...United States v. Lopez (1995) Facts In 1992, Alfonso Lopez was carrying a concealed handgun at Edison High School in San Antonio, Texas. He was arrested under a Texas law banning possession of firearms on school premises. The state dropped their charges when federal agents charged Lopez with violating the Gun-Free School Zones Act, which banned firearms on school property. Lopez objected the charges, claiming the act violated the Constitution. The U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas found Lopez guilty and the Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit reversed, holding section 922(q) as invalid. The U.S. appealed to the Supreme Court on a writ of certiorari. Issue Did the Gun-Free School Zones Act of 1990 violate the Commerce Clause by granting Congress excessive power? Rule The Gun-Free School Zones Act of 1990, or section 922(q), banned firearms within 1,000 feet of a public, parochial, or private...
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...process, strategies, problems and solutions. Juan Lopez, who was given the task, put together a forecast of the future cash flows in US dollars for Pagina Amarelas . The data that used in valuation were all in US dollar as this is required by the client, Brasil Investimentos. This may mainly because of two reasons. First, Pagina Amarelas’s business was operating in three major countries within Latin America, which were Argentina, Brazil and Chile. These countries used different currencies and their exchange rates fluctuated seriously in the history. Using US dollar became an effective method to measure the quantity and value generated in different countries. On the other hand, using US dollar followed a more global standard and view that made foreign investors understand better. As Brasil Investimentos conducted this valuation for a sale or restructuring purpose, it is necessary to set a global scandalized valuation in a more international currency such as USD thus comparison and analysis in global market are easier to complete. In that case, funding, financing or transactions can be easily extended to a global base. After anticipating the future cash flows, it is vital to estimate the weighted-average cost of capital(WACC) in order to calculate the present value of the cash flows. By definition, WACC is calculated based on cost of equity and cost of debt associated with their value weighted respectively. However, Lopez found it difficult and inappropriate to estimate a...
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... Mobile Technology: Paving a Way to Organizational Success The invention and revolution of mobile devices Since the beginning of civilization, men have discovered ways to be more efficient. With the discovery of science sprang the creation of electricity. Since then we have been looking for more innovative ways to invent things that make our lives more comfortable. For example, the first car was invented in the 1700s and has come a long way since then. What was once to be considered heavy steel on wheels running on motor oil has revolutionized to a fuel efficient vehicle mostly running off electricity. With the advancements in technology, it is hard to imagine a world without it. Technology has opened many doors that has allowed us to do things people back then can only dream of. One invention that continues to have significant impact on society are mobile devices. Mobile devices are portable systems such as laptops, GPS devices, and cellphones. A great advantage mobile devices present is that is able to bridge gaps between people by allowing...
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...digital profiles of millions of US citizens who have never been accused of any crime. Many showed their dissaproval over this activity. Also, outrage over the Verizon Metadata program revealed by Edward Snowden, resulted in a number of lawsuits being filed, to combat what was viewed as a violation of online privacy rights. Privacy has also been issue on government’s websites. According to several reports, a lot of Federal websites don’t respects the values of Internet privacy. It is a very delicate issue considering the amount of information the government contains. An additional issue that we can make a note of with the government is how they try to get information from companies on their customers. Several years ago, this happened to Northwest Airlines when they received all information on their customers. They are trying to access records of citizens and the right the government has to get these records is an enormous issue in web...
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...successes and failures in the international environment. It also will look at reasons behind the failures in relation to culture, using the venture into the world’s third largest retail market, Germany as the main focus for the essay. Firstly, this essay will look at culture and some theories that surround it and also look at different dimensions that make up culture. The definition of culture according to the Oxford Dictionary (1992) is: “the arts and other manifestations of human intellectual achievement regarded collectively or a refined understanding or appreciation of culture”. The theory that has been chosen to outline culture is Geert Hofstede’s five dimensions. The reason Hofstede’s theory has been used as an example in this case is because of the extensive research that he has put into developing his theories, as well as its relevance to the Wal-Mart failure in Germany. Between the years of 1967 and 1973, while Hofstede was working at international company IBM as a psychologist, he did a survey of over 100,000 employees in 40 different countries. From these results he was able to come up with four dimensions that can help people to understand the intercultural differences within regions and between counties. The four dimensions that Hofstede came...
