Indirect Investment Research Articles

Between Land and People: A Review of Socioeconomic Issues within the context of Rapid Development in Iskandar Malaysia

In response to globalization and economic competitiveness, Malaysia launched six economic development corridors, covering all the potential areas in Malaysia, and Johor Bahru is one of them. Iskandar Malaysia was launched in 2006 for future economic development in the country as well as to cater the needs of Johor Bahru to modernize its urban and economic infrastructure. Situated in a strategic location and space, Iskandar Malaysia is targeted to be the player of catalytic investment role that will bring direct and indirect investment to Johor. The whole landscape of Johor Bahru is now transforming dramatically, thus worrying the locals and the environmentalists. Environmental issues as well as the concern for social inequality issues have been raised by the locals. Hence, the aim of this study is to address the issues created by the rapid development of Iskandar Malaysia, particularly in Johor Bahru and Nusajaya. The objectives of this paper are to assess the consequences of the coastal land reclamation for Danga Bay waterfront city development and to identify the impact of new-build gentrification towards the local people. The research identifies key social and economic issues and the impacts of these issues have also been identified. To achieve the objective of the study a detailed review on secondary data has been done. The study found that more cooperation and attention from the local authorities, stakeholders and public is needed to ensure urban regeneration and to achieve the objective of social inclusiveness as promised by the vision of Iskandar Malaysia.

The association between human resource investment by audit firms and their audit quality

Utilizing unique data available only in Korea, we examine the association between investment in human resources and audit quality provided by audit firms. While human resources investment is important in improving audit quality, few studies have examined this association mainly because public data about human resources investment and financial statements of audit firms are unavailable. Using two proxies for audit quality (i.e. discretionary accruals and accounting conservatism), we provide evidence that higher compensation in audit firms improves audit quality. In addition, we find higher audit quality in audit firms with higher education expenses, when audit quality is measured by the level of conservatism of clients’ financial statements. These results support regulators’ stance that quality control through human resources investment in audit firms can effectively improve audit quality and therefore the quality of clients’ financial reporting. However, we find no association between education expenses and the average absolute value of discretionary accruals of audit clients. These results generally suggest that direct investment in human capital (i.e. compensation) is more effective in improving audit quality than indirect investment in human capital (i.e. education expenses).

The Road to Private Prison Divestment

Until December 2015, the University of California maintained $25 million of indirect investments in three major private prison corporations and almost no one knew. The UC is now the first U.S. public university system to sell its shares in private prisons, however it was activism that propelled the victory. Black students from the Afrikan Black Coalition, a statewide Black youth organization, used research from Enlace and strategic planning to demand private prison divestment. This personal reflection on the path toward prison abolition examines some of the strengths and resurgence of Black student organizing in the era of #BlackLivesMatter.

Commentary on Carroll Seron's Presidential Address: Embrace Disciplinarity and Talk across It

President Seron calls on the field to re-engage with the worlds of policy and practice, an engagement that she sees as a return to founding principles of the Association. She calls on us to take up public responsibilities as scholarly experts. She argues that we ought to do this because we can and because we should: we can because we have tools and knowledge, and we should because the absence of our contributions leads to mistakes and missed opportunities that make our communities worse-off than they would be otherwise. A third reason is that many of us are able to do what we do as scholars because of public investment in us somewhere along the line in our careers — whether in the form of grant money to fund our research, salaries to fund our positions, or direct and indirect public investment in the infrastructure of our work or our training. Part of our collective public obligation — because we can, because we should, and because we owe a debt — is to draw on our expertise to contribute to solving the challenges of our day. President Seron argues that, while “[l]aw and regulations may have little prospect of undoing the root causes of economic, racial ethnic or gender inequalities in the contemporary politics of the U.S., or beyond... there is a lot of room for pragmatic relief...”. As she acknowledges, there is the ever-present the pull of the policy audience (Sarat and Silbey 1988; see also Gould and Barclay 2012; Sarat 1985). Engineers, both physical and social, famously look for the solution inside the problem. In fact, however, better solutions sometimes may be found by looking outside the problem, thinking more broadly about the system or context. When pulled toward the policy audience, we face a temptation to let policy makers or other administrators of the status quo define the questions of cloistered research (Albiston and Sandefur 2013). When we take this path, we exchange our intellectual autonomy for a ready audience, and in so doing hobble our potential contributions. Another challenge is the lure of solutions, often disguised as values, in search of problems. Here, we can become so enamored of our own tool, whether it is a service program or a constitutional right or a theoretical paradigm, that our research celebrates the tool at the expense of lost connection to the real-world problems that we claim we are trying to solve. Yet, we do not notice this loss because the tool looks to us like a good in itself, when in fact it is a means to an end. Meeting these challenges will require us to take two actions that pull in different directions: embracing disciplinarity and talking across it.

