High Premium Research Articles

A case study on the implementation of green building construction in Gauteng province, South Africa

PurposeGreen building is a relatively new concept with limited applications in property development in South Africa. The objectives of this study are therefore threefold: identify key green building principles considered by property developers, establish the benefits of implementing the principles and determine the barriers to its applications.Design/methodology/approachThe study adopted a case study of two Green Star South Africa (SA)-certified buildings in Sandton, Johannesburg. These are Alexander Forbes building, and Ernst & Young Eris Towers. The two certified buildings were purposefully selected because of the insightful information they provide regarding application of green building principles. The main themes investigated in the cases are environmental awareness, green building principles applications, as well as benefits and barriers of green building. A total of six interviewees from the contractors', property developers', environmental/green building consultants' and sustainability consultants' organizations who were involved in the implementation of green building principles in the two cases provided the qualitative data for the study. The qualitative data were supplemented with data relating to the two case studies obtained from the ‘Earth Works for a Sustainable Built Environment’. The interviews were arranged over a period of two months, and each interview took between 20 and 30 minutes. Analysis of the data was done through a phenomenological interpretation of the qualitative opinions expressed by the interviewees.FindingsKey green building principles comprising energy efficiency, water efficiency, resource efficiency, occupants' health and well-being and sustainable site development were implemented in the two cases. The fact that the buildings were rated 4-star enabled inference to be drawn that the implementation of the principles was less than 60 per cent. Energy efficiency of 35 per cent indicated in Case I suggests that the level is consistent with the South African green building standard of 25 per cent to 50 per cent. However, the energy and water efficiency assessment of the building were based on projections rather than on ongoing monitoring and evaluation of the buildings' performance. Moreover, perceived saving in operational cost was identified as dominant driver to green building principles implementation. Conversely, lack of government incentives and absence of reliable benchmarking data regarding performance of green buildings were major barriers to its full implementation.Practical implicationsThe findings of this study provide important implications to the developers and government on the application of green building principles. In the first place, the evidence that initial high cost premium could be off settled by long- term saving on operational costs as a result of use of local materials, energy and water savings as well as use of recycled material, as implemented in the two case projects, would improve investment decision in green building by developers. The understanding of the drivers and barriers to implementation of green building principles also has implications for guiding government policies and programmes towards green building.Originality/valueThe significance of this study stems from the fact that limited studies, especially in the South African context, have indicated the drivers and barriers to the implementation of green building principles. The case study approach adopted gave a novelty to the study by providing hands-on information from the stakeholders who were known to have played specific roles in the application of green building. The findings indicated that initial high cost premium was not a consideration in developers' choice of green building which justifies the possibility of a costlier product when factors such as environmental sustainability benefit is considered to be ultimate. The study thus suggests further research involving larger cases on energy efficiency, water efficiency and costs of green buildings compared to the conventional type to bring the findings to a broader perspective and assist to benchmark data for green building assessment.

Regret-based capital asset pricing model

This study examines the influence of regret aversion on asset pricing by proposing a regret-based capital asset pricing model in which individuals maximize the expected returns from chosen portfolios of assets while minimizing anticipated regrets. In equilibrium, a closed-form pricing formula is derived, whereby a risky asset's excess return is proportional to its “regret beta” that measures the exposure to investors’ emotions. The market as a whole pays investors a positive “regret premium” as compensation for regret aversion. As such, this study proposes a conceptual framework to understand the aggregate effects of regret. The model indicates that employing a regret-related beta can help explain cross-sectional returns. It also implies that regret aversion is a possible reason for the flat security market line and high equity premium.

