Homotopy Actions, Cyclic Maps and their Duals

An action of A on X is a map F: AxX to X such that F|_X = id: X to X. The restriction F|_A: A to X of an action is called a cyclic map. Special cases of these notions include group actions and the Gottlieb groups of a space, each of which has been studied extensively. We prove some general results about actions and their Eckmann-Hilton duals. For instance, we classify the actions on an H-space that are compatible with the H-structure. As a corollary, we prove that if any two actions F and F' of A on X have cyclic maps f and f' with Omega(f) = Omega(f'), then Omega(F) and Omega(F') give the same action of Omega(A) on Omega(X). We introduce a new notion of the category of a map g and prove that g is cocyclic if and only if the category is less than or equal to 1. From this we conclude that if g is cocyclic, then the Berstein-Ganea category of g is <= 1. We also briefly discuss the relationship between a map being cyclic and its cocategory being <= 1.Comment: 16 pages, LaTeX 2

An emerging market for corporate control? The Mannesmann takeover and German corporate governance

Corporate governance in Germany is often described as a bank-oriented, block-holder or stakeholder model where markets for corporate control have not played a significant role. This case study of the hostile takeover of Mannesmann AG by Vodafone in 2000 demonstrates how systemic changes during the 1990s have eroded past institutional barriers to takeovers. These changes include the strategic reorientation of German banks from the house bank to investment banking, the growing consensus and productivity orientation of employee co-determination and corporate law reform. A significant segment of German corporations are now subjected to a market for corporate control. The implications for the German model are examined in light of both claims by agency theory for the efficiency of takeover markets, as well as the institutional complementarities within Germany's specific variety of capitalism. While the efficiency effects are questionable, the growing pressures for German corporations to achieve the higher stock market valuations of their Anglo-American competitors threaten the distributional compromises underlying the German model. --

Characterizing Asymmetric Information in International Equity Markets

This paper studies the international portfolio flows of US investors to examine the information structure of international equity markets. We use an empirical model of portfolio flows with both public and private information to extract measures of trades due to private information. We find that such trades are highly correlated across countries. In particular, a common 'global' factor accounts for about half of the variation in trades due to private information. We show that the global factor helps explain the cross section of international equity returns, after controlling for public information. The finding that a substantial portion of trades due to private information across countries contains the same common information challenges the conventional view that domestic investors have better private information about their home market than foreign investors.Private information, asymmetric information, portfolio choice, international equity flows and returns, home bias

International Equity Flows and Returns: A Quantitative Equilibrium Approach

This paper considers the role of foreign investors in developed-country equity markets. It presents a quantitative model of trading that is built around two new assumptions: (i) both the foreign and domestic investor populations contain investors of different sophistication, and (ii) investor sophistication matters for performance in both public equity and private investment opportunities. The model delivers a unified explanation for three stylized facts about US investors' international equity trades: (i) trading by US investors occurs in bursts of simultaneous buying and selling, (ii) Americans build and unwind foreign equity positions gradually and (iii) US investors increase their market share in a country when stock prices there have recently been rising. The results suggest that heterogeneity within the foreign investor population is much more important than heterogeneity of investors across countries.Asymmetric information, heterogenous investors, asset pricing, international equity flows, international equity returns

Multirate sampled-data yaw-damper and modal suppression system design

A multirate control law synthesized algorithm based on an infinite-time quadratic cost function, was developed along with a method for analyzing the robustness of multirate systems. A generalized multirate sampled-data control law structure (GMCLS) was introduced. A new infinite-time-based parameter optimization multirate sampled-data control law synthesis method and solution algorithm were developed. A singular-value-based method for determining gain and phase margins for multirate systems was also developed. The finite-time-based parameter optimization multirate sampled-data control law synthesis algorithm originally intended to be applied to the aircraft problem was instead demonstrated by application to a simpler problem involving the control of the tip position of a two-link robot arm. The GMCLS, the infinite-time-based parameter optimization multirate control law synthesis method and solution algorithm, and the singular-value based method for determining gain and phase margins were all demonstrated by application to the aircraft control problem originally proposed for this project

International Equity Flows and Returns: A Quantitative Equilibrium Approach

The authors model trading by foreign and domestic investors in developed-country equity markets. The key assumptions are that (i) both the foreign and domestic investor populations contain investors of different sophistication, and (ii) investor sophistication matters for performance in both public equity and private off-market investments. A quantitative model with these assumptions delivers a unified explanation for three stylized facts about U.S. investors’ international equity trades that have been documented in the literature: (i) trading by U.S. investors occurs in bursts of simultaneous buying and selling, (ii) Americans build and unwind foreign equity positions gradually, and (iii) U.S. investors increase their market share in a country when stock prices in that country have recently been rising.Financial markets; International topics; Market structure and pricing