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Investment Decisions (investment + decision)
Kinds of Investment Decisions Selected AbstractsThe Effect of Private Information and Monitoring on the Role of Accounting Quality in Investment Decisions,CONTEMPORARY ACCOUNTING RESEARCH, Issue 1 2010ANNE BEATTY First page of article [source] Investment Decisions and Managerial Discipline: Evidence from the Takeover MarketFINANCIAL MANAGEMENT, Issue 2 2005Ralph Scholten This article focuses on the relative importance of boards of directors and the hostile takeover market in disciplining managers who make poor acquisition decisions. The evidence shows a weak inverse relationship between acquisition performance and the likelihood of becoming a takeover target, but only after it becomes clear that the internal control mechanism has failed. A forced turnover of a top executive was more likely in the 1990s, the more negative the abnormal return associated with an acquisition announcement. The relationship between forced turnover and negative acquisition returns is stronger when hostile takeover activity is less intense. Hence, it appears that being disciplined for making a poor acquisition is a function more of the internal control mechanism than of the workings of the takeover market. [source] Partially Irreversible Investment Decisions and Taxation under Uncertainty: A Real Option ApproachGERMAN ECONOMIC REVIEW, Issue 2 2002Caren Sureth The paper applies contingent claims analysis in a real option investment model in order to investigate taxation's influence on investor's decisions under uncertainty. The results show the distortion from realistic-type tax systems, allow to identify a tax-induced paradox in option valuation for specific settings and acknowledge the property of investment neutrality of well-known ,ideal' tax systems in the context of different degrees of irreversibility. Furthermore, it is clarified that the idea of risk-neutral valuation cannot be adopted by the real option approach in general. [source] Altering Investment Decisions to Manage Financial Reporting Outcomes: Asset-Backed Commercial Paper Conduits and FIN 46JOURNAL OF ACCOUNTING RESEARCH, Issue 5 2008DANIEL A. BENS ABSTRACT We evaluate the manner in which sponsors of highly leveraged asset-backed commercial paper (ABCP) conduits responded to Financial Accounting Standards Board Interpretation No. 46 (FIN 46), Consolidation of Variable Interest Entities an Interpretation of ARB No. 51, and its Canadian counterpart Accounting Standards Board of Accounting Guideline 15 (AcG-15), Consolidation of Variable Interest Entities. By matching commercial paper investors with corporations seeking liquidity, ABCP sponsors facilitate a significant amount of short-term, securitized financing in the United States. FIN 46 and AcG-15 require sponsors to consolidate their ABCP conduits with their financial statements. We demonstrate that the volume of ABCP began to decline when FIN 46 was first proposed, and that this decline is primarily attributable to a reduction in North American banks' sponsorship of ABCP. We also demonstrate that North American banks entered into costly restructuring arrangements to avoid having to consolidate their conduits per the new accounting standards. Our results suggest that, in certain settings, accounting standards appear to have real effects on investment activity and product-market competition. [source] Investment Decisions for Retirement SavingsJOURNAL OF CONSUMER AFFAIRS, Issue 3 2010HAZEL BATEMAN We conducted a choice experiment to investigate whether retirement savers follow simple portfolio theory when choosing investments. We modeled experimental survey data on 693 participants using a scale-adjusted version of the latent class choice model. Results show that underlying variability in response was explained by age and "risk profile" score and that preferences varied with income and age. Younger individuals were conventionally risk averse, but older, higher-income individuals may react positively to both higher returns and increasing risk, when risk is presented as widening ranges of possible outcomes. Respondents tended to choose among a few similar investment options. [source] The Effect of Life Cycle Cost Information on Consumer Investment Decisions Regarding Eco-InnovationJOURNAL OF INDUSTRIAL ECOLOGY, Issue 1 2010Josef Kaenzig Summary Life cycle cost (LCC) computations are a well-established instrument for the evaluation of intertemporal choices in organizations, but they have not been widely adopted by private consumers yet. Consumer investment decisions for products and services with higher initial costs and lower operating costs are potentially subject to numerous cognitive biases, such as present-biased preferences or framing effects. This article suggests a classification for categorizing different cost profiles for eco-innovation and a conceptual model for the influence of LCC information on consumer decisions regarding eco-innovation. It derives hypotheses on the decision-making process for eco-innovation