2,167 research outputs found
The Behavior of International Stock Market Excess Returns in an Increasingly Integrated World
No full textThis chapter studies the behavior of international (i.e., emerging and advanced) stock market excess returns, both at the country and sector level, in a dynamic and globally integrated context. A preliminary analysis confirms that emerging stock markets have compensated international investors with generous excess returns and tend to be highly unstable. In addition, the correlation between international stock market excess returns is increasing over time. Preliminary statistics also suggest that emerging stock market excess returns have been largely influenced by the domestic shocks of the late 1990s and early 2000s (i.e., emerging crises). In contrast to existing empirical findings, this chapter shows that financial market liberalizations do not necessarily imply economic integration. Using the R 2 of a multi-(. artificial) model as a robust measure of financial integration and the trade-to-GDP ratio as a measure of real integration, it is shown that (i) there is a delay between financial market liberalizations and de facto integration; (ii) international stock markets are increasingly integrated; and (iii) average excess returns rise as de facto integration rises. The empirical findings of this chapter might have strong implications for the estimation of the cost of capital and the implementation of international portfolio diversification strategies
Economic growth and poverty traps in sub-Saharan Africa: The role of education and TFP shocks
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Research in Economics
Volume 67, Issue 3, September 2013, Pages 226-242
Economic growth and poverty traps in sub-Saharan Africa: The role of education and TFP shocks (Article)
Cazzavillan, G.a , Donadelli, M.b , Persha, L.c
a Department of Economics, Ca' Foscari University of Venice, Venice, Italy
b Department of Economics and Finance, LUISS Guido Carli, Viale Romania 32, 00197 Rome, Italy
c Department of Geography, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, NC, United States
View references (37)
Abstract
This paper investigates the ". education-total factor productivity trade-off" in explaining income per worker differences between sub-Saharan (unlucky) and G7 (lucky) economies. First, we examine the dynamics of average years of schooling (i.e. education), capital per worker, income per worker, and total factor productivity (TFP) across sub-Saharan and G7 countries. We confirm that physical capital and education levels partially explain income per worker differences between lucky and unlucky economies. Second, we undertake a novel examination of the impact of technology shocks on income per worker, with the goal of understanding the role of technology variation in causing cross-country income per worker differences, and as a potential contributor to overall slow growth in the sub-Saharan region. In a vector autoregressive (VAR) framework, we show that the impact of ". ad hoc" TFP shocks on income per worker is larger in unlucky economies than in lucky ones. We observe that average TFP volatility in the "unlucky world" is eight times higher than in the "G7 world". We argue that the order of magnitude of the impact heavily depends on the level of the TFP volatility. Last, we suggest that the documented differences in the amount of physical capital and in the productivity of human capital between these two regions add conceptual support for the existence of poverty traps for sub-Saharan Africa
Insights into the tumor suppressor KCASH2: new functions and mechanisms of regulation
No full textMedulloblastoma (MB) is the most common malignant childhood brain tumor. About 30% of all MBs belong to the I molecular subgroup, characterized by constitutive activation of the Sonic Hedgehog (Hh) pathway. The Hh pathway is involved in several fundamental processes during embryogenesis and in adult life and its deregulation may lead to cerebellar tumorigenesis. Indeed, Hh activity must be maintained via a complex network of activating and repressor signals.
One of these repressor signals is KCASH2, belonging to the KCASH family of protein, which acts as negative regulators of the Hedgehog signaling pathway during cerebellar development and differentiation. KCASH proteins possess a well conserved N-terminal BTB domain but an heterogenous C-terminus, suggesting the presence of peculiar functions or different mechanisms of individual KCASHs functional regulation.
In order to better characterize the physiologic role and modulation mechanisms of KCASH2, we have searched through a proteomic approach for new KCASH2 interactors, identifying Potassium Channel Tetramerization Domain Containing 15 (KCTD15) and Mitotic Arrest Deficient2-like 1 (MAD2).
KCTD15 is able to directly interact with KCASH2, through its BTB/POZ domain. This interaction leads to increase KCASH2 stability which implies a reduction of the Hh pathway activity and a reduction of Hh-dependent MB cells proliferation. Here, we report the identification of KCTD15 as a novel player in the complex network of regulatory proteins which modulate Hh pathway, this could be a promising new target for therapeutic approach against MB.
