assessing the fdic s premium and examination policies using soviet put options abstract the fdic s total liability for insuring a bank s deposits during a fixed period diminishes as the frequency of examinations increases since a marginally solvent bank can be closed while losses are small the paper develops a technique for pricing the insurance liability over a fixed period during which there are multiple examinations under current policy most banks are examined annually and reviewed every six months at which time the fees for insurance may be adjusted since the current schedule of fees allows only a narrow range and a few discrete levels the fdic typically retains some positive or negative residual liability in each six month period and for the entire year we show how to estimate this net liability the calculations of total and net liability are illustrated for a sample of large banks

does corporate social responsibility matter in asian emerging markets this study addresses the question whether corporate social responsibility csr matters in asian emerging markets based on csr scores compiled by credit lyonnais securities asia we assess the csr performance of major asian firms over a period of 3 years from 2001 to 2004 the results show that there is a positive and significant relation between csr and market valuation among asian firms we further find that csr is positively related to the market valuation of the subsequent year more importantly asian firms are rewarded by the market for improving their csr practice

alternative forms of deposit insurance pricing and bank incentive issues abstract this paper derives formulas for a deposit insuring agency s liability and hence a fair value deposit insurance premium and the equilibrium value of bank equity considering a wide variety of factors affecting individual bank risk both fixed rate and variable rate risk sensitive insurance systems are analyzed consideration is made as to whether the deposit insuring agency makes direct payments to depositors or arranges mergers following bank closings the effect of these various policy choices on banks incentive for risk taking is also analyzed

optimal bank reorganization and the fair pricing of deposit guarantees abstract when should regulators close a financially ailing bank fdic practice in the us has moved in the direction of early closure in contrast banking regulators in japan continue to follow a more patient approach this paper analyses a series of models in which closure rules and bailout policies arise endogenously through the interaction of i regulators attempts to minimize discounted expected bankruptcy costs and ii equity holders incentives to recapitalise banks we characterize subsidy policies for distressed banks that implement socially optimal closure rules at minimum financial cost to regulators and which reduce moral hazard

pricing risk adjusted deposit insurance an option based model this paper presents a methodology for arriving at empirical estimates of deposit insurance premiums from market data by using isomorphic relationships betweeen equity and a call option and insurance and a put option the data utilizes the market value of equity to solve for the asset value and its volatility market perceptions of fdic bailout policies are explicitly modeled so as to eliminate the bias in inverted values of assets and their volatility sensitivity analyses are performed to show that rank orderings based on premiums are robust to changes in specification thus facilitating allocation of aggregate premium across banks while economists have long argued in favor of risk adjusted deposit insurance as both more equitable and more efficient than the current system of flatrate premiums various recent developments have further contributed to an increasing dissatisfaction with the current system first both the banking industry and the government seem to be tending to the view that deregulation of the banking industry would be necessary in order to meet more sophisticated future demands on the industry as well as desirable as a policy means of stimulating greater competition among banks moreover a sudden rise in the incidence of bank failures 1 and the vulnerability of the u s banks to the socalled international debt crisis have served to bring to the fore concern about the health of the banking industry in the absence of deposit insurance riskier banks will be able to attract deposits only at higher rates and these higher costs of funding serve as built in market regulated incentives to limit excessive risk taking by banks as introduction of deposit insurance makes deposits equally risk free across banks these incentives disappear and regulation and close supervision of the banking industry must necessarily replace them as deterrents to excessive risk taking thus when insurance is offered at a flat premium regulation is designed to ensure that the risk posed to the insurer both asset and financial risk is appropriately uniform

purchase bidding strategy for a retailer with flexible demands in day ahead electricity market the paper aims to determine the day ahead market bidding strategies for retailers with flexible demands to maximize the short term profit it proposes a short term planning framework to forecast the load under dynamic tariffs and construct biding curves stochastic programming is applied to manage the uncertainties of spot price regulating price consumption behaviors and responsiveness to dynamic tariffs a case study based on data from sweden is carried out it demonstrates that a real time selling price can affect the aggregate load of a residential consumer group and lead to load shift toward low price periods the optimal bidding curves for specific trading periods are illustrated through comparing the bidding strategies under different risk factors the case study shows that a risk averse retailer tends to adopt the strategies with larger imbalances the benefit lies in the reduction of low profit risk however the aversion to risk can only be kept in a certain level a larger imbalance may lead to a quick reduction of profit in all scenarios

