The Patterns of cross-border portfolio investments in the GCC region: do institutional quality and the number of expatriates play a role?

In this paper, we document the determinants of portfolio investments to Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) economies by bringing up the role played by market forces, cultural anities, and institutional quality. We classify the GCC economies as host to 35 countries as per the Coordinated Portfolio Investment Surveys (CPIS) of the IMF for the period 2001- 2006. Using the CPIS data and data from various other reliable sources and appropriate panel data analysis techniques, we find a number of interesting results: 1) the relatively higher quality of institutional set up in GCC in comparison to other countries; 2) the relative volume of expatriates across source countries in GCC soil; and 3) bilateral factors such as trade linkages between GCC and source countries, all statistically and significantly explain portfolio investments to the GCC region. Additionally, we uncover the existence of a portfolio GCC bias". That is, GCC investors exhibit a strong preference towards their own markets when allocating their cross border nancial asset holdings.International Portfolio Allocation, GCC, Bilateral Linkage, Institutional Quality, Expatriates.

International Portfolio Allocation and Income Smoothing: Evidence from Recent Changes in Euro Region.

In this paper, we make two contributions to the literature. First, we construct a new measurement to capture income smoothing effectively. Second, we present new empirical evidence on the linkages between international asset trading and income smoothing. We use factor income inflows instead of the commonly used net factor income and arrive at results, among others, similar to previous studies in the literature: (a) risk sharing and equity portfolio home bias are strongly correlated for EU members; and (b) Specialization in output plays a significant role in income smoothing. Our findings also confirm that the increased level of economic integration witnessed in the Euro area as a result of the monetary union fosters output specialization across EU members and leads to asymmetric output fluctuations. Cross-border financial assets’ trading within the Euro Area, though smaller in comparison to the overall OECD block, serves as a shock absorber as factor income flows to smooth domestic consumption and income. However, although we have observed a decrease in home bias for OECD members, we could not find any evidence of higher income smoothing as a result.Capital Market Integration, Euro Portfolio Bias, Income Smoothing

Are Mortgage Rates Bubbling Up Trouble for Canadas Metropolitan Housing Sector?

This paper determines how mortgage rate and income shocks affect new and resale housing prices, housing starts, and housing sales in Canadas metropolitan areas. We assess the variance decompositions and impulse response results to mortgage rate and income shocks. An additional set of VARs is estimated to document whether the stock price, as an alternative source of investment, reduces the importance of the mortgage rate. Our results show that the importance of the mortgage rate and income varies significantly by metropolitan area and to a lesser degree, by the component of the housing market examined. More precisely, we find that: 1) two of BCs major metropolitan areas housing markets, Vancouver and Victoria, are vulnerable to interest rate bubble;. 2) Mortgage rates, and by extension the Bank of Canada monetary policy, seems to have little direct impact on Albertas major metropolitan housing markets, Calgary and Edmonton, while income can be expected to have a drastic effect; and 3) The housing markets of Ontarios major metropolitan area and Canadas Capital Region are prone to mortgage rate bubbles, but the impact is dampened due to their connectedness to national financial markets. What these results mean in terms of policy-making decision is that close attention needs to be paid to housing markets in Canada that are vulnerable to spikes in mortgage rates as we are coming out of the recession provoked by the housing market meltdown in the United States. Although it is true that Banking regulations in Canada have helped weather the storm, with the massive fiscal stimulus implemented in both Canada and the United States, eventually strong aggregate demand may build up pressure on prices to rise and interest rate will have to increase in order to maintain price stability, thereby causing troubles for mortgagees.Housing Markets, Metropolitan Areas in Canada, Monetary Policy, Stock Prices, Provincial Income, Variance Decomposition

International Portfolio Inflows to GCC Markets. Are There any General Patterns?

In this paper, we document the main factors underlying the foreign portfolio inflows to Gulf Corporation Council countries (hereafter GCC) by employing a recently published database of cross-country portfolio holdings by the International Monetary Fund. We find that bilateral factors such as trade volume and debt to GDP ratio between the source and GCC (host) countries play a truly significant role in determining the volume of cross border portfolio inflows to GCC markets. Particularly, there is a strong correlation between trade volume and the volume of portfolio inflows. This connection becomes even stronger over time. Moreover, GCC members’ stable fiscal position (lower debt to GDP ratio) is practically one of the important determinants of the volume of portfolio inflows to GCC markets. Specifically, for the international bond holders, the foremost motivation for investing cross borders is the absence of default risk and the higher return in comparison to other countries. We have also found that the extent of openness in capital account transactions and the income level of source country are additional factors that help to explain the volume of foreign portfolio inflows to GCC members. Last but not least, although there is a remarkable increase in the volume of the international portfolio inflows to GCC countries, there also exists a “GCC bias”, a huge share of the portfolio inflows to GCC markets is coming from the GCC countries. This bias is the notable consequence of the high level financial and economic integration that characterizes the GCC countries as they are heading towards a monetary union. A similar bias occurs in European Union markets as well.Capital Market Integration, GCC Portfolio Bias, Economic Integration, Bilateral Linkage

