What makes students satisfied? A discussion and analysis of the UK’s national student survey

This paper analyses data from the National Students Survey, determining which groups of students expressed the greatest levels of satisfaction. We find students registered on clinical degrees and those studying humanities to be the most satisfied, with those in general engineering and media studies the least. We also find contentment to be higher among part-time students, and significantly higher among Russell group and post-1992 universities. We further investigate the sub-areas that drive overall student satisfaction, finding teaching and course organisation to be the most important aspects, with resources and assessment and feedback far less relevant. We then develop a multi- attribute measure of satisfaction which we argue produces a more accurate and more stable reflection of overall student satisfaction than that based on a single question

The Extremes of the P/E Effect

The price-earnings effect has been a challenge to the idea of efficient markets for many years. The P/E used has always been the ratio of the current price to the previous year’s earnings. However, the P/E is partly determined by outside influences, such as the year in which it was measured, the size of the company, and the sector in which the company operates. Looking at all UK companies since 1975, we determine the power of these influences, and find that the sector influences the P/E in the opposite direction to the others. We use a regression to weight the influences according to their power in predicting returns, reversing the sector influence so that it works for us and not against us. The resulting weighted P/E widens the gap in annual returns between the value and glamour deciles by 8%, and identifies a value decile with average returns of 32%.

Decomposing the P/E Ratio

The price-earnings effect has been a challenge to the idea of efficient markets for many years. The P/E used has always been the ratio of the current price to the previous year’s earnings. However, the P/E is partly determined by outside influences, such as the year in which it was measured, the size of the company, and the sector in which the company operates. Looking at all UK companies since 1975, we determine the power of these influences, and find that the sector influences the P/E in the opposite direction to the others. We use a regression to weight the influences according to their power in predicting returns, reversing the sector influence so that it works for us and not against us. The resulting weighted P/E widens the gap in annual returns between the value and glamour deciles by 8%, and identifies a value decile with average returns of 32%.

Speculative Bubbles in the S&P 500: Was the Tech Bubble Confined to the Tech Sector?

This study tests for the presence of periodically, partially collapsing speculative bubbles in the sector indices of the S&P 500 using a regime-switching approach. We also employ an augmented model that includes trading volume as a technical indicator to improve the ability of the model to time bubble collapses and to better capture the temporal variations in returns. We find that over 70% of the S&P 500 index by market capitalization, and seven of its ten sector component indices exhibited bubble-like behaviour over our sample period. Thus the speculative bubble that grew in the 1990’s and subsequently collapsed was pervasive in the US equity market. The bubble affected numerous sectors including energy and industrials, rather than being confined to information technology, telecommunications and the media.Stock market bubbles, fundamental values, dividends, regime switching, speculative bubble test.

Optimal Hedging with Higher Moments

This study proposes a utility-based framework for the determination of optimal hedge ratios that can allow for the impact of higher moments on the hedging decision. The approach is applied to a set of 20 commodities that are hedged with futures contracts. We find that in sample, the performance of hedges constructed allowing for non-zero higher moments is only very slightly better than the performance of the much simpler OLS hedge ratio. When implemented out of sample, utility-based hedge ratios are usually less stable over time, and can make investors worse off for some assets compared to hedging using the traditional methods. We conclude, in common with a growing body of very recent literature, by suggesting that higher moments matter in theory but not in practice.Utility-based hedging, OLS, Non-normality, risk, commodity futures, skewness, kurtosis

A New Tool for Detecting Intraday Periodicities with Application to High Frequency Exchange Rates

In this paper we investigate the claim that hedge funds offer investors a superior risk-return trade-off. We do so using a continuous time version of Dybvig’s (1988a, 1988b) payoff distribution pricing model. The evaluation model, which does not require any assumptions with regard to the return distribution of the funds in question, is applied to the monthly returns of 77 hedge funds and 13 hedge fund indices over the period May 1990 – April 2000. The results show that as a stand-alone investment hedge funds do not offer a superior risk-return profile. We find 12 indices and 72 individual funds to be inefficient, with the average efficiency loss amounting to 2.76% per annum for indices and 6.42% for individual funds. Part of the inefficiency cost of individual funds can be diversified away. Funds of funds, however, are not the preferred vehicle for this as their performance appears to suffer badly from their double fee structure. Looking at hedge funds in a portfolio context results in a marked improvement in the evaluation outcomes. Seven of the 12 hedge fund indices and 58 of the 72 individual funds classified as inefficient on a stand-alone basis are capable of producing an efficient payoff profile when mixed with the S&P 500. The best results are obtained when 10-20% of the portfolio value is invested in hedge funds.Spectral Analysis, Periodicities, Seasonality, Forecasting Exchange Rates, Trading Rules

Medieval property investors, ca. 1300-1500

This paper utilises a dataset of freehold land and property transactions from medieval England to highlight the growing commercialisation of the economy. By drawing on the legal records we are able to demonstrate that the medieval real estate market provided the opportunity for investors to profit. Careful analysis of the data provides evidence of group purchases, multiple transactions and investors buying outside of their own locality. The identification of these ‘investors’ and their buying behaviours, set within the context of the English medieval economy, contributes to the early commercialisation debate