979 research outputs found
Behind the price: on the role of agent's reflexivity in financial market microstructure
In this chapter we review some recent results on the dynamics of price
formation in financial markets and its relations with the efficient market
hypothesis. Specifically, we present the limit order book mechanism for markets
and we introduce the concepts of market impact and order flow, presenting their
recently discovered empirical properties and discussing some possible
interpretation in terms of agent's strategies. Our analysis confirms that
quantitative analysis of data is crucial to validate qualitative hypothesis on
investors' behavior in the regulated environment of order placement and to
connect these micro-structural behaviors to the properties of the collective
dynamics of the system as a whole, such for instance market efficiency. Finally
we discuss the relation between some of the described properties and the theory
of reflexivity proposing that in the process of price formation positive and
negative feedback loops between the cognitive and manipulative function of
agents are present.Comment: 12 pages, 1 figur
Governing Global Supply Chain Sustainability Through the Ethical Audit Regime
Over the past two decades multinational corporations have been expanding ‘ethical’ audit programs with the stated aim of reducing the risk of sourcing from suppliers with poor practices. A wave of government regulation—such as the California Transparency in Supply Chains Act (2012) and the UK Modern Slavery Act (2015)—has enhanced the legitimacy of auditing as a tool to govern labor and environmental standards in global supply chains, backed by a broad range of civil society actors championing audits as a way of promoting corporate accountability. The growing adoption of auditing as a governance tool is a puzzling trend, given two decades of evidence that audit programs generally fail to detect or correct labor and environmental problems in global supply chains. Drawing on original field research, this article shows that in spite of its growing legitimacy and traction among government and civil society actors, the audit regime continues to respond to and protect industry commercial interests. Conceptually, the article challenges prevailing characterizations of the audit regime as a technical, neutral, and benign tool of supply chain governance, and highlights its embeddedness in struggles over the legitimacy and effectiveness of the industry-led privatization of global governance
Scaling Analysis on Indian Foreign Exchange Market
In this paper we investigate the scaling behavior of the average daily
exchange rate returns of the Indian Rupee against four foreign currencies
namely US Dollar, Euro, Great Britain Pound and Japanese Yen. Average daily
exchange rate return of the Indian Rupee against US Dollar is found to exhibit
a persistent scaling behavior and follow Levy stable distribution. On the
contrary the average daily exchange rate returns of the other three foreign
currencies do not show persistency or antipersistency and follow Gaussian
distribution.Comment: Revised Final Version. In Press Physica
Confronting root causes: forced labour in global supply chains
Excerpt
It is by now widely recognised that effectively tackling forced
labour in the global economy means addressing its ‘root causes’.
Policymakers, business leaders and civil society organisations all
routinely call for interventions that do so. Yet what exactly are these root causes?
And how do they operate?
The two most commonly given answers are ‘poverty’ and ‘globalisation’. Although
each may be foundational to forced labour, both terms are typically used in nebulous,
catch-all ways that serve more as excuses than explanations. Both encompass
and obscure a web of decisions and processes that maintain an unjust status quo,
while being used as euphemisms for deeper socio-economic structures that lie at
the core of the capitalist global economy.
The question thus becomes: exactly which aspects of poverty and globalisation
are responsible for the endemic labour exploitation frequently described with the
terms forced labour, human trafficking or modern slavery? Which global economic
processes ensure a constant and low-cost supply of highly exploitable and coerced
workers? And which dynamics trigger a demand among businesses for their exploitation,
making it possible for them to profit from it?