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...with one or more uncontrolled toxic waste sites, incinerators or major landfills. A recent Greenpeace study found that minorities make up twice as large a population share in communities with these unwanted sites as in communities without them. In 1980 the average minority population near a landfill or hazardous waste facility was about 22%; in 1994 it was 36%. I. INTRODUCTION People of color in the United State and around the world are subjected to a disproportionately high level of environmental health risk in their neighborhoods and on their jobs. Minorities, who tend to be poorer and more disadvantaged that other residents, work in the dirtiest jobs where they are exposed to toxic chemicals and other hazards. More often than not they also live in urban ghettos, barrios, reservations and rural poverty pockets that have shockingly high pollution levels and are increasingly the site of unpopular industrial facilities, such as toxic waste dumps, landfills, smelters, refineries and incinerators. Environmental Justice combines civil rights with environmental protection to demand a safe, healthy, life-giving environment for everyone. II. ORIGIN In 1987 the Reverend Benjamis Chavis of the United Church of Christ in the United States, demonstrated there is a direct relationship between communities of racial minority or low income and contaminated toxic waste sites. With the study the existence of environmental discrimination against these groups was demonstrated, so that environmental...
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...Position Paper 1 Specialization Vs. Diversification of a City’s Industry: A Case Study on Davao City’s Agriculture and Business Process Outsourcing economy Introduction With a thrust to enhance its position as an economic magnate in the Southern Philippines, there has been debate on the issue wether Davao City government and private sector broaden its economy and identify itself towards a different sector or maintain being an agricultural-based economy alone. Initiatives were taken for Davao City to take advantage of the business process outsourcing (BPO) or call center business opportunities as these give the city an edge in a global scale . This paper will argue that a diverse industry for a city’s economy is more stable than a specialized one. In this case, Davao City should be open to new industries that are brought about by technology and global modernization and this is on the contemporary industry of BPOs and technology service. It may seem that investing on this may be a volatile risk for an agriculture-known city, but keeping the City’s diverse industry strong and open to new development in its own respective ways will make the economy more progressing and increase potential for growth (Jacobs, 1969). The proponent shall base its position that a diverse industry is favorable than specializing, by looking at cases with similar economic stance on the two different industry scenario and on theories of related studies on such cases. Background The Davao Region and...
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...------------------------------------------------- Latest version: February 7, 2016 (changes from prior version shown in red) ORF 570 Special Topics in Statistics and Operations Research Course topic: Quantitative Asset Management Transcript title: Special Topics in Statistics and Operations/Quantitative Asset Management Instructor: Frank J. Fabozzi, Ph.D., CFA, Visiting Professor, ORFE Office: 207 in ORFE Building (office shared with Professor Mulvey) Office hours: 4-6pm (this time slot will also be used for presentations on special topics) Classroom: Friend 006 Course description: This course covers asset management focusing on quantitative models applied to equities and bonds (with emphasis on mortgage-backed securities). The quantitative models discussed are asset allocation models and portfolio construction models that include optimization models (mean-variance framework and extensions such as robust portfolio optimization), multi-factor risk models, risk control models, and transaction cost forecasting models. Return attribution models for performance evaluation will be covered. Model risk and model/strategy backtesting will be highlighted. Guest speakers from quantitative asset management firms are scheduled. Determination of final grade: Final exam ………………………………. 40% Design project …………………………… 25% Term paper ………………………………. 25% Problem sets ……………………………… 10% Course material and reading assignments: No textbook is required for the book. Instead...
