Arbitrage Pricing Theory and Return Generating Process: A Macroeconomic Approach to Indian Stock Market

A study focusing on the identification of return generating factors and to the extent of their influence on share prices the outcome will be a tool for investment analysis in the hands of investors portfolio managers and mutual funds who are mostly concerned with changing share prices. Since the study takes into account the influence of macroeconomic variables on variations in share returns by using the outcome the government can frame out suitable policies on long term basis and that will help in nurturing a healthy economy and resultant stock market. As every company management tries to maximize the wealth of the share holders a clear idea about the return generating variables and their influence will help the management to frame various policies to maximize the wealth of the shareholders.

Efectos del sistema de multifondos en el Régimen de Ahorro Individual en Colombia

Recientemente, el gobierno nacional radicó un proyecto de reforma financiera en el que se propone flexibilizar la regulación de los Fondos de Pensiones. En particular, se propone que los agentes pueden escoger la composición del portafolio en el que están invertidos sus ahorros pensionales. Para evaluar los posibles efectos de este cambio sobre el bienestar de los agentes, este trabajo analiza las decisiones de inversión de un individuo con función de utilidad con aversión absoluta al riesgo constante (CARA) frente a la Teoría de la diversificación del portafolio. Adicionalmente, se realiza un ejercicio contrafactual con el fin de calcular cual hubiera sido el valor del activo pensional para diferentes individuos si la legislación propuesta por el gobierno hubiera aplicado para el período 1980-2008. Este ejercicio se realiza utilizando información de las Bolsas de Valores de Colombia y la Encuesta de Calidad de Vida 2003 (ECV 2003), siguiendo la metodología de Herscovich (2003) los resultados del análisis teórico sugieren que ante un mayor valor acumulado en las cuentas de pensión, los individuos disminuyen su exposición ante el riesgo en sus portafolios. Así, la composición del portafolio debe estar más concentrada en renta variable para los agentes jóvenes y más concentrada en renta fija para los agentes viejos. Por otro lado, el ejercicio contrafactual, indica que la mejor decisión habría sido invertir todo el portafolio en activos de renta variable. Este contraste en los resultados llama la atención acerca de dos problemas: Primero, es posible que la estrategia que maximiza la utilidad ex-ante de los individuos no sea la misma que maximiza el valor de su pensión. Segundo, el ejercicio presentado parte del supuesto de que no hay información adicional que permita suponer cambios de tendencia o de volatilidad en las rentabilidades de los distintos activos financieros. No obstante, es claro que los especialistas en el mercado financiero cuentan con información suficiente para predecir este tipo de eventos. Por esta razón, el estudio sugiere que el papel de la asesoría financiera a los ahorradores es fundamental para permitir un cambio al sistema multifondos, puesto que el incremento en las opciones de inversión no conduce a un incremento en el bienestar de los individuos en ausencia de información. Adicionalmente, al comparar la evolución de las cuentas de pensión con los porcentajes históricos y con el sistema multifondos, se encuentra un mejor desempeño cuando el porcentaje de inversión en activos de renta variable es mayor que el actual, lo cual sugiere un incremento en la restricción actual de inversión de activos de renta variable para mejorar el desempeño de los fondos.

Política económica y rentabilidad industrial y financiera Colombia 1990 -1997

El presente trabajo tiene por objetivo analizar la evolución presentada por la rentabilidad industrial y financiera bajo el actual esquema de desarrollo de economía abierta y liberalización de mercados que ha sido implementado en Colombia a partir de 1990.

Els plans de millora. Noves respostes a vells problemes educatius

L’article exposa una reflexió sobre el significat dels plans de millora i dóna pautes per tal que aquests no es converteixin en un document més sinó també puguin ser un motor de canvi que marqui un full de ruta per a la millora del rendiment dels alumnes. En primer lloc, es realitza un plantejament de preguntes que permetin obtenir dades objectives de la situació als centres educatius. Seguidament, es consideren els valors de referència a assolir de cara a la reducció de l’abandonament escolar prematur (Consell d’Europa), els principis per a la millora de la qualitat educativa (LOE) i les mesures oportunes de millora a partir dels resultats d’avaluacions externes (PISA). Tenint en compte aquest marc normatiu, es revisa el concepte de “pla de millora” i es desenvolupen els aspectes de tipus organitzatiu, metodològic, comunitari i formatiu a considerar. Es conclou que la millora de la situació als centres comença quan els implicats se senten identificats en el procés, conviuen i combreguen amb el canvi i, finalment, hi participen.

Icing on the Cake: Idiom curriculum for deaf and hard of hearing students

A look at the prevalence of idiom usage in the mainstream classroom, and the students' who are deaf/hard of hearing acquisition of idiom comprehension and usage. A complete teacher’s guide, including lesson plans and materials, and a list of idiom teaching resources for teachers of the deaf and mainstream teachers.

