The final frontier : the integration of banking and commerce. Part 1, the likely outcome of eliminating the barrier

Exploring the potential effects of removing the legal barriers between banks and commercial firms, this article surveys economic theory as well as experience in other developed countries and in U.S. nonbank conglomerates.Banks and banking ; Banking law

Environmental and Brownfield Liability: Relative Influence on Corporate Expansion and Relocation

Many states in America have enacted laws to encourage the development of contaminated properties. The laws attempt to do this by addressing one barrier to redevelopment, the environmental liability attached to contaminated properties. In general, the laws attempt to remove or reduce the significance of that barrier by reducing or eliminating the environmental liability risk attached to these properties. Our hypothesis was that these efforts cannot significantly encourage redevelopment because they fail to address non-environmental barriers to urban redevelopment. To determine whether this legislative focus on environmental liability is misplaced, we conducted a survey of Northeast Ohio businesses, which had decided, since the enactment of Ohio\u27s brownfields law, either to move to a new location, or expand at an existing location. The survey asked businesses to rank the relative importance to their relocation decision of environmental and non-environmental factors. The results of the survey show that numerous non-environmental factors were of equal or greater importance to the decision-maker than the environmental status of the property. Therefore, legislative efforts to encourage redevelopment of contaminated urban properties must be expanded to include non-environmental barriers to redevelopment

Information disclosure, bank performance and bank stability

Copyright © 2014 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd. The purpose of this research is to identify the effects of information disclosure on commercial bank performance and stability. Specifically, the study examines the relationship between different levels of information disclosure and the subsequent impact on various measures of bank return and risk. The focus is on securitised assets and credit derivative activities, both of which were at the heart of the sub-prime mortgage crisis of 2008. Using a sample of 27 US bank holding companies (BHCs) for the period from June 2001 to December 2008, a significant relationship between the quantity and quality of information disclosure and bank performance and stability is observed. A \u27switching\u27 behaviour is identified, whereby performance and stability initially decrease and then improve when additional information on a bank\u27s securitisation and credit derivative activities are disclosed. This switching effect is possibly explained by economies-of-scale and a \u27learning curve\u27 effect. The results provide guidance for managing both the volume and quality of information disclosed by both bank managers and the regulatory authorities

An Evaluation of Alternative Estimation Techniques and Functional Forms in Developing Statistical Appraisal Models

This paper examines the combined effects of multicollinearity, parameter stability, and alternative function forms in hedonic regression models. The results indicate that the significance and stability of the regression coefficients as well as prediction accuracy are sensitive to the choice of functional form and estimation technique. In certain respects nonlinear models proved to be more effective than linear models and ridge regression techniques were generally superior to OLS estimation. Since no single estimation technique or functional form was superior in all respects, the appraiser may have to choose between minimizing the average prediction error or maximizing prediction stability.

The Impact of Landfills on Residential Property Values

The purpose of this study is to determine the impact of five municipal landfills on residential property values in a major metropolitan area (Cleveland, Ohio). The study concludes that landfills will likely have an adverse impact upon housing values when the landfill is located within several blocks of an expensive housing area. The negative impact is between 5.5%-7.3% of market value depending upon the actual distance from the landfill. For less expensive, older areas the landfill effect is considerably less pronounced, ranging from 3%-4% of market value, and essentially nonexistent for predominantly rural areas.

Measurement of the inclusive isolated-photon cross section in pp collisions at √s = 13 TeV using 36 fb−1 of ATLAS data

The differential cross section for isolated-photon production in pp collisions is measured at a centre-of-mass energy of 13 TeV with the ATLAS detector at the LHC using an integrated luminosity of 36.1 fb. The differential cross section is presented as a function of the photon transverse energy in different regions of photon pseudorapidity. The differential cross section as a function of the absolute value of the photon pseudorapidity is also presented in different regions of photon transverse energy. Next-to-leading-order QCD calculations from Jetphox and Sherpa as well as next-to-next-to-leading-order QCD calculations from Nnlojet are compared with the measurement, using several parameterisations of the proton parton distribution functions. The predictions provide a good description of the data within the experimental and theoretical uncertainties. [Figure not available: see fulltext.