Principle Guided Investing: The Use of Negative Screens and its Implications for Green Investors

In recent years Socially Responsible Investment (SRI) has received considerable attention from both private investors as well as pension funds. Despite this proliferation in interest, several topics are still unresolved, namely selection methods, performance and effects regarding sustainability. This paper examines how green investors can induce firms to invest in cleaner production technology by using exclusionary investment screens. SRI is more likely to be successful when abatement costs are low and if principle guided investors are numerous and have homogenous investment principles. The transformation process becomes more probable when shares of clean firms are viewed as a separate asset class by all investors. Green investors have to accept lower returns from shares of clean firms, even in the case of positive externalities

Liver-Specific Deletion of Protein-Tyrosine Phosphatase 1B (PTP1B) Improves Metabolic Syndrome and Attenuates Diet-Induced Endoplasmic Reticulum Stress

OBJECTIVE—The protein tyrosine phosphatase PTP1B is a negative regulator of insulin signaling; consequently, mice deficient in PTP1B are hypersensitive to insulin. Because PTP1B−/− mice have diminished fat stores, the extent to which PTP1B directly regulates glucose homeostasis is unclear. Previously, we showed that brain-specific PTP1B−/− mice are protected against high-fat diet–induced obesity and glucose intolerance, whereas muscle-specific PTP1B−/− mice have increased insulin sensitivity independent of changes in adiposity. Here we studied the role of liver PTP1B in glucose homeostasis and lipid metabolism

Regional Power Shifts and Climate Knowledge Systems: South Africa as a Climate Power?

In the international system, there has been a power shift towards regional powers, which can be illustrated by recent developments in climate governance. I argue that some of these regional powers are also climate powers, which benefit from an issue-specific power shift. The behavior and strategies of those climate powers are central for global climate governance. To analyze their strategies, a multi-level approach is required that captures the link between domestic climate governance and climate foreign policy. I develop such a concept of climate knowledge systems. It is based on Emanuel Adler's theory of cognitive evolution and communities of practice. A pragmatist philosophy such as this that allows for mixed methods research is most suitable for analyzing the proposed connection between knowledge, practices and change. It also presents the key to an extended regional powers framework, leaving the somewhat artificial boundaries of international relations in climate governance behind. The concept of climate knowledge systems is empirically applied to South Africa with some early tentative results of an online expert survey, as well as the analysis of data of the Carbon Disclosure Project.Im Internationalen System findet eine Machtverschiebung zugunsten der regionalen Führungsmächte statt, die in den jüngeren Entwicklungen im Klima-Governance-Feld deutlich wird. Einige der regionalen Führungsmächte sind auch Klimamächte, die von einer policy-spezifischen Machtverschiebung profitieren. Das Verhalten und die Strategien regionaler Führungsmächte in Bezug auf den Klimawandel sind zentral für die globale Klima-Governance. Für die Analyse der Strategien ist ein Multi-Level-Ansatz notwendig, der die Verbindung zwischen nationaler Klima-Governance und Klima-Außenpolitik erfasst. Ich entwickle ein solches Konzept der Klima-Wissenssysteme. Es basiert auf Emanuel Adlers Theorie der kognitiven Evolution und Communities of Practice. Ein philosophischer Ansatz im Sinne des Pragmatismus, der den Einsatz von qualitativen und quantitativen Methoden ermöglicht, ist am besten für die Analyse der Verbindung von Wissen, Praktiken und Wandel geeignet. Er bildet ferner den Schlüssel zu einem erweiterten Analyserahmen für regionale Führungsmächte, in dem die teils künstlichen Grenzen der Internationalen Beziehungen im Klima-Governance-Feld hinter sich gelassen werden. Das Konzept der Klima-Wissenssysteme wird ferner empirisch auf Südafrika angewandt. Ich lege erste vorläufige Ergebnisse aus einer Online-Experten-Umfrage und den Daten des Carbon Disclosure Project vor

The Family Working Time Model: Toward More Gender Equality in Work and Care

Since the millennium, the labor market participation of women and mothers is increasing across European countries. Several work/care policy measures underlie this evolution. At the same time, the labor market behavior of men and fathers, as well as their involvement in care work, is relatively unchanging, meaning that employed mothers are facing an increased burden with respect to gainful employment and providing care. We propose a family working time model that incentivizes fathers and mothers to both work in extended part-time employment. It provides a benefit in form of a lumpsum transfer or income replacement for each parent if, and only if, both parents work 30 hours per week. Thus, it explicitly addresses fathers and - contrary to most conventional family policies - actively promotes the dual earner/dual carer paradigm. Combining microsimulation and labor supply estimation, we empirically analyze the potential of the family working time model in the German context. The relatively small share of families already choosing the symmetric distribution of about 30 working hours would increase by 60 per cent. By showing that a lump-sum transfer especially benefits low-income families, we contribute to the debate about redistributive implications of family policies. The basic principles of the model generalize to other European countries where families increasingly desire an equal distribution of employment and care. In order to enhance the impact of such a policy, employers' norms and workplace culture as well as the supply of high-quality childcare must catch-up with changing workforce preferences

