Free trade as a force of political stability? The case of mainland China and Hong Kong

Is free trade a force of political stability? This article argues that, while political stability could be a cause, it is not always a consequence of free trade. To test this argument, the article analyses the political causes and consequences of the external and internal trade liberalisation initiatives of Mainland China and Hong Kong through a selection of their current and proposed free trade agreements and free trade zones, namely, the Mainland and Hong Kong Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement, China-Japan-Korea Free Trade Agreement, Hong Kong Free Port, and China (Shanghai) Pilot Free Trade Zone. Together, these initiatives comprise a uniquely outlier case study on individual customs territories in a common state jurisdiction with contrary political economies. This article concludes that the effectiveness of free trade as a force of political stability is, by and large, more of a perception than a reality

The Costs, Wealth Effects, and Determinants of International Capital Raising: Evidence from Public Yankee Bonds

This paper examines the costs, wealth effects, and determinants of international capital raising for a sample of 260 public debt issues made by non-U.S. firms in the U.S. (Yankee) market. We find that investors demand economically significant premiums on bonds issued by firms that are located in countries that do not protect investors' rights and do not have a prior history of on-going disclosure. The results provide support for the literature that suggests better legal protections and more detailed information disclosure increases the price investors will pay for financial assets. We also find that the average stock price reaction to Yankee bond offerings is significantly positive and that abnormal returns are largest for first-time Yankee bond issuers. In addition, we show that foreign firms tend to issue in the Yankee market when the relative interest cost is low, indicating that potential differences in borrowing costs influence where firms choose to sell bonds.http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/39829/3/wp445.pd

Contracting with Tortfeasors: Mandatory Arbitration Clauses and Personal Injury Claims

This article examines some of the cases in which courts have enforced arbitration clauses in personal injury litigation and considers why courts have reached the outcomes they have. It evaluates the ways that arbitration can disturb the traditional values of procedural justice, contractual fairness and the enforcement of tort-based duties. It suggests changes in the law regarding mandatory arbitration of personal injury claims and explores the extent to which change is possible

Scalable Inference of Customer Similarities from Interactions Data using Dirichlet Processes

Under the sociological theory of homophily, people who are similar to one another are more likely to interact with one another. Marketers often have access to data on interactions among customers from which, with homophily as a guiding principle, inferences could be made about the underlying similarities. However, larger networks face a quadratic explosion in the number of potential interactions that need to be modeled. This scalability problem renders probability models of social interactions computationally infeasible for all but the smallest networks. In this paper we develop a probabilistic framework for modeling customer interactions that is both grounded in the theory of homophily, and is flexible enough to account for random variation in who interacts with whom. In particular, we present a novel Bayesian nonparametric approach, using Dirichlet processes, to moderate the scalability problems that marketing researchers encounter when working with networked data. We find that this framework is a powerful way to draw insights into latent similarities of customers, and we discuss how marketers can apply these insights to segmentation and targeting activities

Generalized Direct Sampling for Hierarchical Bayesian Models

We develop a new method to sample from posterior distributions in hierarchical models without using Markov chain Monte Carlo. This method, which is a variant of importance sampling ideas, is generally applicable to high-dimensional models involving large data sets. Samples are independent, so they can be collected in parallel, and we do not need to be concerned with issues like chain convergence and autocorrelation. Additionally, the method can be used to compute marginal likelihoods

Pre - service teachers’ reflections on good and bad mathematics teaching

Research suggests that teachers’ beliefs about teaching are strongly influenced by their personal experiences with mathematics. This study aimed to explore Pacific Island pre-service secondary mathematics teacher’s perceptions about good and bad mathematics teachers. Thirty pre-service teachers, enrolled in a mathematics teaching methods course during their third year of University study were asked to write reflections on their personal mathematical memories. Results indicate that pre-service teachers rate good mathematics teachers using a varied combination of characteristics

Distinguishable patterns of competition, collusion, and parallel action

Alternative market structures are distinguishable by the degree of parallel action exhibited by producers. We show that the correlation between output levels varies systematically with the degree of interdependence among firms, and establish an ordering among alternative behavioral hypotheses (Cournot, Stackelberg, Edgeworth/Bertrand, collusion, and perfect competition). Because the ordering is invariant to the values of background parameters, statistical tests of market conduct may be possible even when the slopes of the demand curve and marginal cost curves are unknown. An application to the world oil market finds strong evidence of collusive behavior among OPEC members, but not elsewhere

Inflammatory and anti-inflammatoy response after swimming acute effort

El objetivo del estudio fue analizar la respuesta inflamatoria y antiinflamatoria a un esfuerzo agudo e intenso de natación, durante la fase preparatoria para los campeonatos nacionales absolutos brasileños. Participaron 20 nadadores. Se determinaron las concentraciones plasmáticas de IL-6, TNF- α, sTNFR1, IP-10 y MCP-1, antes y 40 minutos después de 2 series de 4 repeticiones de 50 metros nadados a la máxima intensidad con 3 minutos de recuperación entre cada repetición y una recuperación activa nadando 1500m a intensidad suave después de cada una de las dos series. En respuesta al ejercicio agudo únicamente la concentración sTNFR1 se redujo, no presentando cambios en IP-10, IL-6 ni TNF-α. Por tanto el ejercicio agudo en natación en personas bien entrenadas no parece producir una respuesta inflamatoriaThe mean of the study was to analyze the inflammatory and antiinflammatory response to an intense and intense swimming effort during the preparatory phase for the Brazilian National Adult Championship. Twenty swimmers participated. Plasma concentrations of IL-6, TNF-α, sTNFR1, IP-10 and MCP-1 were determined before and 40 minutes after 2 sets of 4 repetitions of 50 meters swam at maximum intensity with 3 minutes of recovery between each repetition and an active recovery swimming 1500m at low intensity after each of the two series. In response to acute exercise only the sTNFR1 concentration was reduced, with no changes in IP-10, IL-6 or TNF-α. Thus, acute exercise in swimming in well-trained people does not seem to produce an inflammatory respons

The New Old Law of Electronic Money

A variety of electronic money systems have recently been proposed or implemented in which the initial transaction between the parties would—without any contact to the banking system—result in the instantaneous transfer of bank credit. For example, “smart-card” systems and various systems that have been proposed for internet payment transactions would operate by loading transferable value onto a device, so that a payment transaction could be completed by a transaction between the parties, without any contact to the banking system. It is generally assumed that there is no present law, statutory or judge-made, that applies directly to such electronic money systems. This article contends, to the contrary, that such electronic systems are essentially identical to the system of circulating bank notes that flourished in the United States in the early nineteenth century. Indeed, in its strongest form, the claim considered in this Article is not simply that the law of circulating bank notes might serve as a source of potential analogies, but that this body of case law already applies to such systems as a matter of ordinary principles of stare decisis

The flash crash: The impact of high frequency trading on an electronic market

The Flash Crash, a brief period of extreme market volatility on May 6, 2010, raised questions about the current structure of the U.S. financial markets. We use audit-trail data to describe the structure of the E-mini S&P 500 stock index futures market on May 6. We ask three questions. How did High Frequency Traders (HFTs) trade on May 6? What may have triggered the Flash Crash? What role did HFTs play in the Flash Crash? We conclude that HFTs did not trigger the Flash Crash, but their responses to the unusually large selling pressure on that day exacerbated market volatility