Non-Perturbative Renormalization for Staggered Fermions (Self-energy Analysis)

We present preliminary results of data analysis for the non-perturbative renormalization (NPR) on the self-energy of the quark propagators calculated using HYP improved staggered fermions on the MILC asqtad lattices. We use the momentum source to generate the quark propagators. In principle, using the vector projection operator of $(\bar{\bar{\gamma_\mu \otimes 1}})$ and the scalar projection operator $(\bar{\bar{1 \otimes 1}})$, we should be able to obtain the wave function renormalization factor $Z_q'$ and the mass renormalization factor $Z_q \cdot Z_m$. Using the MILC coarse lattice, we obtain a preliminary but reasonable estimate of $Z_q'$ and $Z_q \cdot Z_m$ from the data analysis on the self-energy.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures, Contribution to proceedings of 30th International Symposium on Lattice Field Theory (Lattice 2012), June 24-29, 2012; Cairns, Australi

Conditional effects of the spotlight: electoral institutions and the enforcement of global corporate norms

Under what conditions do governments discipline powerful multinational companies for breaching global corporate norms? Existing international relations theories have shown that peer monitoring and transnational advocacy are crucial strategies that shine a spotlight on norm violations. Despite the importance of those strategies, governments in the Global North have not consistently condemned their home-grown multinational companies for breaking norms related to climate or human rights in the Global South. This paper argues that the effect of such spotlighting is crucially moderated by electoral institutions, and legislators in proportional representation systems are more likely than those in majoritarian systems to push multinational companies to comply with global norms when such issues are in the spotlight. I find supporting evidence from the OECD Guidelines’ Specific Instance process and case studies. This article shows that traditional strategies to promote norm compliance, such as transnational advocacy and peer pressure, work differently in different countries, and electoral systems in the Global North can have unintended distributional consequences for norm beneficiaries

Risk Perceptions and Financial Decisions of Individual Investors

Standard finance theory portrays investors as rational utility maximisers. Persisting market anomalies and observed investor practice, however, have led to widespread recognition that the fundamental axioms of rationality are often violated. In response to the limitations inherent in standard theory, the Behavioural Finance approach relaxes the rationality assumption and takes account of psychological influences on individuals’ decision-making processes. Adopting the behavioural approach, this thesis, which includes two empirical studies, examines why, and to what extent, investors depart from rational or optimal investment practices. The thesis examines the effect of Myopic Loss Aversion (MLA) suggested by Benartzi and Thaler (1995) as a response to the Equity Premium Puzzle highlighted by Mehra and Prescott (1985). While previous studies are almost exclusively based on experiments in a laboratory setting, this approach provides more compelling empirical evidence by investigating the effects of MLA on real individual investors’ portfolio allocations through the use of the Dutch National Bank Household Survey. For the first time, the concept of MLA is identified through the interaction of two separate effects, firstly, individuals’ myopia, reflected in portfolio evaluation and rebalancing frequencies, and secondly, loss aversion. The thesis finds that individuals who are less affected by MLA invest more in risky financial assets. Further, individuals who are less myopic increase their share of risky assets invested in their financial portfolios over time, although this is unrelated to their loss aversion. These findings support the prediction of MLA theory that short investment horizons and high loss aversion lead to a significantly lower share of risky investments. In summary, the high equity premium can be explained by the notion of MLA. If individuals evaluate their investment performance over the long-term, they perceive much smaller risks relative to stockholding returns; consequently, they will be prepared to accept smaller equity premiums. The findings suggest possible interventions by policy makers and investment advisors to encourage individuals to remain in the stock market, such as providing long-term investment instruments, or restricting evaluation frequency to the annual reporting of investment performance. In response to the stockholding puzzle (Haliassos and Bertaut, 1995), this thesis also investigates individuals’ stock market returns expectations and their varying levels of risk aversion. Previous studies find that individuals’ heterogeneous stock market expectations determine variations in their stockholdings. The thesis accounts for the effect of risk aversion on stock market expectations, as well as on stockholding decisions. Additionally, the causality issue as between individuals’ expectations and stockholding status is controlled. The thesis finds that more risk averse individuals hold lower stock market expectations, and that the stock market return expectations of more risk averse individuals affect their stock market participation decisions negatively. The portfolio allocation decisions of individuals who already hold stocks are only affected by their expectations, with risk aversion being no longer significant. The thesis argues that persistent risk aversion effects cause individuals to hold pessimistic views of stock market returns, thus contributing to the enduring stockholding puzzle. The thesis reinforces existing perceptions that individuals in the real world may not make fully rational decisions due to their judgments which are based on heuristics and affected by cognitive biases. Individual investors often fail to maximise their utility given their preferences and constraints. Consequently, this thesis draws attention to the possible role of institutions, policy makers, and financial advisory bodies in providing effective interventions and guidelines to improve individuals’ financial decisions

