Ecological risk assessments (ERAs) are not used as well as they could be in risk management. Part of the problem is that they often lack ecological relevance; that is, they fail to grasp necessary ecological complexities. Adding realism and complexity can be difficult and costly. We argue that predictive systems models (PSMs) can provide a way of capturing complexity and ecological relevance co...

We investigate the determinants of US credit union capital-to-assets ratios, before and after the implementation of the current capital adequacy regulatory framework in 2000. Capitalization varies pro-cyclically, and credit unions classified as adequately capitalized or below followed a faster adjustment path than well capitalized credit unions. Credit unions managed their capital more actively...

Predation management is controversial and much recent debate has focused on the cost of management efforts. This manuscript considers the cost of predators to agriculture, big game or threatened and endangered species management, and human health and safety. Subsequently, the cost of efforts to manage predation in these contexts is discussed, and benefit:cost ratios are calculated. When properl...

This article presents the results of a seismic risk assessment of the bridge network in Charleston, South Carolina and the surrounding counties to support emergency planning efforts, and for prioritization of bridge retrofit. This study includes an inventory analysis of the approximately 375 bridges in the Charleston area, and convolution of the seismic hazard with fragility curves analytically...

We analyze the determinants of government debt under the twin assumptions that governments have limited horizons and default only when government income falls short of debt service requirements. We derive a government’s maximum sustainable debt ratio, that is, the debt ratio chosen by a myopic government whose horizon does not extend beyond its current term in office. Maximum sustainable debt v...

The results of a complete one-loop calculation for the fermionic decay width Γ(h 0 , H 0 , A 0 → f ¯ f) of the neutral MSSM Higgs bosons are presented and the dominant light Higgs decay channel h 0 → b ¯ b is discussed in detail. The enhancement of Γ(h 0 → b ¯ b) compared to the standard Higgs decay is shown for pseudoscalar masses M A ≤ 300 GeV, where the one-loop contributions in the MSSM and...

The purpose of this empirical study is to analyze and compare the performance of Islamic and conventional banking in Pakistan and to find out which of the banking stream is performing better than other. For this study, sample of 22 conventional banks and 5 Islamic banks were selected. For in-depth understanding and sound comparison, key performance indicators were divided into external and inte...

In this paper, we propose an explanation for biases in portfolio choice. We show that if individuals compete for local resources within their community, their utility depends on their own wealth as well as aggregate community wealth. This leads to an externality in portfolio choice. If investors are sufficiently risk averse, then individual investors will bias their portfolio choice in the dire...

It is difficult to explain the price insensitive or infra-marginal behavior, an example of which is the behavior of credit markets during the recent financial crisis, by risk aversion alone. It is known that infra-marginal behavior may arise with ambiguity aversion. Furthermore, there appears to be fairly strong evidence of a close connection between ambiguity and conformity. Here we propose an...