Abstract P6-11-18: Medical, financial and insurance related concerns of metastatic breast cancer patients

Abstract Background: The medical, financial and insurance concerns of patients throughout the cancer trajectory are well documented. Over a quarter of patients report at least one financial problem. Due to the financial burden of cancer care, patients report that they delay filling prescriptions, have difficulty making ends meet, are concerned about their household’s financial situation and skip doses of medication. These are significant findings as consistent use of medication is necessary for treatment and those with increased financial problems also have lower scores on physical and mental health quality of life measures. While most providers agree that the burden of metastatic breast cancer (MBC) is also significant, little information is known about the specific medical, financial and insurance needs of those with MBC. Methods: Saint Luke’s Cancer Institute (SLCI) employs providers in the fields of medical and surgical oncology, gynecologic oncology, hematology and radiation oncology who subspecialize in every type of cancer. In October of 2016, the Koontz Center for Advanced Breast Cancer was established within the Saint Luke’s Cancer Institute. This center focuses exclusively on patients with MBC with a dual focus of improving outcomes and quality of life of those with MBC. In addition to a robust therapeutic research program, genomics, and immunotherapy, a comprehensive supportive/integrative team, including social worker, is imbedded in the center. Social workers see patients throughout the entirety of SLCI and the Koontz Center for Advanced Breast Cancer. As part of their patient interactions, social workers document the date of intervention, patients’ name, concern addressed, and length of every interaction. The following data compares the reported needs of those with MBC in the Koontz Center for Advanced Breast Cancer to the non-MBC patients within the SLCI population from September 1st of 2017 to August 31st of 2018. Results: In total, there were 2,072 interactions with non-MBC patients during this period. The top three reported concerns were medication assistance (n=335, 16.15%), being uninsured (n=298, 14.37%) and transportation (n=284, 13.69%). For those with MBC, there were a total of 476 interactions within the same time frame and the top three reported concerns were medication assistance (n=166, 34.87%), insurance issues (n=75, 15.76%) and financial distress (n=66, 13.87%). About 55% of non-MBC patients (n=334, 55.95%) have repeat appointments and meet with social work on average 5 times. Of MBC patients, 60.67% (n=54) have repeat appointments and meet with social work on average 7 times. For one time encounters with social work, those with non-MBC patients lasted 21 minutes and 9 seconds and encounters with MBC patients lasted 24 minutes and 34 seconds. Conclusion: Results indicate differences and similarities for MBC patients compared to non-MBC patients. This could be explained by the fact that both populations share several concerns such as financial barriers to medications, high insurance premiums and decreased ability to work. However, due to the nature of MBC, patients with MBC often deal with these concerns for longer periods of time and are often required to utilize expensive specialty medication. The top three concerns of MBC patients including medication assistance, insurance issues, and financial distress, are closely related to one another as it relates to gaps in healthcare coverage. The high cost of treatment for advanced disease, coupled with the specific and unique needs of those living with MBC, can directly impact patients’ ability to access necessary care. These potential causes, as well as how the Koontz Center for Advanced Breast Cancer works to mitigate these issues, will be addressed in further detail. Citation Format: Savannah Joy Geske, Katie Ambrosier, Timothy J. Pluard. Medical, financial and insurance related concerns of metastatic breast cancer patients [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 2019 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium; 2019 Dec 10-14; San Antonio, TX. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2020;80(4 Suppl):Abstract nr P6-11-18.

Coffee export insurance premium estimates from Sumatera Utara Province in international market

Calculation of insurance premiums can be analysed based on a area’s yield index, weather and price volatility. This study reviewed based on the movement of Sumatera Utara coffee export prices. The purpose is to calculate and review the premium insurance for Sumatera Utara coffee exports in the international market. The research location was determined purposively with snowball sampling technique. The research data consisted of primary data which was collected by questionnaire and secondary data from Association of Indonesian Coffee Exporters Regional of Sumatera Utara and province’s statistical data. The coverage amount 32,458,011.5 IDR, it is obtained from calculation of costs incurred by exporters. The Black-Scholes method is used to determine the value of coffee export insurance premiums based on the export prices. The analysis shows that the higher trigger also increases the insurance premium, because the higher risk, so the higher premium.

