Volatility of the Utilities Industry: Its Causal Relationship to Other Nine Industries

The goal of this study is to investigate the causality relationship between the Utilities industry and the nine other industries. Previous literatures show that volatility of stock prices is informative; Granger causality is applied in this research by using of a leveraged bootstrap test developed by Hacker and Hatemi-J (2006) to examine the behavior of the volatility. The results indicate that causality of the volatility of the Utilities industry on the volatility of seven other industries, except the Information Technology and Telecommunication Services industries. The data also suggest that Financials industry has impact on the Utilities industry

The inverse U curve relationship between software piracy and technological outputs in developed nations

The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between software piracy and technological outputs in developed nations. The study employs the data of 28 industrialized countries from 2003-2007. The hypotheses were tested using panel data regression. The results demonstrate that software piracy appears to have the inverse U curve relationship with the aggregate technological outputs of a nation as measured through the share of high-tech exports. Even though past studies have tended to focus on the negative impact of software piracy, this study found interesting evidence that its impact is not always absolute. In particular, firms in high-tech industries may benefit from the presence of software piracy when its level is limited at some optimal level. This benefit may derive from: the dissemination of technical knowledge; the diffusion of software deployment especially in small businesses; and the increase in technical skills of labors. This study is the first that provides the empirical evidence of the inverse U curve relationship between software piracy and technological outputs at the national level. © 2011, Emerald Group Publishing Limite

The Inverse U Curve Relationship Between Software Piracy and Technological Outputs in Developed Nations

The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between software piracy and technological outputs in developed nations. The study employs the data of 28 industrialized countries from 2003-2007. The hypotheses were tested using panel data regression. The results demonstrate that software piracy appears to have the inverse U curve relationship with the aggregate technological outputs of a nation as measured through the share of high-tech exports. Even though past studies have tended to focus on the negative impact of software piracy, this study found interesting evidence that its impact is not always absolute. In particular, firms in high-tech industries may benefit from the presence of software piracy when its level is limited at some optimal level. This benefit may derive from: the dissemination of technical knowledge; the diffusion of software deployment especially in small businesses; and the increase in technical skills of labors. This study is the first that provides the empirical evidence of the inverse U curve relationship between software piracy and technological outputs at the national level. © 2011, Emerald Group Publishing Limite

Impact of Natural Disasters on Economic Activity

Natural shocks and climatic disasters have been causing great destruction to human life and property. These shocks and disasters have often damaged the economy and caused a massive loss to the affected nation. A large amount of aid is necessary for recovery from such natural shocks. We propose to examine and compare the impact of natural disasters on economic activity. The type of natural disaster considered here is earthquakes, and the variable for economic activity is Merchandise Imports. We find that the natural disasters have a significant impact on the economic activity and the results vary based on the form of government and the level of development within the country

Social Capital, Knowledge Sharing and Operational Performance in Supply Chain: A Buyer-Supplier Perspective

The vast majority of literature on social capital has focused on the impact of the different dimensions of social capital on the buying firms’ performance within the buyer-supplier context. A few studies investigated the relationship between the distinct dimensions of social capital (structural, cognitive, and relational capital) and how they influence the firm’s performance outcome. Drawing upon social capital theory, this paper develops a model that examines cognitive capital’s mediating role in the relationship between structural capital and relational capital. The model also considers knowledge sharing as the outcome of relational capital, and knowledge sharing mediates the relationship between the buying firm’s relational capital and operational performance. The empirical results suggest that cognitive capital mediates the relationship between structural capital and relational capital. Relational capital significantly impacts knowledge sharing, and knowledge sharing partially mediates the relationship between the firm’s relational capital and operational performance. This study is one of the few that examines the relationship among different social capital dimensions and identifies knowledge sharing as a critical pathway between the firm’s social capital and performance

Influences of Macroeconomic Variables on Stock Market in China: An Empirical Analysis

This paper investigates the influences of macroeconomic variables on the stock market in China. We use Granger causality tests, impulse response functions, and variance decompositions to examine how fundamental macroeconomic variables, such as output proxied by electricity generation, inflation, money supply, and short-term interest rate affect the Shanghai Stock Exchange Composite Index. Our estimation results indicate that variables that measure macroeconomic activity, such as output growth and inflation, have no statistically significant impact on stock returns. Moreover, the stock returns do not respond to changes of monetary policy variables such as money supply and short-term interbank offered rate. This implies that monetary policy does not exert significant influences on stock returns. In sum, the performance of the China stock market does not reflect macroeconomic fundamentals

The Influence of Fedspeak on Market Volatility

This paper attempts to examine the U.S. stock market response to a variety of Federal Reserve FOMC member communications during which the Fed’s monetary policy was at the zero lower bound. The authors construct a unique database of 1557 communication events between 2009 and 2015 from both voting and non-voting members of the FOMC. This paper finds that communications by FOMC members that are perceived by the market as doves or dovish trigger significantly higher market volatility than those perceived by the market as centrists, hawks or hawkish

Democracy and FDI inflow: Evidence of discordance in Sub-Saharan Africa

The political environment of a host country plays a vital role in MNCs strategic decision making process in terms of investment placement and allocation. Recent literatures have had conflicting arguments on the impact of a host country government on FDI inflows. The different forms of democracies in the world today create an ultra ambiguous interpretation of the term Democracy . It becomes increasingly more difficult to agree on a universally acceptable definition, as more forms of democracy emerge around the world. In this paper, we investigate the influence of democracy on FDI inflow in Sub-Saharan Africa. The results suggest that as Sub-Saharan countries progress towards a stronger and more efficient democracy FDI inflow declines. We also tested for the impact of education on FDI inflow; our results suggest that as the quality of basic education improves in Sub-Saharan African countries, FDI inflow reduces. This finding might be explained by the positive association of education with both economic and human development. As the society becomes more educated and developed, its policies and overall orientation is channeled towards its domestic productivity and economic growth, and as a result becomes more resourceful. The harmonized interest of the host country now supersedes the profit maximization interest of the MNCs. This environment becomes less attractive to MNCs as their exploitative profit margin shrinks. © EuroJournals Publishing, Inc. 2011

Corporate Governance and Choice of Capital Structure

In this paper, we expand on the existing literature of corporate finance by analyzing the impact of corporate governance on the choice of capital structure for firms. Although other studies have analyzed this relationship, we extend the research by comparing the results across different industries such as healthcare, technology, consumer goods and industrial goods using a sample of 689 firms. The results show the relationship of corporate governance to the choice of capital is negative in the healthcare sector firms, positive in the consumer goods firms, and has no impact on technology or industrial goods firms