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...Issues of Concern in the Study of Children’s Literature Translation Elena Xeni Teaching Staff – Language Pedagogy Department of Education, University of Cyprus Summary The present paper focuses on issues of concern in the study of Children‟s Literature Translation (ChLT). Attempting an overview from the years when ChLT was much ignored in the academic and non-academic world to the years that attention is paid to ChLT as a scientific field in its own right, the present paper illustrates issues that have generated intense and ongoing discussions. Issues such as the missionary role of ChLT, the theoretical framework of ChLT, the translator‟s invisibility, low status, profile and royalties, translatability vs. untranslatability, ideology, censorship, manipulation, and ambivalence are visited in this paper. These issues have had a deep impact on key ChLT actors, processes, and products: the child-reader, the translator, the translated text, the translation process, the author, the publisher, etc. The present text is a modest attempt to join efforts with the international community of scholars, translators, authors, children readers, publishers and other parties with an interest in ChLT, so as for the field to be given its merit in Translation, Comparative, Literary and Interdisciplinary Studies and for the translator –who had for long been much invisible and undervalued –to gain the place s/he deserves in history and society. 1. Introductory note It is widely accepted that Children‟s...
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...Journal of Banking & Finance 34 (2010) 1958–1969 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Journal of Banking & Finance journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jbf Underpricing of IPOs: Firm-, issue- and country-specific characteristics Peter-Jan Engelen a,*, Marc van Essen b a b Utrecht University, School of Economics, Utrecht, The Netherlands Erasmus University, Rotterdam School of Management, Rotterdam, The Netherlands a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t Using a large firm-level dataset of 2920 IPOs from 21 countries we examine the impact of country-level institutional characteristics on the underpricing of IPOs. Through hierarchical linear modeling we are able to control for firm-specific and issue-specific characteristics and test whether country-specific institutional characteristics add explanatory power to explain the level of underpricing. Our results show that about 10% of the variation in the level of underpricing is between countries. The quality of a country’s legal framework, as measured by its level of investor protection, the overall quality of its legal system and its level of legal enforcement, reduces the level of underpricing significantly. Ó 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. Article history: Received 4 July 2009 Accepted 6 January 2010 Available online 11 January 2010 JEL classification: G30 G32 G38 K22 Keywords: IPO Underpricing Legal framework Investor protection Multi-level modeling 1. Introduction When companies go public...
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...Agency Problems and Dividend Policies Around the World Rafael La Porta, Florencio Lopez-de-Silanes, Andrei Shleifer and Robert W. Vishny* January 1999 Abstract This paper outlines and tests two agency models of dividends. According to the “outcome” model, dividends are the result of effective pressure by minority shareholders to force corporate insiders to disgorge cash. According to the “substitute” model, insiders interested in issuing equity in the future choose to pay dividends to establish a reputation for decent treatment of minority shareholders. The first model predicts that stronger minority shareholder rights should be associated with higher dividend payouts; the second model predicts the opposite. Tests on a cross-section of 4,000 companies from 33 countries with different levels of minority shareholder rights support the outcome agency model of dividends. The authors are from Harvard University, Harvard University, Harvard University and University of Chicago, respectively. They are grateful to Alexander Aganin for excellent research assistance, and to Lucian Bebchuk, Mihir Desai, Edward Glaeser, Denis Gromb, Oliver Hart, James Hines, Kose John, James Poterba, Roberta Romano, Raghu Rajan, Lemma Senbet, René Stulz, Daniel Wolfenzohn, Luigi Zingales, and two anonymous referees for helpful comments. 2 The so-called dividend puzzle (Black 1976) has preoccupied the attention of financial economists at least since Modigliani and Miller’s (1958, 1961) seminal work...