demand response with locational dynamic pricing to support the integration of renewables abstract electricity production from centralised and decentralised renewable energy resources in europe is gaining significance resulting in operational challenges in the electricity system although these challenges add to the locational and time dependency of the underlying cost of operating the system this variability in time and location is not reflected in residential tariff schemes consequently residential users are not incentivised to react to varying system conditions and to help the integration of renewable energy resources therefore this paper provides a theoretical framework for designing a locational dynamic pricing scheme this can be used to assess existing tariff structures for consumption and injection and can serve as a theoretical background for developing new tariff schemes starting from the underlying costs this paper shows that the potential for locational dynamic pricing depends on the locational and time dependency of its cost drivers when converting costs into tariffs the tariff design should be determined this includes the advance notice of sending tariffs to users and the length of price blocks and price patterns this tariff design should find a balance between tariff principles related to costs practicality and social acceptability on the one hand and the resulting demand response incentive on the other

corporate social responsibility and socially responsible investing a global perspective this research examines the relationship between corporate social responsibility csr and company stock valuation across three regions of the world after a brief introduction the article gives an overview of the evolving definition of csr as well as a discussion of the ways in which this construct has been operationalized presentation of the potential impact of corporate social performance on firm financial performance follows including investor characteristics the rationale behind their choices and their influence on the marketplace for securities worldwide the unique method used to select socially responsible investments is then provided that also includes a description of the quantitative techniques employed in the analyses results are offered subsequently and the close describes implications for global enterprises as socially responsible investments

electricity prices and industrial competitiveness a case study of final assembly automobile manufacturing in the united states and canada this paper studies the real and perceived impacts of electricity pricing on competitiveness in the united states and canada financial analysis is combined with interviews to explore whether and how the cost of electricity affects competitiveness in one of north america s most important sectors automobile manufacturing the cost of electricity in top automobile manufacturing jurisdictions in canada and the us is captured over a six year period starting in 2010 at between approximately us 2 00 and 11 00 per vehicle the paper finds that the per vehicle gap between electricity costs in the most expensive automobile making jurisdiction in north america ontario and all others is quite small how then to explain the preoccupation of industry actors with electricity costs in ontario several reasons are suggested including media coverage the relatively narrow inventory of issues under local management control and mechanics of the pricing system itself the paper explains how the pricing system causes manufacturers to make decisions that depart from core mandates making things and generates the unintended effect of heightened scrutiny a combination of factors that has the effect of aggravating tension around electricity pricing and damaging perceived competitiveness

deposit insurance reform what are the issues and what needs to be fixed abstract the current problems in the commercial banking industry have led to widespread calls for reform of the deposit insurance contract on the grounds that it promotes moral hazard we review the empirical evidence for the significance of moral hazard as an important cause of the present crisis we then evaluate various reform proposals grouped into two broad classes proposals that seek to impose greater discipline on bank stockholders and proposals to increase the disciplinary role of bank debtholders finally we identify some issues that have received inadequate attention in the literature on bank regulation

economic potential of demand response at household level are central european market conditions sufficient abstract the aim of this paper is to show the economic potential of demand response dr on household level at central european market conditions thereby required economic benefits for consumers participation the realistic load shifting potential at household level and the estimation of essential intelligent infrastructure costs are discussed the core of this paper builds a case study applying spot market oriented load shifting from the supplier s point of view by using austrian electricity market data household load profiles as well as a heat pump and e car charging load profile it is demonstrated which cost savings for suppliers can be derived from such load shifting procedure at household level furthermore upper cost limits for intelligent infrastructure in order to break even are derived results suggest to take a critical look at european discussions on dr implementation on household level showing that at central european market conditions the potential for dr at household level is restricted to significant loads and hence the applied load shifting strategy is only beneficial with application to heat pumps in contrast the frequently discussed shifting of conventional household devices loads such as washing machines economically does not add up