from a theoretical perspective. To verify the hypotheses, the publication reviews empirical studies evaluating the effects of LCC information on consumer investment decisions. It can be concluded that rather than finding ways to make customers pay more for environmentally sound products, the marketing challenge for eco-innovation should be reconceptualized as one of lowering customers' perceived initial cost and increasing awareness of LCC. Most existing studies report a positive effect of LCC information on the purchase likelihood of eco-innovations. Disclosing LCC information provides an important base for long-term thinking on the individual, corporate, and policy levels. [source] A Property Rights Perspective on Venture Capital Investment DecisionsJOURNAL OF MANAGEMENT STUDIES, Issue 7 2010Dimo Dimov abstract To understand how ownership differences influence specific types of strategic decisions, we examine the investment decisions of venture capital (VC) firms, for which a variety of property rights arrangements exist. We describe how VC firms are characterized by important differences in how and to whom various property rights are allocated. On this basis, we develop a series of hypotheses regarding differences in the range and types of investment opportunities pursued by private, corporate, and bank affiliated VC firms. Evaluating our hypotheses using data on investments carried out by 3557 firms, we find that these types of firm perform distinct roles in the ecology of VC financing. [source] Managers and Productive Investment Decisions: The Impact of Uncertainty and Risk AversionJOURNAL OF SMALL BUSINESS MANAGEMENT, Issue 1 2004Jacques-Bernard Sauner-Leroy The main purpose of this study is to examine the links among uncertainty, manager's risk-taking attitude, and the level of productive investment of small and medium-size enterprises. The analysis makes use of qualitative data collected by the Bank of France in a national survey conducted in 1999 on the strategic behavior of 1,578 French industrial small and medium-size firms. A multiple regression model is used to test the impact of uncertainty and risk aversion on investment decisions. Results support the hypothesis of the literature stating that productive investment is correlated positively with risk taking and is correlated negatively with uncertainty. [source] Impact of Price Postponement on Capacity and Flexibility Investment DecisionsPRODUCTION AND OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT, Issue 2 2006Stephan Biller Investments in dedicated and flexible capacity have traditionally been based on demand forecasts obtained under the assumption of a predetermined product price. However, the impact on revenue of poor capacity and flexibility decisions can be mitigated by appropriately changing prices. While investment decisions need to be made years before demand is realized, pricing decisions can easily be postponed until product launch, when more accurate demand information is available. We study the effect of this price decision delay on the optimal investments on dedicated and flexible capacity. Computational experiments show that considering price postponement at the planning stage leads to a large reduction in capacity investments, especially in the more expensive flexible capacity, and a significant increase in profits. Its impact depends on demand correlation, elasticity and diversion, ratio of fixed to variable capacity costs, and uncertainty remaining at the times the pricing and production decisions are made. [source] Idiosyncratic and Common Shocks to Investment Decisions*THE ECONOMIC JOURNAL, Issue 482 2002Mark Schankerman We show how microeconomic data on investment plans can be used to study the structure of risk firms face. Revisions of investment plans form a martingale and reveal the underlying shocks driving investment. We decompose revisions in investment plans into micro, sector and aggregate shocks, and exploit stock market data to distinguish between structural (value-related) shocks and measurement error in investment revisions. Using panel data for US firms, we find that micro shocks are not the dominant source of risk in investment decisions, and that much of the observed micro variation is actually due to heterogeneity in firm-level responses to aggregate shocks. [source] Environmental Costing in Capital Investment Decisions: Electricity Distributors and the Choice of Power PolesAUSTRALIAN ACCOUNTING REVIEW, Issue 1 2008Craig Deegan Australian electricity distribution businesses use a vast number of poles in their networks. In making their purchase decisions, they can choose between types of pole. It might come from an old-growth forest or a plantation, or be made from cement, steel or fibreglass. This paper discusses how Australian electricity distribution businesses currently account (or fail to account) for the social and environmental implications of the production and use of power poles. The discussion highlights the many factors to be considered in a life-cycle costing exercise. The paper