Efficacy and economic returns from various insecticide combinations applied for tobacco budworm control in the Brazos River Valley.

A field efficacy evaluation revealed significant differences in efficacy among a few of the numerous insecticides or combinations of insecticides applied for Heliothis spp. control. An increasing proportion of made up this field population during the test period. Partial budgeting revealed that the net returns from applying any treatment were directly proportional to the resulting yield obtained from that treatment.

Redes para la recepción y asistencia a los exiliados argentinos y uruguayos en las posdictaduras

En el marco de los procesos de democratización política del Cono Sur, los exiliados políticos argentinos y uruguayos iniciaron gradualmente los retornos hacia sus países de origen. Como parte de ese proceso, y sobre todo entre 1983 y 1986, en Argentina y en Uruguay comenzaron a germinar distintas organizaciones sociales que se preocuparon por responder a esos regresos y ayudar a los exiliados en su reinserción en el país. Este artículo indaga en las respuestas de ambas sociedades en dos claves vinculadas. En primer lugar, recupera en el proceso de formulación de ciertas medidas y programas para la reinserción de retornados un fuerte intercambio de conocimientos, inquietudes y modos de trabajo entre las organizaciones sociales argentinas y las uruguayas. Así, este trabajo rompe con las comparaciones en sentido estricto para detenerse a explorar la formación de una red de trabajo asistencial entre distintos actores de ambas orillas. En segundo lugar, este trabajo se detiene a reflexionar sobre una tensión que se desprende de la red: a pesar de las mutuas influencias, los programas de asistencia tuvieron diferencias importantes entre ambos casos. En consecuencia, este artículo ofrece algunas interpretaciones posibles sobre estas diferencias que se insertan en el marco de las "transiciones democráticas" de cada país y, especialmente, de los lugares que el tema del retorno tuvo en cada agenda posdictadura

Redes para la recepción y asistencia a los exiliados argentinos y uruguayos en las posdictaduras

En el marco de los procesos de democratización política del Cono Sur, los exiliados políticos argentinos y uruguayos iniciaron gradualmente los retornos hacia sus países de origen. Como parte de ese proceso, y sobre todo entre 1983 y 1986, en Argentina y en Uruguay comenzaron a germinar distintas organizaciones sociales que se preocuparon por responder a esos regresos y ayudar a los exiliados en su reinserción en el país. Este artículo indaga en las respuestas de ambas sociedades en dos claves vinculadas. En primer lugar, recupera en el proceso de formulación de ciertas medidas y programas para la reinserción de retornados un fuerte intercambio de conocimientos, inquietudes y modos de trabajo entre las organizaciones sociales argentinas y las uruguayas. Así, este trabajo rompe con las comparaciones en sentido estricto para detenerse a explorar la formación de una red de trabajo asistencial entre distintos actores de ambas orillas. En segundo lugar, este trabajo se detiene a reflexionar sobre una tensión que se desprende de la red: a pesar de las mutuas influencias, los programas de asistencia tuvieron diferencias importantes entre ambos casos. En consecuencia, este artículo ofrece algunas interpretaciones posibles sobre estas diferencias que se insertan en el marco de las "transiciones democráticas" de cada país y, especialmente, de los lugares que el tema del retorno tuvo en cada agenda posdictadura

Redes para la recepción y asistencia a los exiliados argentinos y uruguayos en las posdictaduras

En el marco de los procesos de democratización política del Cono Sur, los exiliados políticos argentinos y uruguayos iniciaron gradualmente los retornos hacia sus países de origen. Como parte de ese proceso, y sobre todo entre 1983 y 1986, en Argentina y en Uruguay comenzaron a germinar distintas organizaciones sociales que se preocuparon por responder a esos regresos y ayudar a los exiliados en su reinserción en el país. Este artículo indaga en las respuestas de ambas sociedades en dos claves vinculadas. En primer lugar, recupera en el proceso de formulación de ciertas medidas y programas para la reinserción de retornados un fuerte intercambio de conocimientos, inquietudes y modos de trabajo entre las organizaciones sociales argentinas y las uruguayas. Así, este trabajo rompe con las comparaciones en sentido estricto para detenerse a explorar la formación de una red de trabajo asistencial entre distintos actores de ambas orillas. En segundo lugar, este trabajo se detiene a reflexionar sobre una tensión que se desprende de la red: a pesar de las mutuas influencias, los programas de asistencia tuvieron diferencias importantes entre ambos casos. En consecuencia, este artículo ofrece algunas interpretaciones posibles sobre estas diferencias que se insertan en el marco de las "transiciones democráticas" de cada país y, especialmente, de los lugares que el tema del retorno tuvo en cada agenda posdictadura

Redes para la recepción y asistencia a los exiliados argentinos y uruguayos en las posdictaduras

