Actual Share Research Articles

Is America’s Housing Affordability Problem a Housing Problem?

We document what fraction of the housing stock in US cities is affordable to different family types. Rather than looking at what fraction of their income people actually pay in rent in each city, we look at the extent to which the housing stock is affordable using discrete housing expenditure share cutoffs and the distribution of rents. We find that housing affordability is largely a problem for single-parent families and, to a lesser extent, single-person households. Several of the least affordable cities by our metrics are not glamour cities in the US Northeast, California, or South Florida but rather cities with both low incomes and low rents. Finally, we show how overcrowding in many high-cost cities leads to an understatement of the extent of affordability problems if affordability is measured using the actual share of income paid toward rent.

Influence of open access journals on the research community in Journal Citation Reports

Purpose: The number of open access (OA) journals is rapidly increasing, and it is very important for librarians to understand the influence of OA journals on the research community. This study investigated the influence of the OA journals listed in Journal Citation Reports (JCR) based on various indicators.Methods: The data for this study were prepared by combining the JCR 2014 to 2019 journal list with the number of hybrid OA articles obtained by searching the Web of Science. Each journal’s JCR indicators and article processing charge were added. The influence of OA journals was compared according to OA type, whether they were published by large publishers, and whether they were top gold OA journals.Results: Gold OA journals remained weaker in terms of JCR indicators than hybrid journals. However, the top 20 gold OA journals, accounting for 27.0% of all OA articles in JCR 2014 to 2019, were superior in all JCR indicators. The top three OA publishers (MDPI, BioMed Central, and Public Library of Science) showed potential for development despite concerns regarding poor journals. The top three subscription publishers were very active in OA publishing, but their actual share of hybrid OA articles (Elsevier, 5.1%; Springer, 10.1%; and Wiley, 12.4% in JCR 2019) was still insufficient.Conclusion: Some gold OA journals showed high competitiveness and even the possibility for development beyond traditional journals. The transition of subscription journals to hybrid journals was found to be at the early stage. In light of these findings, librarians should continue monitoring the influence of OA journals.

Monetary Valuation of Flood Protection Ecosystem Service Based on Hydrological Modelling and Avoided Damage Costs. An Example from the Čierny Hron River Basin, Slovakia

Flood protection is considered one of the crucial regulating ecosystem services due to climate change and extreme weather events. As an ecosystem service, it combines the results of hydrological and ecosystem research and their implementation into land management and/or planning processes including several formally separated economic sectors. As managerial and economic interests often diverge, successful decision-making requires a common denominator in form of monetary valuation of competing trade-offs. In this paper, a methodical approach based on the monetary value of the ecosystem service provided by the ecosystem corresponding to its actual share in flood regulating processes and the value of the property protected by this service was developed and demonstrated based on an example of a medium size mountain basin (290 ha). Hydrological modelling methods (SWAT, HEC-RAS) were applied for assessing the extent of floods with different rainfalls and land uses. The rainfall threshold value that would cause flooding with the current land use but that would be safely drained if the basin was covered completely by forest was estimated. The cost of the flood protection ecosystem service was assessed by the method of non-market monetary value for estimating avoided damage costs of endangered infrastructure and calculated both for the current and hypothetical land use. The results identify areas that are crucial for water retention and that deserve greater attention in management. In addition, the monetary valuation of flood protection provided by the current but also by hypothetical land uses enables competent and well-formulated decision-making processes.