Liberalization, Investment, and Regulation: The Key Factors for the Development of the Electronic Communications Market

The key factors for the development of the electronic communication market include partial liberalization; full, direct, or indirect investments; and competitive regulation based on transparency and non-discrimination. They are used efficiently in preventing anti-competitive practices through the use of appropriate basic instruments of transparency and non-discrimination. They are used in the proper selection of the “best practice” design and implementation of primary and secondary laws. It is an efficient regulatory framework; it creates adequate space; and they are together considered necessary in influencing the positive development of the electronic communication sector. Proper selection of the "innovative dilemma" that comes from the "technology push" in the sector and harmonization of the time required between the necessary innovation and investment, determines the quality of products/services for the sector tomorrow and its internal markets. At the same time, it determines the eligibility of the request-offer and their quality. The close connection between innovation and entrepreneurship as well as the proper implementation through investments is made tangible and measurable to the quality, price, and their persistence. When these factors are considered in harmony, it will ultimately result in effective competition in the sector. Also, their values are identified by the maximization of social welfare to increased consumer benefits.

Tax Treaties and Foreign Direct Investment: A Network Approach

Multinational investors often reduce tax on dividends by using indirect investment routes. This paper constructs a tax rate matrix to represent a real-world network of tax treaties between 70 countries and develops network algorithms to study the structure of tax-minimizing (direct or indirect) investment routes in the tax treaty network. The treaty shopping arbitrage rate, defined as the difference between the foreign tax rates of the direct route and a tax-minimizing route, is estimated to be about 3.57 percentage points on average. In bilateral FDI data, it appears that the average inward FDI stock via a tax-minimizing direct route is about 3.75 times larger than the average via a direct route that is not tax-minimizing. Empirical results confirm that the availability of a tax-minimizing direct route is positively and significantly related to FDI. By making a direct route tax-minimizing, countries can encourage FDI via the direct route and reduce the use of indirect routes through conduit countries.

- - (The Relationship Between Objectives of Savings and Investment and Financial Assets Allocation: Focused on the Moderating Effects of Money Attitudes and Financial Risk Tolerance))

