Economics Commons^™

Aggression In Mixed Martial Arts: An Analysis Of The Likelihood Of Winning A Decision, Trevor Collier, Andrew Johnson, John Ruggiero

Trevor Collier

Within the last decade, mixed martial arts has become one of the most popular sports worldwide. The Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) is the largest and most successful organization within the industry. In the USA, however, the sport is not sanctioned in all states because some politicians view the sport as too violent. The sport consists of many fighting forms and, unlike boxing, winning a decision requires judging in multiple facets including wrestling, boxing, kickboxing, and jiu-jitsu. In this study, we estimate the likelihood of winning a decision in the UFC. Using data on individual fights, we estimate the probability of …

Measuring Technical Efficiency In Sports, Trevor Collier, Andrew Johnson, John Ruggiero

Trevor Collier

Standard economic production theory is the basis for measuring technical efficiency in sports. Using programming or regression models, efficiency is defined as the distance of a given team observation from the technology. In this article, the authors show that the standard measures of efficiency using deterministic models are biased downward due to serial correlation with respect to the efficiency measure. In particular, if the number of observed wins for a given team is affected by the team’s inefficiency, it is necessarily true that another team is able to produce outside of the technology. As a result, the observed frontier is …

Estimation Of Multi-Output Production Functions In Commercial Fisheries, Trevor Collier, Andrew Mamula, John Ruggiero

Trevor Collier

Measuring the productivity of vessels in a multi-species fishery can be problematic. Typical regression techniques are not capable of handling multiple outputs while Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) tends to ignore the stochastic nature of production. Applied economists have devoted considerable time to this problem and have developed several methods of dealing with the issue of multiple output technologies in commercial fisheries. Our paper contributes to this literature by providing another method for estimating production functions of vessels operating in multi-species fisheries. We utilize a two-stage model – with data from the West Coast Limited Entry Groundfish Trawl Fishery – using …

The Relationship Between Output Variability And Growth: Evidence From Post War U.K. Data, Tony Caporale, Barbara Mckiernan

Tony Caporale

The paper investigates the relationship between output variability and economic growth using a GARCH-M model with industrial production in post-war Great Britain. The data reveals a positive relationship between variability and growth rates.

Is It Time To Reconsider The Semivariance Again? A Note, Ladd Kochman

Ladd Kochman

Building on the assumption that stock returns are less-than-symmetric, the semivariances (SV) are computed for 14 domestic and foreign stock indices as well as their respective arithmetic means (AM) and standard deviations (SD) and hypotheses that the correlation between SVs and AMs will be both positive and greater than the correlation between SDs and AMs.

Time Diversification: Tool, Fallacy Or Both?, Ladd Kochman, Randy Goodwin

Ladd Kochman

It seems fair to conclude that time diversification is more nearly a fallacy than a tool. Total periodic returns based on random annual outcomes expose the practice of diversifying with time not only as unproductive but as extremely risky as well. Yet, as the contrived distribution of alternating returns of 30% and -10% demonstrated, it is impossible to completely reject the idea that risk can actually decrease over time.

Portfolio Evaluation, Downside Risk And An Anomaly, Ladd Kochman

Ladd Kochman

Owing to the developments in portfolio theory in the 1960s, the evaluation of portfolio performance has evolved from a return-only mentality to a process that makes risk no less important than return. Earliest efforts to combine the two dimensions into a single (or composite) measure belong to Treynor (1965) and Sharpe (1966), who suggested dividing a portfolio's return in excess of the risk-free rate by the portfolio's bets and standard deviation, respectively. When Fama (1972) recommended that portfolios pay premiums that capture both market and diversification risk, he was implicitly asking whether Jensen's (1968) use of beta sufficiently measures the …

Securities Market Efficiency And The Reigning Super Bowl Champions, Ladd Kochman

Ladd Kochman

The vulnerability of stock prices has long intrigued investors and researchers. Beating the market has an inescapable appeal. The overwhelming evidence that regular above average returns are denied to all but those with inside information has not slowed efforts to find market errors or tap into profitable trends. One reason for hope is that past studies have never truly resolved how long securities must be held before a particular trading strategy can be measured. Pankoff has proposed that the market for bets on National Football League games can serve as a proxy for the securities market. Examining recent studies using …