The long-term EU budget: size or flexibility? Bruegel Policy Contribution 2012/20, November 2012

The EU is in the process of negotiating its 2014-20 financial framework. Failure to reach an agreement would imply a delay in the preparation of the strategic plans each member state puts together to explain how it will use Structural and Cohesion Funds. Even if solutions are found – for example annual renewals of the budget based on the previous year's figures – there will be political and institutional costs. EU leaders have too often and too forcefully advocated the use of the EU budget for growth to be able to drop the idea without consequences. • The overwhelming attention paid to the size of the budget is misplaced. EU leaders should instead aim to make the EU budget more flexible, safeguard it from future political power struggles, and reinforce assessment of the impact of EU funded growth policies. • To improve flexibility a commitment device should be created that places the EU budget above continuous political disagreement. We suggest the creation of a European Growth Fund, on the basis of which the European Commission should be allowed to borrow on capital markets to anticipate pre-allocated EU expenditure, such as Structural and Cohesion Funds. Markets would thus be a factor in EU budget policymaking, with a potentially disciplining effect. Attaching conditionality to this type of disbursement appears legitimate, as capital delivered in this way is a form of assistance.

Copyright issues on the protection of architectural works and designs

Architects and engineers depend on copyright law to protect their original works. Copyright protection is automatic once a tangible medium of expression in any form of an innovative material, conforming the Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988, is created. In terms of architectural works, they are protected as literary works (design drawings and plans) and as artistic works (the building or model of the building). The case law on the concept of “originality” however discloses that it may be difficult for certain artistic works of architecture to achieve copyright protection. Although copyright law provides automatic protection to all original architectural plans, the limitation is that it only protects the expression of ideas but not the ideas themselves. The purpose of this research is to explore how effective the UK’s copyright law regime is for protecting the rights and interests of architects in their works. In addition, the United States system of copyright law will be analysed to determine whether it provides more effective protection for architects and engineers with regard to architectural works. The key objective in carrying out this comparison is to compare and contrast the extent to which the two systems protect the rights and interests of architects against copyright infringement. This comparative analysis concludes by considering the possibility of copyright law reform in the UK.

Who owns the copyright of architectural works and designs?

Copyright protects the rights and interests of authors on their original works of authorship such as literary, dramatic, musical, artistic, and certain other intellectual works including architectural works and designs. It is automatic once a tangible medium of expression in any form of an innovative material, which conforms the Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988 (CDPA 1988), is created. This includes the building, the architectural plans and drawings. There is no official copyright registry, no requirements on any fees need to be paid and they can be published or unpublished materials. Copyrights owners have the rights to control the reproduction, display, publication, and even derivation of the design. However, there are limitations on the rights of the copyright owners concerning copyrights infringements. Infringement of copyright is an unauthorised violation of the exclusive rights of the copyright author. Architects and engineers depend on copyright law to protect their works and design. Copyrights are protected on the arrangements of spaces and elements as well as the overall form of the architectural design. However, it does not cover the design of functional elements and standard features. Although copyright law provides automatic protection to all original architectural plans, the limitation is that copyright only protects the expression of ideas but not the ideas themselves. It can be argued that architectural drawings and design, including models are recognised categories of artistic works which are protected under the copyright law. This research investigates to what extent copyrights protect the rights and interests of the designers on architectural works and design.

Dichotomous-choice contingent valuation with 'don't know' responses and misreporting

A new approach is presented that simultaneously deals with Misreporting and Don't Know (DK) responses within a dichotomous-choice contingent valuation framework. Utilising a modification of the standard Bayesian Probit framework, a Gibbs with Metropolis-Hastings algorithm is used to estimate the posterior densities for the parameters of interest. Several model specifications are applied to two contingent valuation datasets: one on wolf management plans, and one on the US Fee Demonstration Program. We find that DKs are more likely to be from people who would be predicted to have positive utility for the bid. Therefore, a DK is more likely to be a YES than a NO. We also find evidence of misreporting, primarily in favour of the NO option. The inclusion of DK responses has an unpredictable impact on willingness-to-pay estimates, since it impacts differently on the results for the two datasets we examine. Copyright (C) 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Endoparasitism in colonial hosts: patterns and processes

This study begins to redress our lack of knowledge of the interactions between colonial hosts and their parasites by focusing on a novel host-parasite system. Investigations of freshwater bryozoan populations revealed that infection by myxozoan parasites is widespread. Covert infections were detected in all 5 populations studied and were often at high prevalence while overt infections were observed in only 1. Infections were persistent in populations subject to temporal sampling. Negative effects of infection were identified but virulence was low. Infection did not induce mortality in the environmental conditions studied. However, the production of statoblasts (dormant propagules) was greatly reduced in bryozoans with overt infections in comparison to uninfected bryozoans. Overtly-infected bryozoans also grew more slowly and had low fission rates relative to colonies lacking overt infection. Bryozoans with covert infections were smaller than uninfected bryozoans. High levels of vertical transmission were achieved through colony fission and the infection of statoblasts. Increased fission rates may be a strategy for hosts to escape from parasites but the parasite can also exploit the fragmentation of colonial hosts to gain vertical transmission and dispersal. Our study provides evidence that opportunities and constraints for host-parasite co-evolution can be highly dependent on organismal body plans and that low virulence may be associated with exploitation of colonial hosts by endoparasites.

