Interest Rate Parity in Excel

This paper develops interest rate parity in a framework that is easily implemented in Excel. The student can either be given the paper to see how the code is developed using the intuition of the interest rate parity framework or the student can be taught the interest rate parity framework and develop the Excel code as an assignment. Using either teaching method or the other exercises suggested in the paper, the student is able to understand how traders exploit violations of interest parity and become more comfortable with basic concepts, such as direct quotes and indirect quotes

Corruption, Foreign Direct Investment and the Cost of Doing Business in Vietnam

Corruption is a key impediment to: foreign direct investment, an accurate measurement of political risk, and a barrier to effective corporate governance. By examining the political structure of Vietnam and the impediments created by corruption, this paper defines some of the difficulties with investing in Vietnam. However, with regard to the sugar industry, some solutions have emerged with companies taking direct control of contracting, offering credit, and the building of infrastructure

Family firm competitiveness and owner involvement

Purpose In many countries, small and medium-sizes enterprises (SMEs) are primarily responsible for wealth, economic growth, innovation and research and development. In this paper, the authors examine the impact of family ownership and owner involvement on the financial performance of unlisted Finnish SMEs. Design/methodology/approach This is an empirical paper using a random sample of 1,137 non-listed Finnish SMEs. Through regression analyses and robustness tests, the authors examine the effects of family management, family and employee ownership and involvement. Findings Using profitability measures, the authors find family-owned and controlled SMEs perform significantly better than non-family firms. The number of family members actively involved in daily business operations bears a significant negative relation to firm performance. In contrast, non-family firms in which owners are actively involved, provide comparable returns to family firms, suggesting that in non-family firms active involvement contributes to performance. The authors find that employee ownership in SMEs does not provide an efficient way to compensate employees since more dispersed ownership does not lead to higher performance. Research limitations/implications SME employee ownership does not provide an efficient way to compensate employees since more dispersed ownership does not lead to higher performance. Practical implications In the case of Finland, family ownership is an effective organisational structure. As the depth of the COVID pandemic remains uncertain, firms with committed ownership are key to the economic recovery. Originality/value The authors approach the family ownership and involvement issue from a different angle. Unlike earlier studies, the authors examine the impact of both family ownership and involvement on the financial performance of privately owned SMEs. This paper helps shed light on the role of family ownership and involvement as a possible explanatory factor of overall economic performance.©2022 Emerald Publishing Limited. This manuscript version is made available under the Creative Commons Attribution–NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY–NC 4.0) license, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/fi=vertaisarvioitu|en=peerReviewed

Beware of the Ides of March: The Demise of HIH Insurance

Despite differences in corporate governance systems in the United States and Australia, the corporate governance failures that led to each country’s largest bankruptcy are strikingly similar. WorldCom in the United States and HIH Insurance in Australia were both created by a rapid series of major acquisitions, failed after their last major acquisitions, and attempted to hide their declining performance with aggressive and/or fraudulent accounting practices. In this paper we present a clinical examination of the corporate governance failures that led to the demise of HIH Insurance and show that corporate governance failures are not endemic to the existing corporate governance system in the United States

The Subtlety of Political Risk with Foreign Direct Investment: The Case of the Vietnamese Sugar Industry

Political risk entails more than a host country taking advantage of investment from foreign sources. A more subtle form of political risk is attributable to the host government\u27s mismanagement of policies that may be intended to attract foreign direct investment, but may have unintended consequences. A perfect example is the \u27\u27One Million Tonne Sugar Program sponsored by the government of Vietnam during the mid-1990s. What appears to be a very lucrative investment for foreign investors becomes a financial disaster due to the inability of the government to allocate resources efficiently and police its borders from smugglers

