Governance through Shame and Aspiration: Index Creation and Corporate Behavior in Japan

We study how a stock index can affect corporate behavior by serving as a source of prestige. After decades of low corporate profitability in Japan, the JPX-Nikkei400 index was introduced in 2014. The index selected 400 large and liquid firms deemed to be best-performing in terms of profitability annually; membership was considered highly prestigious. We document that index-inclusion incentives led firms to increase return on equity (ROE) proportionally by 35% on average, through higher margins, efficiency, or shareholder payouts, depending on where firms had “slack,” but not through changing investments or accruals. These incentives are driven by the prestige associated with the index rather than capital market benefits. Back-of-envelope estimates suggest that the index accounted for 23% of the average increase in aggregate annual earnings over our sample period and a 3% increase in aggregate market capitalization. These findings highlight a novel mechanism through which long-standing corporate behaviors can be transformed

Generation expansion planning optimisation with renewable energy integration: A review

Generation expansion planning consists of finding the optimal long-term plan for the construction of new generation capacity subject to various economic and technical constraints. It usually involves solving a large-scale, non-linear discrete and dynamic optimisation problem in a highly constrained and uncertain environment. Traditional approaches to capacity planning have focused on achieving a least-cost plan. During the last two decades however, new paradigms for expansion planning have emerged that are driven by environmental and political factors. This has resulted in the formulation of multi-criteria approaches that enable power system planners to simultaneously consider multiple and conflicting objectives in the decision-making process. More recently, the increasing integration of intermittent renewable energy sources in the grid to sustain power system decarbonisation and energy security has introduced new challenges. Such a transition spawns new dynamics pertaining to the variability and uncertainty of these generation resources in determining the best mix. In addition to ensuring adequacy of generation capacity, it is essential to consider the operational characteristics of the generation sources in the planning process. In this paper, we first review the evolution of generation expansion planning techniques in the face of more stringent environmental policies and growing uncertainty. More importantly, we highlight the emerging challenges presented by the intermittent nature of some renewable energy sources. In particular, we discuss the power supply adequacy and operational flexibility issues introduced by variable renewable sources as well as the attempts made to address them. Finally, we identify important future research directions

Business Groups and the Value Implications of Ownership Transparency

We examine Korean business groups firms’ transitions from circular-shareholding to pyramidal shareholding structures between 2011-2019. With the removal of circular-shareholdings, neither the chaebol families’ degree of control of group firms nor the separation between their cash flow and ownership rights changed. Nevertheless, the removal of circular-shareholdings corresponded to a 10% decline in Tobin’s Q and market returns relative to other group firms. This relative value decline is not explained by an increase in observed expropriation or erosion of access to internal capital markets. Instead, our evidence is consistent with shareholding transparency allowing investors to better identify agency issues among business group firms

Accounting Data, Market Values, and the Cross Section of Expected Returns Worldwide

Under fairly general assumptions, expected stock returns are a linear combination of two accounting fundamentals―book to market and ROE. Empirical estimates based on this relation predict the cross section of out-of-sample returns in 26 of 29 international equity markets, with a highly significant average slope coefficient of 1.05. In sharp contrast, standard factor-model-based proxies fail to exhibit predictive power internationally. We show analytically and empirically that the importance of ROE in forecasting returns depends on the quality of accounting information. Overall, a tractable accounting-based valuation model provides a unifying framework for obtaining reliable proxies of expected returns worldwide

Preparation of Freestanding Zn Nanocrystallites by Combined Milling at Cryogenic and Room Temperatures

The present investigation reports the preparation of freestanding nanocrystalline Zn by combined mechanical milling at cryogenic and room temperatures. The cryomilling is used as an effective means of rapid fracturing. The detailed scanning electron microscopy and transmission electron microscopy observations indicate that the minimum crystallite size is 6 +/- A 2 nm after 3 hours of cryomilling. The crystallite size increases to 30 +/- A 2 nm after 3 hours of room temperature milling of the cryomilled powder due to deformation-induced sintering. Detailed theoretical analysis allows us to obtain a diagram of size of the nanoparticles formed vs temperature to explain the experimental findings

Preparation of ultrafine CsCl crystallites by combined cryogenic and room temperature ball milling

The present investigation reports the preparation and microstructural characterization of ultrafine CsCl crystallites using combined cryogenic and room temperature (RT) mechanical milling. The milling has been performed in evacuated WC vials under high purity argon atmosphere. The low temperature milling has been utilized as an effective means of rapid fracturing of the CsCl crystallites. This was followed by RT milling for different time durations. The final crystallite size obtained is 10 +/- 6 nm for sample cryo-milled for 11 h and subsequently RT milled for 35 h. The experimental findings indicate the strong effect of duration of cryo-milling on the final size of the crystallites. The prolonged room temperature milling leads to increase of the crystallite size due to deformation-induced sintering. The results have been discussed in the light of currently available literature. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd and Techna Group S.r.l. All rights reserved

Up-conversion hybrid nanomaterials for light- and heat-driven applications

Composites or hybrid materials offer diverse properties not achievable in pure materials. Here we critically review the interesting and controllable fluorescence and photothermal properties of diverse hybrid materials containing up-conversion nanoparticles (UCNPs). These hybrids couple plasmons, photonic crystals, bio-surfaces, and two dimensional (2D) materials to the UCNPs, offering optical non-linearity, and enable effective photo-electro-thermal control leading to new light and heat driven applications. Among the light driven applications, coupling of UCNPs with graphene and molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) enables photodetectors with better photoresponse, and broader spectral range not accessible to individual components. Irradiated MoS2 coupled-UCNPs is a new paradigm in resistive random access memory devices. Conjugation of graphene and perovskites, with the UCNPs, have led to novel optical limiting phenomenon and better solar cells. Examples of new opportunities offered by UCNPs in heat driven applications are photothermal water desalination using solar daylight and photothermal disintegration of fat droplets in obesity treatment. Phonons, manifesting as heat, can also be utilized to enhance fluorescence and translate to high sensitivity nanothermometers. This review covers fundamentals, and applications of the new UCNP-enabled class of hybrid materials in energy harnessing, light sources and detectors, memory devices, nanothermometers, desalination, intracellular pH sensing, and cancer theranostics.</p