The Why And How Of Mutual Fund Standard Deviations, Ladd Kochman, Randy Goodwin

Ladd Kochman

To the interested observer, mutual fund standard deviations raise two tantalizing questions: Are standard deviations relevant when funds, by definition, eliminate the unsystematic component of total risk? and How can two respected giants in the investments field like Fidelity and Morningstar use the same returns, intervals and measurement period for the same fund and end up with glaringly different standard deviations? To answer the question of relevance, we recall Evans and Archer's (1968) argument that as much as 90 percent of a portfolio's unsystematic risk can be diversified away with 12 to 18 stocks. Since that diversifiable risk is a …

When Less Is More: The Benefit Of Limits On Executive Pay, Peter Cebon, Benjamin Hermalin

Peter Cebon

We derive conditions under which limits on executive compensation can enhance efficiency and benefit shareholders (but not executives). Having their hands tied in the future allows a board of directors to credibly enter into relational contracts with executives that are more efficient than performance-contingent contracts. This has implications for the ideal composition of the board. The analysis also offers insights into the political economy of executive-compensation reform.

The Effect Of Treasury Auction Announcements On Interest Rates: 1990-1999, James J. Forest

James J Forest

In this study we examine the secondary-market response of U.S. Treasury interest rates to both the release of pre-auction auction supply announcements and post-auction details from U.S. Treasury auctions during the period of the 1990s. Rate changes are found to differ significantly on auction days. Pre-auction announcements of auction volumes are shown to affect rates significantly, in contrast with the findings of Wachtel and Young (1987) with respect to deficit announcements. We find that surprises in the release of bid-to-cover ratios affect Treasury rates significantly, while the surprises in the volume of noncompetitive bids appears to have little affect on …

The Value Of Domestic Subsidy Rules In Trade Agreements, Daniel Brou, Edoardo Campanella, Michele Ruta

Daniel Brou

No abstract provided.

The Role Of Pension Funds In A Global Economy (In Italian), Paola Bongini, Gregorio Impavido

Paola Bongini

No abstract provided.

Ownership, Bank Organization And Retail Lending In A Low Income Area, Paola Bongini, Laura Nieri, Maria Luisa Di Battista, Simone Rossi

Paola Bongini

The focus of this study is on the organizational features of banks operating in the South of Italy, namely major Italian banking groups and local independent banks. In our opinion, in order to evaluate the allocative and operational efficiency of the Southern Italian banking system, the issue to be addressed relates to the potential heterogeneous behavior between banks which are “truly local” – i.e. those banks whose real decisional centres are located in the Southern regions – with respect to those banks operating in the South but which have their decisional centres located in the Centre-North of the country (“outer …

Crisis Opportunism: Bail Outs And E-Scads In The Gfc, Judy Johnston, Alexander Kouzmin, Kym Thorne, Stephen Kelly

Adjunct Professor Stephen J Kelly

As a response to the “junk-debt”- inspired, global, economic crisis, governments, with supra-national organizational approval, have appropriated billions of taxpayers’ dollars for bail-outs, have set-up special funds and under-written depositors’ savings in the desperate hope of alleviating the threat of rapid, economic decline and systemic destruction of value. Whether these governments have a democratic mandate for such unprecedented action is debatable. More importantly, though, is whether such decisions amount to good re-regulatory policy.

First, it is known that some of the bail-out money to large corporations has been squandered by oligarchic recipients and appropriated by them in their own interests. …

Was Financial Market Contagion The Source Of Economic Crisis In Asia? Evidence Using A Multivariate Var Model, Ahmed Khalid, Masahiro Kawai

Ahmed Khalid

The episodes of financial crises in many parts of the world during the 1990s have sparked interest in identifying channels through which such crises spread from one country to another. Researchers have identified several factors that may have sparked and induced contagion. This study further extends the existing research by identifying and testing three financial market variables to trace the alleged origin and the subsequent path of the contagion during the 1997 Asian Crisis. Foreign exchange rates, stock market prices and interest rates are three main financial market indicators, representing the currency, stock and money markets, respectively. We use a …

Análisis De La Sostenibilidad Del Proyecto De Producción Y Venta De Huevos De La Granja Nueva Vida, Guatemala, Maria R. Ibanez

Maria Ibanez

El presente documento analiza la sostenibilidad del proyecto de producción y venta de huevos de la Casa Nueva Vida, localizada en las cercanías de Santa Cruz de Quiché, Guatemala. En el primer apartado, se presentan los resultados del análisis financiero, en el segundo, el estudio de mercado, y en el tercero, las recomendaciones. Finalmente, se recogen las conclusiones del informe.