uptake and usage of cost reflective electricity pricing insights from psychology and behavioural economics abstract the australian electricity industry like many other countries globally is currently facing the complex challenge of reforming electricity tariffs momentum is growing for transitioning residential consumers toward more cost reflective pricing that better reflects the true costs of generation and supply and sends a price signal that presumably incentivises reduced consumption during peak periods under such tariffs customers pay more for electricity used during times of peak demand unlike traditional flat rate tariffs where the price remains stable regardless of time or demand pilot trials indicate that cost reflective tariffs might succeed in reducing peak demand but often only for a small minority of customers such that population wide demand response is minimal or insignificant in this paper we apply insights from psychology and behavioural economics to identify how cost reflective pricing can be designed depicted and delivered to enhance customer uptake and optimal usage thereby facilitating appropriate demand response for a larger cross section of the population by carefully considering the likely impact of relevant cognitive biases and psychological factors which routinely shape human decision making and behaviour we are able to propose practical strategies that industry can adopt to maximise the prospect of cost reflective pricing achieving significant population level peak demand reductions while providing shared benefits for customers retailers networks and regulators alike

corporate social responsibility ownership structure and political interference evidence from china prior research suggests that ownership structure is associated to corporate social responsibility csr in developed countries this article examines whether and how ownership structure affects csr in emerging markets using chinese firms social responsibility ranking our empirical evidences show that for non state owned firms corporate ownership dispersion is positively associated to csr however for state owned firms whose controlling shareholder is the state this relation is reversed we attribute the reversed relationship to political interferences and further test this hypothesis by demonstrating that regional economic development is negatively related to csr for state owned firms due to decreased political interference in more developed areas this study is the first to directly examine the relationship between the dispersion of corporate ownership and csr in emerging markets and our results depict that it is important to consider ownership type in assessing csr in emerging market where state ownership is still prevalent such as china the results also reveal that firm size profitability employee power leverage and growth opportunity affect csr in china

capital standard forbearance and deposit insurance pricing under garch abstract we propose a multiperiod deposit insurance pricing model that simultaneously incorporates the capital standard and the possibility of forbearance the model employs the recently developed garch option pricing technique in determining the deposit insurance value our model offers two distinctive advantages first it explicitly considers the implications of the strict enforcement on capital standard as stipulated in fdic improvement act of 1991 second the use of the garch model allows us to capture many robust features exhibited by financial asset returns by the garch option pricing theory the value of a contingent claim is a function of the asset risk premium this unique feature is found to be prominent in determining the bank s deposit insurance value we also examine the effects of capital forbearance and moral hazard behavior in this multiperiod deposit insurance setting

the signaling effect of corporate social responsibility in emerging economies what signals do firms in emerging economies send to stakeholders when they adopt corporate social responsibility csr practices we argue that in emerging economies firms that adopt csr practices positively signal investors that their firms have superior capabilities for filling institutional voids from an institution based view we hypothesize that the institutional environment moderates the signaling effect of csr on a firm s financial performance based on a sample of firms from ten asian emerging economies we find a positive relationship between csr practices and financial performance this positive relationship is stronger in the less developed capital market than in the more developed one the financial benefits of csr practices are also more salient in the low information diffusion market than in the high one we emphasize that signaling theory and the institution based view can jointly contribute to the csr literature

bank risk dynamics and distance to default we adapt structural models of default risk to take into account the special nature of bank assets the usual assumption of log normally distributed asset values is not appropriate for banks typical bank assets are risky debt claims which implies that they embed a short put option on the borrowers assets leading to a concave payoff this has important consequences for banks risk dynamics and distance to default estimation due to the payoff non linearity bank asset volatility rises following negative shocks to borrower asset values as a result standard structural models in which the asset volatility is assumed to be constant can severely understate banks default risk in good times when asset values are high bank equity payoffs resemble a mezzanine claim rather than a call option bank equity return volatility is therefore much more sensitive to big negative shocks to asset values than in standard structural models

