An analysis of the effects of ownership structure on corporate policy choices

The effects of ownership structure on corporate policy choices are examined. Insider holdings and institutional holdings are the two classes of corporate ownership and the policy choices studied are the levels of debt and dividend yield. The analysis is conducted in three stages, namely, descriptive statistics analysis, panel data analysis, and three-stage least squares simultaneous system of equations regression analysis. A sample of 516 firms that have ownership data available over the period 1988 to 1994 is collected from Disclosure data base. The results of the study show that a determination of the true relation between corporate ownership and corporate policy must include institutional ownership. When the full sample of firms is examined, insider holdings shows no significant relation with either debt or dividend yield. Institutional ownership shows a strong negative relation with debt, and no significant relation with dividend yield. On dividing the sample into sub-samples based on level of insider holdings, it is seen that a non-linear relation exists between corporate policy and insider holdings. At low levels, insider holdings has a negative relation with dividends and a positive relation with debt. At higher levels of insider holdings, the relation between debt and insider ownership is negative, while the relation with dividends is now insignificant. For the sample studied, the role of institutional ownership is not endogenous to the system, but more appropriately should be treated as an exogenous variable

Economic Effects of Pandemic on US and Indian Economies with Policy Actions in 2019-2023: A Comparative Analysis

COVID 19 pandemic that started in February/March 2019, with happenings in Yuwan, China spread like a wildfire all over the world. All countries faced one of the worst economic challenges in recent centuries if not ever in the history of the mankind. Early predications were so severe and devastating that some forecasters predicted a death-toll of 100 million all over the world, as the virus was not only spreading fast but also had no solution for its serious fatal effects. It was evident that the patients were dying before getting any effective treatments and many of them were elderly individuals. Helpless world was looking around for devastation of human life that had second to none. All the medical revolution, pharmaceutical developments, advanced research techniques were unable to come up with any answer. Policy makers all over the world and especially in USA and India came up with the drastic solution of compulsory shut down of all economic activity in March and April of 2020. This paper will discuss two special cases, USA and India and observe more closely how policy steps were taken in these countries. More specifically we will analyze the fiscal and monetary policy actions in these years and compare the two economies. The paper is divided into three sections: Section 1 focuses on US economic activity in these four years and Section 2 does the same thing for India’s economy. In Section 3 conclusion is made that India’s conservative actions in relative sense have enabled her to manage crisis better. It is evident in 2023 that moderate policy actions can be more helpful for a faster recovery as seen by how India became a fast recovery nation in comparative sense

Cash Shortages and Black Money: A Look at India\u27s 2016 Demonetization Effect, One Year Later

The decision of demonetization announcement in November 2016, by the Prime Minister of India, Mr. Narendra Modi, was surprising to the general public and controversial to the economic thinkers. While the opponents of such a step have gone through actual calculation of the cost of demonetization in terms of potential GDP loss (2% as predicted by the former Prime Minister and Oxford Economist, Manmohan Singh) some supporters have pointed out the big benefits of this step. In recent days a talk of demonetization has become a “hot potato” that very few want to hold on to. Politically this has become a subject of acute contention and disagreement with some friends turning into foes just for the position they hold on this issue. In this paper we want to be economically eclectic, and attempt to analyze the real economic costs and benefits of this experiment by keeping away from politics. We intend to ask questions such as, why was this done? What were the consequences faced by the general public when this step was taken? Did we achieve the objectives? and What are the economic opportunity costs of doing this in future? Of course, we do not think that anyone can find all the answers, but the investigation itself is considered to be worthwhile

Managerial Ownership And Dividend Policy In The U.S. Banking Industry

This paper examines a sample of U.S. Bank Holding Companies (BHCs) to determine if there is a relationship between managerial equity ownership (insider holdings) and the level of dividends paid out by the BHC. Given the findings of prior research, the analysis is performed using Two-Stage Least Squares (2SLS) regression with three equations. The three dependent variables are DIVPAY (dividend payout), DEBT (total liabilities over total consolidated assets) and INSIDER (percentage of common stock held by officers and directors). This study finds that insider holdings has a non-linear relation with dividend payout. Initially, there is a significant negative relation between the level of insider holdings and the level of dividends paid. However, higher levels of insider holdings show a positive relation with the level of dividends paid

Energy Expenditure and Nutritional Status of Sailors and Submarine Crew of the Indian Navy

Nutritional requirements of sailors and submariners are different from those of ground forces as they work under confined environment as well as due to logistic constraints of cooking and storage of food. Study was conducted for a period of three months at Eastern Naval Command to evaluate nutrient requirements, nutritional status of Indian Navy personnel and adequacy of the existing ration scales. The study volunteers were from crew of two warships (n = 35) and submariners (n = 20) who were attached to their mother ships during time of data collection and offshore during rest of the period. Energy expenditure, nutrient intake, level of nutrients in body, and urinary excretion were measured along with changes in body composition. All variables were analysed before and after three months of nutritional monitoring. Energy expenditure at ship was in the range of 2449-4907 kcal/day with a mean of 3313 + 578 kcal/day, while in the case of submariners, it was 3168 + 282 (2606-3907) kcal/day. The energy intake in the case of sailors and submariners was not different either on shore establishment or at ship. Energy intake was found to be 3518 + 286 kcal/day. The energy contribution from carbohydrates, fats, and protein was 59.9 per cent, 27.8 per cent and 12.3 per cent, respectively. No sign and symptoms of any nutritional deficiency were observed either initially or after three months. Status of micronutrients present in their blood and in their urinary excretions along with body composition were maintained, indicating adequacy of existing ration scales of Indian Navy.Defence Science Journal, 2011, 61(6), pp.540-544, DOI:http://dx.doi.org/10.14429/dsj.61.93