Korean Abstract: 본 연구는 저축 및 투자목적과 금융자산선택 간의 관계를 살펴보고, 특히 투자자들의 주관적 심리적 변수인 돈에 대한 태도와 투자성향에 의한 조절효과가 있는지를 검증하는 것을 목적으로 하였다. 이를 위해 2012 펀드 투자자 조사의 원자료 2,530부 중 부실기재된 것을 제외한 1,621부를 분석자료로 사용하였다. 분석결과, 첫째 저축 및 투자목적에 따라 금융자산을 선택하는 것으로 나타났다. 저축목적으로 금융자산을 선택할 때에는 안정적인 자산을, 투자목적일 때에는 어떠한 투자목적인가에 따라 금융자산을 선택하는 경향을 보였다. 둘째, 돈에 대한 태도는 금융자산선택 즉 투자규모를 결정할 때 조절효과가 있는 것으로 나타났다. 노후/은퇴대비 저축목적이 간접투자금액을 증가시키는데, 자산증식과 노후/은퇴대비 투자목적이 간접투자금액을 증가시키는 데에 긍정적 영향력을 강화시키는 조절효과를 보였다. 셋째, 투자성향은 투자목적을 위해서 수익추구형으로 적극적, 공격적인 투자성향일수록 직접투자자산을 선택하는 것으로 나타났다. 마지막으로, 투자자들은 저축목적과 투자목적을 구분하여 금융자산을 선택하는 것으로 나타났다. 투자자들은 일부 항목에서는 저축목적과 투자목적을 구별없이 투자행동을 하지만 저축 및 투자목적에 따라 금융자산규모를 다르게 결정하는 것으로 나타났다. 본 연구는 투자자들의 투자의사결정에 영향을 미치는 다양한 주관적 변인들에 대한 이해와 금융상품 판매를 하는 금융기관의 심도있는 투자자 관찰의 필요성에 대해 시사점을 줄 것으로 기대한다. English Abstract: The purpose of this study was to identify the relationship between financial asset allocation and objectives of saving or investment. In particular, the study attempted to identify whether subjective psychological variables such as money attitude and financial risk tolerance had moderating effects in the model. Among the 2,530 data from 2012 Fund Investment Survey conducted by the Korea Investor Protection Foundation, 1,621 data were selected. Major findings are as follows. First, the result indicates that investors chose financial assets according to their saving or investment objectives. Investors showed a tendency of choosing less risky financial assets if they had a savings goal, but if they would like to invest their money then they chose various types of financial assets according to their specific investment goals. Second, attitude toward money had a moderating effect on choosing financial assets. The attitude toward money had a positive moderating effects on accumulating assets or retirement preparation by increasing the amount of indirect investment. Third, the results on risk tolerance showed that investors pursued profit. In addition, as the investors were aggressive, they had a tendency of choosing direct investment. Fourth, investors showed to distinguish between saving objectives and investment objectives and they chose financial assets based on their objectives. Investors showed different behaviors in some other categories, but they chose different amount of financial assets based on saving and/or investment objectives. This study provides insights for the needs of in-depth observation of investors when a agency sells financial products, and understanding of diverse subjective factors influencing investors' decisions.

Determinants of foreign direct and indirect investment in the MENA region

Purpose– This study aims to examine the factors affecting the foreign direct investment (FDI) and foreign portfolio investment (FPI) flows among the 16 economies comprising the Middle East and North African (MENA) region.Design/methodology/approach– Panel data for the period 1984-2012 are used, and the generalized method of moment (GMM) technique is implemented.Findings– The results support the agglomeration effect, which indicates that countries which have already had FDI attract more FDI in the future. Economic risk affects FDI significantly and negatively, whereas trade openness has a significant and positive impact on FDI. Of the political risk factors considered, three of them, namely, law and order, ethnic tension and internal conflict, significantly affect FDI. The results on FPI show that the lag in FPI and the degree of openness play a significant role in attracting FPI into the MENA region. In addition, stock market capitalization, as well as the return on investment affects the FPI flow positively. The study also reveals a negative government structure impact on FPI, whereas, surprisingly, religious tension in the MENA region affects FPI positively.Originality/value– This research examines, simultaneously, the factors that determine not only FDI but also FPI flow. It uses a powerful econometric technique which avoids common estimation problems such as endogeneity, heteroskedasticity and autocorrelation. Policymakers in the MENA region recognized the need for outside capital as a major catalyst of development, economic growth and modernization. Therefore, it is essential to know the factors that would lead to a surge in capital flow to these countries.

Development of the Egyptian Relations with the African Horn Countries and Its Impact on the Egyptian National Security

Development of the Egyptian Relations with the African Horn Countries and Its Impact on the Egyptian National Security

‘Onboarden’ van nieuwe medewerkers: meer dan traditioneel investeren?

