The Effects of Environmental Regulation on the Singapore Stock Market

This study examines the impact of environmental regulation on the Singapore stock market using the event study methodology. Several asset pricing models are used to estimate sectoral abnormal returns. Additionally, we estimate the change in systematic risk after the introduction of the carbon tax and related regulation. We conduct various robustness tests, including the Corrado non-parametric ranking test, the Chesney non-parametric conditional distribution approach, a representation of market integration, and Fama–French five-factor model. We find evidence showing that the environmental regulations tend to achieve their desired effects in Singapore in which several big polluters (including industrial metals and mining, forestry and papers, and electrical equipment and services) were negatively affected by the announcements of environmental regulations and carbon tax. In addition, our results indicate that the electricity sector, one of the biggest polluters, was negatively affected by the announcement of environmental regulations and carbon tax. We also find that environmental regulations seem to boost the performance of environmentally-friendly sectors whereby we find the alternative energy industry (focusing on new renewable energy technologies) experienced a sizeable positive reaction following the announcements of these regulations

The effects of free trade agreements on the stock market: Evidence from Vietnam.

This study examines the effects of news events related to the European Union-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA) on the Vietnam stock market from 2010 to 2020. We calculate sectoral abnormal returns prior to, during, and after announcements and find that the Vietnamese stock market is susceptible to these events. We discovered that the announcement had a negative impact on the market, which might diminish the effectiveness of the Agreement. The findings show that more than half of Vietnam's sectors had an immediate reaction to EVFTA announcements, with fourteen reacting negatively and six responding positively. Two of the ten events did not have any immediate impact on these industries but all events resulted in either early or delayed reactions. We also find market scepticism and major changes in the deal led to the emergence of a diamond risk structure. We run multiple robustness tests to account for market integration and other factors that may affect stock returns. In addition, we explore potential sectoral systematic risk changes following these occurrences using different ARCH-type models. These additional tests confirm the robustness of our findings

Peopling Global Health

The field of Global Health brings together a vastly diverse array of actors working to address pressing health issues worldwide with unprecedented financial and technological resources and informed by various agendas. While Global Health initiatives are booming and displacing earlier framings of the field (such as tropical medicine or international health), critical analyses of the social, political, and economic processes associated with this expanding field — an “open source anarchy” on the ground — are still few and far between. In this essay, we contend that, among the powerful players of Global Health, the supposed beneficiaries of interventions are generally lost from view and appear as having little to say or nothing to contribute. We make the case for a more comprehensive and people-centered approach and demonstrate the crucial role of ethnography as an empirical lantern in Global Health. By shifting the emphasis from diseases to people and environments, and from trickle-down access to equality, we have the opportunity to set a humane agenda that both realistically confronts challenges and expands our vision of the future of global communities

Lactobacillaceae and Cell Adhesion: Genomic and Functional Screening

The analysis of collections of lactic acid bacteria (LAB) from traditional fermented plant foods in tropical countries may enable the detection of LAB with interesting properties. Binding capacity is often the main criterion used to investigate the probiotic characteristics of bacteria. In this study, we focused on a collection of 163 Lactobacillaceace comprising 156 bacteria isolated from traditional amylaceous fermented foods and seven strains taken from a collection and used as controls. The collection had a series of analyses to assess binding potential for the selection of new probiotic candidates. The presence/absence of 14 genes involved in binding to the gastrointestinal tract was assessed. This enabled the detection of all the housekeeping genes (ef-Tu, eno, gap, groEl and srtA) in the entire collection, of some of the other genes (apf, cnb, fpbA, mapA, mub) in 86% to 100% of LAB, and of the other genes (cbsA, gtf, msa, slpA) in 0% to 8% of LAB. Most of the bacteria isolated from traditional fermented foods exhibited a genetic profile favorable for their binding to the gastrointestinal tract. We selected 30 strains with different genetic profiles to test their binding ability to non-mucus (HT29) and mucus secreting (HT29-MTX) cell lines as well as their ability to degrade mucus. Assays on both lines revealed high variability in binding properties among the LAB, depending on the cell model used. Finally, we investigated if their binding ability was linked to tighter cross-talk between bacteria and eukaryotic cells by measuring the expression of bacterial genes and of the eukaryotic MUC2 gene. Results showed that wild LAB from tropical amylaceous fermented food had a much higher binding capacity than the two LAB currently known to be probiotics. However their adhesion was not linked to any particular genetic equipment