The choice of appropriate generator systems to enhance the renewable energy share in buildings. A comparison between PV-assisted heat pumps and biomass boilers

Low-energy buildings are generally equipped with generation systems driven by renewable sources. Regarding heating and DHW production, two choices appear appropriate: PV assisted heat pumps and biomass boilers. In this paper, by means of TRNSYS dynamic simulations, the non-renewable primary energy was determined for two buildings located in different climatic contexts by varying the PV size to consider the actual self-consumed electricity of commercial devices. Results showed that in cold climates biomass boilers are more suggested, especially in unfavourable climatic zones, whereas the COP of air-water heat pumps is strongly penalized by the outdoor temperatures and in many cases the self-consumed PV electricity does not limit the grid intervention adequately. However, in building with limited thermal energy demands and in favorable climates, suitable PV sizes make heat pumps more performant than biomass boilers. The same calculations were conducted with the quasi-steady approach, in accordance with the Italian building energy certification procedure, observing a favorable scenario in a heating plant equipped with a PV assisted heat pump because it assumes the renewable electricity entirely absorbed, while the accounting of the actual self-consumed share produces a greater demand of non-renewable energy.

The Price Impact and Timing of Actual Share Repurchases in Norway

Little is known about the price impact and timing of actual share repurchases. Data unavailability has hindered research in most countries, including the United States. Using unique data on actual share repurchase transactions from Norway, we test for the price impact and timing of daily open market repurchases. We find evidence that share repurchases typically follow after a negative drift in the stock price, and the average three-day abnormal return around the announcement is 0.54%. Moreover, the initial market reaction is greater for repurchases that are pursued by small firms and for firms that experience a negative drift in the stock price prior to the transaction. The evidence presented is seemingly indicative of managers’ intent to signal undervaluation through repurchase transactions. However, we do not find any significant long-term abnormal returns for repurchasing firms. This result suggests that on average, managers do not time the market based on informational advantage.

Do Managers Use Reference Points? Evidence from Stock Repurchases

The extent to which managers use reference points in their corporate decisions remains an open question in the literature. This paper studies the effect of managerial reference points on actual share repurchases. We argue share repurchases are an ideal setting to study managerial reference points because repurchase prices are salient to managers and actual share repurchases typically occur as a sequence of events. We find that the percent change from the prior repurchase price to the current stock price is negatively related to the current level of repurchases. To facilitate a causal interpretation, we find that this relationship disappears when the prior repurchase price is associated with a previous manager. These results are consistent with the idea that managers use past repurchase prices as reference points for current repurchase decisions.

The effect of repurchase regulations on actual share reacquisitions and cost of debt

Share repurchase regulations are increasingly important in disciplining repurchasing firms as share repurchases gain popularity across the world. We evaluate the level of strictness in firms’ share repurchase regulations from three respects, approval, separate disclosure, and time limit. Among the repurchase regulations studied, the stricter ones feature additional requirements in all three respects. Drawing from examples in thirteen countries across Europe, North America, and Asia, the results show that strict repurchase regulations are negatively associated with actual share repurchases and the cost of debt. Moreover, the results show that the association between the strict repurchase regulations and actual share repurchases is positive in code-law countries as compared to the common-law countries while its association with the cost of debt is more negative in code-law countries with weaker legal protection. Thus, our study provides evidence that tightening repurchase regulations complements the weak legal protection provided by code-law countries.

Medical Tourism in Iran, Reevaluation on the New Trends: A Narrative Review

This narrative review aimed to reevaluate the medical tourism sector in Iran to reveal the new trends and activities in order to know the current actual share of Iran in the competitive market of global medical tourism. A holistic approach was adopted to analyze the information collected through a system of investigation that comprised the available secondary data, besides the information and statistical data about the associated organizations to this sector in Iran. Iran's medical tourism sector is consistent with the new trends in global market, which is mainly bordered countries-based, cultural-oriented, and diasporic type of travelling. It would be more realistic in the contemporary situation to focus the promotions on the border countries, and design the policy, and implementation in accordance with their cultural and social preferences. Activities in both levels of governmental and micro-level planning are demanded, under the cover of a comprehensive monitoring system. This review will benefit researchers exploring the updated evaluation of Iran's medical tourism; also, it provides helpful insights to authorities in both governmental and private sector.

