Tropical forest change is driven by demand in distant markets. Equally, investments in tropical forest landscapes by capital originating from distant emerging economies are on the rise. Understanding how forest outcomes vary by investment source is therefore becoming increasingly important. We empirically evaluate the relationship between investment source and deforestation from 2000 to 2010 in...

Can formal contracts help resolving the holdup problem? We address this important question by studying the holdup problem in repeated transactions between a seller and a buyer in which the seller can make relation-specific investments in each period. In contrast to previous findings, we demonstrate that writing a simple fixed-price contract based on product delivery is of value even when relati...

The aim of this paper is to justify the use of constant mix investment strategies as an approximation for periodically rebalanced investment strategies. In Dhaene et al. (2005), general optimization problems are solved in a lognormal framework by deriving convex order bounds based on comonotonicity. The multi-period optimal portfolio selection problems discussed in Dhaene et al. (2005) are solv...

We propose a new investment strategy employing “factor funds” to systematically enhance the mean-variance efficiency of international diversification. Our approach is motivated by the increasing evidence that size (SMB), book-to-market (HML), and momentum (MOM) factors, along with the market factor, adequately describe international stock returns, and by the direct link between investors’ portf...

A windfall of natural resource revenue (or foreign aid) faces government with choices of how to manage public debt, investment, and the distribution of funds for consumption, particularly if the windfall is both anticipated and temporary. We show that the permanent income hypothesis prescription of an ever-lasting increase in consumption financed by borrowing ahead of the windfall and then accu...

Analytics-a new frontier in claims management Insurers are facing a perfect storm, making sustainable profits even more challenging Four key trends are driving this event: ► An increase in the number and severity of natural disasters, which is driving up claims and reinsurance costs; ► Requirements to satisfy new prudential regulations will result in increased capital adequacy requirements; ► V...

Altruism refers to a willingness to benefit others, even at one’s own expense. In contrast, selfishness refers to prioritizing one’s own interests with no consideration for others. However, even if an agent is selfish, he might nevertheless act as if he were altruistic out of selfish concerns triggered when his action is observed; that is, he might seek to feel pride in acting altruistically an...

We begin with some thoughts on how model theory relates to other parts of mathematics, and on the indirect role of Gödel’s incompleteness theorem in this connection. With this in mind we consider in Section 2 the fields of real and p-adic numbers and show how these algebraic objects are understood model-theoretically: theorems of Tarski, Kochen, and Macintyre. This leads naturally to a discussi...

We develop a tractable two-country overlapping-generations model and show that cross-country differences in financial development can explain three recent empirical patterns of international capital flows: Financial capital flows from relatively poor to relatively rich countries, while foreign direct investment flows in the opposite direction; net capital flows go from poor to rich countries; d...

This paper analyzes the effect of the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) on investment income. Policy-makers have devoted substantial time and resources toward increasing the saving rate of low-income households, yet the EITC provides a substantial disincentive for individuals to save and realize investment income. I find a one percent increase in the aftertax return to saving causes a 3.05 percen...