considerations of cost trade offs in insurance solvency surveillance policy abstract we propose a process for identifying potentially insolvent insurers on a cost effective basis a loss cost function is developed such that the effectiveness of monitoring is maximized relative to a cost constraint the loss cost function is supported by a model that provides a rank ordering of financial institutions according to their probability of insolvency when tested against a full sample of property liability insurance companies the procedure provides information critical to maximizing the effectiveness of regulatory resources available for solvency surveillance and performs well as a predictor of insolvency likewise the rank ordering of insurers overcomes an estimation problem critical to establishing risk adjusted guaranty assessments

capital regulation and deposit insurance abstract a model of deposit insurance in which the bank closure rule can systematically deviate from the economic insolvency condition used in earlier models is developed simulation of that model for plausible parameter values suggests that the failure to close banks on a timely basis has a profound effect in increasing the insurer s liability the implications of these results for capital regulation are discussed

analysis of reflectivity predictability of electricity network tariff structures for household consumers distribution network operators charge household consumers with a network tariff so they can recover their network investment and operational costs with the transition towards a sustainable energy system the household load is changing through the introduction of photovoltaics and electric vehicles the tariff structures which are currently employed in the eu are either capacity and or energy consumption based in light of the changes in the household load the question whether these tariff structures are the most suitable merits renewed attention in this work the cost reflectivity of various tariff structures has been computed based on a distribution network planning approach next to this the predictability of a network tariff i e how much change would a household experience in network charges in two consecutive years has also been computed to gain insight into how well users will be able to react to the tariff the results show that a peak load based network tariffs score best on the reflectivity while having an acceptable level of predictability the switch from an energy consumption based network tariff which is now most often applied towards a peak load based network tariff should therefore be considered

do corporate global environmental standards create or destroy market value arguments can be made on both sides of the question of whether a stringent global corporate environmental standard represents a competitive asset or liability for multinational enterprises mnes investing in emerging and developing markets analyzing the global environmental standards of a sample of u s based mnes in relation to their stock market performance we find that firms adopting a single stringent global environmental standard have much higher market values as measured by tobin sq than firms defaulting to less stringent or poorly enforced host country standards thus developing countries that use lax environmental regulations to attract foreign direct investment may end up attracting poorer quality and perhaps less competitive firms our results also suggest that externalities are incorporated to a significant extent in firm valuation we discuss plausible reasons for this observation

introducing a demand based electricity distribution tariff in the residential sector demand response and customer perception increased demand response is essential to fully exploit the swedish power system which in turn is an absolute prerequisite for meeting political goals related to energy efficiency and climate chan

prices information and nudges for residential electricity conservation a meta analysis incentivising households to lower their electricity consumption is increasingly used as a tool to create a more flexible electricity demand previous reviews estimate that electricity savings of 6 4 7 4 can be achieved through monetary informational and behavioural incentives this papers argues that a more realistic estimate is of a 1 9 3 9 reduction in consumption based on the most recent experimental data from both peer reviewed and grey literature sources using data from 52 studies published during the smart grid era 2005 onwards the effects of incentives from 128 observations amounting to 713 002 households are analysed the results show that individual and real time feedback as well as personalised advice on how to save electricity are more effective than feedback on electricity costs and general electricity savings tips which lead to relative increases in consumption despite improvements in the quality of more recent studies the analysis highlights the importance of methodological rigour in carrying out and reporting effects of incentives an absence of a control group of socio demographic data and the self selection of participants into treatment leads to overestimation of effects

deregulation and bank financial policy the standard view that banks can value maximize by exploiting non risk rated deposit insurance ignores the potential loss of a valuable bank charter due to insolvency recognition of this effect changes the bank s optimal financial policy and can induce extreme risk averting as well as risk taking behavior however as the value of the bank charter falls the risk taking strategy is more apt to dominate therefore current deregulation of the banking industry by easing entry and devaluing charters holds the potential for increases in the incidence of insolvency unless offsetting policies are instituted