En el marco de los procesos de democratización política del Cono Sur, los exiliados políticos argentinos y uruguayos iniciaron gradualmente los retornos hacia sus países de origen. Como parte de ese proceso, y sobre todo entre 1983 y 1986, en Argentina y en Uruguay comenzaron a germinar distintas organizaciones sociales que se preocuparon por responder a esos regresos y ayudar a los exiliados en su reinserción en el país. Este artículo indaga en las respuestas de ambas sociedades en dos claves vinculadas. En primer lugar, recupera en el proceso de formulación de ciertas medidas y programas para la reinserción de retornados un fuerte intercambio de conocimientos, inquietudes y modos de trabajo entre las organizaciones sociales argentinas y las uruguayas. Así, este trabajo rompe con las comparaciones en sentido estricto para detenerse a explorar la formación de una red de trabajo asistencial entre distintos actores de ambas orillas. En segundo lugar, este trabajo se detiene a reflexionar sobre una tensión que se desprende de la red: a pesar de las mutuas influencias, los programas de asistencia tuvieron diferencias importantes entre ambos casos. En consecuencia, este artículo ofrece algunas interpretaciones posibles sobre estas diferencias que se insertan en el marco de las "transiciones democráticas" de cada país y, especialmente, de los lugares que el tema del retorno tuvo en cada agenda posdictadura

Predictability of stock market returns: Evidence from Eurozone's banking sectors

This paper analyzes the in-, and out-of sample, predictability of the stock market returns from Eurozone’s banking sectors, arising from bank-specific ratios and macroeconomic variables, using panel estimation techniques. In order to do that, I set an unbalanced panel of 116 banks returns, from April, 1991, to March, 2013, to constitute equal-weighted country-sorted portfolios representative of the Austrian, Belgian, Finish, French, German, Greek, Irish, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish banking sectors. I find that both earnings per share (EPS) and the ratio of total loans to total assets have in-sample predictive power over the portfolios’ monthly returns whereas, regarding the cross-section of annual returns, only EPS retain significant explanatory power. Nevertheless, the sign associated with the impact of EPS is contrarian to the results of past literature. When looking at inter-yearly horizon returns, I document in-sample predictive power arising from the ratios of provisions to net interest income, and non-interest income to net income. Regarding the out-of-sample performance of the proposed models, I find that these would only beat the portfolios’ historical mean on the month following the disclosure of year-end financial statements. Still, the evidence found is not statistically significant. Finally, in a last attempt to find significant evidence of predictability of monthly and annual returns, I use Fama and French 3-Factor and Carhart models to describe the cross-section of returns. Although in-sample the factors can significantly track Eurozone’s banking sectors’ stock market returns, they do not beat the portfolios’ historical mean when forecasting returns.

Using airborne laser altimetry to improve river flood extents delineated from SAR data

Flood extent maps derived from SAR images are a useful source of data for validating hydraulic models of river flood flow. The accuracy of such maps is reduced by a number of factors, including changes in returns from the water surface caused by different meteorological conditions and the presence of emergent vegetation. The paper describes how improved accuracy can be achieved by modifying an existing flood extent delineation algorithm to use airborne laser altimetry (LiDAR) as well as SAR data. The LiDAR data provide an additional constraint that waterline (land-water boundary) heights should vary smoothly along the flooded reach. The method was tested on a SAR image of a flood for which contemporaneous aerial photography existed, together with LiDAR data of the un-flooded reach. Waterline heights of the SAR flood extent conditioned on both SAR and LiDAR data matched the corresponding heights from the aerial photo waterline significantly more closely than those from the SAR flood extent conditioned only on SAR data.

Plant variety protection in developing countries: A view from the private seed industry in India

Many developing countries are currently engaged in designing and implementing plant variety protection systems. Encouraging private investment in plant breeding is the key rationale for extending intellectual property rights to plant varieties. However, the design of plant variety protection systems in developing countries has been dominated by concerns regarding the inequities of a plant variety protection system, especially the imbalance in the reward structure between plant breeders and farmers. The private seed industry, a key stakeholder in plant variety protection, appears to be playing only a peripheral role in the design of the intellectual property rights regime. This paper explores the potential response of the private seed industry in India to plant variety protection legislation based on a survey of major plant breeding companies. The survey finds that the private seed industry in India is generally unenthusiastic about the legislation and plant variety protection is likely to have only a very limited impact on their research profile and expenditures on plant breeding. Measures designed to curb the 'excessive' profits of breeders, farmers' rights provisions and poor prospects for enforcement of rights are seen to be seriously diluting breeders' rights, leaving few incentives for innovation. If the fundamental objective of plant variety protection is to stimulate private investment in plant breeding, then developing countries need to seriously address the question of improving appropriability of returns from investment.

