Village Fund for Peatlands Restoration: Study of Community’s Perceived Challenges and Opportunities in Muaro Jambi District

Peatlands conversion to dryland for plantation has caused environmental havoc and is more prone to natural disasters in Indonesia. Community engagements under village administration should be the main strategy for supporting peatlands restoration. Since the new law on villages was enacted in 2014, the village has gained authority and delegated responsibilities from the upper-level government to make rural development decisions in various sectors, including those connected to environmental management, such as peatland restoration. The recognition of authority is followed by the transfer of significant funds, called village funds, from the central government as a form of commitment to undertake the village law. Currently, applied regulations allow community engagement to utilize the village fund for supporting peatland restoration. This study investigated the community's perceptions of village fund utilization for peatland restoration through in-depth interviews and questionnaires with site-level stakeholders that influence village budget allocation-related policies. The investigated aspects included village budgeting and development planning mechanism, the capacity of the community, and rules of district government in supervising the villages. Based on our findings, the identified challenges include the absence of environmental aspects as a part of village development pillars for developing village planning and budgeting, lack of community's environmental-economical nexus knowledge, and lack of district government in supervising village fund utilization and management at the site-level. However, the opportunities to direct the village fund utilization for peatlands restoration are widely open by strengthening the roles of district government to improve village fund governance at the site level.

Urgensi Penegakan Kode Etik Pada Dana Pensiun Syariah Muhammadiyah

Tidak ditaatinya pedoman kode etik dalam pengelolaan dana pensiun dapat menyebabkan kerugian bagi dana pensiun itu sendiri, sehingga berpotensi gagal dalam memberikan manfaat pensiun kepada peserta. Penelitian ini bertujuan menjelaskan mekanisme pengelolaan dan penegakan kode etik Dana Pensiun Syariah Muhammadi-yah. Metode penelitian ini menggunakan jenis penelitian normatif-empiris. Penelitian normatif dilakukan untuk memperoleh bahan hukum sekunder melalui studi pustaka, sedangkan penelitian empiris dengan wawancara untuk memperoleh bahan hukum primer. Data yang diperoleh kemudian dianalisis secara deskriptif dengan pendekatan konsep dan perundang-undangan. Kode etik pengelolaan dana pensiun syariah Muham-madiyah mencakup iman dan taqwa kepada Allah Swt, taat hukum, relasi dengan peserta dan pihak eksternal, kepatutan dalam bertindak, hutang, hubungan insan dana pensiun dengan dana pensiun, penggunaan fasilitas lembaga, penyalahgunaan informasi dan jabatan, menjaga rahasia, akurasi pencatatan, transaksi dengan mitra kerja, benturan kepentingan, suap, korupsi dan nepotisme, keterlibatan dalam politik, dan pekerjaan di luar dana pensiun. Penegakan kode etik ini bagian dari penerapan good pension fund governance dalam rangka memberikan kesinambungan bagi peserta. Melanggar kode etik dapat diberi sanksi indisipliner. Urgency of Enforcement of Code of Ethics in Muhammadiyah Syariah Pension FundsFailure to implement code of ethics guidelines in pension fund management can lead to the pension fund management losses, so that it will potentially fail to provide pension benefits to participants. This study aims to explain the management and enforcement mechanisms of the Muhammadiyah Sharia Pension Fund code of ethics. This study uses a normative-empirical method. Normative research is conducted to obtain secondary legal material through literature study, while empirical research is conducted by using interview method to obtain primary legal material. The data collected were then analyzed descriptively with the conceptual approach and legislation. The code of ethics for the management of Muhammadiyah sharia pension funds includes faith and piety in Allah swt, obeying the law, relationships with participants and external parties, appro-priateness in acting, debt, relationships between pension fund recipients and pension funds, use of institutional facilities, misuse of information and positions, maintaining confidentiality, recording accuracy, transactions with work partners, conflicts of interest, bribery, corruption and nepotism, involvement in politics, and work outside pension fund management. The enforcement of this code of conduct is part of the implementation of good pension fund governance in order to provide sustainability for participants. Violating the code of conduct can be subject to disciplinary action.

Sustainability in Peripheral and Ultra-Peripheral Rural Areas through a Multi-Attribute Analysis: The Case of the Italian Insular Region

Italy has adopted the strategy of inner areas, mainly based on physical distance from public services. The strategy promotes a multi-level and multi-fund governance approach and the local partnership of mayors. Our paper focuses on rural areas, identified by the national strategy of inner areas, as peripheral and ultra-peripheral, in the Italian insular region (Sicily and Sardinia). It analyzes, at the municipality level, socio-demographic, economic, and environmental sustainability using appropriate indicators. Aiming at discovering the underlying relationship portrayed by multi-attribute data in an information system, we applied rough set theory. The inductive decision rules obtained through this data mining methodology reveal the simultaneous presence or absence of important characteristics aiming at reaching different levels of sustainability. Without the requirement of statistical assumptions regarding data distribution or structures for collecting data, such as functions or equations, this method ensures the description of patterns exhibited by data. Of particular interest is the assessment of conditional attributes (i.e., the selected indicators), and the information connecting them to sustainability, as a decision attribute. The most important result is rule generation, specifically, decision rules that are able to suggest tools for policy makers at different levels.

Portfolio Pumping and Managerial Structure

Using U.S. equity mutual fund data, we show that portfolio pumping—an illegal trading activity that artificially inflates year- and quarter-end portfolio returns—is more pronounced among single-managed funds compared with team-managed ones. The return inflation by team-managed funds is 45% lower than by single-managed funds at year-ends. Also, portfolio pumping decreases as team size increases. These results are driven by peer effects among teams and, sometimes, amplified by less convex flow-performance relation in team-managed funds. Our findings are robust to differences in fund governance, manager career concerns, local networks, fund family policies, and changes in the SEC’s enforcement policies.

An Empirical Examination of Mutual Fund Boards

This paper examines how board independence and director incentives in the mutual fund industry affect fund expenses, performance, and compliance. It is based on a hand-collected panel dataset of mutual fund governance characteristics from 1995 through 2004, which covers about 60% of assets listed in the CRSP mutual fund database. The results show that funds overseen by an independent chair charge fees that are 12 basis points lower and that the fraction of independent directors is associated with higher fees during the earlier part of the sample and with lower fees during the latter part. Both measures of board independence are associated with lower fund performance, although funds with higher director ownership and lower unexplained compensation charge lower fees and deliver higher returns. Fund board characteristics do not seem to affect the likelihood of litigation by regulators and shareholders. These results suggest that fund investors do not necessarily benefit from greater board independence if boards negotiate low fees without closely evaluating fund performance. In contrast, higher director ownership and relatively low compensation seem to align incentives between fund boards and investors.