The High-Volume Return Premium and Economic Fundamentals

Extending Kaniel, Ozoguz, and Starks (2012, J. Financ. Econ.) and many others, we present first empirical evidence that indicates the high volume return premium is linked to economic fundamentals. The volume premium has strong predictive power for future industrial production growth and other macroeconomic indicators with or without controls for common equity pricing factors and business cycle variables. However, only a small portion of the volume premium can be attributed to its co-movement with equity return factors and economic risk factors. Mis-pricing-based factor models also fail to adequately explain the return anomaly.

The Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia

In the last decade, rapid growth, the fastest in Sub-Saharan Africa, and strong policies to address poverty have yielded a remarkable improvement in living standards. But the debt-financed public investment-led development model has reached its limits, amid a buildup in external vulnerabilities, as illustrated by severe foreign exchange shortages and high premia on the parallel market, as well as debt and likely financial sector vulnerabilities. Recognizing these vulnerabilities, the authorities have prepared a “Homegrown Economic Reform Plan”. Their reform agenda is appropriately ambitious and wide-ranging, encompassing macroeconomic reforms, structural reforms to ease institutional and structural bottlenecks to productivity and job growth, and sectoral reforms.

Exploring Currency Risk Factors via Corridor Implied Volatility and Its Term Structures

This paper extends the application of corridor implied volatility by Andersen et al. (2015) to currency market, empirically measuring currency risks at multiple horizons, and finds its term structure contains useful information, both for profitable trading strategies and for common risk factors constructions on the basis of Lustig et al. (2011). I consistently find that for currencies paired by US dollars, the term structure of currency risk is flat at a low level prior to the 2008 crisis, upward-sloping after the crisis and peaks at a high level with a prominently negative slope during the crisis. This work is believed to be new in the currency research field. I then use this information to build trading strategies, earning a profit by longing currencies with the highest level or slope and shorting ones with the lowest level or slope. The profit by sorting slope is significantly high and robust to the 2008 crisis period, with a low correlation to the Carry Trade return, suggesting extra information in risk than the interest rate. Next, I extract global risk factors by level and slope to help understand the currency excess return, a long-lasting puzzle. The global risk factor by level substantially improves the cross-sectional explanatory power in currency excess returns compared to Lustig et al. (2011). Furthermore, I show that there is certain high risk corresponding to a high level and low slope, and high interest rate currency earns returns co-varying negatively to this risk, implying that it is a risky asset and thus requires a high risk premium, which explains the Carry Trade return well.

SKOLOMBO AND THEIR CONTINUED EXISTENCE: REVISITING LOST HUMANISM AND PARENTIFICATION IMPULSE

This paper examines the Skolombo-street children of Calabar. It also investigates the reason for their continued existence, the derivatives in form of social and economic insecurity, inequality and other monstrosities visible in their presence. It questions the oblivious role of the institutions responsible for the care of the child, and parentification impulse as well as the lost humanism which existed in high premium in traditional African society resisted and reflected by text and language. The study is anchored upon Theo Van Leeuwen’s perspective on Critical Discourse Analysis which primarily studies the way social-power abuse and inequality are enacted, reproduced, legitimized, and resisted by text and talk in the social and political context. The study is a qualitative research conducted with the eclectic research methodologies such as biography, Participant Observation and Conversation. Among other findings, this study reveals that the Cross river state government has not provided enough fair ground to fully tackle the social and economic needs of the street child, that the desired comfort has not been provided for the girl child and that they have not been able to fully integrate the Skolombo into the echelon of the privileged. Conclusively, this has created spaces for youth delinquency, thievery, moral laxity and decadence. In the light of the findings, it is recommended that the government needs to put alternative and effective measures to play with the aim to curbing the menace of Skolombo and the street child culture. There ought to be an implementation of the child right boy and girl child. Stringent punishment should be meted on parents, religious leadact in the global space in order to reduce the molestation and marginalization of the ers and guardians who subject children to unnecessary molestation. Religious leaders and parents should be sensitized about the need to integrate their children within the family, intervention should be made compulsory.