provides suggestions for future practice which have implications not only for electricity distribution businesses, but for industry generally. [source] Taxation and Investment Decisions: A Real Options ApproachAUSTRALIAN ECONOMIC PAPERS, Issue 1 2001Elettra Agliardi The purpose of the paper is to analyse the impact of the tax system on the firm's incentives to invest and disinvest in an uncertain environment. This paper follows the real options approach, which allows us to investigate the value to a firm of waiting to invest and/or disinvest, when payoffs are stochastic and investments partially reversible. The implications for the magnitude and directions of the effects of tax policy are studied; also the case of tax policy uncertainty is examined. [source] Investment planning under uncertainty and flexibility: the case of a purchasable sales contract*AUSTRALIAN JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURAL & RESOURCE ECONOMICS, Issue 1 2008Oliver Musshoff Investment decisions are not only characterised by irreversibility and uncertainty but also by flexibility with regard to the timing of the investment. This paper describes how stochastic simulation can be successfully integrated into a backward recursive programming approach in the context of flexible investment planning. We apply this hybrid approach to a marketing question from primary production which can be viewed as an investment problem: should grain farmers purchase sales contracts which guarantee fixed product prices over the next 10 years? The model results support the conclusion from dynamic investment theory that it is essential to take simultaneously account of uncertainty and flexibility. [source] Project Appraisal and Capital Investment Decision Making in the Scottish Water IndustryFINANCIAL ACCOUNTABILITY & MANAGEMENT, Issue 1 2000Paul Coleshill Restructuring the Scottish water industry has changed the way in which both project appraisal and capital investment decisions are performed. This article examines the project appraisal and subsequent capital investment decision in the case of a reed bed sewage treatment scheme which is compared with a more traditional scheme. Although the capital profiles of the schemes are similar there are major differences in the revenue costs. In addition, there are potential public benefits to the reed bed scheme. A comparison is made of management mechanisms in the pre-1996 water industry with that of restructured water authorities. In the pre-1996 water industry, local authorities had a broad remit which encouraged them to value these factors, in effect an implicit social account. The creation of water authorities with narrow remits and specific performance measures, constructed a framework that does not support the integration of social accounts into the decision making process. The paper demonstrates that investment appraisal is a product of the institutional framework in which the decisions are made. As that framework changes, mechanisms and measures of accountability shift in parallel. [source] Managerial Opportunism and Capital Structure Adjustments: Equity,for,debt Swap and Convertible DebtINTERNATIONAL REVIEW OF FINANCE, Issue 1 2002Nobuyuki IsagawaArticle first published online: 16 MAY 200 This paper shows how capital structure adjustments through an equity,for,debt swap and convertible debt can resolve the inefficiency caused by managerial opportunism. We consider a situation in which a corporate manager's investment decision is affected by the firm's debt level. Although both an equity,for,debt swap and convertible debt can induce the self,interested manager to undertake only value,increasing projects through capital structure adjustments, there exists a significant difference between these two financial instruments. An equity,for,debt swap, which requires the agreement of both shareholders and debt holders, can change a firm's debt level only prior to the manager's investment decision. On the other hand, convertible debt, which gives debt holders a unilateral right to convert, can change a firm's debt level even after the manager's investment decision. [source] De-escalation after repeated negative feedback: emergent expectations of failureJOURNAL OF BEHAVIORAL DECISION MAKING, Issue 5 2004Brian J. Zikmund-FisherArticle first published online: 26 NOV 200 Abstract Research on willingness to make marginal investments (e.g., the escalation and sunk cost literatures) has often focused on project completion decisions, such as the "radar-blank plane." This paper discusses a fundamentally different type of marginal investment decision, that of couples deciding whether to continue infertility treatment in the face of repeated failures. Two experiments based on this context show that when people face multiple independent chances to achieve a valued goal but are unsure about chances of success, premature quitting or "de-escalation" is the norm. Repeated negative feedback appears to induce individuals to see each successive failure as more and more diagnostic. As a result, even a short series of failed attempts evokes beliefs that future attempts will also fail. These emergent expectations of failure, generated by causal attribution processes, associative learning, and/or discounting of ambiguous information, appear very compelling and induce people to forgo profitable marginal investments. