Social and Behavioral Sciences 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 …

Corporate Divestitures And Spinoffs In Singapore, Francis Koh, Winston T. H. Koh, Benedict S. K. Koh

Francis Koh

This paper discusses the different forms of corporate divestitures, the motives for this corporate activity, and the empirical findings about their economic outcomes. A sample of corporate divestitures is also used to identify the main motivations in the Singapore context. We conclude that divestitures are carried out to achieve operational efficiency and gain incremental profitability and liquidity. Using share price data around the event-dates, we show that announcements of divestitures generally lead to significant increases in the returns of the parent company. The positive abnormal returns are related to the relative size of the divestitures and the computed accounting gains. …

Marketing Timing Abilities Of Investment Managers In Singapore, Francis Koh, Kok Fai Phoon, C. H. Tan

Francis Koh

No abstract provided.

The Risk And Price Performance Of New Equity Issues In Singapore, Francis Koh, Simon Tee

Francis Koh

No abstract provided.

The Growth Of Singapore Companies, Francis Koh, W. Kwok

Francis Koh

No abstract provided.

Initial Public Offerings: Underpricing, Allocation Process And Subscription Rate Of Government-Linked Companies, Francis Koh, Joseph Lim, P. Tham

Francis Koh

No abstract provided.

Capital Structure Behaviour Of Firms In Singapore: An Empirical Analysis, Francis Koh, Kok Fai Phoon

Francis Koh

No abstract provided.

Empirical Analysis Of The Investor Sentiment Explanation Of Discounts In Closed-End Funds, Francis Koh, Kok Fai Phoon, R. Oh

Francis Koh

No abstract provided.

Initial Public Offerings: A Test Of Market Sentiments, Francis Koh, Young Sain, Joseph Lim, P. Tham

Francis Koh

No abstract provided.

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

Daniel Brou

No abstract provided.

Moral Hazards, Crisis, Bail Outs And E-Scads, Judy Johnston, Alexander Kouzmin, Kym Thorne, Stephen Kelly

Adjunct Professor Stephen J Kelly

No abstract provided.

Crisis Opportunism: Bailouts 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 bailouts, have set up special funds and underwritten 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 bailout money to large corporations has been squandered by oligarchic recipients and appropriated by them in their own …

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

Paola Bongini

No abstract provided.

Finding A Jewel: Identity And Gendered Space In Islamic Finance, Karen Ahmed

Karen Hunt Ahmed

In this article, I explore how globalization discourses practices work together to form the identities of female Islamic bankers working in the first stand-alone women’s Islamic bank in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. An Islamic bank interacts with the individual by providing a discursive and physical space in which the subject can shape and respond to her desire to identify and engage with the debates in the global Muslim community about morality, practice and the role of Islam in every day life. Global financial systems and local gender practices are embodied in these buildings in a kind of financial purdah: building …

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.

Islamic Banking And Finance: Moral Beliefs And Business Practices At Work, Karen Hunt Ahmed

Karen Hunt Ahmed

The religion of Islam has existed for 1400 years but Islamic economic theory and its financial institutions emerged as an industry only in the 1970s. Islamic financial institutions (IFIs) are designed to help Muslims conduct business internationally while simultaneously upholding traditional Islamic values related to trade finance and currency movement. The basis for their existence is the Islamic moral prohibition on charging interest—interest is a central component of capitalist banking—yet IFIs conduct billions of dollars of business annually in the world economy and the de facto Islamic banking transaction is—in most cases—virtually identical to a capitalist banking transaction. Business practices …

Closed End Fund Discounts As Sentiment Indicies, Thomas Berry

Thomas D Berry

No abstract provided.