Bảo hiểm trách nhiệm nghề nghiệp trong khám bệnh, chữa bệnh: Bất cập và giải pháp

Professional liability insurance in medical examination and treatment plays an important role for practitioners in compensating for damage happening during their work to a third party. Even so, only a small proportion of the insured is insured because of the following shortcomings. These are inadequate and unsuitable legal regulations, high insurance premiums, and the complexity of career to create the right products. Some suggestions are presented in this content to solve problems.

Individual Market Volatility and Vulnerability, 2015 to 2019

The Affordable Care Act (ACA) introduced large changes to the individual market for health insurance. Using 2015–2019 HIX Compare and geographic-specific data, this study examines the volatility and vulnerability of local insurance markets using insurer participation and premium information. The study also examines how markets with higher volatility and vulnerability differ from others with respect to demographics, labor market conditions, health status, provider supply, and state policies. Entry and exit patterns suggest decreasing volatility, but forty-eight million Americans reside in markets that are vulnerable, given limited competition and high premiums.

Mateera, watermelon (Citrullus lanatus) germplasm utilization for improving fruit quality and marketable harvest under hot arid climate of India: approaches and out-put

Cucurbits, a big group of vegetable cultivated extensively in India. It consist wide-range of crops used in culinary, salad, dessert, pickling and processing. Indigenous cucurbits both fresh and dehydrated form ensuring nutritious food to inhabitants of tribal and desert areas. Kachri, kaakdia, mateera, tinda and tumba is grown under rainfed situations and its cultivation is admired with the traditional farming in north-western parts of Rajasthan. Mateera is under-utilized, drought tolerant and native form of watermelon. Its nutrition rich tender and ripen fruits and seed-kernel liked by desert dwellers and sold at high premium. For developing drought and heat tolerant genotypes in mateera, ICAR-CIAH initiated first-time intensive research and wide range of Citrullus germplasm collected, conserved and utilized in crop improvement work from 1994 to 2012. In past, absence of standard varieties in drought tolerant mateera, the arid zone farmers obliged to use heterozygous seed collected from fruits (based on taste) of own fields. This obviously results poor and no-insured quality. On evaluation of the Citrullus germplasm (254 entries) at Bikaner, watermelon genotypes failed to express their potentialities under high temperature and rainfed conditions. Therefore, use of indigenous and generated variability, and promotion of varieties from native germplasm is found to be beneficial. Mateera line AHW-18, AHW-19, AHW-65, AHW-108, AHW-140, AHW-RSS-1 and AHW-BSM-1 are promising for use in breeding or trait-specific selections. The developed mateera varieties i.e. AHW-19 and Thar Manak are early in harvesting, producing better quality fruits and multiple-use, and recommended for cultivation under resource constraints hot arid environment.

Exploring heterogeneity in shrimp farmers` preferences for the contracts of producing certified organic shrimp

This research applied choice experiments to explore farmers’ preferences for hypothetical contracts of producing certified organic shrimp. The contracts were described by four attributes, including premium for certified organic shrimp, premium-payment delay, selling place and the provision of quality seed. Conditional logit and mixed logit models were used to analyze the data which were collected among shrimp farmers in Vietnam. The results indicate that farmers prefer the contract with a higher premium; however, premium-payment delay decreases farmers’ utility and the probability of choosing the contract. Besides the premium, the provision of quality seed is an important attribute that attracts farmers to choose a contract. Almost farmers prefer to sell their shrimp from farms. The results also show heterogeneity in farmers’ preferences for the contract’s attributes and their willingness to accept these attributes. These findings should be carefully considered in building reasonable and attractive contracts for shrimp farmers.

The Corporate Supply of (Quasi) Safe Assets

Investors value safety services in financial assets, such as the ability to serve as a store of value, to serve as collateral, or to meet mandatory capital and liquidity requirements. I present a model in which investors value safety services not only in traditional safe assets such as US Treasuries, but also in corporate debt. Shareholders thus maximize the value of the firm by complementing standard business operations with safe asset creation. Based on this theoretical framework, I use the CDS-bond basis to derive a measurement of the safety premium of corporate bonds. I document substantial cross sectional variation in the safety premium of corporate bonds, which allows me to test the model's predictions. I show that a high safety premium leads to a marked increase in debt issuance by relatively safer firms. These debt proceeds have a small impact on real investment and are largely used instead for equity payouts. This mechanism can explain why, in the aftermath of the financial crisis, non-financial investment grade companies significantly increased their debt issuance and equity payout while investment remained weak.

