Corporate governance ratings as a means to reduce asymmetric information

Can corporate governance ratings reduce problems of asymmetric information between companies and investors? To answer this question, we set out to examine the information basis for providing such ratings by reviewing corporate governance attributes that are required or recommended in laws, accounting standards and codes, respectively. After that, we scrutinize and organize the publicly available information on the methodologies actually used by rating providers. However, important details of these methodologies are treated as confidential property, thus we approach the evaluation of corporate governance ratings as a means to reduce asymmetric information in a more general manner. We propose that the rating process may be seen as consisting of two general activities, namely a data reduction phase, and a data weighting, aggregation and classification phase. Findings based on a Danish data set suggest that rating providers by selecting relevant attributes in an intelligent way can improve the screening of companies according to governance quality. In contrast, it seems questionable that weighting, aggregation and classification of corporate governance attributes considerably improve discrimination according to governance qualityNo; keywords

Canonical Analysis : The Use of Transformed Landsat Data for Crop Type Discrimination

The primary goal of this thesis is to investigate the usefulness, accuracy, and efficiency of canonical analysis (a linear transformation technique) for the classification of crop types using multi-date multispectral scanner (MSS) Landsat digital data. The accuracy statistics and the computer processing efficiency of the crop type classification developed using a canonical transformation will be compared with accuracy and efficiency figures of a crop classification developed for the Columbia River and Tributaries Irrigation Withdrawals Analysis Project (Johnson, Loveland, Anderson, 1981) in which multi-date Landsat data covering the same area was classified. The Clarke, Oregon 7.5 minute USGS quadrangle was chosen as the study site because of the availability of timely Landsat data and the existing maximum likelihood classification from the Columbia River and Tributaries Project. In a general sense, the problem investigated is a method of gathering crop type information using remotely sensed data. As discussed in the Introduction, an important method for crop type identification is the classification of multi-temporal Landsat digital data. Using remotely sensed data in the form of Landsat computer compatible tapes (CCT\u27s) allows for the analysis of the full spatial resolution of Landsat data and the analysis and manipulation of the numeric sensitivity of digital data

Ports, Piracy and Maritime War

In Ports, Piracy, and Maritime War Thomas K. Heebøll-Holm presents a study of maritime predation in English and French waters around the year 1300. Following Cicero, pirates have traditionally been cast as especially depraved robbers and the enemy of all, but Heebøll-Holm shows that piracy was often part of private wars between English, French, and Gascon ports and mariners, occupying a liminal space between crime and warfare. Furthermore he shows how piracy was an integral part of maritime commerce and how the adjudication of piracy followed the legal procedure of the march. Heebøll-Holm convincingly demonstrates how piracy influenced the policies of the English and the French kings and he contributes to our understanding of Anglo-French relations on the eve of the Hundred Years’ War

Simple Circuit Equivalents for the Constant Phase Element

The constant phase element (CPE) with a frequency-independent negative phase between current and voltage is used extensively in e.g. the bioimpedance and electrochemistry fields. Its physical meaning is only partially understood. Here we show that the responses of both the common capacitive CPE as well as the inductive CPE are exactly the same as those of simple RL and RC circuits where the inductor's or capacitor's value increases linearly with time. The resulting step and impulse responses are found and verified by simulation with the Micro-Cap simulation program. The realization with time-varying components correlates with known time-varying properties in applications.Comment: 14 pages, 4 figure

Bisimulation and expressivity for conditional belief, degrees of belief, and safe belief

Plausibility models are Kripke models that agents use to reason about knowledge and belief, both of themselves and of each other. Such models are used to interpret the notions of conditional belief, degrees of belief, and safe belief. The logic of conditional belief contains that modality and also the knowledge modality, and similarly for the logic of degrees of belief and the logic of safe belief. With respect to these logics, plausibility models may contain too much information. A proper notion of bisimulation is required that characterises them. We define that notion of bisimulation and prove the required characterisations: on the class of image-finite and preimage-finite models (with respect to the plausibility relation), two pointed Kripke models are modally equivalent in either of the three logics, if and only if they are bisimilar. As a result, the information content of such a model can be similarly expressed in the logic of conditional belief, or the logic of degrees of belief, or that of safe belief. This, we found a surprising result. Still, that does not mean that the logics are equally expressive: the logics of conditional and degrees of belief are incomparable, the logics of degrees of belief and safe belief are incomparable, while the logic of safe belief is more expressive than the logic of conditional belief. In view of the result on bisimulation characterisation, this is an equally surprising result. We hope our insights may contribute to the growing community of formal epistemology and on the relation between qualitative and quantitative modelling

Why do People Stay? Insider Advantages and Immobility

The low mobility of people in Europe is considered a problem for adjustment to asymmetric shocks and regional convergence in the European Monetary Union. We suggest a complement to the traditional migration theories, the insider advantages approach to explain why most Europeans prefer to stay. Staying immobile they have accumulated work- and leisure-oriented insider advantages that are location-specific and would be lost in the case of emigration. Therefore, the longer people have stayed - and the more insider advantages they have accumulated -, the less likely they are to move. Using a new micro dataset covering all people resident in Sweden in 1994 and their mobility experience since 1985, we find a strong positive duration dependence of the probability to stay. Traditional micro-economic characteristics prove helpful in explaining immobility, while regional macro-economic differences have surprisingly little impact on individual mobility decisions. A large proportion of the moves between Swedish labour markets seem to be related to specific life-course events rather than to pure labour market issues. Wieso ist die Mobilität der Arbeitskräfte innerhalb der Europäischen Union - aller Freizügigkeit zum Trotz - so gering? Traditionelle Theorieansätze vermögen die schwach ausgeprägte Wanderungsintensität der EU-Angehörigen nur begrenzt zu er - klären. Denn eigentlich sollten die teilweise beträchtlichen Einkommens - und Beschäftigungsunterschiede zu weit mehr Migration innerhalb der EU führen. In diesem Diskussionspapier entwickeln wir eine Idee, die sehr wohl zu erklären vermag, weshalb für die meisten Menschen "stehen" die bessere Alternative als "gehen" ist. Der Insider-Ansatz macht deutlich, weshalb für die individuelle Entscheidung eine grenz- und kulturraumüberschreitende Wanderung die Ausnahme und nicht die Regel ist. Die empirische Überprüfung mit Hilfe eines neuen originären Mikro-Datensets, das die gesamte schwedische Wohnbevölkerung enthält, bestätigt die These, dass die Verweil- dauer einen direkten positiven Einfluss auf die Verharrenswahrscheinlichkeit ausübt. Wer lange an einem Ort lebt, wird immer wahrscheinlicher an diesem Ort bleiben!Labor and Human Capital, F22, J60, R23,