MAD2 is the main player in the spindle assembly complex (SAC), essential for chromosomal stability during cell mitosis, preventing defected cellular divisions that may lead to aneuploidy. Nowadays, no mechanisms have been provided for the MAD2 regulation, although it has been suggested that MAD2 may be degraded following ubiquitination by an unknown E3 ligase. Our work fills this gap, identifying in Cul3-KCASH2 the E3 ligase involved in MAD2 degradation process. Our data suggested that KCASH2 overexpression, affecting MAD2 protein levels, alters SAC formation during cell cycle, promoting mitotic defects that may give rise to chromosomal aberration and aneuploidy. The discovery of a mechanism able to modulate MAD2 protein levels and, indirectly, SAC checkpoint functionality and cell cycle progression may have important implications both in therapeutic approaches directed to the reconstitution of a normal SAC function and in approaches aiming to increase chromosomal instability to a level not sustainable by tumor cells, leading to their death.
Finally, we have investigated the KCASH2 transcriptional regulation aimed to discover new potential therapeutics mechanisms for all that tumor types in which KCASH2 is low expressed. We have analyzed its proximal promoter region and performed bioinformatics analyses in order to identify putative transcription factors involved in KCASH2 regulation. Here, we have identified SP1, considered unanimously a hallmark of cancer, as a key transcriptional regulator that is involved in KCASH2 expression modulation in different cancers.
The work presented here draw a more complex, although not yet complete, picture of the biological role of KCASH2, unveiling its additional functions as a new putative “guardian” of genomic stability and identifying two novel mechanism of regulation of its expression in KCTD15 and SP1
Is there heterogeneity in financial integration dynamics? Evidence from country and industry emerging market equity indexes
No full textThis paper examines the dynamics of the financial integration process across equity markets in one global emerging region (Emerging) and three emerging sub-regions (Asia, Eastern Europe, Latin America) over the last two decades. The proportion of total variation in individual excess returns explained by the first principal component serves as a robust measure of integration. Financial integration is measured in the "national equity market" (market) and in ten different "industrial equity markets" (basic materials, consumer goods, consumer services, financials, healthcare, industrials, oil and gas, telecommunications, technology and utilities). We obtain two main results. First, we observe that the level of integration across emerging equity markets in emerging regions is rather low, both at the country and industry level. Second, the shape of the financial integration process is not homogeneous among different industries. Specifically, J-shaped, U-shaped and increasing trends are observed. Overall, our integration numbers and dynamics simultaneously improve portfolio diversification benefits and reduce risk-sharing opportunities. This is supported by a CAPMbased analysis. (C) 2014 Elsevier By. All rights reserved
The Equity Premium Puzzle: Pitfalls in Estimating the Coefficient of Relative Risk Aversion
No full textOn the Role of Liquidity in Emerging Market Stock Prices
No full textThis paper investigates the impact of liquidity on emerging markets' stock prices. Particular attention is given to the estimation of Jensen's alpha and the quantity of risk. Our empirical analysis gives rise to two main issues. The first is related to the presence of an extra premium, i.e. "alpha puzzle". The second is the time-varying component of the quantity of risk, i.e. "beta puzzle". We find that local liquidity factors do not explain the presence of positive and statistically significant alphas. This puzzle is solved by means of transaction costs. In addition, we show that global liquidity factors, such as VIX and Open Interest, statistically affect the market price of risk. Our empirical finding proves the time varying nature of the global risk factors. Finally, we argue that standard asset pricing models cannot solve the two puzzles simultaneously. © 2012 University of Venice
Innovation Dynamics and Fiscal Policy: Implications for Growth, Asset Prices, and Welfare
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Does financial integration affect real exchange rate volatility and cross-country equity market returns correlation?
No full textExisting empirical studies show that financial integration affects the behavior of average excess returns, cross-country equity market returns (EMR) correlations and real exchange rate (RER) volatility. We employ a recently developed two-country model with recursive preferences, frictionless and complete markets and highly correlated long-run innovations to examine whether full financial integration (i.e. full risk-sharing) affects the US-Canada EMR correlation and the US RER volatility, consistently with existing empirical findings. First, full risk-sharing gives rise to a relatively high RER volatility. Second, it induces very strong positive cross-country EMR correlations. Both quantities are higher than those observed in the US-Canada asset pricing data, and increase as the risk-sharing incentive increases. In contrast, "international consumption quantities" are weakly sensitive to changes in the level of aversion to consumption and utility risk. (C) 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved
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