‘Onboarding’ new employees: solely a matter of traditional investing? ‘Onboarding’ new employees: solely a matter of traditional investing? By reason of the increasingly flexible and transitional labour market, it seems relevant for organizations to optimize the introduction and integration of their new employees. According to management literature, organizations can succeed in this by investing in their onboarding process. This study focuses on how the Dutch Tax and Customs Administration introduces new employees. The central question is: ‘Do employees perform better and are they more committed as the Dutch Tax and Customs Administration invest in the onboarding process? This study includes an consideration of three important theoretical perspectives on attitude and behavior in organizations. An online questionnaire was conducted. 174 new employees that has been working within the Dutch Tax and Customs Administration for a maximum of 14 months are included in the sample. From several regression analyses it can be concluded that indirect investments are useful, the social embeddedness of new employees is both of positive and negative influence, the integration in the new organizational culture is positive if the culture is perceived as open and the way the first day is organized seems important.

Income return versus capital appraisal for real estate funds during the financial crisis

Purpose– The overall performance of real estate funds can be ascribed to capital appreciation and/or income return. The Italian property funds market has grown significantly over the past few years; however, little is known about the key drivers of property fund performance. The purpose of this paper is to measure the impact of two sources of funds’ performance and identify their relevance during the financial crisis.Design/methodology/approach– The paper considers the Italian market in the last decade and analyses the annual reports of public real estate funds, separating appraisal returns from income returns. By considering a wide time horizon, it evaluates if the roles of income returns and capital gains with respect to overall performance are more or less influenced by fund characteristics, such as asset diversification, concentration, and leverage.Findings– The contribution of income return and capital growth are not strictly related to the overall performance of Italian real estate funds, with a significantly lower correlation during the global financial crisis. Furthermore, the main drivers of the two income sources are not strictly comparable.Originality/value– The paper presents the first analysis on the source of income return for the Italian real estate funds and it represents one of the few studies that considers the effect of the financial crisis on European indirect real estate investments, capital appreciation and income return.

Economic Sustainability of a New Born State

Sustainable development is the concept of a relationship between economic growth and the environment and especially when it comes to a new born country, such as Kosovo. It is naturally important for Kosovo as country, which used to be for a long time with no adequate attention in terms of the economic development under the Yugoslavian political, legal and economic development. Republic of Kosovo is among the richest countries in Europe and wider, seen on the perspective of natural and human resources as well as for geographical position. Nevertheless, the country never had the opportunity to develop itself, using its own resources. Internationally, based on Universal Declaration of Human Rights, International Covenants on Civil and Political Rights as well as the Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, when speaking for self-determination, apart from politics, these documents include the exclusive rights of nations to develop research as well as to orient its country economic resources and economic agenda. Therefore paper aims to present facts on the implication of domestic and international politics in relation to the economic development of a new born country. The analysis will be focused on the policies of Kosovo, as well as activities undertaken in the direction of building an attracting environment in Kosovo for Foreign Direct and Indirect Investments as well as to incite local and international initiatives for business, aiming the general economic growth and the economical sustainability of the state.

