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Globalization And The Evolution Of Bank Capital Regulation
This paper traces the evolution of bank capital requirements from the 1800s, when it was a simple ratio, to the complex models used in Basel I and II. It goes on to introduce Enterprise Risk Management and Economic Capital that is the future of bank capital. The new capital standards reflect the changing business models of banking, developments in financial engineering, and globalization. Thus, the evolving capital standards affect both developed and developing countries such as Chile.
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Private-Activity Municipal Bonds: The Political Economy Of Volume Cap Allocation
State governments allocate authority, under a federally imposed cap, to issue tax-exempt bonds that fund "Private activities" such as industrial expansion, student loans, and low-income housing. This paper presents political economy models of the allocation process and an empirical analysis. Due to an idiosyncrasy of the tax code, the annual per capita volume cap varies widely between states. The author estimates that, on average, there is an additional $0.80 per capita per year of borrowing for each additional dollar per capita of volume cap. This confirms that the cap is a binding constraint in most cases, and authority to issue tax-exempt bonds is a scarce resource.
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Can Political Factors Explain The Behavior Of Stock Prices Beyond The Standard Present Value Models?
This paper documents that political factors can be linked to the part of stock prices that cannot be explained by the standard present value models. The non-fundamental component of stock market index appears to be significantly influenced by the political orientation of the president and his approval rating, election cycle and military conflicts. The findings presented here indicate that there is much more to price formation process than the present value of future dividends.
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Political Connectedness And Firm Performance - Evidence From Germany
This paper investigates politically connected German firms. With the introduction of a new transparency law, information on additional income sources of all members of the German parliament is now publicly available. The authors find that members of the conservative party (CDU/CSU) and the liberal party (FDP) are more likely to work for firms than members of left-wing parties (SPD and The Left) or the green party (Alliance 90/The Greens). Most importantly, politically connected firms significantly outperform unconnected firms on market- and accounting-based performance measures.
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Managerial Biases And Selective Hedging
Using data on the selective hedging activity of a sample of 92 North American gold mining firms, the authors find that the degree of selective hedging is related to past performance of derivative positions after controlling for changes in the value of the underlying commodity (gold). They interpret this finding as consistent with the hypothesis that managers place derivative positions into a separate mental account and make hedging decisions based on the performance of derivatives positions alone.
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Did Political Constraints Bind During Transition? Evidence From Czech Elections 1990-2002
Many theoretical models of transition are driven by the assumption that economic decision making is subject to political constraints. In this paper, the authors empirically test whether the winners and losers of economic reform determined voting behaviour in the first five national elections in the Czech Republic. They propose that voters, taking stock of endowments from the planning era, could predict whether they would become "Winners" or "Losers" of transition. Using survey data they measure the percentage of individuals by region who were "Not afraid" and "Afraid" of economic reform in 1990.
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Women's Solidarity As A Resistance Strategy Against Liberal Identity Politics In Turkey
This was the paper by Hay Gin Armenian Women's Platform to the organizers of "Women are Marching Towards Eachother" campaign that took place in 6-11th July 2002. The idea of the campaign was that "Messengers" from various cities would go through the cities, towns and villages on their roads, collecting letters from women about their problems and demands; arrive at Konya, the geographical center of the country, to hold a conference where they would read their reports and letters and discuss the problems and possible solutions.
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Political Institutions, Voter Turnout And Policy Outcomes
The authors question whether the impact of constitutions on economic outcomes (Persson and Tabellini, 2004) is direct. They show that voter turnout is a channel through which forms of government affect economic policies. They provide evidence of the existence of two relation-ships: the first links constitutions to voter turnout; the second connects voter turnout to policy outcomes. Presidential regimes are found to induce less voter participation in national elections. They then analyze the impact of constitutional variables and voter participation in shaping fiscal policies. Forms of governments lose their explanatory power once participation is accounted for.
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Politics And Fiscal Policy Under Lemass: A Theoretical Appraisal
Lemass rejected Whitaker's recommendations that direct taxes be reduced and public investment shifted from social to productive areas. This was arguably done for political reasons and because Lemass believed that it might be possible to establish a social partnership deal of the type that Eichengreen has argued to have played a crucial role in post-war European convergence on US living standards. Such a bargain could not be reached under Ireland's industrial-relations system however. The present paper contrasts the two systems and shows the adverse employment, investment and growth effects that such attempts would have had in Ireland.
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Balancing Competimg Demands: Position-Taking And Election Proximity In The European Parliament
Parties value unity, yet, members of parliament face competing demands, giving them incentives to deviate from the party. For Members of the European Parliament (MEPs), these competing demands are national party and European party group pressures. Here, the authors look at how MEPs respond to those competing demands. They examine ideological shifts within a single parliamentary term to assess how European Parliament (EP) election proximity affects party group cohesion. Their formal model of legislative behavior with multiple principals yields the following hypothesis: when EP elections are proximate, national party delegations shift toward national party positions, thus weakening EP party group cohesion.
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Discrimination, Exclusion And Immigrants' Confidence In Public Institutions In Europe
What determines the confidence of immigrants in public institutions? Using pooled data from the European Social Survey from 26 countries, the paper examines whether processes of social exclusion and discrimination can account for migrants' confidence in public institutions. Specifically, it examines the role of the quality of public institutions and of migrant integration policies of the host country and how they interact with migrant status and proxies for experienced or potential discrimination in shaping institutional trust. The empirical results show that first generation migrants exhibit more confidence in public institutions than natives and second generation migrants.
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The Impact Of Blog Recommendations On Security Prices And Trading Volumes
Previous research and recent statements by the Securities and Exchange Commission indicate that e-mail spam and message board posts are often used to manipulate markets in a variation of the classical "Pump-and-dump" scheme, leading to temporary market reactions followed by price reversals. In contrast, the author hypothesizes that financial blogs spread genuine information leading to permanent market adjustments. The author investigates stock recommendations on blogs and finds that bloggers tend to write about liquid securities issued by large firms; the author also finds that bloggers offer short advice consistent with momentum strategies but long advice consistent with contrarian strategies.
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Never Judge A Book By Its Cover - What Security Analysts Have To Say Beyond Recommendations
The authors study analyzes the market reaction to the complete content of a large sample of analysts' reports in the period from 2002 to 2004 for the German market. In particular, they explore whether the three summary measures in the reports, i.e., recommendation revisions, earnings forecast revisions, and target price forecast revisions are acknowledged by the market. Additionally, they investigate if the given justifications in the written text of analysts' reports contain information value beyond the three summary measures.
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Webcast: Chromebooks for Business: New Features Update
With OS patches, anti-virus updates and software installs, it's painful and expensive to manage current computers. However, from email to customer relationship management, these days most work is done using the web browser. Chromebooks for Business, built around the Chrome web browser, deliver a faster, more secure computing experience for users while being easier for IT to manage. Offered as a subscription which includes computers, a web-based management console and support, Chromebooks can save your organization up 3/4% of its computing costs. Learn about newly added features, including a version of Citrix Receiver for application virtualization that's optimized for Chromebooks.
Watch NOW to learn more!
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Surveying American Jews And Their Views On Middle East Politics: The Current Situation And A Proposal For A New Approach
This working paper takes up three related themes. In section 1, the author briefly describes the issues relevant to surveying American Jews and highlights the importance of authoritative national surveys; in section 2, the author notes that these surveys have not included much exploration of American Jewish divisions over Israeli and American Middle East policy. In section 3, the author proposes the rudiments of a sample design that would meet the traditional needs of the national survey as well as the political opinion poll. This design is based on a rotating national panel of respondents, somewhat like the U.S. government's Current Population Survey.
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