Ethnic Enclaves, Self-employment, and the Economic Performance of Refugees: Evidence from a Swedish Dispersal Policy

This article estimates the causal effect of residential concentration of co-ethnics (ethnic enclaves) on the probability to start a business among refugees in Sweden. Results indicate that the share of self-employed co-ethnics in the port of entry municipality increases refugees’ probability of entry into self-employment, while the actual share of local co-ethnics has no effect or, in some cases, a negative effect. The results support the conclusion that skills and resources within the local ethnic enclave, particularly skills relevant for self-employment, are crucial for generating new entry into self-employment for refugees, while simply more co-ethnics, plausibly increasing an ethnic market’s size, are of less importance. Moreover, the results suggest that being placed with a larger share of self-employed co-ethnics is negatively related to refugees’ long-term disposable income; however, assuming there is no or little selection of high-ability refugees into self-employment, this negative relationship can be counteracted by the choice of self-employment. The study adds new knowledge on the arguably crucial topic of socio-economic integration of an important group of international migrants — namely, refugees.

Investor regret, share performance and the role of corporate agreeableness

Drawing on regret and reputation literatures, the authors demonstrate how positive corporate associations can mitigate the effects of share performance on investor regret. Three studies are presented, the first involved the observation of six investment club meetings. The second is a survey of investors exploring some of the findings of the first study, specifically the relationship between investor regret and corporate associations. The final study uses an experimental design to test whether corporate social responsibility (CSR) messaging can influence regret in the context of disappointing share performance by influencing corporate agreeableness. The main findings are that a range of corporate associations are important to investors, more so than actual share performance, in their decision-making. Specifically, the more agreeable (e.g. trustworthy, supportive) the company is perceived to be, the lower will be any regret felt over share performance. Finally, CSR information was found to affect regret via an influence on agreeableness.

When migrant men become more involved in household and childcare duties – the case of Polish migrants in Norway

ABSTRACT In our two studies, we focus on egalitarian attitudes towards gender relations manifested by the readiness to share and actual share of household duties by Polish migrant couples in Norway, where we compare their household arrangements with Polish couples in Poland to verify whether the migration to socio-democratic welfare state country might encourage the use of egalitarian capital within household duties share being advocates of gender equality to other Polish migrants. Our study 1 has showed that living in the society with active policies enhancing gender equality within household helps Polish couple sustain equal arrangements regarding their household duties and parental roles. This acceptance is more profound when analyzed through the lenses of advocating for men to be more involved – as showed in study 2. We thus show the role of cultural factors present in the new homeland society in fostering such gender egalitarian values and practices.

The Problem of Identification of Rural Areas: The Case of Lithuanian Elderships

This article presents an attempt to classify Lithuanian LAU-2 regions (elderships) according to the level of their urbanization. The research was based on inductive methodology. Data on changes of the number of population in 2001 – 2018 was the primary source of the analysis. The typology of LAU-2 regions was based on 3 main criteria: formal status of the area (urban or rural), the location of the area in relation to urban centre and trends of change of the number of population in formally nonurban areas in 2001-2018. The final goal was the distinction of regions, which weren’t influenced by urbanisation (suburbanisation) processes and therefore potentially should be facing most severe processes of peripherisation and socio-spatial exclusion. The results suggest that actual share of rural areas and rural population is much smaller that statistical data show. Furthermore, territorial differentiation into urbanized and non-urbanized areas perfectly reflects "centre-periphery" model, though Lithuania withhold polycentric character of development. Three central urban regions - Vilnius, Kaunas, and Klaipėda act as major growth poles, while remaining country is shrinking fast. On the other hand, even smaller and decreasing urban centres are spatially expanding and changing rural areas around them. As a consequence number of population is growing in suburban regions. According to the research, 244 elderships, which occupy some 36% of the Lithuanian territory, are classified as urbanized or semi urbanised areas (it inhabits 83% of the population); the rest 312 elderships are classified as 'purely' rural peripheral areas. They cover 64% of the country’s territory and inhabit around 17% of its population.