Determinants of Foreign Direct Investment: An Empirical Analysis for Turkey

(ProQuest: ... denotes formulae omitted.)IntroductionEconomic development of a country depends on utilization of resources for increasing productive capacity. In many developing countries, utilization of resources is rendered impossible by the scarcity of domestic capital. One of these economic problems of developing countries is that they do not have enough national savings to finance their investments. They are in constant need of foreign capital in forms of both direct and indirect investments. Foreign direct investment (FDI) is a process whereby the residents of the source country attain ownership of assets with the intention to control the production, distribution and other activities of a firm in the host country (Khachoo and Khan,2012). Foreign direct investment (FDI) is a way of international loan, by which those countries that have better investment opportunities at the present borrow from those that have capital surplus.FDI can be a crucial instrument to foster economic growth. FDI provides developing countries with the much needed capital for investments and enhances job creation, managerial skills and transfer of technology for less developed countries. Furthermore, FDI encourages technological development and also support the accumulation of physical capital.FDI plays a significant role in the development of international trade, and it helps to establish direct, stable, and long-lasting links between economies. The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) states that; FDI can serve as an important vehicle for local enterprise development, strengthening the competitiveness of both the recipient and investor (Groh and Wich, 2012). For example, Turkey in particular is pursuing further political and monetary integration with Europe. In that case maintaining a government effectiveness that is conducive to foreign investment and increases comparative advantage is integral to its integrationist aspirations.The significance of foreign direct investment (FDI) flows is well documented in literature for both the developing and developed countries. Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) inflows to developing countries have been substantially increasing and, compared to other capital flows, have remained the largest component of net resource flows to developing countries. FDI is a key element in international economic integration. FDI creates direct, stable and long-lasting links between economies. As a definition FDI is a direct investment into production or business in a country by an individual or company of another country, either by buying a company in the target country or by expanding operations of an existing business in that country. It encourages the transfer of technology and know-how between countries, and allows the host economy to promote its products more widely in international markets (Todaro, 1994).The role of foreign direct investment in the development of Turkish economy cannot be over emphasized. Foreign direct investment provides capital for investment; it enhances job creation and managerial skills, and possibly technology transfer.We shall present our analysis with a brief history of the Turkish economy. Today, Turkey is one of the most attractive investment destinations for foreign investors. It benefits from a unique strategic location; a young, dynamic and skilled workforce, and a stable political and economic environment. Turkey received foreign investment inflows of only US$18m 33 years ago when it started to host foreign investors. Now, the cumulative value of foreign investments has surged to US$138.3b. While the aggregate volume of foreign investment inflows totalled only US$14.6b during the 80-year period from the establishment of the Turkish Republic to 2003, this figure rose to US$123.7b during the last decade. In other words, Turkey attracted 8.5 times more foreign inward investment over the last decade than it did in the previous 80 years. …

Was wine a premier cru investment?

We investigate the case for Bordeaux and Rhone wine as an investment. The raw data analysed comprises of approx. 335,000 observations of wine sales prices and is analysed using the repeat sales regression method. General Red Bordeaux and Rhone wine indices are constructed for the period January 1996–January 2007, which are compared with each other, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA), and with a number of wine funds and finally with the Liv-Ex Fine Wine 100 (FW100) Index. The findings suggest that Rhone and Bordeaux wines can provide average returns in excess of risk-free investments with lower risk at index level. Individual wines and sub-regions carry higher risk than the general indices with varying return levels and so direct investment in such wine by inexperienced, low volume or individual investors carries a high level of risk. Returns on indirect investment via wine funds vary, however all average returns of funds analysed exceed the general Rhone and Bordeaux Index in this research. Volatility for some wine funds was particularly high and may not suit risk-averse investors. This is reinforced by inspection of the higher moments.

CFC’s Indirect Investments in US Property Results in Income Inclusion for US Purposes

An internal memorandum in the Chief Counsel’s Office of the US Internal Revenue Service (IRS) concluded that a taxpayer was not successful in limiting the amount of an income inclusion that was recognized by a US parent of an international affiliated group when a group member loaned money to the US parent. The IRS looked through the intermediate lender to the source of the funds within the controlled group to determine the appropriate amount of the income inclusion.

English

This study examined the association between tax incentives of China’s 2008 Enterprise Income Tax Law (the 2008 tax law) and inflows of foreign direct investments from Taiwanese enterprises (TDI) to China. In addition, this study also investigated the effects of industry and location on TDI. This study showed that reduced tax rate concessions for foreign enterprises and increased tax rate considerably reduced TDI inflow to China. Furthermore, industry-specific tax incentives became more favorable than location-specific tax incentives after the new tax laws were introduced. The results of joint tests of tax reform and tax incentives indicated that the 2008 tax law did not provide location-specific tax incentives for TDI, while industry-specific tax incentives appeared to be more attractive to TDI. Moreover, Taiwanese enterprises with intensive indirect investment in China as well as with higher shareholdings were inclined to have higher TDI. The implications of these findings implied that foreign direct investment strategy in accordance with industry-specific and location-specific tax incentives can enhance the competitive advantages of multinational companies.   Key words: Tax incentives, the 2008 tax law, Taiwanese direct investment (TDI).

