bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Computer Literacy: An Evolving Concept
Authors: Hess Caryl A. 
Published: March 2010

The term “computer literacy” became very popular in the 1980s as a catch phrase describing a new type of understanding. Prior to the phrase's popularity, “literacy” was reserved for the knowledge of basic skills in reading and writing and familiarity with the classical works and great books of ancient and modern cultures. To be literate means to be educated regarding the fundamental or basic ideas, beliefs and methods of communication in society. By applying the term “literacy” to the knowledge of computers, society is signifying that this sort of knowledge is as important to a person's education in contemporary society as knowledge of reading and writing has been in the past (Ringle, 1981).While many people seem to agree that the proliferation of computers and their application in extensive areas of human endeavor require us to take the notion of literacy seriously, there is still no consensus as to how this educational goal should be achieved. The difficulty stems from the fact that there is no universally accepted definition of computer literacy. Until educators are clear about the goal, effective ways to attain the objective of computer literacy will be clouded by confusion.The purpose of this research is to examine the historical evolution of the phrase “computer literacy,” to develop a chronological continuum of computer literacy, and to identify several competencies that will likely characterize the computer literate teacher in the 1990s.
BOOK REVIEWS
Authors: Abdi S. Wali 
Published: March 2010

Book reviewed in this article:Möbius and His Band: Mathematics and Astronomy in Nineteenth‐Century Germany, John Fauvel, Raymond Flood, Robin WilsonA Practical Approach to Using Learning Styles in Math Instruction Ruby Bostick Midkiff and Rebecca Davis ThomassonContextual Reality, Tower ChenClassroom Dynamics: Implementing a Technology‐Based Learning Environment, Ellen B. Mandinach and Hugh F. Cline (Educational Testing Service)
Endothelial lipase and reverse cholesterol transport in type 2 diabetes mellitus
Authors: Shiu Sammy WM , Zhou Huali , Wong Ying , Tan Kathryn CB 
Published: March 2010

AbstractAims/Introduction:  Endothelial lipase (EL) plays an important role in high‐density lipoprotein (HDL) metabolism and experimental data suggest that EL might be proatherogenic. We have investigated whether serum EL concentration is associated with changes in serum capacity to induce cholesterol efflux and arterial stiffness in type 2 diabetes.Materials and Methods:  Serum EL was assayed by ELISA in 172 diabetic patients and 175 controls. The ability of serum to induce cholesterol efflux was measured using a cell culture system and arterial stiffness was determined by measuring pulse wave velocity (PWV) between carotid and femoral arteries.Results:  Diabetic patients had significantly higher C‐reactive protein (CRP) and EL (27.7 ± 16.6 ng/mL vs 24.0 ± 11.3, P < 0.05). Cholesterol efflux to serum mediated through scavenger receptor class B type I was impaired (15.1 ± 2.5%vs 16.7 ± 3.1, respectively, P < 0.01). In controls, serum EL correlated with cholesterol efflux to serum (r = −0.16, P = 0.025), but only a trend was seen in the diabetic patients. Linear regression showed that in controls, HDL, serum EL and waist circumference were major independent determinants of cholesterol efflux; whereas in the diabetic cohort, the major independent determinants of cholesterol efflux were HDL, CRP and age. PWV was increased in the diabetic patients (P < 0.01), but no association between serum EL and PWV was seen in either groups.Conclusions:  Serum EL was increased in diabetic patients, but impaired serum capacity to induce cholesterol efflux in these patients was mainly related to low HDL and subclinical inflammation. (J Diabetes Invest, doi: 10.1111/j.2040‐1124.2010.00016.x, 2010)
Corporate Cash Holdings and Tax‐induced Debt Financing
Authors: Jung Kooyul , Kim Byungmo 
Published: March 2010