Between Fear Mongers and Samaritans: Does Information Provision Affect Attitudes Towards the Right of Asylum in Germany?

We utilise information experiments embedded in a representative population survey to elicit the German public’s attitude towards the right of asylum. We randomly assign the interviewees to different groups and ‘treat’ each group with different information about the asylum-seekers that came to Germany in 2015 and 2016. The treatments involve information about (i) the total number of asylum-seekers, (ii) the fiscal costs as well as (iii) the potential long-term economic benefits associated with accepting refugees, (iv) the share of Muslim asylum-seekers, and (v) the share of war refugees. We find that providing information about the fiscal costs associated with accepting refugees, and about the share of Muslim refugees, significantly increases the likelihood of opposing the right of asylum by roughly 5 and 7 percentage points, respectively. These effects are more pronounced for middle-income earners and respondents with a low level of education. Deviations of people’s beliefs from the actual numbers provided by the treatments can affect their attitudes: respondents who underestimated the share of Muslim refugees are 18 percentage points more likely to call for abolishing the right of asylum when informed about the actual share.

Between Fear Mongers and Samaritans: Does Information Provision Affect Attitudes Towards the Right of Asylum in Germany?

We utilise information experiments embedded in a representative population survey to elicit the German public’s attitude towards the right of asylum. We randomly assign the interviewees to different groups and ‘treat’ each group with different information about the asylum-seekers that came to Germany in 2015 and 2016. The treatments involve information about (i) the total number of asylum-seekers, (ii) the fiscal costs as well as (iii) the potential long-term economic benefits associated with accepting refugees, (iv) the share of Muslim asylum-seekers, and (v) the share of war refugees. We find that providing information about the fiscal costs associated with accepting refugees, and about the share of Muslim refugees, significantly increases the likelihood of opposing the right of asylum by roughly 5 and 7 percentage points, respectively. These effects are more pronounced for middle-income earners and respondents with a low level of education. Deviations of people’s beliefs from the actual numbers provided by the treatments can affect their attitudes: respondents who underestimated the share of Muslim refugees are 18 percentage points more likely to call for abolishing the right of asylum when informed about the actual share.

The Timing of Corporate Buybacks: New Evidence From Repurchase Series

This study provides important new insights into the behavior and timing of actual corporate share repurchases. The key distinction from prior research is that I account for the continuance of share repurchases: almost 95% of firm-months with a repurchase are not individual repurchase events but rather occur as part of a series of repurchase events in close proximity. Abnormal returns are two to three times as large surrounding repurchase series versus individual repurchases, and negative (positive) abnormal returns are concentrated before (after) repurchase series begin (end). These findings have important implications for future research on actual share repurchases.

Beliefs, Credence Goods and Information Campaigns

We study the role of beliefs about experts' honesty in a market for credence goods with second opinions and overtreatment. Experts are honest or dishonest. The population shares a common belief about the share of honest experts, which may be incorrect. We characterize the belief that maximizes consumer's expected utility and show that it is generically different from the true share of honest experts and larger than the one that maximizes the equilibrium level of honesty. We then analyze the decision of an authority that has learned the actual share of honest experts whether to publicly reveal it through a costless information campaign, thus correcting people's beliefs, and show that it does not depend on how wrong beliefs are. We further show how increasing market transparency (making experts more aware of the number of opinions collected) affects the optimal belief and may have a positive as well as a negative effect on overtreament. Finally, we briefly see how a successful campaign run in Switzerland in the mid '80s to reduce excessive hysterectomy rates can be read through the lenses of our model and how accounting for beliefs about honesty might allow theoretical predictions to better fit experimental evidence.