Impacts of the Tropical Pacific/Indian Oceans on the Seasonal Cycle of the West African Monsoon

The current consensus is that drought has developed in the Sahel during the second half of the twentieth century as a result of remote effects of oceanic anomalies amplified by local land–atmosphere interactions. This paper focuses on the impacts of oceanic anomalies upon West African climate and specifically aims to identify those from SST anomalies in the Pacific/Indian Oceans during spring and summer seasons, when they were significant. Idealized sensitivity experiments are performed with four atmospheric general circulation models (AGCMs). The prescribed SST patterns used in the AGCMs are based on the leading mode of covariability between SST anomalies over the Pacific/Indian Oceans and summer rainfall over West Africa. The results show that such oceanic anomalies in the Pacific/Indian Ocean lead to a northward shift of an anomalous dry belt from the Gulf of Guinea to the Sahel as the season advances. In the Sahel, the magnitude of rainfall anomalies is comparable to that obtained by other authors using SST anomalies confined to the proximity of the Atlantic Ocean. The mechanism connecting the Pacific/Indian SST anomalies with West African rainfall has a strong seasonal cycle. In spring (May and June), anomalous subsidence develops over both the Maritime Continent and the equatorial Atlantic in response to the enhanced equatorial heating. Precipitation increases over continental West Africa in association with stronger zonal convergence of moisture. In addition, precipitation decreases over the Gulf of Guinea. During the monsoon peak (July and August), the SST anomalies move westward over the equatorial Pacific and the two regions where subsidence occurred earlier in the seasons merge over West Africa. The monsoon weakens and rainfall decreases over the Sahel, especially in August.Peer reviewe

Severe early onset preeclampsia: short and long term clinical, psychosocial and biochemical aspects

Preeclampsia is a pregnancy specific disorder commonly defined as de novo hypertension and proteinuria after 20 weeks gestational age. It occurs in approximately 3-5% of pregnancies and it is still a major cause of both foetal and maternal morbidity and mortality worldwide1. As extensive research has not yet elucidated the aetiology of preeclampsia, there are no rational preventive or therapeutic interventions available. The only rational treatment is delivery, which benefits the mother but is not in the interest of the foetus, if remote from term. Early onset preeclampsia (<32 weeks’ gestational age) occurs in less than 1% of pregnancies. It is, however often associated with maternal morbidity as the risk of progression to severe maternal disease is inversely related with gestational age at onset2. Resulting prematurity is therefore the main cause of neonatal mortality and morbidity in patients with severe preeclampsia3. Although the discussion is ongoing, perinatal survival is suggested to be increased in patients with preterm preeclampsia by expectant, non-interventional management. This temporising treatment option to lengthen pregnancy includes the use of antihypertensive medication to control hypertension, magnesium sulphate to prevent eclampsia and corticosteroids to enhance foetal lung maturity4. With optimal maternal haemodynamic status and reassuring foetal condition this results on average in an extension of 2 weeks. Prolongation of these pregnancies is a great challenge for clinicians to balance between potential maternal risks on one the eve hand and possible foetal benefits on the other. Clinical controversies regarding prolongation of preterm preeclamptic pregnancies still exist – also taking into account that preeclampsia is the leading cause of maternal mortality in the Netherlands5 - a debate which is even more pronounced in very preterm pregnancies with questionable foetal viability6-9. Do maternal risks of prolongation of these very early pregnancies outweigh the chances of neonatal survival? Counselling of women with very early onset preeclampsia not only comprises of knowledge of the outcome of those particular pregnancies, but also knowledge of outcomes of future pregnancies of these women is of major clinical importance. This thesis opens with a review of the literature on identifiable risk factors of preeclampsia

Penilaian Kinerja Keuangan Koperasi di Kabupaten Pelalawan

This paper describe development and financial performance of cooperative in District Pelalawan among 2007 - 2008. Studies on primary and secondary cooperative in 12 sub-districts. Method in this stady use performance measuring of productivity, efficiency, growth, liquidity, and solvability of cooperative. Productivity of cooperative in Pelalawan was highly but efficiency still low. Profit and income were highly, even liquidity of cooperative very high, and solvability was good

Measurements of the pp → ZZ production cross section and the Z → 4ℓ branching fraction, and constraints on anomalous triple gauge couplings at √s = 13 TeV

Four-lepton production in proton-proton collisions, pp -> (Z/gamma*)(Z/gamma*) -> 4l, where l = e or mu, is studied at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV with the CMS detector at the LHC. The data sample corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 35.9 fb(-1). The ZZ production cross section, sigma(pp -> ZZ) = 17.2 +/- 0.5 (stat) +/- 0.7 (syst) +/- 0.4 (theo) +/- 0.4 (lumi) pb, measured using events with two opposite-sign, same-flavor lepton pairs produced in the mass region 60 4l) = 4.83(-0.22)(+0.23) (stat)(-0.29)(+0.32) (syst) +/- 0.08 (theo) +/- 0.12(lumi) x 10(-6) for events with a four-lepton invariant mass in the range 80 4GeV for all opposite-sign, same-flavor lepton pairs. The results agree with standard model predictions. The invariant mass distribution of the four-lepton system is used to set limits on anomalous ZZZ and ZZ. couplings at 95% confidence level: -0.0012 < f(4)(Z) < 0.0010, -0.0010 < f(5)(Z) < 0.0013, -0.0012 < f(4)(gamma) < 0.0013, -0.0012 < f(5)(gamma) < 0.0013