the impact of environmental management on firm performance environmental management has the potential to play a pivotal role in the financial performance of the firm many individuals suggest that profitability is hurt by the higher production costs of environmental management initiatives while others cite anecdotal evidence of increased profitability a theoretical model is proposed that links strong environmental management to improved perceived future financial performance as measured by stock market performance the linkage to firm performance is tested empirically using financial event methodology and archival data of firm level environmental and financial performance significant positive returns were measured for strong environmental management as indicated by environmental performance awards and significant negative returns were measured for weak environmental management as indicated by environmental crises the implicit financial market valuation of these events also was estimated cross sectional analysis of the environmental award events revealed differences for first time awards and between industries first time award announcements were associated with greater increases in market valuation although smaller increases were observed for firms in environmentally dirty industries possibly indicative of market skepticism this linkage between environmental management and financial performance can be used by both researchers and practitioners as one measure of the benefits experienced by industry leaders and as one criterion against which to measure investment alternatives

a framework for assessing credit risk in depository institutions toward regulatory reform abstract this paper develops and illustrates a new method for evaluating the credit risk borne by depository institutions that may prove to be an important element in a regulatory mechanism sensitive to risk in our framework depository institutions are forced to bear the costs of their risk exposure and hence to internalize this cost when extending loans using various loan portfolios and alternative macroeconomic scenarios we present numerical calculations demonstrating the ability of our framework to capture variations in risk exposure and highlighting the significance of portfolio concentrations these calculations are based on an important new source of information that permits an econometric analysis of loan losses by industry

solvency regulation and the property liability insurance cycle i introduction the supply of property liability insurance in the u s appears to be extraordinarily cyclical liability insurance lines in particular fluctuate between soft markets of stable premiums and low returns to insurers and tight markets or insurance crises of rising premiums cut backs on availability and tight limits on coverage the soft markets of the early 1970s and early 1980s were followed in 1975 and late 1984 by sudden premium increases of hundreds of percent for some policies 1 in mid 1987 early july according to some reports the market began to turn around again premiums fell by as much as 40 percent and coverage limits increased up to 500 percent compared to the previous year 2 in a previous paper winter 1988 i addressed the puzzle of why some lines of insurance are apparently so vulnerable to fluctuations when conventional economic theory predicts that premiums will change only one for one with the present value of expected claims this paper examines a specific allegation raised during the most recent insurance crisis that existing regulation of property liability insurance exacerbates market fluctuations the principal enforcement role of state insurance commissions is to monitor the financial condition of insurers commissioners ensure that financial solvency standards are met so that policyholders are protected from the consequences of bankruptcy more precisely the regulations protect state guarantee funds which assume the liabilities of bankrupt insurers the regulators examine a number of financial ratios but the dominant measure of financial leverage is the ratio of the current volume of business to net worth or surplus insurers are restricted by state commissioners from writing more insurance than considered justified by their current net worth in order that realized policy claims can be met even if they turn out to be substantially higher than revenues would cover in determining the ratio of quantity of insurance to net worth regulators face an aggregation problem a sensible measure of the total quantity of insurance sold by a firm does not exist the total number of policies sold for example is meaningless insurance commissioners therefore use premium revenues as a measure of the volume of business historically insurers were allowed a value of two for the ratio of premiums to net worth before attracting the scrutiny of insurance commissioners according to a standard text on insurance published in 1982 for more than 40 years insurance commissioners have used the 2 1 rule as an indicator of the maximum safe premium volume that property and liability insurers might write the rule is that the premium volume should not exceed two times policyholder surplus that is net worth huebner et al 1982 the 2 1 rule was referred to as the kenney rule after the commissioner who first proposed it the standard for a safe premium to net worth ratio has changed over time insurers in most states are now considered to meet solvency requirements when the ratio of premiums to net worth does not exceed three or four as a measure of financial leverage in solvency regulation the premiums to net worth ratio has perverse effects suppose that demand is inelastic and that a supply shock to the market leads to an increase in premiums and hence revenue because the ratio of premiums to net worth has increased regulatory pressures on insurers to maintain safe solvency standards will lead to even tighter supply this regulatory pressure will lead to a further increase in premiums and revenue instead of signalling a more conservative leverage position the ratio of premiums to net worth increases leading to a more negative assessment by the regulator of the insurers financial viability and hence to further pressure to raise premiums