Prevalence of Frailty in European Emergency Departments (FEED): an international flash mob study

Introduction Current emergency care systems are not optimized to respond to multiple and complex problems associated with frailty. Services may require reconfiguration to effectively deliver comprehensive frailty care, yet its prevalence and variation are poorly understood. This study primarily determined the prevalence of frailty among older people attending emergency care. Methods This cross-sectional study used a flash mob approach to collect observational European emergency care data over a 24-h period (04 July 2023). Sites were identified through the European Task Force for Geriatric Emergency Medicine collaboration and social media. Data were collected for all individuals aged 65 + who attended emergency care, and for all adults aged 18 + at a subset of sites. Variables included demographics, Clinical Frailty Scale (CFS), vital signs, and disposition. European and national frailty prevalence was determined with proportions with each CFS level and with dichotomized CFS 5 + (mild or more severe frailty). Results Sixty-two sites in fourteen European countries recruited five thousand seven hundred eighty-five individuals. 40% of 3479 older people had at least mild frailty, with countries ranging from 26 to 51%. They had median age 77 (IQR, 13) years and 53% were female. Across 22 sites observing all adult attenders, older people living with frailty comprised 14%. Conclusion 40% of older people using European emergency care had CFS 5 + . Frailty prevalence varied widely among European care systems. These differences likely reflected entrance selection and provide windows of opportunity for system configuration and workforce planning

Effects of the Boxing Day tsunami on the world capital markets

The effects of the Boxing Day tsunami on the world equity markets are investigated in this paper. In particular, this paper examines how the risks and returns of industry and market portfolios are altered as a result of the tsunami. The analysis includes countries that were directly or indirectly exposed to this catastrophe. Both parametric and non-parametric tests are employed to explore the relationship between equity stock returns and the tsunami, and the CAPM is utilised to assess the variation in systematic risks. Given that the literature in this area is at its earliest stage, we draw on economic theories of flooding. In this way, our results are consistent with that of the flooding literature, which would predict that the Boxing Day tsunami would have minimal effects on the risks and returns of equity markets. This paper documents that the tsunami was associated with few abnormal return changes and a general increase in the long-term systematic risk of the equity portfolios in the study

The impact of international terrorist attacks on the risk and return of Malaysian equity portfolios

How are the risks and returns of industrial and market portfolios altered as a result of terrorist events? This paper investigates the effects of five international terrorist attacks on equities listed on the Malaysian Stock Exchange. It uses an event study methodology to explore the relationship between equity stock returns, terrorist attacks and asset pricing models to assess whether systematic risks change after these events. The evidence demonstrates that strategies such as closing down an exchange during a crisis are ineffective. Furthermore, after the September 11, 2001 attacks, Malaysian equity markets were insensitive to subsequent terrorist attacks in other countries

Global terrorism and adaptive expectations in financial markets: Evidence from Japanese equity market

The adaptive expectations model posits that economic agents' expectations adjust by constant proportion of previous discrepancy and the forecast for the following period is the same for all the subsequent future periods, if the expectation is a permanent. We apply this hypothesis and event study methodology to examine the impact of five terrorist attacks (New York World Trade Centre, Bali, Madrid, London, and Mumbai) on Japanese industries. Being a watershed event, the negative impact of the attacks in the U.S. was apparent. Our evidence suggests an initial step-change in risk incorporated into expectations after the U.S., Bali and Madrid bombings. The two subsequent attacks had no effect on the market implying no the forecast error in risk expectation in Japan after the initial terrorist attacks