Explicating the “Charm premium” in Second Homes: The Case of Algarve

Explicating the “Charm premium” in Second Homes: The Case of Algarve Giannoukos Ioannis, Koutsobinas Theodore Abstract The objective of the present paper is to explicate the distribution network of second home ownership in Algarve (Southern Portugal) and to explore the factors, which cause a high price premium, known as “charm premium”, for properties in high-profile regions, such as Vale do Lobo. A template analysis of online newspaper editions, framed and interpreted for a period of more than fifteen years, is utilized as the basis for methodological evaluation facilitated by the expanse of preliminary archival data and their qualitative processing. The analysis is applied in two stages: The first stage includes the study of Algarve as a travel destination and reveals the significance of tourism attractions, the place branding towards the development of a top retirement destination, the importance of quality golf/luxury resort infrastructure and the presence of high-status superstars and celebrities for that branding. The second stage of template analysis focuses also on locations with the highest second-home prices and rents, known as the “Golden Triangle”. Our findings demonstrate the influential function of superstars‟ managers on the decision of superstars and celebrities to invest on second-home property, revealing path dependencies and a twofold chain, comprising of the “attraction” and the “network” chains that explain their social status behavior. Full Text: PDF DOI: 10.15640/jthm.v8n2a11

U.S. Populist Rhetoric and Currency Returns

We develop a novel measure of U.S. populist rhetoric. Aggregate Populist Rhetoric (APR) Index spikes around populist events. We decompose the APR Index into sub-indices. We show that APR Index and International Relations sub-index are negatively priced in the cross-section of currency excess returns. Currencies that perform well (badly) when U.S. populist rhetoric is high yield low (high) expected excess returns. Investors require high risk premium for holding currencies which under-perform in times of rising U.S. populist rhetoric, especially in the post-crisis period. A long-short strategy that buys (sells) currencies with high (low) exposure to U.S. populism offers strong diversification benefits.

Asset Pricing with Realistic Crises Dynamics

What causes deep recessions and slow recovery? I revisit this question and develop a macro-finance model that quantitatively matches the salient empirical features of financial crises such as a large drop in the output, a high risk premium, reduced financial intermediation, and a long duration of economic distress. The model has leveraged intermediaries featuring stochastic productivity and a regime-dependent exit rate that governs the transition in and out of crises. A model without these two features suffers from a trade-off between the amplification and persistence of crises. I show that my model resolves this tension and generates realistic crisis dynamics.

Consumption with Earnings, Liquidity, and Market Based Models

Financial intermediary economic growth theory with its empirical findings, along with stock-level factors; both ideally relate to a consumption asset pricing model. Changing liquidity and earnings combined with the market proxy wealth growth, allowing a recursive consumption model with a low risk aversion coefficient, a risk-free rate close to historical, a high equity premium, and a reasonable elasticity of intertemporal substitution. The empirical consumption model does well against major asset pricing puzzles. Tested over 118 years it is not rejected while a forward-looking consumption model using the market alone as a wealth proxy fails. Changing liquidity and earnings forecast consumption and their ‘crashes’ precede consumption declines. This consistency across approaches adds credence to common risk factors as important risks to investors.

