Assessing the impact of the 'Decoupling' reform of the common agricultural policy on Irish farmers' off-farm labour market participation decisions

This paper assesses the impact of the 'decoupling' reform of the Common Agricultural Policy on the labour allocation decisions of Irish farmers. The agricultural household decision-making model provides the conceptual and theoretical framework to examine the interaction between government subsidies and farmers' time allocation decisions. The relationship postulated is that 'decoupling' of agricultural support from production would probably result in a decline in the return to farm labour but it would also lead to an increase in household wealth. The effect of these factors on how farmers allocate their time is tested empirically using labour participation and labour supply models. The models developed are sufficiently general for application elsewhere. The main findings for the Irish situation are that the decoupling of direct payments is likely to increase the probability of farmers participating in the off-farm employment market and that the amount of time allocated to off-farm work will increase.

Data dilemmas in forecasting European office market rents

This paper uses data provided by three major real estate advisory firms to investigate the level and pattern of variation in the measurement of historic real estate rental values for the main European office centres. The paper assesses the extent to which the data providing organizations agree on historic market performance in terms of returns, risk and timing and examines the relationship between market maturity and agreement. The analysis suggests that at the aggregate level and for many markets, there is substantial agreement on direction, quantity and timing of market change. However, there is substantial variability in the level of agreement among cities. The paper also assesses whether the different data sets produce different explanatory models and market forecast. It is concluded that, although disagreement on the direction of market change is high for many market, the different data sets often produce similar explanatory models and predict similar relative performance.

Volatility persistence and time-varying betas in the UK real estate market

This paper investigates the degree of return volatility persistence and the time-varying behaviour of systematic risk (beta) for 31 market segments in the UK real estate market. The findings suggest that different property types exhibit differences in volatility persistence and time variability. There is also evidence that the volatility persistence of each market segment and its systematic risk are significantly positively related. Thus, the systematic risks of different property types tend to move in different directions during periods of increased market volatility. Finally, the market segments with systematic risks less than one tend to show negative time variability, while market segments with systematic risk greater than one generally show positive time variability, indicating a positive relationship between the volatility of the market and the systematic risk of individual market segments. Consequently safer and riskier market segments are affected differently by increases in market volatility.

Is Energy Efficiency Priced in the Housing Market? Some Evidence from the United Kingdom.

This paper investigates whether energy performance ratings, as measured by mandatory Energy Performance Certificates (EPCs), are reflected in the sale prices of residential properties. This is the first large-scale empirical study of this topic in the UK involving approximately 400,000 dwellings in the period from 1995 to 2011. Applying hedonic regression and an augmented repeat sales regression, we find a positive relationship between the energy efficiency rating of a dwelling and the transaction price per square metre. The price effects of superior energy performance tend to be higher for terraced dwellings and flats compared to detached and semi-detached dwellings. The evidence is less clear-cut for house price growth rates but remains supportive of an overall positive association. Overall, the results of this study appear to support the hypothesis that energy efficiency levels are reflected in UK house prices, at least in recent years.

Made in Italy. Made in Britain. Quality, brands and innovation in the European poultry market, 1950-1980.

This paper compares the development of the poultry industry in Italy with the UK. Earlier research has suggested that the UK poultry industry developed a symbiotic relationship with the emerging supermarket retailers. Italy had a retarded supermarket sector. Its distribution system favoured small-scale, independent butchers rather than chains of self-service supermarkets. Despite this the Italian poultry industry also modernised, adopting US technologies. The catalyst for this modernisation was technological innovation in refrigeration technologies that enabled Italian consumers and independent retailers to be persuaded of the merits of the new ‘technological’ chicken. While the Italian market has become dominated by AIA and Amadori in recent years, the key innovators were the entrepreneurs that created the company called Arena.

Does orthogonalization really purge equity based property valuations of their general stock market influences?

This paper uses a recently developed nonlinear Granger causality test to determine whether linear orthogonalization really does remove general stock market influences on real estate returns to leave pure industry effects in the latter. The results suggest that there is no nonlinear relationship between the US equity-based property index returns and returns on a general stock market index, although there is evidence of nonlinear causality for the corresponding UK series.

Predicting stock index volatility: can market volume help?