Women’s Fertility and Employment Decisions Under Two Political Systems – Comparing East and West Germany Before Reunification

Over the last decades fertility rates have decreased in most developed countries, while female labour force participation has increased strongly over the same time period. To shed light on the relationship between women's fertility and employment decisions, we analyse their transitions to the first, second, and third child as well as their employment discontinuities following childbirth. Using new longitudinal datasets that cover the work and family life of women in the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) and the German Democratic Republic (GDR) allows for taking into account two political regimes and drawing conclusions about the relevance of institutional factors for fertility and employment decisions. Our results suggest that in both parts of Germany women's probability of having a first child is negatively correlated with both employment and educational achievement. Regarding second and third birth risks, this negative correlation weakens. Analysing women's time spent out of the labour market following childbirth we find that in the East almost all mothers return to work within 18 months after birth. In the West, however, this proportion is much smaller and at the age when the child starts nursery school or school, women re-enter the labour market at higher rates. These results point to a strong influence of institutional circumstances, specifically the extent of public daycare provision. A multivariate analysis reveals a strong correlation between a woman's employment status prior to birth and her probability of re-entering the labour market afterwards

Design and baseline characteristics of the finerenone in reducing cardiovascular mortality and morbidity in diabetic kidney disease trial

Background: Among people with diabetes, those with kidney disease have exceptionally high rates of cardiovascular (CV) morbidity and mortality and progression of their underlying kidney disease. Finerenone is a novel, nonsteroidal, selective mineralocorticoid receptor antagonist that has shown to reduce albuminuria in type 2 diabetes (T2D) patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) while revealing only a low risk of hyperkalemia. However, the effect of finerenone on CV and renal outcomes has not yet been investigated in long-term trials. Patients and Methods: The Finerenone in Reducing CV Mortality and Morbidity in Diabetic Kidney Disease (FIGARO-DKD) trial aims to assess the efficacy and safety of finerenone compared to placebo at reducing clinically important CV and renal outcomes in T2D patients with CKD. FIGARO-DKD is a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, parallel-group, event-driven trial running in 47 countries with an expected duration of approximately 6 years. FIGARO-DKD randomized 7,437 patients with an estimated glomerular filtration rate >= 25 mL/min/1.73 m(2) and albuminuria (urinary albumin-to-creatinine ratio >= 30 to <= 5,000 mg/g). The study has at least 90% power to detect a 20% reduction in the risk of the primary outcome (overall two-sided significance level alpha = 0.05), the composite of time to first occurrence of CV death, nonfatal myocardial infarction, nonfatal stroke, or hospitalization for heart failure. Conclusions: FIGARO-DKD will determine whether an optimally treated cohort of T2D patients with CKD at high risk of CV and renal events will experience cardiorenal benefits with the addition of finerenone to their treatment regimen. Trial Registration: EudraCT number: 2015-000950-39; ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT02545049

On the valuation of arithmetic-average Asian options: Laguerre series and Theta integrals

In a recent significant advance, using Laguerre series, the valuation of Asian options has been reduced by Dufresne to computing the negative moments of Yor's accumulation processes. For these he has given functional recursion rules whose probabilistic structure has been the object of intensive recent studies of Yor and co-workers. Stressing the role of Theta functions, this paper now solves these recursion rules and expresses these negative moments as linear combinations of certain Theta integrals. Using the Jacobi transformation formula, very rapidly and very stably convergent series for them are derived. In this way computable series for Black--Scholes price of the Asian option result which are numerically illustrated. Moreover, the Laguerre series approach of Dufresne is made rigorous, and extensions and modifications are discussed. The key for this is the analysis of the integrability and growth properties of Yor's 1992 Asia density, basic problems which seem to be addressed here for the first time.

Analytical ramifications of derivatives valuation: Asian options and special functions

Averaging problems are ubiquitous in Finance with the valuation of the so-called Asian options on arithmetic averages as their most conspicuous form. There is an abundance of numerical work on them, and their stochastic structure has been extensively studied by Yor and his school. However, the analytical structure of these problems is largely unstudied. Our philosophy now is that such valuation problems should be considered as an extension of the theory of special functions: they lead to new problems about new classes of special functions which should be studied in terms of and using of the methods of special functions and their theory. This is exemplified by deriving integral representations for the Black-Scholes prices based on Yor's Laplace transform ansatz to their valuation. They are obtained by analytic Laplace inversion using complex analytic methods. The analysis ultimately rests on the gamma function which in this sense is found to be at the base of Asian options. The results improve on those of Yor and have served us a as starting point for deriving first time benchmark prices for these options.

On the valuation of Paris options: foundational results

This paper adresses the valuation of the Paris barrier options proposed by Yor, Jeanblanc-Picque, and Chesnay (Advances in Applied Probability, 29(1997), 165-184) using the Laplace transform approach. Based on suggestions by Pliska the notion of Paris options is extended such that their valuation is possible at any point during their lifespan. The Laplace transforms derived by Yor et al. are modified when necessary, and their basic analytic properties are discussed.