Investigating value and growth : what labels hide ?

Value and growth investment styles are a concept which has gained extreme popularity over the past two decades, probably due to its practical efficiency and relative simplicity. We study the mechanics of different factors' impact on excess returns in a multivariate setting. We use a panel of stock returns and accounting data from 1979 to 2007 for the companies listed on NYSE without survivor bias for clustering, regression analysis and constructing style based portfolios. Our findings suggest that value and growth labels often hide important heterogeneity of the underlying sources of risks. Many variables, conventionally used for style definitions, cannot be used jointly, because they affect returns in opposite directions. A simple truth that more variables does not necessarily mean better model nicely summaries our results. We advocate a more flexible approach to analyzing accounting-based factors of outperformance treating them separately before or instead of aggregating.Style analysis, value puzzle, pricing anomalies, equity.

Predicting Stock Returns in a Cross-Section : Do Individual Firm chatacteristics Matter ?

It is a common wisdom that individual stocks' returns are difficult to predict, though in many situations it is important to have such estimates at our disposal. In particular, they are needed to determine the cost of capital. Market equilibrium models posit that expected returns are proportional to the sensitivities to systematic risk factors. Fama and French (1993) three-factor model explains the stock returns premium as a sum of three components due to different risk factors : the traditional CAPM market beta, and the betas to the returns on two portfolios, "Small Minus Big" (the differential in the stock returns for small and big companies) and "High Minus Low" (the differential in the stock returns for the companies with high and low book-to-price ratio). The authors argue that this model is sufficient to capture the impact on returns of companies' accounting fundamentals, such as earnings-to-price, cash flow-to-price, past sales growth, long term and short-term past earnings. Using a panel of stock returns and accounting data from 1979 to 2008 for the companies listed on NYSE, we show that this is not the case, at least at individual stocks' level. According to our findings, fundamental characteristics of companies' performance are of higher importance to predict future expected returns than sensitivities to the Fama and French risk factors. We explain this finding within the rational pricing paradigm : contemporaneous accounting fundamentals may be better proxies for the future sensitivity to risk factors, than the historical covariance estimates.Accounting fundamentals, equity performance, style analysis, value and growth, cost of capital.

Long term variability of the Broad Emission Line profiles in AGN

Results of a long-term monitoring ($\gtrsim 10$ years) of the broad line and continuum fluxes of three Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN), 3C 390.3, NGC 4151, and NGC 5548, are presented. We analyze the H$\alpha$ and H$\beta$ profile variations during the monitoring period and study different details (as bumps, absorption bands) which can indicate structural changes in the Broad Line Region (BLR). The BLR dimensions are estimated using the time lags between the continuum and the broad lines flux variations. We find that in the case of 3C 390.3 and NGC 5548 a disk geometry can explain both the broad line profiles and their flux variations, while the BLR of NGC 4151 seems more complex and is probably composed of two or three kinematically different regions.Comment: 10 pages, 9 figures, New Astronomy Reviews (Proceeding of 7th SCSLSA), in pres

Introduction to the special issue : civil society in Ukraine : building on Euromaidan legacy

The idea of this Special Issue appeared in early 2014, when the heat of the fire on Kyiv’s Independence Square had not fully cooled down and when many civic activists and newborn volunteers had turned their ceaseless energy to yet another fire first in Crimea and then in Eastern Ukraine. The events that seemingly put the state of Ukraine on the brink of its very existence were evolving too fast, but civil society’s response to them was no less prompt and adaptive. Volunteers and activists were trying on new roles each day as they were helping those escaping persecution, repression and hostilities, equipping and maintaining those who fought with weapons or joining their ranks, developing reform agenda and drafting legislative proposals. What seemed astounding back then, and still does today, was how those thousands of volunteers and millions of “ordinary citizens” who mobilized to support new civic initiatives took over the functions of the weak and nearly collapsed state eroded by corruption, nepotism, the neglect of its citizens and of the country’s national interests. Challenging a post-Soviet monster disguised behind the mask of electoral democracy and market economy, citizens were bringing in a new social contract based on trust and solidarity on which a new state could be built. The speed of events and the scale of civil society engagement precluded any long-term comprehensive analysis, yet researchers’ zeal to reflect upon what looked as a tectonic move in Ukraine’s political and social development took over. At first, our idea was to co-author an article examining civil society’s role in a post-Euromaidan Ukraine, but soon enough the task became too big. The initial idea thus evolved into producing an edited volume with different authors looking into their respective fields of civil society in Ukraine in order to grasp at least a small portion of change. We are grateful to many researchers in Ukraine and abroad who responded to our call for papers in May 2016 and who contributed their ideas to this Special Issue. Some of these ideas eventually turned into articles and we would like to give special thanks to those colleagues who bore with us through rounds of revisions till the very end of this journey. Their articles made this Special Issue happen. We are also grateful to the Kyiv-Mohyla Law and Politics Journal for hosting this Special Issue and for supporting our initiative from the early stages through review and editing to the publication process. We would like to thank UACES – the Academic Association for Contemporary European Studies, UESA – the Ukrainian European Studies Association and the Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence in European Studies at the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy for their financial and logistical support in organizing the Final Conference of this project, which took place at the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy on November 21, 2017, the fourth anniversary of the Euromaidan. We are also enormously grateful to all the participants of the Conference for their remarks, comments and questions. Finally, we would like to extend our gratitude to the Kyiv office of Baker McKenzie, which has provided financial support to the publication of this Issue

Climate change and oil and gas production regulation : an impossible reconciliation?

Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Online Education Participants: Standing Together or Falling Apart?

The paper summarizes the findings from research by Russian scholars into the expansion of online education technologies into Russian universities. Risks are described connected with the unpreparedness of the education process participants to be fully engaged in the new education format. Two opinion polls were organized among students and university staff in order to reveal their assessment of education strategies and their involvement in online education. The study has shown that neither students nor academic staff at provincial universities are sufficiently involved in the process, which does not enable any forecast to be made pertaining to online training efficiency. So far, it is only the opportunities to access, participate and use online education that can be assessed. The survey has revealed a significant difference in students’ and lecturers’ perception of online education. While students are ready to switch to the new format, lecturers prefer classical approaches. They display negative attitudes, tend to avoid changes and stress that the expansion of online education services may result in a lower status and loss of prestige for the teaching profession. The possibility of their participation in developing online education products is doubtful. The lack of either experience or desire to be involved in the process may result in a low quality of online courses and programs, if developed. The study enables the authors to define a problem field of youth education choice management. This field includes issues of self-study needs satisfaction, a lower level of knowledge in today’s young generation and information retaining difficulty, the “external memory” problem resulting from the abundance of gadgets et cetera. Risks are described pertaining to youth’s uncontrolled involvement in online education alternatives connected with human capital structure changes, emergence of negative generation characteristics and education prospects. Keywords: youth, academic staff, education, education strategies, online education, self-stud

The Effectiveness of the Regulatory Regime for Black Carbon Mitigation in the Arctic

Peer reviewedPublisher PD

The potential impact of ride-hailing services on BYD

Shared mobility, including ride-hailing services, has been on the rise, enabled by emerging technologies, and allowing for more convenient and flexible travel. The Chinese market is particularly attractive for ride-hailing as the country pushes to relieve its transportation problems, namely traffic congestion and subjacent economic implications. This study aims to measure the impact of ride-hailing services on BYD’s share price performance. Three different scenarios of disruption were analyzed, quantifying the potential decrease in revenues. Moreover, an alternative view was considered, taking into consideration the depreciation suffered by society as a whole and the rate of substitution of vehicles