Diversity and profitability : evidence and future research directions / 1433

Includes bibliographical references (p. 23-24)

Corporate Ownership Structure and Performance in Europe

In this paper, we show that ownership structures vary considerably across Europe, and that the dominant form ofownership is not necessarily the most efficient one. These findings are in contradiction to similar research basedon US samples. The results also demonstrate that firms without a dominant shareholder tend to outperform theircountry peer groups. We base our analysis on a new and unique dataset of uniform ownership data of the largest100 firms in the five major European economies. We quantify the differences in ownership by comparing threedistinct ownership structures of firms and relating them to performance. For the first time we employ aHodrick-Prescott Filter, a methodology widely used in macroeconomics to isolate the trend growth componentsfrom cyclical fluctuations, to estimate the share price trend of each firm. We take this trend as a good indirectindicator of the quality of governance.Corporate governance, ownership structures, performance, Europe

Extending General Equilibrium to the Tariff Line: U.S. Dairy in the Doha Development Agenda

International Relations/Trade,

Extending General Equilibrium to the Tariff Line: U.S. Dairy in the DOHA Development Agenda

Market access has been at the core of eight negotiating rounds of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT). Yet, agricultural trade remains a heavily protected sector, characterized by higher tariffs relative to industrial goods, large tariff dispersions, numerous specific tariffs and systems of tariff-rate-quotas. This has made the analysis of trade liberalization a formidable task among policy analysts. Previous studies of agricultural trade liberalization have used partial or general equilibrium models of trade. However, each of these modeling strategies has their drawbacks. General equilibrium (GE) models have been criticized because they face serious aggregation issues and miss much of the policy detail that occurs at the tariff line. Partial equilibrium (PE) models on the other hand are often more disaggregated but lack internal consistency and have nothing to say about the economy-wide effects from trade reform. The purpose of this paper is threefold. One, we develop a methodology that combines PE and GE modeling techniques permitting us to extend GE to the tariff line. Two, we introduce a fully disaggregated U.S. dairy sector and compare PE and GE liberalization results from global dairy reform, thereby offering some insight into the potential errors implicit in current GE studies. Finally, we illustrate how our methodology allows for an explicit treatment of tariff rate quotas in the U.S. dairy sector on a bilateral basis for narrowly defined product lines.agricultural trade, mixed-complementarity problem, partial equilibrium, general equilibrium, Doha Development Agenda, WTO, International Relations/Trade, Livestock Production/Industries, F01, F17, Q17, Q18,

THE NEW WAVE OF REGIONALISM: DOES OUTSIDER/INSIDER STATUS AFFECT THE COMPETITIVENESS OF U.S. AGRICULTURAL EXPORTS?

The degree to which countries are pursuing regional trade agreements (RTAs) has been nothing short of extraordinary. The topic of regional integration is “breeding concern” among academics and policymakers as to the intra- and extra-regional effects of these agreements. This study constructs and uses an updated database of agricultural trade flows from 1992-2008 to shed light on the degree to which insider and outsiders status affects U.S. agricultural exporters and its competing suppliers. Regarding outsider status, we modify the existing approach by incorporating region-specific extra-bloc trade flow variables to examine the degree to which RTAs divert trade from specific regions of the world. The results are quite illuminating. While RTAs may not be trade diverting on net, all RTAs considered exhibit trade diversion with respect to at least some regions. The results have important policy implications for nations that are not actively participating in the latest wave of regionalism.International Relations/Trade,

"Aim High - Beat Yourself": Effective Mathematics Teaching in a Remote Indigenous Community

In 2004, a young, non-Indigenous, second-year teacher in a remote Queensland Indigenous community developed a mathematics Unit based on an "Aim High - Beat Yourself" theme he developed to overcome the perceived unwillingness of his students to achieve in both sport and school. This paper investigates the apparent effectiveness of this Unit and draws inferences for mathematics teaching and learning in Indigenous communities. It describes the research and teaching contexts in which the Unit was developed and the students’ responses to the Unit. The paper provides further evidence for the efficacy of integrating mathematics learning with more generic programs that build pride, confidence and self worth in Indigenous students and challenge them to perform (Sarra, 2003)

Universal Quantum Computation by Scattering in the Fermi-Hubbard Model

The Hubbard model may be the simplest model of particles interacting on a lattice, but simulation of its dynamics remains beyond the reach of current numerical methods. In this article, we show that general quantum computations can be encoded into the physics of wave packets propagating through a planar graph, with scattering interactions governed by the fermionic Hubbard model. Therefore, simulating the model on planar graphs is as hard as simulating quantum computation. We give two different arguments, demonstrating that the simulation is difficult both for wave packets prepared as excitations of the fermionic vacuum, and for hole wave packets at filling fraction one-half in the limit of strong coupling. In the latter case, which is described by the t-J model, there is only reflection and no transmission in the scattering events, as would be the case for classical hard spheres. In that sense, the construction provides a quantum mechanical analog of the Fredkin-Toffoli billiard ball computer.Comment: 9 pages, 5 figures. Hyperref and cleveref LaTeX packages conflicted (fixed by including hyperref before cleveref). Other minor edit