Ethical Conflicts and Cultural Differences among Employees in the Hospitality Industry

The purpose of this study is to identify the relationship between ethical conflicts and cultural differences among colleagues and apply the relationship in the hospitality industry. Exploratory sample data (N=100) were collected from MBA students at Johnson and Wales University. The instrument consisted of three parts: demographic features, work experience of business ethics, and perceptual experience of business ethics. Also, t-test is used to address the hypothesis. The results of the study indicated that there is a significant relationship between ethical conflicts and cultural differences between employees in the hospitality industry, therefore, it is important to fully understand the reasons why this result comes occurs. It also means that employees who work in the hospitality industry consider the role of cultural differences seriously. Current ethics training programs are not well-organized to train employees, so it is important to build the exemplary ethics training programs that include the cultural diversity. Results indicate that the hospitality business should put forth more effort to build an ethical code of conduct within the corporate culture

Non-perturbative Renormalization of Bilinear Operators with Improved Staggered Quarks

We present renormalization factors for the bilinear operators obtained using the non-perturbative renormalization method (NPR) in the RI-MOM scheme with improved staggered fermions on the MILC asqtad lattices ($N_f = 2+1$). We use the MILC coarse ensembles with $20^3 \times 64$ geometry and $am_{\ell}/am_s = 0.01/0.05$. We obtain the wave function renormalization factor $Z_q$ from the conserved vector current and the mass renormalization factor $Z_m$ from the scalar bilinear operator. We also present preliminary results of renormalization factors for other bilinear operators.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures, Lattice 2013 Proceedin

Introduction To A New Geo-Referenced Street Level Content: 3D GEOPANO

Geospatial mash-up is to produce a new worthy value by combining geo-referenced contents and different kinds of service. Despite of its high popularity in aerial view contents such as Google Earth, it is hardly achieved especially in street level due to the poor georeferencing quality of the underlining street level contents. In this study we propose a new street-level georeferenced panorama image content, ‘3D GeoPano’. While the most existing contents provide only the location and orientation for each entire image not for each pixel, this new content is accurately georeferenced pixel by pixel so that one can derive 3D absolute coordinates for every pixel. Based on the precisely determined 3D ground coordinates per every pixel, GIS database linkage can be more close, flexible and organic. This can improve the quality of geospatial mash-up service in street level. Such ‘3D GeoPano’ will be developed in open source community. By doing so, we expect to activate the geospatial mashup in street-level as well as to spread the geospatial technology

Fair, Balanced and Understandable: Enhancing corporate reporting and assurance?

First paragraph: The recent requirement by the UK Financial Reporting Council (FRC) for corporate boards to confirm that their annual reports are ‘fair, balanced and understandable’ (FBU), and for external auditors to report by exception on this confirmation, innovates in both corporate and audit reporting. FBU may be viewed as a regulatory response to widespread perceptions of a need to enhance corporate reporting, particularly as accounting and auditing continue to be subject to critical scrutiny in the aftermath of financial and economic crisis. FBU also specifically reflects the growing importance of narrative corporate reporting as, for example, in the issue of an International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) practice statement on management commentary and a trend of an increasing volume of narrative content in the annual reports of major companies. At the same time, academic research suggests that investors and other users are interested in assurance on the ‘front-half’1 of the annual report