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...Agency Problems and Dividend Policies Around the World Rafael La Porta, Florencio Lopez-de-Silanes, Andrei Shleifer and Robert W. Vishny* January 1999 Abstract This paper outlines and tests two agency models of dividends. According to the “outcome” model, dividends are the result of effective pressure by minority shareholders to force corporate insiders to disgorge cash. According to the “substitute” model, insiders interested in issuing equity in the future choose to pay dividends to establish a reputation for decent treatment of minority shareholders. The first model predicts that stronger minority shareholder rights should be associated with higher dividend payouts; the second model predicts the opposite. Tests on a cross-section of 4,000 companies from 33 countries with different levels of minority shareholder rights support the outcome agency model of dividends. The authors are from Harvard University, Harvard University, Harvard University and University of Chicago, respectively. They are grateful to Alexander Aganin for excellent research assistance, and to Lucian Bebchuk, Mihir Desai, Edward Glaeser, Denis Gromb, Oliver Hart, James Hines, Kose John, James Poterba, Roberta Romano, Raghu Rajan, Lemma Senbet, René Stulz, Daniel Wolfenzohn, Luigi Zingales, and two anonymous referees for helpful comments. 2 The so-called dividend puzzle (Black 1976) has preoccupied the attention of financial economists at least since Modigliani and Miller’s (1958, 1961) seminal work...
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...Chapter 1 Introduction OBJECTIVES Introduction to the goal of financial management. Competitors to the rule of wealth maximization and their limitations. Factors affecting value creation. Corporate governance around the world. Corporate Financial Management deals with the decisions of a firm related to investment, financing and dividend. To carry on business, a firm invests in tangible assets like plant and machinery, buildings, and intangible assets like goodwill and patents. This comprises the investment decision. These assets don’t come free; one has to pay for them, so a company needs to tap various sources of funds including promoter’s contribution. This forms the financing decision. The investment in assets generates revenues and cash flows for a specific period of time. The managers of the company can either retain cash with the company for further investment or distribute to the owners of the company—the shareholders. This constitutes the dividend decision. In short, a finance manager will be concerned with such financial decisions as: • Which investment/s should the company accept and what are the financial implications of undertaking the same? • How should the company finance those investments? What should be the mix of owners’ contribution— equity and borrowed funds, i.e., debt at any given point in time? • How much of the income generated from operations should be returned to shareholders in the form of dividends and how much is to be retained...
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...conceptual foundations and acquiring psychological skills through classroom teaching/learning consisting of reflective as well as creative engagement in exercises, projects and hands on experiences. The teaching-learning of the programme would be organized through lectures, group discussions, experiential exercises, group projects, presentations, workshops and seminars. Students would be encouraged to connect to real life issues and participate in the programs and practices in the different social context. To this end practicum is incorporated as an important component in most of the papers with hands on training in the use of various research methods such as: laboratory experiments, field experiments, observation, testing, survey, interview, case study. The programme has three components i.e. Discipline 1(DC1), Discipline 2 (DC2) and Application courses (AC). While in DC 1 practicum is a key component, AC follows a modular pattern where hands on training will be provided for developing psychological skills and their applications. Every semester, teaching will be spread over 16 weeks, including 2 weeks for review. Teaching of DC 1 and...
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...Research Study Capital-Market Effects of Corporate Disclosures and Disclosure Regulation Christian Leuz Peter Wysocki June 26, 2006 Commissioned by the Task Force to Modernize Securities Legislation in Canada Christian Leuz Christian Leuz is currently the Professor of Accounting at the University of Chicago, Graduate School of Business. He is also the David G. Booth Faculty Fellow. Prior to this position, Professor Leuz was the Harold Stott Term Assistant Professor in Accounting at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and Fellow at Wharton’s Financial Institution Center. His research interests include transparency and corporate governance, financial disclosure and securities regulation, and the links between the institutions of market economies. Professor Leuz earned his doctoral degree and “Habilitation” at the Goethe University Frankfurt in Germany. His most recent publications have appeared in the Journal of Financial Economics, the Journal of Accounting and Economics and the Journal of Accounting Research. He is an Associate Editor of the Journal of Accounting and Economics and serves currently on the Editorial Board of The Accounting Review, the Journal of Accounting Research, the Journal of Business, Finance and Accounting, and the International Journal of Accounting. He has received several grants and honors, of which the Geewax Terker Prize is the latest. Peter Wysocki Professor Peter Wysocki is an associate professor of management at...
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