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] R&D investment decision and optimal subsidyR & D MANAGEMENT, Issue 2 2001Jyh-bang Jou This article assumes that a firm facing technological uncertainty must decide whether to purchase R&D capital at each instant. R&D capital exhibits both irreversibility and externality through the learning-by-doing effect. The combination of irreversibility and uncertainty drives agents to be more prudent; the maxim ,better safe than sorry' applies. This maxim is more important if uncertainty is greater, technology progresses at a lower pace, the externality is stronger, or a catastrophic event is less likely to occur. A firm ignoring the externality will both invest later and disinvest earlier than a social planner who internalizes the externality. An equal rate of investment tax credits should be given to both costlessly reversible investments and irreversible ones, and the same rate of taxation should be imposed on disinvestment. [source] CONVERTIBLE DEBT AND RISK-SHIFTING INCENTIVESTHE JOURNAL OF FINANCIAL RESEARCH, Issue 4 2009Assaf Eisdorfer Abstract I argue that convertible debt, in contrast to its perceived role, can produce shareholders' risk-shifting incentives. When a firm's capital structure includes convertible debt, every investment decision affects not only the distribution of the asset value but also the likelihood that the debt will be converted and thereby the distribution of the firm's leverage. This suggests that managers can engage in risk-increasing projects if a higher asset risk generates a more favorable distribution of leverage. Empirical evidence using 30 years of data supports my argument. [source] Trend derivatives: Pricing, hedging, and application to executive stock optionsTHE JOURNAL OF FUTURES MARKETS, Issue 2 2007Markus Leippold Both institutional and private investors often have only limited flexibility in timing their investment decision. They look for investments that will ideally be independent of the timing decision. In this article, a new class of derivative products whose payoff is linked to the trend of the underlying instrument is introduced. By linking the trend to the payoff, the timing of the decision becomes less important. Therefore, trend derivatives offer some time-diversification benefits. How trend derivatives are designed and priced is shown. Due to their peculiar features, trend derivatives offer some interesting applications such as executive stock option plans. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Jrl Fut Mark 27:151,186, 2007 [source] RETAIL PRICE REGULATION AND THE OPTION TO DELAYANNALS OF PUBLIC AND COOPERATIVE ECONOMICS, Issue 3 2009Fernando T. Camacho ABSTRACT,:,This paper examines a two-period model of an investment decision in a network industry characterized by demand uncertainty, economies of scale and sunk costs. In the absence of regulation we identify the market conditions under which a monopolist decides to invest early as well as the underlying overall welfare output. In a regulated environment, we consider a monopolist who faces no downstream (final good) competition but is subject to retail price regulation. We identify the welfare-maximizing regulated prices when the unregulated market outcome is set as the benchmark. We show that if the regulator can commit to ex post regulation , that is, regulated prices that are contingent to future demand realization , then regulated prices that allow the firm to recover its total costs of production are welfare-maximizing. Thus, under ex post price regulation there is no need to compensate the regulated firm for the option to delay that it foregoes when investing today. We argue, however, that regulators cannot make this type of commitment and, therefore, price regulation is often ex ante , that is, regulated prices are not contingent to future demand. We show that the optimal ex ante regulation, and the extent to which regulated prices need to incorporate an option to delay, depend on the nature of demand uncertainty. [source] INVESTMENT IN HOSPITAL CARE TECHNOLOGY UNDER DIFFERENT PURCHASING RULES: A REAL OPTION APPROACHBULLETIN OF ECONOMIC RESEARCH, Issue 2 2008Rosella Levaggi I11; D81 ABSTRACT Quality of health care is the product of several factors as the literature has long recognized. In this paper we focus on the relationship between quality and investment in health technology by analysing the optimal investment decision in a new health care technology of a representative hospital that maximizes its surplus in an uncertain environment. The new technology allows the hospital to increase the quality level of the care provided, but the investment is irreversible. The paper uses the framework of the real option literature to show how