DITrust Chain: Towards Blockchain-Based Trust Models for Sustainable Healthcare IoT Systems

© 2013 IEEE. Today, internet and device ubiquity are paramount in individual, formal and societal considerations. Next generation communication technologies, such as Blockchains (BC), Internet of Things (IoT), cloud computing, etc. offer limitless capabilities for different applications and scenarios including industries, cities, healthcare systems, etc. Sustainable integration of healthcare nodes (i.e. devices, users, providers, etc.) resulting in healthcare IoT (or simply IoHT) provides a platform for efficient service delivery for the benefit of care givers (doctors, nurses, etc.) and patients. Whereas confidentiality, accessibility and reliability of medical data are accorded high premium in IoHT, semantic gaps and lack of appropriate assets or properties remain impediments to reliable information exchange in federated trust management frameworks. Consequently, We propose a Blockchain Decentralised Interoperable Trust framework (DIT) for IoT zones where a smart contract guarantees authentication of budgets and Indirect Trust Inference System (ITIS) reduces semantic gaps and enhances trustworthy factor (TF) estimation via the network nodes and edges. Our DIT IoHT makes use of a private Blockchain ripple chain to establish trustworthy communication by validating nodes based on their inter-operable structure so that controlled communication required to solve fusion and integration issues are facilitated via different zones of the IoHT infrastructure. Further, text{C}mathrm {sharp } implementation using Ethereum and ripple Blockchain are introduced as frameworks to associate and aggregate requests over trusted zones.

Ghana’s National Health Insurance Scheme: An Ordinal Probit Valuation of Willingness to Pay Higher Premiums for Improved Services

The importance of improved healthcare services under Ghana’s National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) is nationwide admitted. However, service improvement for insurance schemes comes with extra cost. To fill the funding gap, insurance schemes typically charge enhanced premiums. This requires clients’ approval and cooperation to implement. For this reason, this study was conducted to assess Ghana’s NHIS subscribers’ willingness to pay (WTP) enhanced premiums for improved services. Some socio-economic and demographic factors were used as covariates. WTP, being the dependent variable, was categorized into high WTP, moderate WTP, low WTP, and no WTP enhanced premiums. The likelihood of a client falling in a particular WTP category was examined using the Cumulative Ordinal Probit (COP) regression model. A likelihood ratio chi-square of 58.82 with p < 0.000 shows that the model was statistically significant, and fit for prediction. Results showed that age-groups 18-30, 30–45, unemployed, tertiary education, and level of income significantly influenced WTP. Predictions showed that for any average national health insurance user, the probability of being in high WTP, moderate WTP, low WTP and no WTP premium are respectively 0.51, 0.27, 0.11 and 0.12. Based on the results of this study, we recommend that Ghana’s NHIS should institute a progressive premium regime in order to cater for the different needs and financial abilities of clients, thus helping to fill the funding gap.

Green Premium: What is the Implied Prognosis for Sustainability?

Economic considerations underpin almost every decision to determine social priorities. It is not surprising then that sustainability has fast become, among other things, economic advocacy. This has led to a proliferation of studies to establish the provenance of a green premium to provide impetus for sustainable real estate development to drive the sustainability agenda. The extant literature is replete with studies that conclude that green buildings, which are a proxy for sustainable real estate, command a green premium, notwithstanding disagreement about the size of the green premium. We revisit the green premium debate by analyzing Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method (BREEAM) certified office buildings (a proxy for green buildings) in the Greater London area to ascertain the prevalence of a green premium and to answer the following questions: is the premium truly green (green-magic)? What prognosis does the green premium provide for sustainability? The study uses quantitative analysis (a hedonic model to analyze 2,842 CoStar transaction data points from 2008 to 2018 inclusive) and psychographic analysis based on primary data from a questionnaire survey of approximately 450 BREEAM certified building owners and occupiers in the Greater London area to address the research questions. The preliminary results of the hedonic model analysis show that BREEAM certification commands a rental and price premium of 4.3% and 22.3% respectively. Furthermore, the results reveal that a higher certification level generally generates a higher premium while certified buildings in outer zones generate a higher premium than those in the CBD. In addition, the results of both the quantitative and psychographic analyses imply that the premium is more a novelty premium than green-magic. This portends a dismal prognosis for sustainability and warns that sustainability cannot be won on purely economic grounds. Finally, the results of the psychographic analyses show that there is no meeting of minds (consensus ad idem) between investors in green office buildings on one side and green office space users (tenants) on the other. The results of the study could be of interest to London green office building market participants, researchers, practitioners, and sustainability adherents.