the effect of demand response on purchase intention of distributed generation evidence from japan participation in demand response dr may affect a consumer s electric consumption pattern through consumption load curtailment a shift in the consumption timing or increasing the utilization of distributed generation dg this paper attempts to provide empirical evidence of dr s effect on dg adoption by household consumers by using the original internet survey data of 5442 household respondents in japan conducted in january 2015 we focus on the effect of the time of use tou tariff on the purchasing intention of photovoltaic systems pv the empirical results show the following 1 current tou plan users have stronger pv purchase intentions than the other plan users 2 respondents who are familiar with the dr program have relatively higher purchase intentions compared with their counterparts and 3 when the respondents are requested to assume participation in the virtual tou plan designed for the survey which resembles plans currently available through major companies 1 2 of the households have decided to purchase pv in addition we provide calculations of tou s impacts on the official pv adoption and emissions reduction targets and discuss policy recommendations to increase recognitions and participations in tou programs

optimal bank reorganization policies and the pricing of federal deposit insurance optimal dynamic regulatory policies for closing ailing banks and for deposit insurance premia are derived as functions of the rate of flow of bank deposits and interest rate on deposits the economy s risk free interest rate and the regulators bank audit administration costs under competitive conditions the threshold assets to deposits ratio below which a bank should be optimally closed is shown to be greater than or equal to one optimal deposit insurance premia and probabilities of bank closure are shown to be nondecreasing in the bank s risk on investment and nonincreasing in the bank s current assets to deposits ratio should regulatory agencies close reorganize an ailing federally insured financial institution if so when the recent record rate of failures of savings and loans associations s ls has renewed the urgency of this question the regulatory agencies are empowered but not required to reorganize financial institutions that are statutorily insolvent i e have zero or negative regulatory net worth recently regulators have in many instances permitted insolvent financial institutions to remain in operation 2 also while debating on the increase of the proposed funding of the federal deposit insurers the u s congress argued whether it would be desirable and if so when to close more s ls thus when regulators should close a troubled financial institution has become a major question of bank regulatory policy while the existing academic literature provides powerful insights into the structure and pricing of the insurers liability this literature offers very little guidance regarding the timing of bank reorganizations 3 indeed to the best of our knowledge the value of the federal

a contingent claim analysis of a regulated depository institution abstract a model of financial intermediation to determine the market value of bank equity deposits and deposit insurance is developed the implicit equilibrium interest rate on deposits is derived and analyzed three types of risks are considered in the model interest rate risk financial risk and default risk the effect of different regulatory measures such as capital adequacy reserve and liquidity requirements deposit insurance and interest rate ceilings is analyzed and their impact on the bank behavior is also assessed moreover we investigate the interactions among these measures to determine which are dominant under alternative circumstances and which are redundant

a reexamination of the over or under pricing of deposit insurance this study shows how fair deposit insurance premia can be calculated using data on bank stock prices interest rate movements and income and balance sheet accounts fair insurance premia are estimat ed under the alternative assumptions that the fdic provides either a limited term variable rate or unlimited term insurance cont ract to banks the paper s results suggest that for nearly all of the large commerical banks in the sample the actual insurance premium c harged by the fdic falls between the bounds of fair limited term and unlimited term insurance premia copyright 1987 by ohio state university press

demand side management in china the context of china s power industry reform abstract the reform of china s power industry has lasted for decades while the implementation of demand side management dsm in china is still in its infancy in this paper we present a comprehensive study of the dsm and demand response dr programs in china under the context of china s power industry reform we first present a brief introduction of the background including the socio economic status and geographical location of china the energy policy of china china s power industry the smart grids and microgrid in china and the reform of china s power industry then based on the introduction of dsm and the analysis of dsm practices in some countries we discuss the development status of dsm and the reform of electricity pricing in china finally the main challenges in five aspects for the future development of dsm programs in china are proposed and discussed these challenges include customer understanding and participation advanced metering infrastructure ami and information and communication technology ict pricing mechanisms and optimal scheduling big data analytics based decision support as well as government regulations and market policies