This paper explores a number of statistical models for predicting the daily stock return volatility of an aggregate of all stocks traded on the NYSE. An application of linear and non-linear Granger causality tests highlights evidence of bidirectional causality, although the relationship is stronger from volatility to volume than the other way around. The out-of-sample forecasting performance of various linear, GARCH, EGARCH, GJR and neural network models of volatility are evaluated and compared. The models are also augmented by the addition of a measure of lagged volume to form more general ex-ante forecasting models. The results indicate that augmenting models of volatility with measures of lagged volume leads only to very modest improvements, if any, in forecasting performance.

'Doctor, Doctor...' entrepreneurial diagnosis and market making

Doctor-patient jokes are universally popular because of the information asymmetries within the diagnostic relationship. We contend that entrepreneurial diagnosis is present in markets where consumers are unable to diagnose their own problems and, instead, may rely on the entrepreneur to diagnose them. Entrepreneurial diagnosis is a cognitive skill possessed by the entrepreneur. It is an identifiable subset of entrepreneurial judgment and can be modeled – which we attempt to do. In order to overcome the information asymmetries and exploit opportunities, we suggest that entrepreneurs must invest in market making innovations (as distinct from product innovations) such as trustworthy reputations. The diagnostic entrepreneur described in this paper represents a creative response to difficult diagnostic problems and helps to explain the success of many firms whose products are not particularly innovative but which are perceived as offering high standards of service. These firms are trusted not only for their truthfulness about the quality of their product, but for their honesty, confidentiality and understanding in helping customers identify the most appropriate product to their needs.

The relationship between entrepreneurial marketing and the characteristics of Thai hotels and their managers

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore empirically whether there are meaningful relationships between key entrepreneurial marketing (EM) variables and the demographic characteristics of the organization and its manager. Design/methodology/approach – The data were gathered from a sample of 369 hotels from all regions of Thailand through the use of a postal survey. Several multiple regression models were used to test the relationships in the study. Interaction terms were added to some models to test the moderating effects of major demographic variables on various EM attributes. Findings – The study shows which types of hotels and which types of managers were associated with EM characteristics. The results indicate that demographic characteristics, such as age, size, location, experience, and gender, significantly explain sets of entrepreneurial marketing variables. It was found, for instance, that both a young hotel and a large hotel are positively associated with entrepreneurial marketing, while owner management is positively associated with market orientation and negatively associated with growth aspirations but has no significant relationship with entrepreneurial orientation. Originality/value – The paper provides a comprehensive overview of selected relationships between key EM dimensions in the existing literature. It is suggested that future research involves a more in-depth exploration of some of the relationships found in this study.

The notions of 'restriction' and 'discrimination' in the context of the free movement of persons provisions: from a relationship of interdependence to one of (almost complete) independence

This article aims to analyse how the meaning of the notions of ‘restrictions’ and ‘discrimination’ in EU free movement law has developed through the years, and to explore how the relationship between them has evolved. It is explained that the two concepts under examination had originally been closely intertwined, in the sense that one defined the other, the element holding them together being the aim of the relevant provisions to liberalise the inter-State movement of persons in the EU, as part of the process of establishing an internal market. Yet, more recently, the way that the Court has chosen to delimit their scope, illustrates that each of these notions can now have a life of its own, meaning that ‘discrimination’ can include discriminatory measures which do not lead to restrictions that are contrary to the free movement provisions, and ‘restriction’ can cover national measures that are not discriminatory.

Asymmetric information, credit market condition, and entrepreneurial finance

The issue of imperfect information plays a much more important role in financing “informationally opaque” small businesses than in financing large companies.1 This chapter examines the asymmetric information issue in entrepreneurial finance from two perspectives: the effects of relationship lending and the impacts of credit market concentration on entrepreneurial financial behavior. These two perspectives are strongly linked to each other via the asymmetric information issue in entrepreneurial finance. Existing literature has recognized the important role played by relationship lending in alleviating the problem of asymmetric information. However, mixed empirical results have been reported. For example, it has been found that the development of relationship lending can improve the availability of finance for small businesses borrowers (Petersen and Rajan, 1994) and reduce the costs of finance (Berger and Udell, 1995). Meanwhile, with monopoly power, banks may extract rents, in terms of charging higher-than-market interest rates, from small businesscustomers who have very concentrated banking relationships (Ongena and Smith, 2001). In addition, both favorable and unfavorable effects of credit market concentration on financing small businesses have been acknowledged. Small business borrowers may have to pay a higher-than-market price on loans (Degryse and Ongena, 2005) and are more likely to be financially constrained (Cetorelli, 2004) than in competitive markets. On the other hand, empirical studies have shown that market concentration create a strong motive for lenders to invest in private information from small business customers, and therefore a concentrated market is more efficient in terms of private information acquisition (Han et al., 2009b). The objective of this chapter is to investigate, by reviewing existing literature, the role played by relationship lending and the effects of market concentration on financing entrepreneurial businesses that are supposed to be informationally opaque. In the first section we review literature on the important role played by asymmetric information in entrepreneurial finance from two perspectives: asymmetric information and relationship lending, and the theoretical modeling of asymmetric information. Then we examine the relationship between capital market conditions and entrepreneurial finance and attempt to answer two questions: Why is the capital market condition important for entrepreneurial finance? and What are the effects of capital market conditions on entrepreneurial financial behavior in terms of discouraged borrowers, cash holding, and the availability and costs of finance?