AbstractStockpiling of liquid assets in cash decreases the possibility of a firm's falling into financial distress and becoming technically insolvent. Such stockpiling provides incentives for firms to increase their leverage because cash holdings decrease potential financial distress costs and increase target debt‐equity ratios. This paper examines whether firms' excessive cash holdings enhance an explanatory power of the marginal tax rate for the change in leverage. The results show that high‐taxed firms with excess cash are more likely to increase their leverage. The increase in leverage is not to discipline the entrenched managers' discretionary use of free cash, and the excess cash is not simply for planned future investments either. We also find that the results still hold even when the financial crisis periods are excluded and that the debt financing behavior changes with the level of statutory tax rate. These findings provide evidence that firms with sufficient cash are more likely to take advantage of interest tax shields.
Studies on Information Asymmetry, Price Manipulation and Investor Performances*
Authors: Yoo Jin 
Published: March 2010

AbstractIn this paper, we examine optimal investment strategies of informed traders in an equity market, where well informed and not so well informed traders as well as noise traders coexist. Naturally, less informed traders follow more informed counterparts because of informational advantage. On the other hand, more informed investors can take advantage of less informed investors' trust by manipulating prices. Often, by inflating or deflating the equity prices, more informed traders make greater profits than less informed traders do. Over time, less informed traders become aware of the others' strategy, thereby a long‐term equilibrium is to be attained, in which the more informed mixes his sincere and cheating strategy, and the less informed mixes his trust and distrust strategy. This model can be especially useful in understanding emerging markets, where foreign investors, local institutions, and local individuals are often characterized as more informed, less informed, and noise traders, respectively.
Risk Measurement and Investment Myopia in Hedge Fund Management*
Authors: Li Xun , Wu Zhenyu 
Published: March 2010

AbstractLo (2001) surveys the literature on risk management for hedge funds, and recommends a dynamic and transparent risk measurement for the evolutionary hedge fund industry by citing Albert Einstein's comments. This study is to explore the feasibility and advantages of adopting a dynamic absolute‐deviation risk measurement in hedge fund management. It does not only provide an optimal asset allocation strategy both analytically and numerically in a dynamic mean‐absolute deviation (DMAD) setting for hedge fund managers, but also contributes to mitigation of potential investment myopia problems in their risk‐taking behaviors. It sheds light on risk management and investor‐fund manager agency conflicts in the hedge fund industry and adds to the literature on portfolio selection and optimal asset allocation.
CEO Power and Firm Performance: A Test of the Life‐Cycle Theory*
Authors: Harjoto Maretno A. , Jo Hoje 
Published: March 2010

AbstractWe examine the effects of corporate governance and monitoring mechanisms on the choice of board leadership structure and the value and performance of a firm according to the firm's life‐cycle changes. Employing a large and extensive sample during the 1995–2005 period, we find that the board leadership choice is associated with governance characteristics including board independence, managerial entrenchment, and CEO abilities measured by CEO age and CEO tenure after controlling for various firm characteristics. In addition, after correcting for the endogenous treatment effect, our results show that while CEO dualities‐i.e., CEO‐chair of the board or CEO‐nomination committee member — or CEO pluralities‐i.e., CEO‐chair of the board, and a chair or a member of the nomination committee‐positively influences firm value and performance in firm's early stage, CEO duality or CEO pluralities adversely influences firm value and operating performance in firm's late stage. These results are supportive of the life‐cycle theory, suggesting that CEO power concentration is beneficial in firms' early stage, but harmful in firm's late stage at which firms require check‐and‐balance as opposed to dictatorship. In addition, the impact of external monitoring by institutional ownership on firm value and performance is more effective than those of independent board and blockholders' ownership while the impact of Sarbane‐Oxley Act on firm performance is not significant.
Foreign Bond Investment and the Yield Curve*
Authors: Suh Sangwon 
Published: March 2010