the purchaser might influence the quality level by setting a quality-contingent long-term contract with the hospital. The investment in new technology is in fact best incentivated within a long-term contract where the number of treatments reimbursed depends on the level of investment made when the technology is new. In this way, asymmetry of information does not affect the outcome of the contract. In our model in fact the purchaser can verify the level of the investment only at the end of each period but the purchasing rule has an anticipating effect on the decision to invest. [source] The Impact of Organizational Form on Producer Contracting DecisionsCANADIAN JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS, Issue 2 2004Kimberly A. Zeuli A variable that has not yet been considered in the contracting literature is the impact of agribusiness organizational form on the producer's contracting decision. Contracts with cooperatives are more complicated decisions for producers than a standard marketing contract with noncooperatives because of the requisite membership capital investment in the firm. Contracting with cooperatives requires producers to make a dual supply and investment decision. Individual membership equity holdings in all agricultural cooperatives are increasing, but they are generally most substantial in the value-added, new-generation cooperatives. Portfolio theory is used to analyze the producer's decision to contract with three alternatively structured value-added processing organizations in an uncertain environment: a traditional cooperative, a new-generation cooperative and an investor-oriented firm. In the cooperative cases, the contract requires both supply and equity investment. Une variable dont n'ont pas encore tenu compte ceux qui écrivent sur les contrats est l'impact du type d'organisation sur les décisions du producteur. Les décisions que ce dernier doit prendre au sujet des ententes avec les coopératives sont plus complexes que les décisions de commercialization ordinaires en raison de l'investissement que suppose l'adhésion à la coopérative. Avant de conclure une entente avec une coopérative, l'agriculteur doit prendre une décision sur les approvisionnements et une autre sur l'investissement. L'actif des coopératives venant des droits d'adhésion est à la hausse, mais il est généralement plus important chez les coopératives à valeur ajoutée de la nouvelle génération. Les auteurs recourent à la théorie du portefeuille pour analyser les décisions des agriculteurs quant à la conclusion d'une entente avec trois organisations de types différents, fabriquant des produits transformés à valeur ajoutée dans des conditions économiques incertaines: une coopérative classique, une coopérative de la nouvelle génération et une entreprise avec participation à l'investissement. L'entente avec les deux coopératives suppose un investissement au niveau de l'actif et des approvisionnements. [source] Market Consequences of Earnings Management in Response to Security Regulations in China,CONTEMPORARY ACCOUNTING RESEARCH, Issue 1 2005IN-MU HAW Abstract Under the 1996-98 security regulations in China, the accounting rate of return on equity (ROE) has to be greater than 10 percent for three "consecutive" years for a firm to qualify for stock rights offers. Despite declining economic conditions during this period, the percentage of firms reporting ROE between 10 and 11 percent is about "three" times that for 1994-95. This unique regulatory environment provides a natural experimental setting for the empirical assessment of earnings-management behavior and its consequences. This study examines whether listed Chinese firms manage earnings to meet regulatory benchmarks and whether regulators and investors consider the quality of earnings in their respective regulatory and investment decisions. On the basis of a sample of listed Chinese firms from 1996 to 1998, we observe that managers execute transactions involving below-the-line items and use income-increasing accounting accruals to meet regulatory ROE targets for stock rights offerings. The firms that apply for, but fail to receive, regulatory approval manage earnings more significantly than do firms that receive approval and pair-matched control firms. Our market study also suggests that investors differentiate the quality of earnings and put less value on earnings suspected of a greater degree of management. Overall, our results imply that the regulatory bodies and investors to some extent make rational adjustments for the quality of earnings. [source] Corporate Investment Incentives and Accounting-Based Debt Covenants,CONTEMPORARY ACCOUNTING RESEARCH, Issue 4 2003Alan V. S. Douglas Abstract This paper studies the conditions under which accounting-based debt covenants increase firm value in a setting that incorporates the conflicting incentives of shareholders, bondholders, and managers. We construct a model in which debt is needed to discipline managerial investment decisions despite endogenous compensation contracts. We show that accounting covenants