Lucrative Activity Research Articles

THE HISTORY OF FINANCE: AN EYEWITNESS ACCOUNT

In this account of the evolution of finance theory, the “father of modern finance” uses the series of Nobel Prizes awarded finance scholars in the 1990s as the organizing principle for a discus‐sion of the major developments of the past 50 years. Starting with Harry Markowitz's 1952 Journal of Finance paper on “Portfolio Selection,” which provided the mean‐variance frame‐work that underlies modern portfolio theory (and for which Markowitz re‐ceived the Nobel Prize in 1990), the paper moves on to consider the Capi‐tal Asset Pricing Model, efficient mar‐ket theory, and the M & M irrelevance propositions. In describing these ad‐vances, Miller's major emphasis falls on the “tension” between the two main streams in finance scholarship: (1) the Business School (or “micro normative”) approach, which focuses on investors ‘attempts to maximize returns and cor‐porate managers’ efforts to maximize shareholder value, while taking the prices of securities in the market as given; and (2) the Economics Depart‐ment (or “macro normative”) approach, which assumes a “world of micro optimizers” and deduces from that assumption how the market prices actually evolve.The tension between the two ap‐proaches is resolved, and the two streams converge, in the final episode of Miller's history–the breakthrough in option pricing accomplished by Fischer Black, Myron Scholes, and Rob‐ert Merton in the early 1970s (for which Merton and Scholes were awarded the Nobel Prize in 1998, “with the late Fischer Black everywhere ac‐knowledged as the third pivotal fig‐ure”). As Miller says, the Black‐Scholes option pricing model and its many successors “mean that, for the first time in its close to 50‐year history, the field of finance can be built, or…rebuilt, on the basis of ‘observable’ magnitudes.” That option values can be calculated (almost entirely) with observable vari‐ables has made possible the spectacu‐lar growth in financial engineering, a highly lucrative activity where the prac‐tice of finance has come closest to attaining the precision of a hard sci‐ence. Option pricing has also helped give rise to a relatively new field called “real options” that promises to revolu‐tionize corporate strategy and capital budgeting.But if the practical applications of option pricing are impressive, the op‐portunities for further extensions of the theory by the “macro normative” wing of the profession are “vast,” in‐cluding the prospect of viewing all securities as options. Thus, it comes as no surprise that when Miller asks in closing, “What would I specialize in if I were starting over and entering the field today?,” the answer is: “At the risk of sounding like the character in ‘The Graduate,’ I reduce my advice to a single word: options.”

Economic aspects of fishing of dolphinfish in Sicily

Dolphinfish fishing with Fish Aggregating Devices (FADs) and purseseine nets is normally practised everywhere in Sicily and the Pelagic Archipelago. The fishing season starts in July when the FADs are placed and finishes in December. In the 1996 fishing season, in 5 sample ports, catches and fishing effort were taken through interviews during landing, fishing running costs were taken by interviewing fishermen and prices per kilos paid to fishermen were taken through direct observation. Catches, costs and profits per sample port, per week and for the entire fishing season were then calculated or estimated. Though it is freshly marketed only in Sicily, the resource would appear to provide a lucrative activity.

The role of religion in coastal resource management: The case of Kupo Island, Penghu (Pescadores), Taiwan

This article discusses changing lover (seaweed) collection management strategies by devotees of a temple in Chikan Village, Penghu (Pescadores), and the successful transition from a declining local economic business into a lucrative recreational activity. With nearly a hundred years of experience, a temple committee of Chikan has managed to firmly maintain its control on the collection of laver on the nearby island of Kupo. Originally based on the ideology of patriarchy, the management committee of the temple has designed a particular system of laver collection for each local household. Nevertheless, the migration of male residents has been a blow to the local economy, necessitating modifications to the traditional old management system of laver collection. In cooperation with the cultural agency of Penghu County, the temple committee initiated a popular festival in 1996 to encourage all youth nationwide to join in the activities of laver collection. This article concludes that the Chikan case demonstrates the valuable function of a religious organization in the community‐based involvement of coastal resource management. It also reveals that setting forth an active and flexible approach to deal with a changing society is essential. Moreover, environmental education vis‐à‐vis coastal resources in relation to recreational activities can encourage fuller participation from the younger generation as well as the public at large.

Crocodile farming and conservation, the example of Zimbabwe

Crocodile farming is an important and lucrative activity in Zimbabwe which provides meat for human consumption and skins for the luxury leather industry. Because it gives an economic value to this otherwise unfriendly animal, farming crocodiles has a positive side effect on the conservation of this species in the wild. This paper gives an overview of the crocodile industry in Zimbabwe.

The Impact of the Anglo-Guatemalan Dispute on the Internal Politics of Belize

In general terms, the framework for dependency perspectives postulates the existence of advanced capitalist economies that subjugate and exploit the natural resources of peripheral economies through commercial and financial mechanisms. Obstacles to the development of peripheral economies include dependence on foreign capital and technologies that do not correspond to needs of the countries, and overall subordination includes political, military, and cultural, in addition to, and because of, economic subordination. Development is viewed, then, as an interdependent process in which some countries or regions acquire a predominant place within the division of labor by reserving for themselves the most lucrative economic activities, while other countries or regions are relegated to serving as sources of cheap raw materials, as markets for manufactured goods, or as arenas for foreign capital. There is a great diversity of analysis and perspectives within the so-called dependency school (see, for instance, Bodenheimer, 1971: 327-357; Furtado, 1976; Cardoso, 1977: 7-24; Palma, 1978: 881-902; Santos, 1979: 17-26). One of the central issues that divides the theorists is the question of the existence, the character, and the power of a

La multirationalité et le sous-développement: écologie du processus décisionnel dans l'administration locale zaïroise

All administrative structures are affected by their cultural, social, economic, and political environments. The daily interactions between the two sectors comprise the substance of the administrative activity. In 1973 Zaïre's local administration was subjected to a reform which centralized and standardized its structures. This article examines the reform of the administration from the perspective of social underdevelopment. The local administrative cadres appeared to emerge from the reform with more power and prestige in social planning. However, the actual outcome of the reform in terms of development was doubtful since the authorities who acquired politico-administrative functions were engaged in their own lucrative activities and the public had little control over their administrative actions. Thus the administrative structure became an instrument which the dominant class—the bourgeois politico-administration—could use to strengthen its power over the economy. It could scarcely be otherwise in a situation in which underdevelopment creates and sustains a continual crisis. The consequences are inequalityx in the distribution of public goods and inequity in public decisions. All of these factors produce real stagnation in the society, in spite of the apparently revolutionary upsets which have occurred from time to time. They permit external domination to strengthen its hand and allow internal domination to carve out a suitable empire. To change the situation and free up local administration would require a genuine revolution in the devolution of power to the whole public.