Financiamiento público de partidos en México y su propuesta de reforma

El sistema electoral de México se caracteriza por tener uno de los mecanismos de financiamiento público de partidos políticos más oneroso del mundo. Los partidos han recibido por financiación federal de 1989 a 2020, 83,664 millones de pesos. El financiamiento público fue un factor importante en la transición democrática para construir un sistema de partidos plural, otorgó condiciones básicas para la equidad de la competencia electoral y contribuyó a la alternancia. Los partidos en México, a pesar de disponer de fondos públicos cuantiosos, no han evitado escándalos de corrupción por financiamiento irregular, y su desempeño público se encuentra en una etapa de fuertes críticas por el incumplimiento de expectativas. Actualmente se discute una iniciativa para reformar el financiamiento público, que formula reducirlo en 50%. El artículo hace un análisis sobre la evolución normativa del financiamiento público, refiere los presupuestos asignados por año, señala la cifra histórica recibida por partido político, reflexiona sobre los objetivos cumplidos y por consumar en el marco del financiamiento público. Finalmente, se presenta una propuesta para reformar el sistema de financiamiento público, que consiste en una disminución gradual de la subvención del Estado en un esquema de equilibrio con el financiamiento privado.

More individual choice? Students’ share in decision-making at the transition to high school in Japan (1995-2009)

ABSTRACTAccording to sociological rational choice theory, students’ class-specific educational decisions at key transition points significantly contribute to educational and social inequalities. Yet, while theory missed to clearly accentuate all relevant actors’ influences on students’ decisions, research generally failed to adequately empirically account for students’ individual share in such decisions, but attributed their choices to family background and academic achievement. Drawing on the Japanese case, a refined rational choice model reflecting multiple (f)actors’ influence on students’ decision-making is introduced, before new evidence on students’ actual share in high school choice since the 1990s is presented. Comparative multinomial regressions show the following main findings: (1) Students with concrete educational plans decisively impact their high school choice even when controlling for family background and academic achievement. Students thus clearly impact their own educational pathways and whether inequalitites are reproduced. (2) In spite of the recent policy shift towards more individual choice, students’ own educational plans have not become considerably more influential for their final high school placement in 2009 compared to 1995, implying similar constraints for individual choice still. Academic achievement remains decisive for school choice in Japan, as juku have taken over former functions of placement counselling.

Rules and Practices of Women’s Inheritance Rights in Islam: Bangladesh Perspective

The study aims to map the status of women right of inheritance in Bangladesh with reference to Islamic injunctions and social practice. For ideal status verses of Holy Quran and traditions of Holy Prophet regarding women right of inheritance are collected. The study concludes that we see most of the people of Bangladesh are reluctant to follow Islamic principles properly with reference to women right of inheritance. Who give women inheritance among of them majority families does not give women inheritance rather provide cash or kind in lieu of their actual shares. Even our society consider dowry as substitute of women right of inheritance. Economic dependency on men, fear of social breakup and conflicts with family and deficiency of proper Islamic knowledge are the reasons for women not to press for their share. Religious scholars should be involved to teach the masses to fulfill their religious obligation of providing actual share of inheritance to women.

Optimal Size of the Public Sector in Poland in Terms of Employment

The paper contributes to the literature on the public sector optimal size. The most common approach to measure the optimal size of the public sector is based on government expenditures. The authors propose a broader approach to public sector size measurement and define it by the share in the gross value of fixed assets and the share in employment. The approach is based on the stocks of accumulated capital and labour. Contrary to most of the literature, it gives a clear answer on the optimal employment share in the public sector that leads to maximizing gross domestic product per capita. The authors use Poland as an interesting case study. Public sector size in Poland evolved during 2002–2014, thus at some point it may have achieved the optimal size. The authors analyse the effects of changes in the public sector size on gross domestic product per capita. The authors find that: (a) agricultural sector seriously lowers private sector productivity; (b) the optimal share of the public sector employment in Poland is 20%, and 24% excluding agriculture; (c) the actual share of the public sector in employment in 2014 was one percentage point larger than that which would maximize gross domestic product per capita; (d) there is significant inefficiency in the production process in Poland that can be explained by suboptimal public sector share.