scholarly journals A new take on voice: the influence of BlackRock’s ‘Dear CEO’ letters

2021 ◽  
Vol 26 (3) ◽  
pp. 1088-1136
Author(s):  
Andrea Pawliczek ◽  
A. Nicole Skinner ◽  
Laura A. Wellman
Keyword(s):  
Public Engagement ◽  
Institutional Investors ◽  
Policy Preferences ◽  
Policy Recommendations ◽  
Regulatory Factors ◽  
Shareholder Proposals ◽  
Specific Policy ◽  
Ex Ante ◽  
The Impact

AbstractWe examine whether broad-based public engagement by institutional investors influences the behavior of portfolio firms. We investigate this question in the context of BlackRock’s annual Dear CEO letter, which in recent years has called for portfolio firms to acknowledge and quantify the impact of environmental and regulatory factors on their firms. We find that portfolio firms’ disclosures during the post-letter period reflect topics similar to those discussed in the letters, controlling for a variety of firm and disclosure characteristics and the occurrence of private engagements. Moreover, BlackRock appears to value these additional disclosures, as it more often votes with management on shareholder proposals during subsequent annual shareholder meetings. Finally, motivated by BlackRock’s attempts to mobilize firms toward its specific policy recommendations, we also provide some evidence that firms’ lobbying efforts during the post-letter period become more aligned with the issues highlighted in the letter, especially when firms’ share BlackRock’s policy preferences ex ante. Taken together, our evidence suggests that portfolio firms are responsive to BlackRock’s public engagement efforts.

scholarly journals Research on the Impact of Green Credit on the Financial Performance of Commercial Banks

2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 406
Author(s):  
Xingbang Yin
Keyword(s):  
Financial Performance ◽  
Commercial Banks ◽  
Negative Impact ◽  
Policy Recommendations ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Impact Mechanism ◽  
Specific Policy ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Heterogeneous Effect ◽  
The Impact

From the perspective of green credit, this paper makes a theoretical analysis of the impact of green credit on the financial performance of commercial banks. Based on the panel data of 15 commercial banks from 2012 to 2018, this paper makes an empirical analysis on the impact mechanism is empirically analyzed. The results show that in the short-term, green credit has a negative impact on the financial performance of commercial banks, and the adverse impact faced by small and medium-sized commercial banks is significantly higher than that of large commercial banks, showing a heterogeneous effect. This also reveals the effect of commercial banks in implementing green credit in commercial banks and reasons for low initiative and enthusiasm. In view of this, it puts forward specific policy recommendations for different types of commercial banks, and believes that they should effectively promote green credit business in terms of differentiated policy guidelines and increasing the training of interdisciplinary talents.

AN EMPIRICAL STUDY OF INDIAN INSURANCE INDUSTRY POST GLOBAL FINANCIAL CRISIS

2015 ◽  
Vol 6 (01-02) ◽  
Author(s):  
Anis Ur Rehman ◽  
Yasir Arafat Elahi ◽  
Sushma .
Keyword(s):  
Financial Crisis ◽  
Global Financial Crisis ◽  
Insurance Industry ◽  
Primary Data ◽  
Policy Recommendations ◽  
Insurance Sector ◽  
The World ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The New Deal

India has recently emerged as a major political and economic power in the world. The financial crisis that engulfed the world in 2008 needed developing countries like India to lead the rescue and recovery, instead of G7 westerns countries who dealt with such crisis in the past. Recently, discussions and negotiations are going amongst G20 countries regarding a new global financial architecture (G-20 Summit, 2008). The outcome will affect the relevant industries in India and hence it is a public interest issue for the actuarial profession in the country. Increased and more intrusive and costly regulations and red tapes are likely to be a part of the new deal (Economic Survey 2009-10). The objective of this paper is to study the perception of higher level authorities in Insurance sector regarding the role of regulator in minimizing the impact of global financial crisis. The primary data has been collected from 200 authorities in insurance industry. The data has been analyzed with statistical tools like MS-Excel. On the basis of the findings, various measures and policy recommendations for insurers have been suggested to minimize the impact of crisis.

scholarly journals Overconfidence and Timing of Entry

Games ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 44
Author(s):  
Luis Santos-Pinto ◽  
Tiago Pires
Keyword(s):  
Private Information ◽  
Welfare Effect ◽  
The Other ◽  
Ex Ante ◽  
Rational Player ◽  
Timing Of Entry ◽  
Game Players ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Stackelberg Leader

We analyze the impact of overconfidence on the timing of entry in markets, profits, and welfare using an extension of the quantity commitment game. Players have private information about costs, one player is overconfident, and the other one rational. We find that for slight levels of overconfidence and intermediate cost asymmetries, there is a unique cost-dependent equilibrium where the overconfident player has a higher ex-ante probability of being the Stackelberg leader. Overconfidence lowers the profit of the rational player but can increase that of the overconfident player. Consumer rents increase with overconfidence while producer rents decrease which leads to an ambiguous welfare effect.