categorization of residential electricity consumption as a basis for the assessment of the impacts of demand response actions abstract in a smart er grid context the existence of dynamic tariffs and bidirectional communications will simultaneously allow and require an active role from the end user concerning electricity management however the residential end user will not be always available to manage energy resources and decide based on price signals and preferences needs the best response actions to implement or the best usage of the electricity produced locally therefore energy management systems are required to monitor consumption generation storage and to make the best decisions according to input signals and the user s needs and preferences the design of adequate algorithms to be implemented in those systems require the prior characterization of domestic electricity demand and categorization of loads according to availability typical usage patterns working cycles and technical constraints automated demand response actions must be tailored and chosen according to this previous analysis of load characteristics in this paper a characterization of household electricity consumption is presented and an operational categorization of end use loads is proposed the existing potential for demand response to a diversified set of management actions is described and a tool to assess the impact of implementing several actions with different rates of penetration of energy management systems is presented the results obtained show the potential savings for the end user and expected changes in the load diagram with a decrease of the aggregated peak electricity demand and a smoothed valley

to steal or not to steal firm attributes legal environment and valuation data on corporate governance and disclosure practices reveal wide within country variation that decreases with the strength of investors legal protection a simple model identifies three firm attributes related to that variation investment opportunities external financing and ownership structure using firm level governance and transparency data from 27 countries we find that all three firm attributes are related to the quality of governance and disclosure practices and firms with higher governance and transparency rankings are valued higher in stock markets all relations are stronger in less investor friendly countries demonstrating that firms adapt to poor legal environments to establish efficient governance practices

a note on the existence and characteristics of fair deposit insurance premia abstract this paper treats the fair deposit insurance premium as a fixed point of the value of insurance per dollar of deposits using the standard model of the value of deposit insurance and treating the premium as an up front cost to a bank it is shown that the fixed point premium exists and is unique under fairly general conditions it is shown that ignoring the premium as an up front cost may lead to underestimation of the fair premium in addition the fixed point model suggests that premium rates should vary with the ratio of deposits to total liabilities

designing more cost reflective electricity network tariffs with demand charges abstract there is growing policy and regulatory interest in better aligning electricity tariffs with the cost of providing network services to customers to provide a better price signal for economically efficient use of the network and reduce cross subsidies between different customers given that network costs are significantly driven by peak capacity requirements many proposals for more cost reflective tariffs include a demand capacity component however there are many complexities in the implementation of such tariffs this paper first presents a method to visually assess how cost reflective a particular demand charge network tariffs is we apply it to a typical demand charge network tariff proposal within the australian national electricity market and actual consumption data of 3876 sydney households and find it to have low cost reflectivity in terms of aligning customer bills with their contribution towards network peak demand such misalignment has potentially significant adverse impacts on the economic efficiency of such tariffs an issue that does not appear to have received sufficient policy attention we then use this assessment method to demonstrate how a demand charge tariff structure can be adjusted to make it significantly more cost reflective this method can be applied to any tariff that includes a capacity based component

move it how an electric contest motivates households to shift their load profile abstract photovoltaic systems generate electricity around noon when many homes are empty conversely residential electricity demand peaks in the evening when production from solar sources is impossible based on a randomized control trial we assess the effectiveness of alternative demand response measures aimed at mitigating these imbalances more precisely through information feedback and financial rewards we encourage households to shift electricity consumption toward the middle of the day using a difference in differences approach we find that financial incentives induce a significant increase of the relative consumption during the period of the day when most solar radiation takes place information feedback however pushes households to decrease overall consumption but induces no load shifting

the corporate social performance financial performance link strategic managers are consistently faced with the decision of how to allocate scarce corporate resources in an environment that is placing more and more pressures on them recent scholarship in strategic management suggests that many of these pressures come directly from sources associated with social issues in management rather than traditional arenas of strategic management using a greatly improved source of data on corporate social performance this paper reports the results of a rigorous study of the empirical linkages between financial and social performance corporate social performance csp is found to be positively associated with prior financial performance supporting the theory that slack resource availability and csp are positively related csp is also found to be positively associated with future financial performance supporting the theory that good management and csp are positively related 1997 by john wiley sons ltd