Does market structure matter?Trading costs and return volatility around exchange listings

We document that bid-ask spreads decrease substantially for stocks that moved from Nasdaq to the NYSE between 1996 and 2000, and that spread reductions continued to be observed after the 1997 market reforms. Somewhat surprising in light of these reforms, the largest spread reductions are for stocks where Nasdaq liquidity providers round quotations most often. We extend the analysis to document that average return volatility also decreases substantially after exchange listing. However, spreads, volatility, and trading activity are determined jointly in equilibrium, implying that simple before versus after comparisons may not reveal structural effects. The results of simultaneous equation estimation indicate that decreases in average bid-ask spreads are attributable to market structure, while reductions in volatility and trading volume can be attributed to changes in other endogenous and exogenous variables, including the spread reduction

The match between climate services demands and Earth System Models supplies

Earth System Models (ESM) are key ingredients of many of the climate services that are currently being developed and delivered. However, ESMs have more applications than the provision of climate services, and similarly many climate services use more sources of information than ESMs. This discussion paper elaborates on dilemmas that are evident at the interface between ESMs and climate services, in particular: (a) purposes of the models versus service development, (b) gap between the spatial and temporal scales of the models versus the scales needed in applications, and (c) Tailoring climate model results to real-world applications. A continued and broad-minded dialogue between the ESM developers and climate services providers’ communities is needed to improve both the optimal use and direction of ESM development and climate service development. We put forward considerations to improve this dialogue between the communities developing ESMs and climate services, in order to increase the mutual benefit that enhanced understanding of prospects and limitations of ESMs and climate services will bring.This work and its contributors (B. van den Hurk, C. Hewitt, J. Bessembinder, F. Doblas-Reyes, R. Döscher) were funded by the Horizon 2020 Framework Programme of the European Union: Project ref. 689029 (Climateurope project). The co-author and editor of the journal states that she was not involved in the review process of the paper.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

How Informative Is Floating NAV When Securities Trade Infrequently?

We examine if a floating net asset value (NAV) increases the transparency of risk for investors. Using closed-income fixed income funds we find little evidence that a floating NAV helps investors better understand the value and risk of a fund when a fund\u27s assets trade infrequently. This potentially informs the debate regarding the adoption of a floating NAV in the money market industry. Our results suggest that it is unlikely that the benefits of floating NAV will outweigh the costs

Landbouw, water en extremen

Bij de effecten van klimaatverandering wordt vaak onderscheid gemaakt tussen primaire en secundaire effecten. Onder primaire effecten worden verstaan veranderingen in zeespiegel, neerslag, temperatuur en wind. Secundaire effecten zoals verzilting, wateroverschot en -tekort, overstromingsrisico en hittestress ontstaan afhankelijk fysisch-geografische aspecten in een gebied, zoals hoogteligging, bodemtype en hydrologische eigenschappen. Voor het beschrijven en begrijpen van klimaatverandering is een onderscheid in de verschillende primaire en secundaire effecten belangrijk. Wanneer gekeken wordt naar de effecten op verschillende typen landbouw lopen deze effecten door elkaar en hebben een interactie. Voor enkele signaalgewassen zijn door Alterra en KNMI kwantitatief relevante grenswaarden in relatie tot de verschillende klimaatscenario’s beschreven. Is onderdeel van klimaateffectatla

Uncertainty and temporal aspects in long-term explorations of sustainable land use : with reference to the Northern Atlantic Zone of Costa Rica

Long-term explorations serve to widen the perspectives of decision makers. Biophysical and technical possibilities and constraints are confronted with the valuedriven objectives of stakeholders in Multiple Goal Linear Programming (MGLP) models. Two methodological aspects of long-term explorations are elaborated in this thesis: uncertainty in agro-ecological coefficients and temporal aspects of land use. The effects of these aspects on generated land use scenarios are studied using data from the Northern Atlantic Zone of Costa Rica (NAZ).Uncertainties in agro-ecological coefficients concerning nutrients and biocides were quantified. Only uncertainties caused by lack of knowledge of underlying biophysical processes or lack of data for quantification were considered. "Average", "pessimistic" and "optimistic" estimations of coefficients were generated, based on different perceptions of the influence of environmental factors. The estimations of the coefficients for various production activities are strongly correlated owing to the assumption of "best technical means" (i.e. inputs are used with the highest technical efficiency according to available knowledge and techniques). These coefficients were used in the single-period MGLP-model that was constructed for the NAZ. With the help of sensitivity analyses the effect of uncertainties on land use scenarios was determined for five tentative policy views, representing different perceptions of sustainability. It is concluded that, in long-term explorations, uncertainties in agroecological coefficients strongly affect the objective function values. However, they hardly affect the optimal land use allocation, because the ranking of production activities for the agro-ecological coefficients hardly changes when including uncertainties.In long-term explorations the following temporal aspects are relevant: 1. Growth and ageing of crops and livestock, 2. Fluctuations in coefficients caused by variation in weather conditions, 3. Interactions in time. After an inventory of possibilities and limitations to describe these temporal aspects in LP-models, a multi-period version of the single-period model was constructed. In theory, all temporal aspects can be described in multi-period MGLP-models, although location-bound temporal interactions pose serious problems owing to the limitations of the LP-technique. In most cases, the relevant types of temporal aspects can also be included in singleperiod models with the help of predefined cropping sequences and additional coefficients and variables. It is discussed, that in long-term explorations the use of a multi-period model may have added value only if large differences in coefficients between periods and growth stages occur and if strong bounds are put on fluctuations over periods.Based on the land use scenarios generated with the single-period and multi-period model it is concluded that there is considerable scope for policy in the NAZ. The differences between land use scenarios for the five policy views are large, regardless of the effects of the uncertainties in agro-ecological coefficients and the explicit inclusion of temporal aspects. By revealing the consequences and possibilities under particular land use objectives and constraints, this long-term exploration may help to structure and organize the discussion on desires for the future in the NAZ

Tailoring information about climate change and its impacts

Resultaten van onderzoek naar klimaatverandering en de mogelijke effecten zijn vaak niet beschikbaar in een vorm waarin ze direct door anderen gebruikt kunnen worden. Gebruikers van klimaat- en impactinformatie hebben vaak ook geen goed overzicht over de beschikbare gegevens van alle sectoren en resultaten zijn soms inconsistent

Klimaateffectatlas 1.0

Het project Van schetsboek naar Klimaateffectatlas bouwt voort op de klimaatschetsboeken die in de periode 2007-2008 zijn ontwikkeld voor een achttal provincies. Bij de klimaateffectschetsboeken in de eerste fase is ook een eerste beeld geschetst van een Geoportaal (voorheen geodatabase) om alle relevante klimatologische gegevens via internet te ontsluiten. Doel van dit Geoportaal Klimaateffectatlas is het opzetten van een gemeenschappelijke kennisbasis met voor alle provincies dezelfde eenduidige informati