計量ファイナンスについての小論-金利機関構造のモデル化とその予測について-)

Tohoku University松田安昌課

Global Corruption Hoax: Politicization of the Concept of Corruption and the Issues of Corruption Measurement Indices

Often we observe that the third world countries always top the corruption indices compare to the developed West. This incident naturally leads to the question of why - Is it because the third world countries are significantly more corrupt than the developed countries? Or, is there any other reason behind this issue?--these are the questions that are explored in this article. To be more specific, this article critically explores contemporary arguments regarding inherent issues of corruption and various aspects of measurement techniques of corruption indices (e.g. definition issue, identification problem, clandestine nature of corruption, perceptual problem, validity and reliability of corruption data). Thus, by examining the innate complex nature of corruption, the article argue that, in many cases, in comparison to the developed West, corruption of developing nations may not be as deep as the corruption indices, which are also contested, accuse. In addition, the article emphasizes that the corruption issue is specifically targeted towards the third world countries more so than the developed countries. Keywords: corruption, governance, corruption indices, corruption measuremen

To What Extent is the Free Market Compatible With the ‘Strong State’?

Contradictory views persist among neoliberals, social democrats and social liberals regarding relationships between free market and the nation State. In one hand, neoliberals suggest that the development of the free market puts constraints on the role of the state. Yet empirical evidence to support this view is lacking and range of commentators show not only resilience but even the expansion of state spending. Moreover, the article highlights that the State has welcomed globalization for the betterment of the society and subsequently it is restructuring itself to accommodate the changes to be effective on a desired way. Keywords: Globalization, Strong State, Free Market, State Control and Liberalism

Automated security compliance tool for the cloud

Security, especially security compliance, is a major concern that is slowing down the large scale adoption of cloud computing in the enterprise environment. Business requirements, governmental regulations and trust are among the reasons why the enterprises require certain levels of security compliance from cloud providers. So far, this security compliance or auditing information has been generated by security specialists manually. This process involves manual data collection and assessment which is slow and incurs a high cost. Thus, there is a need for an automated compliance tool to verify and express the compliance level of various cloud providers. Such a tool can reduce the human intervention and eventually reduce the cost and time by verifying the compliance automatically. Also, the tool will enable the cloud providers to share their security compliance information using a common framework. In turn, the common framework allows clients to compare various cloud providers based on their security needs. Having these goals in mind, we have developed architecture to build an automated security compliance tool for a cloud computing platform. We have also outlined four possible approaches to achieve this automation. These possible four approaches refer to four design patterns to collect data from the cloud system and these are: API, vulnerability scanning, log analysis and manual entry. Finally, we have implemented a proof-of-concept prototype of this automated security compliance tool using the proposed architecture. This prototype implementation is integrated with OpenStack cloud platform, and the results are exposed to the users of the cloud following the CloudAudit API structure defined by Cloud Security Alliance

Three Essays in Corporate Finance

This thesis comprises three essays in corporate finance, broadly encompassing the impact of CEO characteristics and their ability to efficiently use firm resources on financial policy and decision-making. The first essay examines the role played by CEO characteristics in managing a firm’s predation risk. Predation occurs when competing firms aim to force an opponent to exit the market by engaging in predatory actions by price reductions or increased non-price competition expenditure such as advertising. Our results show that firms led by overconfident, empire-building CEOs significantly reduce their predation risk by diversifying their operations to become more dissimilar than their industry competitors. We use the random, exogenous passage of large US import tariff reductions and CEO deaths as quasi-natural experimental settings to address endogeneity concerns. We demonstrate that reduction of predation risk through CEO characteristics leads to significant growth in a firm’s market share over industry competitors and higher total compensation and option grants for the CEOs. These empirical results offer a crucial insight into how CEO behavioural characteristics play a role in a firm’s survival in competitive product markets against predatory threats. The second chapter investigates how major customer firms (identified as representing more than 10% of a supplier’s revenue) managed by higher ability managers gain significant bargaining power over their network of suppliers. Using a composite index capturing a customer’s supply chain power and the Demerjian (2012) measure of managerial ability that considers the efficient use of firm resources, we provide evidence that higher ability managers in major customer firms hold significant supply chain power over their suppliers. We use two-stage least squares (2SLS) regressions using instrumental variables and difference-in-differences estimates surrounding forced CEO turnovers to address endogeneity concerns. This positive association is stronger for higher ability managers who engage more in socially responsible activities and have better corporate innovation performance. Suppliers are found to extend greater trade credit when customers managed by higher ability managers have more supply chain power. The third chapter explores how firms managed by executives with superior ability can extract greater trade credit from their suppliers. Trade credit is one of the most used sources of liquidity for inter-firm commerce. Using the Demerjian (2012) measure for managerial ability and two proxies for trade credit, we document a positive association between managerial ability and the trade credit received by a firm. Two-stage least squares (2SLS) regressions using instrumental variables are used to mitigate endogeneity concerns. We identify that engagement in socially responsible activities by higher ability managers acts as a channel that drives the relationship between trade credit and managerial ability. Cross-sectional variation analysis demonstrates that this positive association is stronger for superior managers in firms identified as major customers (representing 10% or more business revenue of a suppliers) and during periods of economic recession. Further robustness tests demonstrate that higher ability managers use this trade credit to outgrow their industry competitors and improve their product market performance, while preserving cash in hand by reducing trade receivables. These findings emphasize the role of managers in efficiently managing resources to access more trade credit for the firm’s business operations.Thesis (Ph.D.) -- University of Adelaide, Business School, 202

The effects of sodium hypochlorite dipping, temperature and duration of storage on the quality of fresh taro corms destined for overseas markets.

A study to determine conditions that promote the longevity of stored taro corms (Colocasia esculenta (L). Schott var. esculenta) following harvest was carried out in Samoa in 2001in response to rotting and weight loss problems. The study investigated the possibility that storage of corms at 5oC causes chilling damage, thus enhancing corm rot, and to confirm the beneficial effects of sodium hypochlorite as a rot control dip. 320 freshly harvested 8 months old mature corms were randomly divided into two groups. One group was dipped in a 0.1% solution of sodium hypochlorite (NaOCl) and the other in water, for 2 minutes and packed into perforated plastic bags so that each contained 40 corms. The bags were then randomly selected into 4 groups so that each dip treatment was represented in every group. The four groups were cool stored for 2 weeks at temperatures of 5oC, 10oC, 15oC and ambient.(25oC) respectively. After 2 weeks, the bags were removed from the coolers, stored at ambient and sampled every 7 days for weight and corm loss. Results showed that over the two weeks of on shelf display following removal from cool storage, corms that were stored at 5oC sustained the least corm rot at 15.8%, followed by 10oC at 16.5% with the highest at 50.5% for 15oC. These results show that chilling damage did not occur at the storage temperature of 5oC and that the best temperature range to store taro corms in order to minimise corm rot when removed to ambient for on-shelf display is 5 to 10oC. Dipping in a 0.1% solution of sodium hypochlorite significantly reduced corm rot from 34.2% to 26.0% and weight loss from 4.0% to 3.7%. However the chemical dip had no significant effect on the number or weight of rootlets that sprouted from the stored corms