This 12-part report is an attempt to answer these questions in a rigorous yet accessible
way. With it, we hope to provide policymakers, journalists, scholars and activists
with a road map for understanding the political economy of forced labour in today’s
“global value chain world”
Proteome analysis of the UVB-resistant marine bacterium <i>Photobacterium angustum</i> S14
The proteome of the marine bacterium Photobacterium angustum S14 was exposed to UVB and analyzed by the implementation of both the post-digest ICPL labeling method and 2D-DIGE technique using exponentially growing cells. A total of 40 and 23 proteins were quantified in all replicates using either the ICPL or 2D-DIGE methods, respectively. By combining both datasets from 8 biological replicates (4 biological replicates for each proteomics technique), 55 proteins were found to respond significantly to UVB radiation in P. angustum. A total of 8 UVB biomarkers of P. angustum were quantified in all replicates using both methods. Among them, the protein found to present the highest increase in abundance (almost a 3-fold change) was RecA, which is known to play a crucial role in the so-called recombinational repair process. We also observed a high number of antioxidants, transport proteins, metabolism-related proteins, transcription/translation regulators, chaperonins and proteases. We also discuss and compare the UVB response and global protein expression profiles obtained for two different marine bacteria with trophic lifestyles: the copiotroph P. angustum and oligotroph Sphingopyxis alaskensis
Biochemical characteristics and bacterial community structure of the sea surface microlayer in the South Pacific Ocean
The chemical and biological characteristics of the surface microlayer were determined during a transect across the South Pacific Ocean in October-December 2004. Concentrations of particulate organic carbon (1.3 to 7.6-fold) and nitrogen (1.4 to 7-fold), and POC:PON ratios were consistently higher in the surface microlayer as compared to surface waters (5 m). The large variability in particulate organic matter enrichment was negatively correlated to wind speed. No enhanced concentrations of dissolved organic carbon were detectable in the surface microlayer as compared to 5 m, but chromophoric dissolved organic matter was markedly enriched (by 2 to 4-fold) at all sites. Based on pigment analysis and cell counts, no consistent enrichment of any of the major components of the autotrophic and heterotrophic microbial community was detectable. CE-SSCP fingerprints and CARD FISH revealed that the bacterial communities present in the surface microlayer had close similarity (>76%) to those in surface waters. By contrast, bacterial heterotrophic production (<sup>3</sup>H-leucine incorporation) was consistently lower in the surface microlayer than in surface waters. By applying CARD-FISH and microautoradiography, we observed that <i>Bacteroidetes</i> and <i>Gammaproteobacteria</i> dominated leucine uptake in the surface microlayer, while in surface waters <i>Bacteroidetes</i> and <i>Alphaproteobacteria</i> were the major groups accounting for leucine incorporation. Our results demonstrate that the microbial community in the surface microlayer closely resembles that of the surface waters of the open ocean. Even a short residence in the surface microlayer influences leucine incorporation by different bacterial groups, probably as a response to the differences in the physical and chemical nature of the two layers
The Budget and the Bedroom: Associations between Financial Management Behaviors, Perceptions of Economic Pressure, and Sexual Satisfaction
Although money and sex are both salient to romantic relationships, previous literature has rarely examined the association between the two. In the current study, we evaluate associations between financial management behaviors, perceptions of economic pressure, and sexual satisfaction. We used nationally representative opposite-sex newlywed dyadic data (N = 1,447 couples) and an actor-partner interdependent structural equation model to test these associations. Results indicate that as financial therapists aid opposite-sex newlywed clients in their financial management, they may also be lessening perceptions of economic pressure. For wives, this lessening of perceptions of economic pressure may benefit husbands’ and wives’ sexual satisfaction. Financial therapists may consider using these findings to encourage opposite-sex newlywed clients to practice healthy financial management behaviors and communicate about finances and sex. In short, our findings suggest that for opposite-sex newlywed couples, the budget may have something to do with the bedroom
Impact of Investor's Varying Risk Aversion on the Dynamics of Asset Price Fluctuations
While the investors' responses to price changes and their price forecasts are
well accepted major factors contributing to large price fluctuations in
financial markets, our study shows that investors' heterogeneous and dynamic
risk aversion (DRA) preferences may play a more critical role in the dynamics
of asset price fluctuations. We propose and study a model of an artificial
stock market consisting of heterogeneous agents with DRA, and we find that DRA
is the main driving force for excess price fluctuations and the associated
volatility clustering. We employ a popular power utility function,
with agent specific and
time-dependent risk aversion index, , and we derive an approximate
formula for the demand function and aggregate price setting equation. The
dynamics of each agent's risk aversion index, (i=1,2,...,N), is
modeled by a bounded random walk with a constant variance . We show
numerically that our model reproduces most of the ``stylized'' facts observed
in the real data, suggesting that dynamic risk aversion is a key mechanism for
the emergence of these stylized facts.Comment: 17 pages, 7 figure
The ineffectiveness of CSR : understanding garment company commitments to living wages in global supply chains
In the face of pressure from civil society, unions and consumers to improve labour standards for the workers producing their goods, companies at the helm of global garment supply chains have made commitments to pay living wages within their supply chains. Harnessing insights from the critical political economy literature on corporate social responsibility (CSR), we investigate the actions of garment companies to meet these commitments. We do so through analysis of original data from a survey of 20 leading garment companies, which we co-developed in 2018-2019, as well as publicly available information for garment companies and relevant multi-stakeholder initiatives. Based on this data, we argue there is very little evidence to suggest companies have made meaningful progress towards achieving commitments to pay living wages in their supply chains, challenging widespread assumptions about CSR’s benefits to workers. We argue that in the face of mounting evidence of CSR ineffectiveness, including our own, there is a need for new political economy research into the benefits that companies derive from CSR commitments that deflect attention from their core business models and the uneven value distribution within global supply chains
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