International private equity funds strategies in the Brazilian market

The Private Equity Market in Brazil has flourished in the last two decades, and international Funds have been entering the market since then. The activity of these enterprises and how they deal with institutional voids that are present in the brazilian market and the all spheres of distances they have with Brazil are investigated in this research. What are the main challenges for those players in the local market and how private equity functions in Brazil? The first chapter reviews all the literature that concerns private equity in their home countries, such as the United States and Spain (Europe) and Brazil. It also discourses about the concept of private equity in all its different senses, the routine of investees and how is the relationship between Private Equity Fund and Investee. In addition to that, the due diligence process is also explained as well as the private equity sector in Brazil and its regulation. Moreover, the distance between countries and how it affects business is presented followed by the concepts of institutional voids. For the inquiry proposed interviews were conducted in order to capture the perspective of International Private Equity Funds on the Brazilian market. Advent International, The Carlyle Group and Mercapital replied to the inquiries and provided the tools so a picture of the sector was developed. This sector has a range of challenges and opportunities and requires the International Fund to establish a local branch in order to really succeed in the market. The results of this project pointed out to the challenges the market presents and how International Private Funds are coming about it. There are definitely gaps that need to be fulfilled however the industry is going in the right direction. Revenues may change its nature in the next couple of years, however from the Private Equity Fund perspective Brazil has been a worthwhile investment. Nonetheless, it is important to question the vision also of the investee and institutional investor so one can have the entire picture of the sector.

Modeling and predicting the CBOE market volatility index

This paper performs a thorough statistical examination of the time-series properties of the daily market volatility index (VIX) from the Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE). The motivation lies not only on the widespread consensus that the VIX is a barometer of the overall market sentiment as to what concerns investors' risk appetite, but also on the fact that there are many trading strategies that rely on the VIX index for hedging and speculative purposes. Preliminary analysis suggests that the VIX index displays long-range dependence. This is well in line with the strong empirical evidence in the literature supporting long memory in both options-implied and realized variances. We thus resort to both parametric and semiparametric heterogeneous autoregressive (HAR) processes for modeling and forecasting purposes. Our main ndings are as follows. First, we con rm the evidence in the literature that there is a negative relationship between the VIX index and the S&P 500 index return as well as a positive contemporaneous link with the volume of the S&P 500 index. Second, the term spread has a slightly negative long-run impact in the VIX index, when possible multicollinearity and endogeneity are controlled for. Finally, we cannot reject the linearity of the above relationships, neither in sample nor out of sample. As for the latter, we actually show that it is pretty hard to beat the pure HAR process because of the very persistent nature of the VIX index.

Cinema attendance during crises is there a relationship between cinema attendance and the state of the economy in France in the period 1992-2012?

O presente estudo teve como objetivo testar se a situação econômica teve um impacto sobre os hábitos de consumo de cinema na França, no período contemporâneo (1992-2012). O estudo aborda a relação entre indicadores econômicos e consumo de cinema em um nível agregado e, em seguida, analisa se os vários tipos de filmes, tipos de cinemas e categorias de cinéfilos foram mais ou menos foram afetados pelo estado da economia. No nível agregado, estudos semelhantes já foram realizados em outros países. Este estudo confirma os resultados para a França: como em outros países desenvolvidos, a situação da economia tem pouca influência no consumo de cinema e o setor é resiliente. Este trabalho também traz novas análises detalhadas sobre o comportamento de vários sub-tipos de filmes, segmentos de locais e categorias de consumidores. Ele demonstra que para a maior parte dessas sub-categorias, drivers do mercado são oferta e preço, e que a situação da economia tem pouca influência. Quanto ao tipo de cinema, o estudo argumenta que, comparativamente, cinemas grandes conseguem crescer durante o período de crise.