increase value when (1) debt serves as a credible commitment to penalize poor investment decisions; (2) the firm faces other (exogenous) sources of uncertainty that can make debt risky despite good investment decisions; and (3) accounting information serves as a contractible proxy for firm's economic performance. In these circumstances, accounting covenants ensure that shareholders do not offer compensation schemes that would encourage bondholder wealth expropriation when the debt becomes risky. A covenant specifying a required level of accounting performance provides additional bondholder power when performance is low. An accounting-based dividend covenant allows a disbursement to maintain investment incentives when performance is high without allowing dividend-based expropriation. The optimal covenants depend on the reliability of accounting information, and the interaction between accounting performance and the different incentive conflicts provides new insight into the empirical literature on accounting-based covenants. [source] Financing Constraints, Ownership Control, and Cross-Border M&As: Evidence from Nine East Asian EconomiesCORPORATE GOVERNANCE, Issue 6 2009Yenn-Ru Chen ABSTRACT Manuscript Type: Empirical Research Question/Issue: This study distinguishes between the effects of financial constraint determinants on cross-border mergers and acquisitions (M&As) and domestic M&As for all takeover bids announced in nine East Asian economies from 1998 to 2005. Research Findings/Insights: The results of logistic regressions verify that the extent of stock market and governance developments improves corporate financing conditions and subsequently encourages cross-border M&As in East Asia. The results also indicate that, except for ownership control variables, the firm-specific factors of financing constraints reduce the occurrence of cross-border M&As relative to domestic M&As. Although family- and state-controlled firms have better access to external financing, they are reluctant to risk diluting their management control and thus prefer domestic M&As to cross-border deals. Theoretical/Academic Implications: This study enhances the empirical studies of the relation between financing constraints and corporate investments based on the market imperfection hypothesis of corporate finance theories. In addition, this study also addresses the interaction between the market imperfection hypothesis and agency theory in explaining the effects of special ownership control on cross-border M&As relative to domestic deals. Furthermore, by examining the research questions across nine East Asian economies, this study provides an understanding of how such a relation applies to firms in countries where information asymmetry is high. Practitioner/Policy Implications: The findings indicate the importance of corporate governance and verify the effects of unique organizational structures on major corporate decisions. Specifically, family-controlled firms are often free of the financing constraints inherent in investment decisions. Thus, it is necessary to consider such organizational uniqueness when explaining the financing behavior of cross-border M&As conducted by Asian firms. [source] Capital Investment and Earnings: International EvidenceCORPORATE GOVERNANCE, Issue 5 2009Ahmet Can Inci ABSTRACT Manuscript Type: Empirical Research Question/Issue: We examine the nature of the dynamic linkage (causality) between earnings and capital investment using firm-level data from around the world to see whether the legal environment, including corporate governance and monitoring mechanisms, and financial development are important in the profitability of capital investment. Research Findings/Insights: Using firms in 40 countries over the period 1988,2004, we find that the causality from earnings to capital investment is positive and strong in almost all countries, irrespective of the type of legal system and the degree of financial development. However, the causality from capital investment to earnings is generally negative for firms in civil law and financially undeveloped countries, while the causality is generally positive in common law and financially developed countries. Therefore, our international cross-country study enables us to find that the legal system and financial development are factors in the determination of the profitability of capital investment. Theoretical/Academic Implications: Our findings imply that internal financing is a significant constraint for capital investment, which provides support for the pecking order theory even for financially developed markets and for the free cash flow theory. Common law and financially developed countries tend to provide better shareholder protection with more efficient corporate governance and better investment decisions. Practitioner/Policy Implications: To encourage managers to make capital investments in value-increasing projects, it is important to further improve a legal environment that includes corporate governance, monitoring, and incentive mechanisms. Financial