Multiple owners and productivity : evidence from family firms

We investigate the productivity of family owned small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Specifically, we examine whether productivity is influenced by the number of family owners and by family member involvement in daily operations. We find that the productivity of family firms is non-monotonically associated with the number of family owners and with the number of family members who work in the firm. Although prior empirical research has often been associated with positive effects, we identify problematic cases, especially when a few owners are involved. We document a negative effect on productivity if the firm has few but more than one family owner, and if the firm has two or three owners who are involved in daily business operations. In these cases, an external (non-family) Chair (CEO) might mitigate these effects stemming from the family ownership (family working in the firm). The results of our study have practical relevance and policy implications when it comes to questions concerning optimal governance.© 2021 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, and is not altered, transformed, or built upon in any way.fi=vertaisarvioitu|en=peerReviewed

Social isolation and psychological distress among southern U.S. college students in the era of COVID-19

Background College students are at heightened risk for negative psychological outcomes due to COVID-19. We examined the prevalence of psychological distress and its association with social isolation among public university students in the southern United States. Methods A cross-sectional survey was emailed to all University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill students in June 2020 and was open for two weeks. Students self-reported if they were self-isolating none, some, most, or all of the time. Validated screening instruments were used to assess clinically significant symptoms of depression, loneliness, and increased perceived stress. The data was weighted to the complete student population. Results 7,012 completed surveys were included. Almost two-thirds (64%) of the students reported clinically significant depressive symptoms and 65% were categorized as lonely. An estimated 64% of students reported self-isolating most or all of the time. Compared to those self-isolating none of the time, students self-isolating some of the time were 1.78 (95% CI 1.37, 2.30) times as likely to report clinically significant depressive symptoms, and students self-isolating most or all of the time were 2.12 (95% CI 1.64, 2.74) and 2.27 (95% CI 1.75, 2.94) times as likely to report clinically significant depressive symptoms, respectively. Similar associations between self-isolation and loneliness and perceived stress were observed. Conclusions The prevalence of adverse mental health indicators among this sample of university students in June 2020 was exceptionally high. University responses to the COVID-19 pandemic should prioritize student mental health and prepare a range of support services to mitigate mental health consequences as the pandemic continues to evolve

The Long-Baseline Neutrino Experiment: Exploring Fundamental Symmetries of the Universe

The preponderance of matter over antimatter in the early Universe, the dynamics of the supernova bursts that produced the heavy elements necessary for life and whether protons eventually decay --- these mysteries at the forefront of particle physics and astrophysics are key to understanding the early evolution of our Universe, its current state and its eventual fate. The Long-Baseline Neutrino Experiment (LBNE) represents an extensively developed plan for a world-class experiment dedicated to addressing these questions. LBNE is conceived around three central components: (1) a new, high-intensity neutrino source generated from a megawatt-class proton accelerator at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, (2) a near neutrino detector just downstream of the source, and (3) a massive liquid argon time-projection chamber deployed as a far detector deep underground at the Sanford Underground Research Facility. This facility, located at the site of the former Homestake Mine in Lead, South Dakota, is approximately 1,300 km from the neutrino source at Fermilab -- a distance (baseline) that delivers optimal sensitivity to neutrino charge-parity symmetry violation and mass ordering effects. This ambitious yet cost-effective design incorporates scalability and flexibility and can accommodate a variety of upgrades and contributions. With its exceptional combination of experimental configuration, technical capabilities, and potential for transformative discoveries, LBNE promises to be a vital facility for the field of particle physics worldwide, providing physicists from around the globe with opportunities to collaborate in a twenty to thirty year program of exciting science. In this document we provide a comprehensive overview of LBNE's scientific objectives, its place in the landscape of neutrino physics worldwide, the technologies it will incorporate and the capabilities it will possess.Comment: Major update of previous version. This is the reference document for LBNE science program and current status. Chapters 1, 3, and 9 provide a comprehensive overview of LBNE's scientific objectives, its place in the landscape of neutrino physics worldwide, the technologies it will incorporate and the capabilities it will possess. 288 pages, 116 figure