Reevaluating the Roles of Large Public Surpluses and Sovereign Wealth Funds in Asia

This paper discusses the increasingly important roles of Asian official institutions in the new global financial landscape and the reasons that have led to the build-up of massive public surpluses. We re-examine the role of sovereign wealth funds (SWFs) as the de facto "global lender of last resort" during the recent financial crisis. Specifically, we analyze SWFs’ balance sheet characteristics, target allocations strategies, strategic agendas and political realities, management philosophies, and other real-world challenges, both before and after the crisis. Part of our analysis incorporates data which includes announced deals, regulatory filings, balance sheet information, and actual performance data made available by specific SWFs. We also point out a logical inconsistency in the common application of the Berk-Green alpha argument to the management of SWFs. For instance, the recent work done by Ang, Goetzmann, and Schaefer (2009) suggests limited or no evidence that alpha-seeking activities have impacts on SWF performance. We argue that the problem may be partially due to the choice of an appropriate performance benchmark for such large, non-commercial mandates. Finally, we propose a set of principles to construct a fair performance benchmark for SWFs.sovereign wealth funds; global financial crisis; public surpluses; global financial system

Designing efficient and incentive compatible mechanisms is almost impossible in quasi-linear environments

In quasi-linear environments, classic theories state that it is possible to design efficient and incentive-compatible mechanisms, such as Vickrey, Clarke and Groves (VCG) mechanisms. However, once financial constraints are taken into account, we find that almost no financial constraint is compatible with efficiency and individual incentives over unrestricted domains and some restricted domains. Therefore, our results imply that even in quasi-linear environments, it is still impossible to design an efficient and incentive compatible mechanism because of financial constraints

Transaction taxes in a price maker/taker market

We develop a price maker/taker model to study how a financial transaction tax affects markets where potential traders either take a price or quote prices for the next potential trader. We find taxes widen quoted and effective spreads by many times the tax; reduce volume, gains from quoting, and gains from trade; may decrease volatility slightly without market makers; increase volatility significantly with market makers; and, do not eliminate destabilizing speculators. These effects are amplified in markets with market makers. We find revenue-optimal rates of 55-70 basis points but that the socially-optimal tax would be zero

Transaction taxes in a price maker/taker market

We develop a price maker/taker model to study how a financial transaction tax affects markets where potential traders either take a price or quote prices for the next potential trader. We find taxes widen quoted and effective spreads by many times the tax; reduce volume, gains from quoting, and gains from trade; may decrease volatility slightly without market makers; increase volatility significantly with market makers; and, do not eliminate destabilizing speculators. These effects are amplified in markets with market makers. We find revenue-optimal rates of 55-70 basis points but that the socially-optimal tax would be zero

Survival benefit of local consolidative therapy for patients with single-organ metastatic pancreatic cancer: a propensity score-matched cross-sectional study based on 17 registries

BackgroundThe continuous exploration of oligometastatic disease has led to the remarkable achievements of local consolidative therapy (LCT) and favorable outcomes for this disease. Thus, this study investigated the potential benefits of LCT in patients with single-organ metastatic pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC).MethodsPatients with single-organ metastatic PDAC diagnosed between 2010 - 2019 were identified from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) database. Propensity score matching (PSM) was performed to minimize selection bias. Factors affecting survival were assessed by Cox regression analysis and Kaplan-Meier estimates.ResultsA total of 12900 patients were identified from the database, including 635 patients who received chemotherapy combined with LCT with a 1:1 PSM with patients who received only chemotherapy. Patients with single-organ metastatic PDAC who received chemotherapy in combination with LCT demonstrated extended median overall survival (OS) by approximately 57%, more than those who underwent chemotherapy alone (11 vs. 7 months, p < 0.001). Furthermore, the multivariate Cox regression analysis revealed that patients that received LCT, younger age (< 65 years), smaller tumor size (< 50 mm), and lung metastasis (reference: liver) were favorable prognostic factors for patients with single-organ metastatic PDAC.ConclusionThe OS of patients with single-organ metastatic pancreatic cancer who received LCT may be prolonged compared to those who received only chemotherapy. Nevertheless, additional prospective randomized clinical trials are required to support these findings

MRI Lesion Load of Cerebral Small Vessel Disease and Cognitive Impairment in Patients With CADASIL

Background and objective: Cerebral autosomal-dominant arteriopathy with subcortical infarcts and leukoencephalopathy (CADASIL) is the best known and the most common monogenic small vessel disease (SVD). Cognitive impairment is an inevitable feature of CADASIL. Total SVD score and global cortical atrophy (GCA) scale were found to be good predictors of poor cognitive performance in community-dwelling adults. We aimed to estimate the association between the total SVD score, GCA scale and the cognitive performance in patients with CADASIL.Methods: We enrolled 20 genetically confirmed CADASIL patients and 20 controls matched by age, gender, and years of education. All participants underwent cognitive assessments to rate the global cognition and individual domain of executive function, information processing speed, memory, language, and visuospatial function. The total SVD score and GCA scale were rated.Results: The CADASIL group performed worse than the controls on all cognition measures. Neither global cognition nor any separate domain of cognition was significantly different among patients grouped by total SVD score. Negative correlations between the GCA score and cognitive performance were observed. Approximately 40% of the variance was explained by the total GCA score in the domains of executive function, information processing speed, and language. The superficial atrophy score was associated with poor performance in most of the domains of cognition. Adding the superficial atrophy score decreased the prediction power of the deep atrophy score on cognitive impairment alone.Conclusions: The GCA score, not the total SVD score, was significantly associated with poor cognitive performance in patients with CADASIL. Adding the superficial atrophy score attenuated the prediction power of the deep atrophy score on cognitive impairment alone