Pensioenbeleggingen te defensief in FTK-Keurslijf

Pensioenfondsen zouden de premie zo moeten beleggen dat de pensioenuitkering zo hoog mogelijk is tegen een aanvaardbaar ­risico. Het huidige Financieel Toetsingskader (FTK) introduceert een additioneel risico via de marktwaardering van de toegezegde uitkeringen. Hierdoor beleggen pensioenfondsen defensiever. Een meer economische benadering lost dit probleem o

Non-Standard Errors

In statistics, samples are drawn from a population in a data-generating process (DGP). Standard errors measure the uncertainty in estimates of population parameters. In science, evidence is generated to test hypotheses in an evidence-generating process (EGP). We claim that EGP variation across researchers adds uncertainty: Non-standard errors (NSEs). We study NSEs by letting 164 teams test the same hypotheses on the same data. NSEs turn out to be sizable, but smaller for better reproducible or higher rated research. Adding peer-review stages reduces NSEs. We further find that this type of uncertainty is underestimated by participants

Behavioural heterogeneity in wine investments

We introduce a heterogeneous agent model to explain the dynamics of fine wine investments. Our results show evidence of the existence of both fundamentalists – those who trade on mean-reversion towards a fair value – and chartists – those who extrapolate recently observed price trends – in the wine market. Moreover, we document that market participants switch between the two trading strategies, allocating more weight to the strategy that has been the most accurate in forecasting wine index values in the recent past. This switching behaviour can explain the large variations in index values (bubbles and crashes) that are observed in the fine wine market

Pensioenbeleggingen te defensief in FIK-Keurslijf

Pensioenfondsen zouden de premie zo moeten beleggen dat de pensioenuitkering zo hoog mogelijk is tegen een aanvaardbaar ­risico. Het huidige Financieel Toetsingskader (FTK) introduceert een additioneel risico via de marktwaardering van de toegezegde uitkeringen. Hierdoor beleggen pensioenfondsen defensiever. Een meer economische benadering lost dit probleem o

The East Flanders Prospective Twin Survey (EFPTS): an actual perception

The East Flanders Prospective Twin Survey (EFPTS) is a prospective, population-based registry of multiple births in the province of East-Flanders, Belgium. EFPTS has several unique features: it is population-based and prospective, with the possibility of long-term follow-up; the twins (and higher order multiple births) are recruited at birth; basic perinatal data recorded; chorion type and zygosity established; and since 1969 placental biopsies have been taken and frozen at -20 degrees C for later determination of genetic markers. The EFPTS is the only large register that includes placental data and allows differentiation of three subtypes of monozygotic (MZ) twins based on the time of the initial zygotic division: the dichorionic-diamnionic pairs (early, with splitting before the fourth day after fertilization), the monochorionic-diamnionic pairs (intermediate, splitting between the fourth and the seventh day post-fertilization), and the monochorionic-monoamnionic pairs (late, splitting after the eighth day post-fertilization). Studies can be initiated taking into account primary biases, those originating 'in utero'. Such studies could throw new light on the controversy over the validity of the classic twin method, the consequences of early embryological events, and the gene-environment interactions as far as periconceptional and intrauterine environment are concerned