The British ‘failure’ that never was? The Anglo-American ‘productivity gap’ in large-scale interwar retailing—evidence from the department store sector

Interwar British retailing has been characterized as having lower productivity, less developed managerial hierarchies and methods, and weaker scale economies than its US counterpart. This article examines comparative productivity for one major segment of large-scale retailing in both countries—the department store sector. Drawing on exceptionally detailed contemporary survey data, we show that British department stores in fact achieved superior performance in terms of operating costs, margins, profits, and stock-turn. While smaller British stores had lower labour productivity than US stores of equivalent size, TFP was generally higher for British stores, which also enjoyed stronger scale economies. We also examine the reasons behind Britain's surprisingly strong relative performance, using surviving original returns from the British surveys. Contrary to arguments that British retailers faced major barriers to the development of large-scale enterprises, that could reap economies of scale and scope and invest in machinery and marketing to support the growth of their primary sales functions, we find that British department stores enthusiastically embraced the retail ‘managerial revolution’—and reaped substantial benefits from this investment.

Hedging effectiveness of total returns swaps: application to the Japanese market

The development of the real estate swap market offers many opportunities for investors to adjust the exposure of their portfolios to real estate. A number of OTC transactions have been observed in markets around the world. In this paper we examine the Japanese commercial real estate market from the point of view of an investor holding a portfolio of properties seeking to reduce the portfolio exposure to the real estate market by swapping an index of real estate for LIBOR. This paper explores the practicalities of hedging portfolios comprising small numbers of individual properties against an appropriate index. We use the returns from 74 properties owned by Japanese Real Estate Investment Trusts over the period up to September 2007. The paper also discusses and applies the appropriate stochastic processes required to model real estate returns in this application and presents alternative ways of reporting hedging effectiveness. We find that the development of the derivative does provide the capacity for hedging market risk but that the effectiveness of the hedge varies considerably over time. We explore the factors that cause this variability.

Persistence of UK Real Estate returns: a Markov chain analysis

The persistence of investment performance is a topic of perennial interest to investors. Efficient Markets theory tells us that past performance can not be used to predict future performance yet investors appear to be influenced by the historical performance in making their investment allocation decisions. The problem has been of particular interest to investors in real estate; not least because reported returns from investment in real estate are serially correlated thus implying some persistence in investment performance. This paper applies the established approach of Markov Chain analysis to investigate the relationship between past and present performance of UK real estate over the period 1981 to 1996. The data are analysed by sector, region and size. Furthermore some variations in investment performance classification are reported and the results are shown to be robust.

Property fund flows and returns

This study is concerned with the impacts on property returns from property fund flows, and with the possibility of a reverse transmission from property fund flows to property returns. In other words this study investigates whether property returns “cause” fund flow changes, or whether fund flow changes “cause” property returns, or causality works in both directions.

Modelling economic returns to plant variety protection in the UK

This paper attempts an empirical assessment of the incentive effects of plant variety protection regimes in the generation of crop variety innovations. A duration model of plant variety protection certificates is used to infer the private appropriability of returns from agricultural crop variety innovations in the UK over the period 1965-2000. The results suggest that plant variety protection provides only modest appropriability of returns to innovators of agricultural crop varieties. The value distribution of plant variety protection certificates is highly skewed with a large proportion of innovations providing virtually no returns to innovators. Increasing competition from newer varieties appears to have accelerated the turnover of varieties reducing appropriability further. Plant variety protection emerges as a relatively weak instrument of protection.

Are returns on Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), FDI determinants?

Foreign Direct Investments (FDI) acquired an important role in the development process of the global economy. FDI inward stock was equivalent to an average of 32% of GDP for OECD countries in 2013. However, FDI affects a country’s Balance of Payments (BoP) in two ways: FDI flows are recorded in the BoP financial account while returns on FDI affect the BoP current account. Therefore, part of the positive contribution of inward FDI to a country on its financial account could be potentially offset by a negative contribution of FDI returns on the current account. The intent of this work is to complement the research on FDI determinants by introducing FDI returns as a variable in a gravity model where bilateral FDI outflows are the dependent variable. Moreover, using outward FDI flows as the dependent variable, the work allows looking at the behavior of Multinational Corporations (MNC) investing abroad. The results show that MNCs repatriate returns generating from the investments they make abroad. This is particularly true when high-income countries are involved: MNCs from high-income countries repatriate returns to their home countries from FDI made anywhere, while MNCs from middle-income countries repatriate returns from FDI in high-income countries. Repatriated returns are a relevant variable determining the value of FDI that a country makes in another country. The information on FDI returns is starting to become available to the public. This allows MNCs to sharpen their investment location decision models and national IPAs to better assess the two-fold BoP effects of promoting FDI.

Theory and practice of industrial policy: evidence from the Latin American experience

Includes bibliography