AbstractMarket participants have argued that the yield curve in the Korean bond market has been increasingly flattened since 2007 caused partly by foreign investors' rapidly growing investment in Korean bond market, motivated to take advantage of market imperfections seeking riskless profit making opportunities. To analyze how much foreign bond investments have affected the bond yields in Korea, in this paper I utilize a stylized affine term structure model that has an observable factor related with foreign bond investments as well as latent factors. I find supportive evidence for the argument by market participants that investment by foreigners has been an important factor behind the flattening of the yield curve since 2007. Taking out the effects of foreign bond investment on the yields, I observe much a weakened yield flattening phenomenon.
The Impact of Trade Characteristics on Stock Return Volatility: Evidence from the Australian Stock Exchange*
Authors: Frino Alex , Segara Reuben , Zheng Hui 
Published: March 2010

AbstractThis study examines the impact of trade characteristics on stock return volatility. Using a sample of transaction data from the Australian Stock Exchange, the trading frequency of medium sized trades is found to have the greatest impact on stock return volatility. The result lends support to the stealth trading hypothesis (Barclay and Warner, 1993). After controlling for trading frequency, the average trade size is found to have little explanatory power on price volatility. Stock return volatility is more sensitive to buyer‐initiated trades than seller‐initiated trades, especially so for buyer‐initiated medium sized trades. This finding is consistent with the assertion that information effects are stronger for buys than for sells (Chan and Lakonishok, 1993).
Negative Momentum Profit in Korea and its Sources*
Authors: Chae Joon , Eom Yunsung 
Published: March 2010

AbstractTo analyze the negative momentum profit in Korea, we further divide the decomposition of Lo and MacKinlay (1990) into winners' and losers' auto‐ and cross‐serial covariances. We find that the negative autocovariance and the positive cross‐serial covariance in Lo and MacKinlay's decomposition are asymmetric between winners and losers. The negative autocovariance is mainly from losers and the positive cross‐serial covariance mainly between past winners and current losers. By investigating time‐series characteristics of auto‐(cross‐serial) covariances, we cannot observe any systematic change of auto‐(cross‐serial) covariances in the momentum period. Based upon the evidence in this paper, we argue that positive cross‐serial covariance between past winners and current losers seems to be an important driving force behind the negative momentum profit in Korea. Therefore, investors' underreaction to market‐wide information would be plausible explanation of the negative momentum profit.
The Impact of Day‐Trading on Volatility and Liquidity*
Authors: Chung Jay M. , Choe Hyuk , Kho Bong‐Chan 
Published: March 2010

AbstractWe examine day‐trading activities for 540 stocks traded on the Korea Stock Exchange using transactions data for the period from 1999 to 2000. Our cross‐sectional analysis reveals that day‐traders prefer lower‐priced, more liquid, and more volatile stocks. By estimating various bivariate VAR models using minute‐by‐minute data, we find that greater day‐trading activity leads to greater return volatility and that the impact of a day‐trading shock dissipates gradually within an hour. Past return volatility also positively affects future day‐trading activity. We also find that past day‐trading activity negatively affects bid‐ask spreads, and past bid‐ask spreads negatively affect future day‐trading activity. Finally, we find that day‐traders use short‐term contrarian strategies and their order imbalance affects future returns positively. This result is consistent with a cyclical behavior of day‐traders who concentrate their buy or sell trades at the bottom or peak of the short‐term price cycles, respectively.
Stress Testing of Financial Industries: A Simple New Approach to Joint Stress Testing of Korean Banking, Securities, and Non‐Life Insurance Industries*
Authors: Chang Kook‐Hyun , Kim Myung‐Jig 
Published: March 2010

AbstractThis paper proposes a simple joint stress testing model useful in studying the effects of specific stress scenarios on a financial sector. In doing so, we adopt the principal component analysis (PCA) as a main device to interpret various financial information contained in figures and numbers on a financial company. We repeat the principal component analysis across different levels from individual company to a financial industry, and eventually to a financial sector as a whole to derive a financial sector risk index. We then link the sector risk index with stress macro variables, which constitute a much simpler task than devising individual models for each financial components. Once a relationship is established, a joint stress test is conducted by repeating PCA conversely. As a sample of stress scenario in the paper, we use the case of the 2003 credit card distress. We find that securities industry is more sensitive to market stresses than two other industries‐bank and insurance‐and that financial institutions in such a stress‐sensitive industry are, consequently, more affected by the stresses than those in other industries. Despite the simplicity of the proposed model, this model is expected to provide substantial information, particularly for financial supervisors without having to build a complicated joint stress testing model.
Financial Reporting by Business Groups and the Market's Ex ante Valuation of Tunneling: Evidence from Korean Chaebols*
Authors: Kim Kwon‐Jung 
Published: March 2010

