Combatting Skepticism Towards HR

[Excerpt] When assessing the essentiality of HR within a firm, one must first ask what is meant by the word “essential” within a business context. The trickiness here, however, is that such a definition is highly contingent on the type and size of a particular firm. If one defines “essential” as “indispensable,” then HR is almost certainly not essential in very small firms. In such instances, the work of HR can be done by other managers and the owners themselves. On the other hand, if one defines “essential” as “adding considerable value,” then innovative human resource policies can create a competitive advantage even in the smallest of firms. Instead of relying on a single definition of essentiality, this essay will focus on the reasons why human resources practices are often called into question in the first place. Furthermore, I will propose recommendations on how to combat skepticism toward HR

Hedging Options in a GARCH Environment: Testing the Term Structure of Stochastic Volatility Models

This paper develops a methodology for testing the term structure of volatility forecasts derived from stochastic volatility models, and implements it to analyze models of S&P 500 index volatility. Volatility models are compared by their ability to hedge options positions sensitive to the term structure of volatility. Overall, the most effective hedge is a Black-Scholes (BS) delta-gamma hedge, while the BS delta-vega hedge is the least effective. The most successful volatility hedge is GARCH components delta-gamma, suggesting that the GARCH components estimate of the term structure of volatility is most accurate. The success of the BS delta-gamma hedge may be due to mispricing in the options market over the sample period.

Kū Kia‘I Mauna: Protecting Indigenous Religious Rights

Courts historically side with private interests at the expense of Indigenous religious rights. Continuing this trend, the Hawai‘i State Supreme Court allowed the Thirty- Meter-Telescope to be built atop Maunakea, a mountain sacred to Native Hawaiians. This decision led to a mass protest that was organized by Native Hawaiian rights advocates and community members. However, notwithstanding the mountain’s religious and cultural significance, Indigenous plaintiffs could not prevent construction of the telescope on Maunakea. Unlike most First Amendment rights, religious Free Exercise Clause claims are not generally subject to strict constitutional scrutiny. Congress has mandated the application of strict scrutiny to federal government action that imposes a substantial burden on religious activity through the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA). However, because most courts narrowly interpret “substantial burden,” it has become nearly impossible for Indigenous plaintiffs to succeed on claims involving violations of religious freedom. Moreover, RFRA does not apply to state governments, and most states—including Hawai‘i—have not enacted similar protections for religious rights. This Comment suggests that the Hawai‘i State Legislature should enact a state version of RFRA that would apply strict scrutiny to government actions that impose a substantial burden on religious rights. Further, this Comment urges Congress and state legislatures to enact a more expansive definition of “substantial burden” that respects the First Amendment rights of Indigenous people to practice their beliefs

Sharp Thresholds For The Frog Model And Related Systems

The frog model refers to a system of interacting random walks on a rooted graph. It begins with a single active particle (i.e. frog) at the root, and some distribution of inactive particles among the non-root vertices. Active particles perform discrete-time-nearest neighbor random walks on the graph and activate passive particles upon landing on them. Once activated, the trajectories of distinct particles are independent. In this thesis, we examine the frog model in several different environments, and in each case, work towards identifying conditions under which the model is recurrent, transient, or neither, in terms of the number of distinct frogs that return to the root. We begin by looking at a continuous analog of the model on $\R$ in chapter 2, following which I analyze several different models on $\Z$ in chapters 2 and 3. I then conclude by examining the frog model on trees in chapter 4. The strategy used for analyzing the model on $\R$ primarily revolves around looking at a closely related birth-death process. Somewhat similar techniques are then used for the model on $\Z$. For the frog model on trees I exploit some of the self-similarity properties of the model in order to construct an operator which is used to analyze its long term behaviour, as it relates to questions of recurrence vs. transience

Implied volatility functions: a reprise

Dumas, Fleming, Whaley (DFW, 1998) find that option models based on deterministic volatility functions (DVF) perform poorly because the estimated volatility function is unstable over time. DFW provide evidence that the DVF changes significantly on a weekly basis. This paper proposes a new class of dynamic implied volatility function models (DIVF). This class of models separates a time-invariant implied volatility function from the stochastic state variables that drive changes in the individual implied volatilities. The dynamics of the state variables are modeled explicitly. This framework facilitates consistent pricing and hedging with time-variation in the implied volatility function (IVF). In tests conducted using the full history of S&P500 futures option prices, the DIVF model is found to substantially improve pricing performance compared to static implied volatility function models and benchmark pricing models such as Black and Scholes (1973)

School posts on Facebook could threaten student privacy

Like many of us, schools are active on social media. They use their accounts to share timely information, build community and highlight staff and students. In this blog, Joshua Rosenberg discusses his US-based research showing that schools’ social media activity may harm students’ privacy. See here for similar findings on UK children’s privacy

Master of Science

thesisLacustrine basin systems have historically been valued for their abundant conventional oil and gas reserves, but they also contain a vast potential for unconventional petroleum development. To better understand the evolution of Utah's Eocene Lake Uinta and to help facilitate prudent and economic development of its oil shale resource, a predictive genetic model of the basin's lacustrine strata has been refined here. This model provides a better understanding of facies distribution, stratigraphic architecture, and a precise history of depositional evolution of Lake Uinta in eastern Utah. This study evaluates the upper Douglas Creek and Parachute Creek Members of the Green River Formation, exposed along the Evacuation Creek outcrop on the eastern flank of the Uinta Basin. In addition to the outcrop, the Asphalt Wash-1 core, located about 13.7 km (8.5 mi) to the northwest of Evacuation Creek, was described. Ten different facies are defined and grouped into four facies associations: siliciclastics, carbonates, saline deposits, and volcanic-derived deposits. These datasets provide an exceptional opportunity to highlight lateral changes in facies architecture on the east side of the basin. The sections record meter-scale shallowing upward successions, with an overall shallow to deep to shallower transformation of the lake system. Periods of high sediment supply are recorded by laterally extensive sandstone associations, whereas low siliciclastic sediment supply conditions are recorded by carbonate-dominated organic-rich zones and organic-poor microbialite intervals. This research further defines a genetic framework that recognizes small-scale phases in lake evolution which are defined by the relationship between absolute lake level, accommodation, siliciclastic input, and salinity. The combination of short-term climatic changes and longer-term tectonics shaped the evolution of Lake Uinta from an overfilled basin with fluctuations in sediment supply and accommodation that vary in both frequency and length (lake phases 1a and 1b), to a balance-filled basin with little to no sediment input with a high lake level (lake phases 2a, 2b, and 3 a), to an underfilled basin with abundant saline minerals (lake phase 3b). This research provides a key dataset towards developing a regional genetic framework for lake evolution in the eastern Uinta Basin