We analyze the time series of overnight returns for the bund and btp futures exchanged at liffe (London). The overnight returns of both assets are mapped onto a one–dimensional symbolic–dynamics random walk: The “bond walk”. During the considered period (October 1991—January 1994) the bund–future market opened earlier than the btp–future one. The crosscorrelations between the two bond walks, as...

The trend that the electronic market is taking, aided by the concomitant development of mobile devices, suggests a major change from the way electronic commerce is done today. The increased use of PDAs and laptops requires that ecommerce services and transaction processing facilities need to be accessed from a wireless device. This brings new and challenging research problems into the picture. ...

Stock market volatility is the systematic risk faced by investors who hold a market portfolio (e.g., a stock market index fund). Schwert (1989b) has undertaken an extensive study of stock market volatility, using historical data back to the 19th century. Some of his major findings are illustrated in Figure 1, which plots quarterly stock market volatility for the post-World War II period.1 The f...

As previous chapters have shown, the privatization of military and security services in the past decade encompasses a vast range of activities that defy any single explanation. Armed private actors, especially in Western states, now fulfil tasks ranging from military activities that used to be the prerogative of national armed forces to the support of humanitarian aid, disaster relief operation...

Computer networks have played a major role in expanding the operational boundaries in organizations today. Until now traditional methods of networking, which involves computers, wired directly to a hub or switch are the norm. Recent advances in networking technology have made it possible for devices to communicate using various light and wave emitting technologies. WiFi is a perfect example of ...

Job Insecurity and Future Labour Market Outcomes This paper uses longitudinal survey data to test the degree to which measures of job insecurity are correlated with changes in labour market status. Three major findings are reported. First, the perceived probability of job loss is only weakly related to both exogenous job separations and subsequent transitions to unemployment and inactivity. Sec...

Recent studies have shown the important role of geography, politics and technology for the evolution of markets for natural gas. Gas market differs from other markets due to high share of transport and infrastructure costs. Since investment is location specific, it involves also geopolitical aspects as a consequence. Future market structure becomes path dependent on the investment decisions, pa...

Stock market volatility is the systematic risk faced by investors who hold a market portfolio (e.g., a stock market index fund). Schwert (1989b) has undertaken an extensive study of stock market volatility, using historical data back to the 19th century. Some of his major findings are illustrated in Figure 1, which plots quarterly stock market volatility for the post-World War II period.1 The f...

This study examines whether patent citation impact, a leading indicator of technology firms’ innovation capabilities, is associated with future earnings and whether this association is appropriately reflected in stock prices and analysts’ earnings forecasts of patent-rich companies. The results indicate that change of patent citation impact is positively associated with future earnings, particu...