AbstractThis study examines how the Korean stock market reacts to the release of group‐level financial statements by Korean business groups (chaebols). I find that chaebol firms that perform relatively well (measured by ROE) within their group but whose controlling shareholders have low levels of cash‐flow rights experience negative price reactions particularly when their group ROE is low. In contrast, chaebol firms whose controlling shareholders have high levels of cash‐flow rights do not experience negative price reactions even when their group ROE is negative. These findings are consistent with the market anticipating that “tunneling” will occur in low‐cash‐flow‐right firms, but not in high‐cash‐flow‐right firms, to provide support to poorly performing firms. To corroborate these results, I also examine whether tunneling actually occurs within one year after the group‐earnings announcements. I find that in many cases, resources of low‐cash‐flow‐right firms with relatively good performance are actually transferred to poorly performing firms (mostly, unlisted firms) through purchasing new equity of poorly performing firms. Moreover, the magnitude of negative price reactions at the time of group‐earnings announcements is significantly related to the magnitude of resources transferred to poorly performing firms.
An Importance Sampling Method to Evaluate Value‐at‐Risk for Assets with Jump Risk*
Authors: Wang Ren‐Her , Lin Shih‐Kuei , Fuh Cheng‐Der 
Published: March 2010

AbstractRisk management is an important issue when there is a catastrophic event that affects asset price in the market such as a sub‐prime financial crisis or other financial crisis. By adding a jump term in the geometric Brownian motion, the jump diffusion model can be used to describe abnormal changes in asset prices when there is a serious event in the market. In this paper, we propose an importance sampling algorithm to compute the Value‐at‐Risk for linear and nonlinear assets under a multi‐variate jump diffusion model. To be more precise, an efficient computational procedure is developed for estimating the portfolio loss probability for linear and nonlinear assets with jump risks. And the titling measure can be separated for the diffusion and the jump part under the assumption of independence. The simulation results show that the efficiency of importance sampling improves over the naive Monte Carlo simulation from 7 times to 285 times under various situations. We also show the robustness of the importance sampling algorithm by comparing it with the EVT‐Copula method proposed by Oh and Moon (2006).
Do Controlling Shareholders Manage the Timing of Information Disclosure When Making a Stock Gift?*
Authors: Jung Woon‐Oh , Park Sung‐Ook 
Published: March 2010

AbstractIn Korea, controlling shareholders in general tend to transfer their shares to their family members or related parties. In this paper, we investigate whether Korean controlling shareholders attempt to influence stock prices by managing the timing of information disclosures when they transfer stocks to related parties as gifts. Because gift taxes are levied based on the average market value of the stock transferred for a certain period known as the valuation period, controlling shareholders may have incentives to depress the stock prices in this period in order to reduce the gift tax. We make a specific conjecture that controlling shareholders may wish to time the disclosure of good news and bad news so that the latter (the former) is released during (outside of) the valuation period for the stock to be transferred. To test this hypothesis we examine the disclosure timing of good and bad news for a sample of 118 gift transactions by 83 firms over the period of 2000–2004. We find that during the valuation period (i.e., the 4‐month period extending over the 2 months before and after the gift transaction) the frequency of good news was considerably lower than in other periods, whereas the frequency of bad news during the valuation period was substantially higher. This result supports the hypothesis that controlling shareholders may delay good news and bring forward bad news in an attempt to influence stock prices during the valuation period. Despite the attempts by controlling shareholders to keep stock prices depressed in the valuation period, we also find that the prices tend to increase after the gift announcement date. We provide some of the potential explanations for the upward price movement subsequent to gift transactions.
Pricing Weather Derivatives using a Predicting Power Time Series Process*
Authors: Chang Chuang‐Chang , Lin Jun‐Biao , Shen Wen‐Min 
Published: March 2010