Country ETFs, currencies and international diversification

Empirical evidence shows that market prices of country exchange traded funds (ETFs) react in unison with domestic stocks on their listing exchange to a common set of risk factors. This would argue against the use of indirect foreign investments via country ETFs to diversify a portfolio of domestic stocks. Using the net asset values of a cross-section of US and European-listed ETFs to control for market noise and time zone discrepancies, this study seeks to quantify the diversification benefits of country ETFs for a domestic investor. Moreover, fund returns are decomposed into their two fundamental drivers – the variations of the underlying foreign stocks and the foreign currency – in order to investigate the role of currency returns in modifying correlations between country funds and domestic stocks. To conclude, the analysis is repeated for the pre- and post-financial crisis periods to gain insight into shifts in the relationships between world equity markets since this dislocation.

Identifying and Prioritizing the Financing Methods : A Hybrid Approach Delphi - ANP

Financing is a major challenge for businesses today face. Financing and investment are important factors of development .Access to finance is a major obstacle to economic actors. The purpose of this study is to identifying and prioritizing the financing method. In this study of 18 experts in the field of financing is used.We use the Delphi method to identify the important financing methods .The Delphi method is a structured communication technique, originally developed as a systematic, interactive forecasting method which relies on a panel of experts .The important financing methods that have been identified include : foreign direct investment (FDI), foreign indirect investment (IFI), forfaiting, factoring, finance, loan, usance and guarantee. Finaly this methods were ranked by the method of ANP.The analytic network process (ANP) is a generalization of analytical hierarchy process (AHP) and can be used to treat more sophisticated decision problems.As a result , the foreign indirect investment (IFI) method won first rank.

A Financial Appraisal of Business Improvement Districts in the UK

Urban regeneration has increasingly emphasised long-term policy objectives and public—private partnership arrangements where risk and profits are more equitably distributed between the parties. Similarly, successive governments have endorsed area-based regeneration vehicles with increasing importance placed on enterprise zones, business improvement districts (BIDs), tax incremental finance, and other local asset backed vehicles. Each regeneration vehicle necessitates a clear policy direction and performance measurement of its policy outputs to ensure that funding is targeted at initiatives delivering sustainability impacts. This paper presents a ‘market’ and ‘nonmarket’ appraisal of the financial impact of BIDs as an area-based regeneration vehicle. It utilises data from a UK-wide survey to demonstrate the potential of BIDs in generating direct income and indirect investment and how the output capacity of the BID model increases over time. The paper concludes that BIDs have significant leverage potential whilst acting as a key conduit for coordinating wider area-based regeneration.

External Variables in the Expansion of Employment Opportunities

This study aimed to investigate the effect of external variables on employment in the province of East Kalimantan. Besides, it will also discuss how the direct and indirect influence some of these external variables on employment in the province of East Kalimantan. External variables studied were foreign investment, domestic investment, government expenditure, and Gross Regional Product (GRP) in East Kalimantan Province. This study uses time series data from 2002 to 2011. To determine the effect of the direct and indirect pathway analysis is used (pathanalysis). If you see from pathway analysis obtained is known that foreign investment and government expenditure directly affect positively. Domestic investment negatively affect GRP in East Kalimantan. Direct influence of foreign investment and government expenditure on employment is negative. Effect of indirect foreign investment and government expenditure on employment by GRP in East Kalimantan Province is negative. While domestic investment indirect effect on employment through the GRP is positive. While domestic investment and GRP direct positive effect on employment in the province of East Kalimantan.