Proceedings of the Conference on Human and Economic Resources

Recent studies about estimating half-lives of purchasing power parity argues that heterogeneity bias resulting from aggregating the real exchange rate across sectors is important and should be taken into account. However, they do not use appropriate techniques to measure persistence. In this paper we use the extended median-unbiased estimation method in panel context for each sector separately and calculate both point estimates and confidence intervals. We conclude that controlling for sectoral heterogeneity bias and small sample bias will not solve the PPP puzzle.PPP persistence, real exchange rate, heterogeneity bias extended median-unbiased estimation, panel data

The Status Costs Of Subordinate Cultural Capital: At-Home Fathers\u27 Collective Pursuit Of Cultural Legitimacy Through Capitalizing Consumption Practices

Consumer researchers have primarily conceptualized cultural capital either as an endowed stock of resources that tend to reproduce socioeconomic hierarchies among consumer collectivities or as constellations of knowledge and skill that consumers acquire by making identity investments in a given consumption field. These studies, however, have given scant attention to the theoretical distinction between dominant and subordinate forms of cultural capital, with the latter affording comparatively lower conversion rates for economic, social, and symbolic capital. To redress this oversight, this article presents a multimethod investigation of middle-class men who are performing the emergent gender role of at-home fatherhood. Our analysis profiles and theoretically elaborates upon a set of capitalizing consumption practices through which at-home fathers seek to enhance the conversion rates of their acquisitions of domesticated (and subordinate) cultural capital and to build greater cultural legitimacy for their marginalized gender identity

A Hybrid Achromatic Metalens

Metalenses, ultra-thin optical elements that focus light using subwavelength structures, have been the subject of a number of recent investigations. Compared to their refractive counterparts, metalenses offer reduced size and weight, and new functionality such as polarization control. However, metalenses that correct chromatic aberration also suffer from markedly reduced focusing efficiency. Here we introduce a Hybrid Achromatic Metalens (HAML) that overcomes this trade-off and offers improved focusing efficiency over a broad wavelength range from 1000-1800 nm. HAMLs can be designed by combining recursive ray-tracing and simulated phase libraries rather than computationally intensive global search algorithms. Moreover, HAMLs can be fabricated in low-refractive index materials using multi-photon lithography for customization or using molding for mass production. HAMLs demonstrated diffraction limited performance for numerical apertures of 0.27, 0.11, and 0.06, with average focusing efficiencies greater than 60% and maximum efficiencies up to 80%. A more complex design, the air-spaced HAML, introduces a gap between elements to enable even larger diameters and numerical apertures

Compton-like scattering of a scalar particle with N photons and one graviton

Tree-level scattering amplitudes for a scalar particle coupled to an arbitrary number N of photons and a single graviton are computed. We employ the worldline formalism as the main tool to compute the irreducible part of the amplitude, where all the photons and the graviton are directly attached to the scalar line, then derive a \u201ctree replacement\u201d rule to construct the reducible parts of the amplitude which involve irreducible pure N-photon two-scalar amplitudes where one photon line emits the graviton. We test our construction by verifying the on-shell gauge and diffeomorphism Ward identities, at arbitrary N

Neutron diffraction and magnetocaloric effect studies of MnFe 1-x Co x P series of solid solutions

International audienceMnFe 1-x Co x P intermetallic series of solid solutions (0.4<x<0.6) have been studied by means of powder neutron diffraction in 10−320 K temperature range. Rietveld analysis pointed out that Co 2 P-type orthorhombic crystal structure (SG: Pnma) presents for all series. Helicoidal incommensurate antiferromagnetic structure with propagation vector q = [0, 0, q] were evidenced for all compounds at low temperature range. The q value decreases with cobalt content and the second order polynomial q(x) it was evidenced, that is found well correlated with this dependence. Magnetic moments values of µ Mn =3.34 µ B and µ (Fe,Co) =0.06 µ B were determined from neutron diffraction refinements for x=0.4 at 10 K. In addition, magnetic interactions in relations with electronic band structure calculations of MnFe 1-x Co x P were presented and discussed reference to previous published data. Finally, magnetocaloric properties for selected compounds of the MnFe 1-x Co x P and MnFe 0.45 Co 0.45 P 0.9 Ge 0.1 series of compounds are presented