Adapting to climate change impacts on water resources in England - an assessment of draft Water Resources Management Plans

Climate change is expected to produce reductions in water availability in England, potentially necessitating adaptive action by the water industry to maintain supplies. As part of Ofwat's fifth Periodic Review (PR09), water companies recently released their draft Water Resources Management Plans, setting out how each company intends to maintain the balance between the supply and demand for water over the next 25 years, following Environment Agency guidelines. This paper reviews these plans to determine company estimates of the impact of climate change on water supply relative to other resource pressures. The approaches adopted for incorporating the impact in the plans and the proposed management solutions are also identified. Climate change impacts for individual resource zones range from no reductions in deployable output to greater than 50% over the planning period. The estimated national aggregated loss of deployable output under a “core” climate scenario is ~520 Ml/d (3% of deployable output) by 2034/35, the equivalent of the supply of one entire water company (South West Water). Climate change is the largest single driver of change in water supplies over the planning period. Over half of the climate change impact is concentrated in southern England. In extreme cases, climate change uncertainty is of the same magnitude as the change under the core scenario (up to a loss of ~475 Ml/d). 44 of the 68 resource zones with available data are estimated to have a climate change impact. In 35 of these climate change has the greatest impact although in 10 zones sustainability reductions have a greater impact. Of the overall change in downward pressure on the supply-demand balance over the planning period, ~56% is accounted for by increased demand (620 Ml/d) and supply side climate change accounts for ~37% (407 Ml/d). Climate change impacts have a cumulative impact in concert with other changing supply side reducing components increasing the national pressure on the supply-demand balance. Whilst the magnitude of climate change appears to justify its explicit consideration, it is rare that adaptation options are planned solely in response to climate change but as a suite of options to provide a resilient supply to a range of pressures (including significant demand side pressures). Supply-side measures still tend to be considered by water companies to be more reliable than demand-side measures.

Local agenda 21 and planning practice: structural transformation or window dressing?

Local Agenda 21 seeks the meaningful involvement of a wide range of local groups and stakeholders in the formulation and implementation of public policy and a free flow of communication and discussion between them and their respective local authorities (and other areas and levels of decision-making). This paper explores the reality of this process using case study evidence from local planning practice in Liverpool (in the north of England) and Reading (in the south of the country). It concentrates on the interaction between LA21 groups and local planning authorities around the preparation of local land use plans and other policy initiatives and the day-to-day regulation of development permits. The paper builds on ‘New Institutionalist’ theory to explore the constraints and opportunities for significant transformations in social, political and economic ‘structures’ or ‘ways of doing things’ through the LA21 process. It concludes that the two cases provide evidence of mixed success in achieving such changes in established planning practices.

The case for property in the long run: a cointegration test

The benefits of property in the mixed asset portfolio has been the subject of a number of studies both in the UK and around the world. The traditional way of investigating this issue is to use MPT with the results suggesting that Property should play a significant role in the mixed asset portfolio. These results are not without criticism and generally revolve around quality and quantity of the property data series. To overcome these deficiencies this paper uses cointegration methodology which examines the longer term time series behaviour of various asset markets using a very long run desmoothed data series. Using a number of different cointegration tests, both pair-wise and multivariate, the results show, in unambiguous terms, that there is no contemporous cointegration between the major asset classes Property, Equities and Bonds. The implications of which are that Property does indeed have a risk reducing place to play in the long-run strategic mixed-asset portfolio. A result of particular relevance to institutions such as pension funds and life insurance companies who would wish to hold investments for the long-term.

The compact city and the residential developer

Although the compact city is widely promoted as a sustainable form of urban development, little attention has been paid to the feasilibity of its implementation in practice. This paper addresses this isse by presenting the findings of a questionnaire study into the viability of the compact city from the perspective of the volume housebuilder. The study shows that, although well aware of the inherent problems witht the compact city, most were generally positive about the need to redirect more development back into urban areas. In addition, they suggested a large number of strategies for change, including i) a role for public sector agencies in overcoming the condstraints on urban sites; ii) the need for an upward reveision of acceptable densities in local plans and design guides; and iii) the creation of a separate, or revised, Use Class Order to enable mixed use development to compete on a level playing field. It is concluded that the residential developer could be engaged in the process of urban containment provided proposals for implementing the compact city of devised. The need for continuing research to test the actual effects of specific schemes is emphasised.

Standard cost model: three different paths and their common problems

Red tape is not desirable as it impedes business growth. Relief from the administrative burdens that businesses face due to legislation can benefit the whole economy, especially at times of recession. However, recent governmental initiatives aimed at reducing administrative burdens have encountered some success, but also failures. This article compares three national initiatives - in the Netherlands, UK and Italy - aimed at cutting red tape by using the Standard Cost Model. Findings highlight the factors affecting the outcomes of measurement and reduction plans and ways to improve the Standard Cost Model methodology.