Closed End Fund Discounts As Sentiment Indicies, Thomas Berry

Thomas D Berry

No abstract provided.

The Disposition Effect And Individual Investor Decisions: The Role Of Regret And Counterfactual Alternatives, Thomas Berry, Suzanne Fogel

Thomas D Berry

Recent studies have documented a strong tendency for individual investors to delay realizing capital losses, while realizing gains prematurely (Odean [1996], Shefrin and Statman [1985], Weber and Camerer [1996]). This tendency has been termed the “disposition effect.” The disposition effect is inconsistent with normative approaches to stock sales, such as those based on tax losses (see, for example, Constantinides [1983]). We surveyed individual investors, and found that more respondents reported regret about holding on to a losing stock too long than about selling a winning stock too soon. This finding suggests that individual investors are consistently engaging in behavior that …

Private Information And Market Movements: New Evidence From The Wednesday Closings Of 1968, Thomas Berry

Thomas D Berry

No abstract provided.

How Good Is The Market At Assessing Bank Fragility? A Horse Race Between Different Indicators, Paola Bongini, Luc Laeven, Giovanni Majononi

Paola Bongini

For a sample of individual banks, active in the East Asian countries during the years 1995-1998, we explore the performance of three sets of indicators of bank fragility computed on the basis of publicly available information. We compare the behavior of traditional “early warning” indicators, based on balance sheet information, with that of implicit deposit insurance premia, based on the stock prices dynamics, and with the behavior of credit rating agencies’ assessments. We find significantly different patterns among the three groups of indicators in their ability of forecasting financial distress at both a specific point in time and through time. …

The Political Economy Of Distress In East Asian Financial Institutions, Paola Bongini, Stijn Claessens, Giovanni Ferri

Paola Bongini

The 1997±1999 East Asian crisis is an interesting case for studying the determinants of distress and closure of ®nancial institutions. Of a sample of 283 ®nancial institutions from Indonesia, Korea, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Thailand, 120 experienced distress, and by July 1999, 38 were closed. We ®nd that traditional, CAMEL-type ®nancial data for 1996 help predict distress and closure. ``Connections''Ðwith industrial groups or in¯uential familiesÐincreased the likelihood of distress, however, suggesting that supervisors had granted selective prior forbearance from prudential regulations. Since closure was more, not less, likely with connections, the closure processes themselves appear transparent. We also ®nd evidence …

Public Information Arrival, Thomas Berry, Keith Howe

Thomas D Berry

The authors develop a measure of public information flow to financial markets and use it to document the patterns of information arrival, with an emphasis on the intraday flows. The measure is the number of news releases by Reuter's News Service per unit of time. The authors find that public information arrival is nonconstant, displaying seasonalities and distinct intraday patterns. Next they relate their measure of public information to aggregate measures of intraday market activity. The authors' results suggest a positive, moderate relationship between public information and trading volume but an insignificant relationship with price volatility. Copyright 1994 by American …

A Multi-State Analysis Of The Tjtc, Thomas Berry, Julia Lane

Thomas D Berry

No abstract provided.

Risk-Return And The Relative Pricing Of Darp, Thomas Berry, John Houston

Thomas D Berry

No abstract provided.

Some Guidelines For Assessing The Size Of Lack-Of-Marketability Discounts, Thomas Berry, Don Shannon

Thomas D Berry

No abstract provided.

A Survey Of Introductory Financial Managment Courses, Thomas Berry, Edward Farragher

Thomas D Berry

No abstract provided.

The Relationship Of Corporate Policy Decisions And Financial Leverage: An Empirical Analysis, Thomas Berry, John Houston

Thomas D Berry

No abstract provided.

The Impact Of Federal Tax Changes Of The Cost Of Debt For State And Local Governments, Thomas Berry, Edward Farragher

Thomas D Berry

No abstract provided.

Fnma Mortgage Commitments As Put Options: An Empirical Examination, Thomas Berry, Adam Gehr

Thomas D Berry

The Federal National Mortgage Association (FNMA) auctions commitments to purchase mortgages. An examination of the terms of the commitment contract shows that these commitments are actually put options on mortgages. The contract is unusual, however, in that the price of the commitment is a fixed percentage of the value of the mortgages. In the auction, the dealers effectively bid the exercise price at which they would be willing to pay the fixed commitment price. In this paper, we study the economics of the FNMA auction. We use a two-state approximation to the American put pricing model for interest-dependent securities to …