Are Price-Earnings Ratios Mean Reverting? An Empirical Study

Mean reversion in stock prices is a highly studied area in the financial literature with controversial findings. While some economists have found evidence of mean reverting processes in stock prices, many argue in favor of the Efficient Market Hypothesis which states stock prices are random walk processes. This paper seeks to add to the literature on mean reversion but testing for evidence in price-earnings ratios rather than stock prices. The study employs a robust regression model controlling for company-specific and general market factors that influence price-earnings ratio deviations. After correcting for heteroskedasticity, serial correlation, and unit root processes, the results indicate mean reverting behavior does exist in US equities from 2008- 2017 and mean reversion in price-earnings ratios may occur more quickly than mean reversion of stock prices. The outcome of this paper also implies some level of endogeneity in the Three-Factor-Model proposed by Fama and French (1992)

How to Accurately Extract the Running Coupling of QCD from Lattice Potential Data

By (a) using an expression for the LATTICE potential of QCD in terms of a CONTINUUM running coupling and (b) globally parameterizing this coupling to interpolate between 2- (or higher-) loop QCD in the UV and the flux tube prediction in the IR, we can perfectly fit lattice data for the potential down to ONE lattice spacing and at the same time extract the running coupling to high precision. This allows us to quantitatively check the accuracy of 2-loop evolution, compare with the Lepage-Mackenzie estimate of the coupling extracted from the plaquette, and determine the scale $r_0$ ten times more accurately than previously possible. For pure SU(3) we find that the coupling scales on the percent level for $\beta \geq 6$.Comment: 3 pages Latex incl. 2 figures, uses espcrc2.sty, contribution to LATTICE '9

Religious Studies in Ontario: A State-of-the-Art-Review

Reviewed Book: James, William C. Religious Studies in Ontario: A State-of-the-Art-Review. Waterloo, Ont: Wilfrid Laurier Univ Press, 1992

Spectroscopy using the Anisotropic Clover Action

The calculation of the light-hadron spectrum in the quenched approximation to QCD using an anisotropic clover fermion action is presented. The tuning of the parameters of the action is discussed, using the pion and rho dispersion relation. The adoption of an anisotropic lattice provides clear advantages in the determination of the baryonic resonances, and in particular that of the so-called Roper resonance, the lightest radial excitation of the nucleon.Comment: Lattice2002(spectrum), 3 pages, 3 figures, to appear in Proceedings of Lattice 200

The Future of Contractual Mandatory Retirement in South Korea

Although contractual mandatory retirement at a specified age has been eliminated, or limited, in many Western nations, the practice remains widespread in other parts of the world. In South Korea (henceforth, Korea) most workers are subject to contractual mandatory retirement, often while still relatively young; that is, in the 50s. Korean retirement policies are deeply rooted in the belief by policy makers, employers and unions that mandatory retirement creates jobs for young workers. In addition, because worker compensation is linked to age, employers argue that the seniority-based wages paid to older workers are excessive. Notwithstanding the opposition to reforming retirement policies, Korea faces a rapidly aging population that will require modifications to existing retirement arrangements. Moreover, greater emphasis on human rights, and efforts to reduce age-based discrimination in employment, will add to the pressures to increase the age of contractual mandatory retirement.Mandatory Retirement, South Korea, Age Discrimination, Population Aging

Non-Perturbative Improvement of the Anisotropic Wilson QCD Action

We describe the first steps in the extension of the Symanzik O($a$) improvement program for Wilson-type quark actions to anisotropic lattices, with a temporal lattice spacing smaller than the spatial one. This provides a fully relativistic and computationally efficient framework for the study of heavy quarks. We illustrate our method with accurate results for the quenched charmonium spectrum.Comment: LATTICE98(improvement), 3 pages, 4 figure

Sine-Gordon =/= Massive Thirring, and Related Heresies

By viewing the Sine-Gordon and massive Thirring models as perturbed conformal field theories one sees that they are different (the difference being observable, for instance, in finite-volume energy levels). The UV limit of the former (SGM) is a gaussian model, that of the latter (MTM) a so-called {\it fermionic} gaussian model, the compactification radius of the boson underlying both theories depending on the SG/MT coupling. (These two families of conformal field theories are related by a ``twist''.) Corresponding SG and MT models contain a subset of fields with identical correlation functions, but each model also has fields the other one does not, e.g. the fermion fields of MTM are not contained in SGM, and the {\it bosonic} soliton fields of SGM are not in MTM. Our results imply, in particular, that the SGM at the so-called ``free-Dirac point'' $\beta^2 = 4\pi$ is actually a theory of two interacting bosons with diagonal S-matrix $S=-1$, and that for arbitrary couplings the overall sign of the accepted SG S-matrix in the soliton sector should be reversed. More generally, we draw attention to the existence of new classes of quantum field theories, analogs of the (perturbed) fermionic gaussian models, whose partition functions are invariant only under a subgroup of the modular group. One such class comprises ``fermionic versions'' of the Virasoro minimal models.Comment: 50 pages (harvmac unreduced), CLNS-92/1149, ITP-SB-92-3