Towards characterising negative impact:Introducing Grimpact

This paper categorises the nature of what we have labelled as the potential for ‘GrImpact’, in the evaluation of the wider influence of research, beyond academia. As the impact agenda broadly defined grows to include more formally criteria that consider the value of research beyond academia, so too does the pressure to ensure that these assessments of public value are conducted with the public’s best interests in mind. In many cases, any negative impact from research cannot be foreseen at the time of the evaluation, making it vital that any kinds of rewards for impact stimulate only positive public benefits (aka “the right type” of impact). Using a series of case studies of identified “negative impact” this paper explores the concept of Grimpact, as well as creates typologies of its characteristics and precursors

The impact of fiscal and monetary policy on economic growth and cyclical development of the economy

The existence of the cyclical development of the economy and searching for the effective fiscal and monetary policy as a tool to mitigate cyclical fluctuations will be for a long time a subject of many professional discussions. In particular, the crisis processes in the 21st century meant a renewal of the debate between Keynesian and monetarist oriented economists. The aim of the article is to compare and evaluate different approaches to the effective application of fiscal and monetary policy instruments and the possibility of their practical application. Many economists have come to the conclusion that the implementation of monetary policy leads to the more effective allocation of production resources as in the case of fiscal expansion. It is obvious that even in the future there will be controversy about whether the cause of cyclical fluctuations is incorrectly implemented economic policy or the failure of economic and political institutions

AS FUNÇÕES DA INFORMAÇÃO NO MERCADO DE VALORES MOBILIÁRIOS E SUA DIVULGAÇÃO OBRIGATÓRIA: ANÁLISE DE DECISÕES JUDICIAIS SOBRE A RESPONSABILIDADE CIVIL DA COMPANHIA ABERTA POR VIOLAÇÕES DO DEVER DE INFORMAR

O artigo tem por objetivo examinar o dever de informar da companhia aberta e as funções da informação no mercado de valores mobiliários a partir de 4 decisões judiciais em que se discutiu a responsabilidade civil da companhia perante investidores por falhas informacionais. Adotou-se o método científico indutivo, modo a extrair conclusões dos casos concretos, a partir de pesquisa documental e bibliográfica. Como contribuição, sustenta-se que as decisões analisadas podem viabilizar a construção de uma jurisprudência sobre o dever de informar da companhia assentada na aplicação das normas societárias e do mercado a partir das funções exercidas pela informação

Regulating asymmetric information: legal form and economic theory

The regulation of asymmetric information is predicated on Akerlof's classic model which is entirely effects-based. This thesis sets aside the economic effects of asymmetric information to focus on a series of simple but critical questions concerning the origins and drivers of asymmetric information. The first of these questions, is why do information asymmetries exist? What factors drive the emergence of asymmetric information and its resolution? And how does an improved understanding of the origins and drivers of asymmetric information inform the selection of legal instruments and design of legal frameworks to address and ameliorate asymmetric information? In answering these questions, this thesis develops a novel, first generation model of asymmetric information that explains the emergence and resolution of information asymmetries by reference to information costs. The model is then applied to common regulatory and private law instruments to inform an original critical reappraisal of the classic model of asymmetric information. In re-examining the classic model of asymmetric information this thesis argues that it provides a narrow basis for regulation and must be revised and expanded to reflect regulatory practice and existing legal forms. In arguing for the revision of the classic theory of asymmetric information, this thesis argues that an improved understanding of the origins and drivers of asymmetric information provides a framework for analysing the efficiency trade-offs of different legal instruments to support instrument selection. Further, it is argued that an improved understanding of the origins and drivers of asymmetric information supports the development of normative guidance on when regulation may be merited based on a revised model of asymmetric information

Business cycles, interest rates and market volatility : estimation and forecasting using DSGE macroeconomic models under partial information

Even long before the recent financial and economic crisis of 2007/2008 economists were more than aware of the insufficiencies and a lack of realism in macroeconomic modelling and model calibration methods, including those with DSGE methods and models, and spelled the need for further enhancements. The issues this research started addressing even before the 2008 crisis imposed demand for improvements, was use of single, fully informed rational agents in those modes. Consequently, the first part of this research project was aiming to improve the DSGE econometric methods by introducing novel solution for DSGE models with imperfect, partial information about the current values of deep variables and shocks, and apply this solution to imperfectly informed multiple agents with their different, inner-rationality models. Along these lines, this research also shows that DSGE models can be extended and suited to both, fitting and estimation of long-term yield curve, and to estimating with rich data sets by extending further its inner-mechanism. In the aftermath of the 2008 crises, which struck at the beginning of this research project, and the subsequent, extensive criticism of DSGE models, this research analyses the alternative causes of the crisis. It then focuses on identifying its possible causes, such as yet unknown debt accelerator mechanism and the related, probable model miss-specifications, rational inattention, and as well, a role of institutional policies in both the development of the crisis and its resolution. And finally, in a response to many of the critiques of the, usually monetary policy oriented DSGE models, this research project provides another set of novel extensions to such models, aiming to bring more of Keynesian characteristics suited to a more active, endogenous fiscal policy deemed needed in the aftermath of the crisis. This project, henceforth, extends the NK-Neo-Classical synthesis monetary DSGE models with a novel, endogenous, counter-cyclical fiscal policy rule driven by news and unemployment changes. It then also shows overall benefits of the resulting, mutually active, monetary-fiscal policy for both capital utilisation and overall economic stability

Transformation of China's State Commercial Sector Governance: A Case Study of China’s Largest Insurance Company, China Life

This thesis seeks to detail and advance path-based explanations for the changing character and conduct of Chinese state sector governance at both evolving national and current leading firm level. The ruling Chinese party-state has expressed concern about how governance failings lower operational efficiency in the state sector over three decades while continuing to devise and implement different reforms in the process. However, empirical research often suggests that its gradualist or incremental approach to reform can also result in a mosaic of different transplanted governance institutions which are not necessarily fully or immediately compatible with China’s own unique context. This thesis specifically examines the transformative dynamics of China’s state sector governance system through the prism of path based theory in order to provide a more holistic and in-depth understanding of how that context and leading Chinese actors’ own conduct both exert salient influences over governance practices. It uses a mixed-method strategy at both national and firm levels to derive a deeper and more holistic understanding than any one single method alone might do. Overall it finds governance reform to be characterized by a relatively unsynchronised and challengeable process of policy making and implementation which allows for some degree of flexibility and openness. Its more detailed findings also question path dependency type explanations' emphasis upon continued institutional stability and reproduction. These findings further suggest that the actual reform is not necessarily the collective and consensual quest for ever high levels of efficiency which certain financial economists typically assume. It can also depend upon the outcome of other competing pressures between increased marketization and competition on one hand, and different demands for maintaining extant governance structures and vested interests on the other. The former are no less legitimate and, in principle, urgent concerns for both policy makers and other leading stakeholders than the latter. Embedded characteristics cannot just be reduced to efficiency-technocratic considerations for inducing different competitive performance when these neglect how redistributive an economic governance system can be, and also the essentially mediated efficacy of certain transplanted mechanisms. Much of the convergence-divergence debate regarding national economic governance systems has nevertheless been conceived in efficiency and competition terms alone. However, this thesis suggests that the promulgation and transplantation of SSG reform policies needs to take the specific country context into greater consideration if it is to be both more meaningful and effective