Government Oil Policy and Its Effect on Domestic & Offshore Oil Production

To date the petroleum industry is second only to the Department of Defense in its stimulation of ocean technology. By the end of 1968, American petroleum companies had invested over 13 billion dollars on the continental shelves of the United States. The development of submersibles, man in the sea, instruments, seismic surveys, mapping and charting, and development of ocean structures and engineering have all been profoundly effected by this massive injection of capital. It is obviously of interest, therefore, to consider policies which affect offshore oil exploration and development. This paper is confined to analyzing three such economic policies in terms of their effects on the industry, their costs, and alternatives

Submission to Vera Commission

This Essay describes the function and methodology of the Inspectorate of Prisons in England and Wales, and the importance of its role in the independent scrutiny of conditions and treatment in prisons and other places of detention

The Implications Of Granting Backdated Options

Option backdating has recently been receiving extensive attention.  The remarkable pattern of stock prices systematically declining before and increasing after the granting of options has been documented in research papers for approximately a decade but only recently have firms been facing charges of improper procedures associated with this pattern.  One associated issue remaining to be investigated is what the implications are for shareholders of affected firms.  This paper addresses that issue.  It finds that there are marked negative implications for stockholders.  On average, when investigations into backdating are announced firms lose approximately 11% of their market value.  This translates into an average decline of more than half a billion dollars in market capitalization in the month leading up to the formal announcement of an investigation

Star formation in shocked cluster spirals and their tails

Recent observations of ram pressure stripped spiral galaxies in clusters revealed details of the stripping process, i.e., the truncation of all interstellar medium (ISM) phases and of star formation (SF) in the disk, and multiphase star-forming tails. Some stripped galaxies, in particular in merging clusters, develop spectacular star-forming tails, giving them a jellyfish-like appearance. In merging clusters, merger shocks in the intra-cluster medium (ICM) are thought to have overrun these galaxies, enhancing the ambient ICM pressure and thus triggering SF, gas stripping and tail formation. We present idealised hydrodynamical simulations of this scenario, including standard descriptions for SF and stellar feedback. To aid the interpretation of recent and upcoming observations, we focus on particular structures and dynamics in SF patterns in the remaining gas disk and in the near tails, which are easiest to observe. The observed jellyfish morphology is qualitatively reproduced for, both, face-on and edge-on stripping. In edge-on stripping, the interplay between the ICM wind and the disk rotation leads to asymmetries along the ICM wind direction and perpendicular to it. The apparent tail is still part of a highly deformed gaseous and young stellar disk. In both geometries, SF takes place in knots throughout the tail, such that the stars in the tails show no ordered age gradients. Significant SF enhancement in the disk occurs only at radii where the gas will be stripped in due course.Comment: 6 pages, submitted to MNRAS Letter

Integral Field spectroscopy of two HI rich E+A galaxies

Approximately half of the nearby E+A galaxies followed up with 21-cm observations have detectable HI emission. The optical spectra of these galaxies show strong post-starburst stellar populations but no optical emission lines implying star-formation is not ongoing despite the presence of significant gas reservoirs. We have obtained integral field spectroscopic follow up observations of the two brightest, and nearest, of the six E+A galaxies with HI 21-cm emission in the recent sample of Zwaan et al. (2013). In the central regions of both galaxies the observations are consistent with a post-starburst population with little emission. However, outside the central regions both galaxies have strong optical emission lines, with a clumpy or knot-like distribution, indicating ongoing star-formation. We conclude that in these two cases the presence of optical spectra lacking evidence for star-formation while a large gas mass is present can be explained by an aperture effect in selecting the nearby E+A galaxies using single-fibre spectroscopy that probes only the galaxy core.Comment: Accepted to MNRAS, 7 pages, 2 figure

The ongoing contributions of spin-off research and practice to understanding corporate restructuring and wealth creation: $100 billion in 1 decade

AbstractSince the 1980s, analysis of spin-offs has become a key line of inquiry in corporate finance. This paper reviews the theory and empirical research papers about spin-off restructuring and measures the monetary value created by spin-offs. First, we document the valuation impact of spin-offs for the divesting firms and then examine such subtleties as the interesting (positive) ex-dividend day price impact and the myriad other details associated with these transactions. This study provides a review of the now extensive research into spin-off divestitures. It looks into equity price reactions around the announcements of 249 voluntary spin-offs undertaken by US public companies over the interval 2007–2017. The abnormal returns associated with recent spin-off divestitures are of the same order of magnitude as those from the earlier papers, showing the sustained statistical significance and new economic materiality measures. With more firms undertaking spin-offs and the positive abnormal returns continuing to be substantial, the clear implication is that the overall monetary value creation resulting from spin-offs has increased markedly. Finally, and in a first for spin-off research, this paper calibrates the monetary value created by spin-offs despite the voluminous research of the topic. It establishes that spin-offs create large monetary value increments for divesting a firm's stockholders—almost $100 billion in the interval 2007–2017