After Luther: Visual Culture, Materiality and the Legacy of 1517

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-6
Author(s):  
JENNIFER SPINKS
Keyword(s):  
Visual Culture ◽  
Early Modern ◽  
Public Engagement ◽  
Religious Identity ◽  
Visual Images ◽  
Important Work ◽  
Religious Identities ◽  
Public Activity ◽  
Material Turn ◽  
The Impact

Do historians look at Luther and the Lutheran Reformation differently in the aftermath of the Lutherjahr of 2017, and its frenzy of academic and public activity? As recent publications on Luther demonstrate – notably Lyndal Roper's 2016 biography Martin Luther: renegade and prophet – there is a still a great deal to say about Luther, and how his friendships, passions, prejudices and physical experiences shaped him. But while Luther was the monumental public figure of 2017, some of the most important work coinciding with the anniversary addressed instead Lutheranism as a movement, and the nature of religious identities in Luther's aftermath. It also demonstrated and furthered the impact of the visual and material turn in history and in Reformation studies. Building upon decades of scholarship on Lutheran visual images, recent Reformation scholarship has demonstrated in increasing depth how religious identity can and should be read through both material and visual culture. The three publications examined here – a monograph by Bridget Heal, a website by Brian Cummings, Ceri Law, Bronwyn Wallace and Alexandra Walsham, and the exhibition catalogue Luther! 95 treasures – 95 people – contribute to the material, sensory turn in Reformation and early modern scholarship, and in the latter two cases also reveal the impact of this upon public engagement with Reformation histories.

scholarly journals When Machines Take the Beans: Ex-Ante Socioeconomic Impact Evaluation of Mechanized Harvesting of Mungbean in Bangladesh and Myanmar

Agronomy ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (5) ◽  
pp. 925
Author(s):  
Lutz Depenbusch ◽  
Cathy Rozel Farnworth ◽  
Pepijn Schreinemachers ◽  
Thuzar Myint ◽  
Md Monjurul Islam ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Well Being ◽  
Careful Consideration ◽  
Women Farmers ◽  
Men And Women ◽  
Farm Work ◽  
Weather Shocks ◽  
Budget Analysis ◽  
Ex Ante ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
The Impact

Agricultural mechanization has spread across much of Asia since the 1960s. It has increased agricultural productivity and reduced arduous farm work. However, differing impacts for smallholders and hired laborers, and for men and women, require careful consideration. This study analyzed, ex-ante, the likely social and economic tradeoffs of mechanizing the mungbean harvest in Bangladesh and Myanmar. We used a mixed methods approach combining survey data from 852 farm households with in-depth interviews in four villages. Partial budget analysis shows that mechanical harvesting of mungbean is not yet profitable for most farms. There is nevertheless an incentive to mechanize as the associated timeliness of the harvest reduces the risk of harvest losses from weather shocks. Men and women farmers expect time savings and reduced drudgery. The results confirm that hired workers depend on manual harvesting for income and status in both countries. Most hired workers are landless married women with limited access to other sources of income. In the short term, farmers are likely to combine manual harvests and a final mechanized harvest of the indeterminate crop. This could mediate the impact on hired workers. However, in the long term, it will be necessary to facilitate income-generating opportunities for women in landless rural families to maintain their well-being and income.

Platform Capitalism ‘Made in China’? Intelligent Manufacturing, Taobao Villages and the Restructuring of Work

2019 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 199-217 ◽  
Author(s):  
Boy Lüthje
Keyword(s):  
Intelligent Manufacturing ◽  
Value Chains ◽  
Policy Recommendations ◽  
Employment Policy ◽  
Social Shaping Of Technology ◽  
Social Shaping ◽  
Made In China ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Conditions Of Employment ◽  
Made In

The article examines the development of advanced digital manufacturing (as outlined in the ‘Made-in-China 2025’ government plan) from the perspective of the changing socio-technical paradigms of production. The analysis focuses on the transformations of value chains and work, based on theories of social shaping of technology, regulation theory and regimes of production. Analytically, the author proposes to distinguish between ‘production-driven’ and ‘distribution-driven’ pathways of manufacturing digitalisation. The transformation of semi-rural industrial areas (‘Taobao villages’, named after China’s largest e-commerce platform Taobao) into mass production clusters for e-commerce is depicted as a paradigmatic model of distribution-driven transformation and as a characteristic Chinese strategy in this field. The article examines the impact on industry supply chains and work, leading to ever-more precarious conditions of employment. Policy recommendations focus on local strategies to stabilise supply chain structures and working conditions, as an alternative to the present top-down approaches to manufacturing modernisation in China.

scholarly journals An Input–Output Ex Ante Regional Model to Assess the Short-Term Net Effects of the 16 April 2016 Earthquake in Ecuador

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jorge Salgado ◽  
José Ramírez-Álvarez ◽  
Diego Mancheno
Keyword(s):  
Natural Hazard ◽  
National Accounts ◽  
Input Output ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Ex Ante ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Consumption Demand ◽  
Two Sectors ◽  
Positive Effect

AbstractThe 16 April 2016 earthquake in Ecuador exposed the significant weaknesses concerning the methodological designs to compute—from an economic standpoint—the consequences of a natural hazard-related disaster for productive exchanges and the accumulation of capital in Ecuador. This study addressed one of these challenges with an innovative ex ante model to measure the partial and net short-term effects of a natural hazard-related catastrophe from an interregional perspective, with the 16 April 2016 earthquake serving as a case study. In general, the specified and estimated model follows the approach of the extended Miyazawa model, which endogenizes consumption demand in a standard input–output model with the subnational interrelations and resulting multipliers. Due to the country’s limitations in its regional account records the input–output matrices for each province of Ecuador had to be estimated, which then allowed transactions carried out between any two sectors within or outside a given province to be identified by means of the RAS method. The estimations provide evidence that the net short-term impact on the national accounts was not significant, and under some of the simulated scenarios, based on the official information with respect to earthquake management, the impact may even have had a positive effect on the growth of the national product during 2016.

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