AbstractThis paper extended the Cao‐Wei (2004, JFM) model to construct a theoretical model for pricing weather derivatives in two significant ways. One adopted a time series model developed by Campbell and Diebold (2005, JASA) to describe the dynamics of temperature. The advantage of using Campbell and Diebold's time series model to describe the temperature dynamics is that it can not only take the conditional mean of temperature coming from trend, seasonal, and cyclical components but also allow for the conditional variance dynamics. The other purpose of this paper is to use an extended power utility function, instead of Cao and Wei's constant proportional risk aversion (CPRA) utility function. The extended power utility function could exhibit decreasing, constant, and increasing relative risk aversion. Eventually, we find that the prices of weather derivatives can be determined by weather conditions, discount factors, and forward premiums. Additionally, these sources have close relations with some risk aversion parameters. Furthermore, the results are consistent with Cao and Wei's condition under some specific parameter assumptions.
The Influence of Corporate Governance on Corporate Performance and Value after Changing the CEO: Evidence from Taiwan*
Authors: Huang Hsu‐Huei , Chan Min‐Lee 
Published: March 2010

AbstractCan corporate performance be improved by changing the CEO? The answer to this question may vary from country to country or from firm to firm. This study proposes that, generally speaking, firms in countries with a better corporate governance environment or firms with better governing mechanisms are more likely to see improvements in performance after a change in their CEOs than those without this environment or these mechanisms. To test this corporate governance hypothesis, we compared corporate performance and value measures of 155 listed companies in Taiwan that had their CEOs replaced between 1996 and 2002. At the national level, we found that in Taiwan corporate performance did not generally improve by merely replacing the CEO. At the firm level, companies with better corporate governance in terms of ownership structure and board structure were found to have better performance and higher corporate value after changing the CEO, and they were also found to have a better net improvement in performance.
Nonlinear Dynamic Relations Between Equity Return and Equity Fund Flow: Korean Market Empirical Evidence*
Authors: Kim Sei‐Wan , Kim Youngmin 
Published: March 2010

AbstractThis research studies the dynamic relationship between equity returns and equity fund flows by incorporating nonlinear properties of the two variables. Nonlinear estimation based on a smooth transition autoregressive model reveals results different from those previously reported based on a linear relationship. Our empirical results find that there is significant mutual Granger causality between equity returns and equity fund flows. In addition, by introducing the dividend yield effect, significant Granger causality is also found between the three variables. This can be interpreted as meaning that demand for equities is downward sloping for both the price pressure effect and the information effect. Relatively fast regime switching and dynamic instability show that stock investment through equity funds is mostly short‐horizon‐oriented investment.
Association Between Accounting Conservatism and Analysts’ Forecast Inefficiency*
Authors: Pae Jinhan , Thornton Daniel B. 
Published: March 2010

AbstractWe find that analysts’ earnings forecasts do not fully impound the implications of accounting conservatism. Forecast optimism is negatively associated with the magnitude of beginning‐of‐year balance sheet reserves (BSR), which are associated with conservative accounting in prior years. However, this result vanishes once we allow for the negative association, documented in several prior studies, between BSR and Basu’s asymmetric timeliness measure of conservatism [Journal of Accounting and Economics 24 (1997) 3]. After controlling for this association, we find that forecasters’ under‐reaction to bad versus good news is negatively associated with the magnitude of BSR. We obtain similar results after allowing for the positive association between asymmetric timeliness and Khan and Watts’ C_Score [Journal of Accounting and Economics 48 (2009) 132]. Therefore, our results are consistent with a subtle form of inefficiency of forecasts with respect to accounting conservatism; that is, analysts do not fully appreciate that the earnings of companies with lower BSR or higher C_Scores are likely to be both: (i) lower relative to forecast; and (ii) more asymmetrically timely than the earnings of companies exhibiting higher BSR or lower C_Scores.