development that includes effective financial regulatory agencies should be sought. [source] Risk Uncertainty and Supply Chain Decisions: A Real Options PerspectiveDECISION SCIENCES, Issue 3 2010G. Tomas M. Hult ABSTRACT Supply chain risk uncertainty can create severe repercussions, thus it is not surprising that research interest in supply chain risk has been growing. While extant inquiry is informative, there is a lack of investigations that center on supply chain investment decisions when facing high levels of risk uncertainty. Given the potential dollar value involved in these decisions, an understanding of how these supply chain decisions are made is of significant theoretical and practical importance. Real options theory, with its focus on decision making under conditions of uncertainty, is an appealing theoretical lens for this endeavor. In essence, real options theory asserts that managerial decisions center on creating and then exercising or not exercising certain opportunities. To date, theorizing about and investigations of real options have used firms as their focus. Not yet examined are real options within supply chains that cross firm boundaries and drive much of the competitive activity in the modern economy. Accordingly, we extend real options theory to the supply chain context by examining how different types of options are approached relative to supply chain project investments. Specifically, we theorize how the options will be related to perceived value under conditions of high supply chain risk uncertainty. Overall, our investigation builds knowledge by extending real options theory to the supply chain context and by providing evidence suggesting some options operate differently in supply chains than they do in firms. [source] Fluctuating Rounds of Inward Investment in Peripheral Regions: Semiconductors in the North East of EnglandECONOMIC GEOGRAPHY, Issue 1 2007Stuart Dawley Abstract: This article extends economic geography research on foreign direct investment episodes by developing a historically grounded understanding of the socio-institutional relations that shape and constrain different rounds of (dis)investment by multinational enterprises (MNEs) within a host region. Sensitive to the roles of contextuality, path dependency, and contingency, it argues that the temporal and spatial dynamics of volatile MNE (dis)investment are best tackled using a conceptual framework that accords a full and active role to the agency of the firm and its interrelations with the geographically variable socioinstitutional contexts that produce, regulate, and mediate investment decisions. The framework is used to interpret the brief but fluctuating history of the semiconductor fabrication industry in North Tyneside in the old industrial region of North East England. Within each investment episode, the empirical findings reveal the pivotal power and agency of the corporation in shaping and connecting processes across a variety of scales, places, and times. Contrasting corporate strategies illustrate the dynamic and contingent ways in which home and host national institutional contexts matter in mediating and regulating MNE investment decisions. [source] GENDER-BASED RISK AVERSION AND RETIREMENT ASSET ALLOCATIONECONOMIC INQUIRY, Issue 1 2010KATHLEEN ARANO This research examines whether women have higher risk aversion than men as demonstrated by their retirement asset allocation. The analysis is extended to investigate how retirement asset investment decisions are made in married households. Initial results suggest controlling for demographic, income, and wealth differences lead to no significant difference in the proportion of retirement assets held in stocks between women and male faculty. For married households with joint investment decision making, results indicate that gender differences are a significant factor in explaining individual retirement asset allocation. Our estimates imply that women faculty are more risk averse than their male spouse. (JEL J16, G11, D10) [source] Regulated cross-border transmission investment in EuropeEUROPEAN TRANSACTIONS ON ELECTRICAL POWER, Issue 6 2006Leonardo Meeus Abstract In a liberalized market, generation and transmission investment decisions are decoupled, so that a more elaborated grid is necessary. The European transmission grid has to ensure security of supply, facilitate the market and integrate renewables. Transmission grid investments are clearly needed, especially to increase the scarcely available cross-border transfer capacities. The regulatory framework in which these investments have to take place is discussed in this paper. It is stated that this framework does not ensure that congestion revenues are used for transmission investments that are in the long-term benefit of the market, because regulators are biased towards a short-term tariff reduction. The authors conclude that more coordination is clearly necessary, either pushed by European regulation or driven by coordinated regulatory actions. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||