooperatives and members, and to help them to build an effective risk sharing and benefit distribution arrangement to achieve sustainable development.

The risk-sharing function of marriage reduces demand for commercial personal insurance, but the increase in wealth, risk, and information sharing between spouses promotes it. Using data from the 2019 China Household Financial Survey, this study empirically found that compared with single households, married households were more likely to buy commercial personal insurance. We found that household income, social interaction, and household size were the main influencing mechanisms. Heterogeneity analyses showed that marriage significantly increased personal insurance demand if the household head was male, well educated, or middle-aged. Also, marriage had a heterogeneous influence on households with different demographics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The public–private partnership (PPP) mode entails a variety of risks because the government, private enterprises, financial institutions, and other participants have different interests. To prevent private enterprise violations, dynamic government regulation of PPP risk‐sharing is necessary. Game theory is used here to examine the game behavior of government regulators, private enterprises, intermediary agencies, and the public in the stage of tracking management after the initial risk‐sharing of the project. Primarily, this study analyzes whether private enterprises provide fully compliant reporting and whether government departments check the information by investigating the behavioral motivations behind strategic choices. The primary contribution of this study was to construct a game model of government due diligence inspection under the condition of public participation in regulation. The results of simulations revealed the behavioral characteristics and stability of the participants of PPP in terms of decision‐making. Furthermore, a sensitivity analysis between the state variables and several auxiliary variables was used to reveal the internal relationships of the participants' strategic choices. This paper offers new insights into reducing violation behavior, protecting the public interest from harm, reducing government departments' regulatory costs, and promoting effective regulation with public participation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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