title: Impact Investing: Can impact be achieved in public markets?

authors: Pearson, Stuart

subjects: Additionality

abstract: Risk-adjusted returns are no longer the sole metric investors consider. A growing number of investors are now wanting to know that their capital is having a positive impact for society and the planet, as well as risk-adjusted returns. The existing options tend to focus on being ‘less bad’ and have mixed efficacy in delivering comparable risk-adjusted returns. In addition, they are unlikely to create any additional positive impact than otherwise would have been achieved without the investor’s capital, so why invest in them at all? This research examines an emerging investment strategy that has the potential to deliver additional positive impact as well as excess financial returns by repurposing a mechanism stigmatized by corporate raiders and private equity firms historically, that mechanism being shareholder activism. Our dataset of companies, who have been targets of such a strategy, exhibit materially positive excess stock returns over the shorter-term event window. Results suggest that this strategy is more effective when the target companies are smaller or when the investor acquires a larger shareholding. Importantly, the target companies across all subsamples experience a material uplift in environmental, social, and governance scores in the year after the activism event, suggesting success in creating additionality of impact.

text: Impact Investing: Can impact be achieved in public markets? Risk-adjusted returns are no longer the sole metric investors consider. A growing number of investors are now wanting to know that their capital is having a positive impact for society and the planet, as well as risk-adjusted returns. The existing options tend to focus on being ‘less bad’ and have mixed efficacy in delivering comparable risk-adjusted returns. In addition, they are unlikely to create any additional positive impact than otherwise would have been achieved without the investor’s capital, so why invest in them at all? This research examines an emerging investment strategy that has the potential to deliver additional positive impact as well as excess financial returns by repurposing a mechanism stigmatized by corporate raiders and private equity firms historically, that mechanism being shareholder activism. Our dataset of companies, who have been targets of such a strategy, exhibit materially positive excess stock returns over the shorter-term event window. Results suggest that this strategy is more effective when the target companies are smaller or when the investor acquires a larger shareholding. Importantly, the target companies across all subsamples experience a material uplift in environmental, social, and governance scores in the year after the activism event, suggesting success in creating additionality of impact.

year: 2023

title: Proving the existence of solutions in logical arithmetic

authors: Cleary, John G.

subjects: computer science

abstract: Logical arithmetic is a logically correct technique for real arithmetic in Prolog which uses constraints over interval representations for its implementation.  Four problems with the technique are considered: answers are conditional and uninformative; iterative computations may lead to unboundedly large constraint networks; it is difficult and ineffective to deal with negation; and computing extrema is often not effective.  A solution to these problems is proposed in the form of "existential intervals" which record the existence of a solution to a set of constraints within an interval.  It is shown how to operate on existential intervals and how they solve the four problems.

text: Proving the existence of solutions in logical arithmetic Logical arithmetic is a logically correct technique for real arithmetic in Prolog which uses constraints over interval representations for its implementation.  Four problems with the technique are considered: answers are conditional and uninformative; iterative computations may lead to unboundedly large constraint networks; it is difficult and ineffective to deal with negation; and computing extrema is often not effective.  A solution to these problems is proposed in the form of "existential intervals" which record the existence of a solution to a set of constraints within an interval.  It is shown how to operate on existential intervals and how they solve the four problems.

year: 1993-10

title: Introduction to special section on Māori culture and education.

authors: Bishop, Russell

subjects: language policy

abstract: An introduction is presented in which the editor discusses various reports within the issue on topics including the need for coordinated language policy, the Treaty of Waitangi, and monoculturalism.

text: Introduction to special section on Māori culture and education. An introduction is presented in which the editor discusses various reports within the issue on topics including the need for coordinated language policy, the Treaty of Waitangi, and monoculturalism.

year: 2002