Bayesian estimation of the efficient frontier

In this paper, we consider the estimation of the three determining parameters of the efficient frontier, the expected return, and the variance of the global minimum variance portfolio and the slope parameter, from a Bayesian perspective. Their posterior distribution is derived by assigning the diffuse and the conjugate priors to the mean vector and the covariance matrix of the asset returns and is presented in terms of a stochastic representation. Furthermore, Bayesian estimates together with the standard uncertainties for all three parameters are provided, and their asymptotic distributions are established. All obtained findings are applied to real data, consisting of the returns on assets included into the S&P 500. The empirical properties of the efficient frontier are then examined in detail.     

From Provocation and Combustibility Toward Mutuality: Once More with Less Rage,Please

This paper presents a summary and excerpts taken from the psychoanalytic treatment, spanning over 16 years, of a highly disturbed and provocative male patient. Prior to referral, the man had been unsuccessfully treated psychopharmacologically for a depressive illness with severe somatic and affective symptoms and behavioral disturbances. A highlight of the case is the emergence of a therapeutic impasse that developed around the patient's attempt to connect intensely with the analyst; the patient attempted to repair his own damaged phallic narcissism by demanding that the analyst participate in a ritualized sexual enactment, which threatened the destruction of the treatment process. The resolution of the impasse was accomplished through the analyst's reaffirming the frame and recovering his own disrupted composure and ref lectiveness, while maintaining a compassionate and caring attitude toward the patient.     

Evolution of nonunion employee representation in Canada

Canadians have greater latitude in operating nonunion plans without fear of unfair labor practice challenges, while Americans are constrained by the National Labor Relations Act. The reasons for Canada’s divergence from the U.S. approach are described. The details of Canadian statutes pertaining to nonunion representation are discussed. The article then explores the nonunion terrain that developed in Canada in the face of the continued legality of nonunion representation. The fates of a number of historically significant nonunion plans are presented. New data from a 1996 survey by Lipset and Meltz indicate that despite significant public policy differences, penetration of nonunion forms is remarkably similar in the two countries.     

Assessment of vague and noninformative priors for Bayesian estimation of the realized random effects in random-effects meta-analysis

Random-effects meta-analysis has become a well-established tool applied in many areas, for example, when combining the results of several clinical studies on a treatment effect. Typically, the inference aims at the common mean and the amount of heterogeneity. In some applications, the laboratory effects are of interest, for example, when assessing uncertainties quoted by laboratories participating in an interlaboratory comparison in metrology. We consider the Bayesian estimation of the realized random effects in random-effects meta-analysis. Several vague and noninformative priors are examined as well as a proposed novel one. Conditions are established that ensure propriety of the posteriors for the realized random effects. We present extensive simulation results that assess the inference in dependence on the choice of prior as well as mis-specifications in the statistical model. Overall good performance is observed for all priors with the novel prior showing the most promising results. Finally, the uncertainties reported by eleven national metrology institutes and universities for their measurements on the Newtonian constant of gravitation are assessed.     

Mandatory agency shop laws as an explanation of Canada-U.S. union density divergence

X. Conclusion During a period of strength the Canadian labor movement was able to secure enduring legislation providing for their institutional protection. In the 1940s Justice Rand justified his decision by invoking the spirit underlying the operationalization of a collective bargaining regime. In the 1990s the Canadian Supreme Court continued this tradition by refusing to hollow out unions’ rights to a secure financial base and autonomy in decision making. Between the 1940s and the 1990s, the unions' voice was heard in legislatures throughout the country through the NDP. Canadian unions now benefit from, among other things, first-contract arbitration, job protection for striking workers, and a card process of union certification. Thus, although current Canadian attitudes towards unions show considerable detachment, the embeddedness of legal protections helps hold such challenges as RTW in Alberta at bay. During the same years, American labor was unable to translate its strength of numbers into gains in public policy: in fact, as union density peaked, legislation such as the Taft-Hartley Act and Landrum-Griffin Act eroded union institutional protections. An earlier version of this article appears as “Union Security in Canada,” in The Internal Governance and Organizational Effectiveness of Labor Unions, edited by S. Estreicher, H. C. Katz, and B. E. Kaufman, Kluwer Press. We are grateful for their permission to reproduce portions of the chapter. Comments from Dennis Nolan (University of South Carolina) and John Godard (University of Manitoba) are greatly appre-ciated. The article benefited from their excellent suggestions. Research assistance from Fred Jacques is acknowledged. We follow the Canadian spelling of “labour” for accuracy when it is used in citations, quotes, and titles.     

How risky is the optimal portfolio which maximizes the Sharpe ratio?

In this paper, we investigate the properties of the optimal portfolio in the sense of maximizing the Sharpe ratio (SR) and develop a procedure for the calculation of the risk of this portfolio. This is achieved by constructing an optimal portfolio which minimizes the Value-at-Risk (VaR) and at the same time coincides with the tangent (market) portfolio on the efficient frontier which is related to the SR portfolio. The resulting significance level of the minimum VaR portfolio is then used to determine the risk of both the market portfolio and the corresponding SR portfolio. However, the expression of this significance level depends on the unknown parameters which have to be estimated in practice. It leads to an estimator of the significance level whose distributional properties are investigated in detail. Based on these results, a confidence interval for the suggested risk measure of the SR portfolio is constructed and applied to real data. Both theoretical and empirical findings document that the SR portfolio is very risky since the corresponding significance level is smaller than 90 % in most of the considered cases.     

How new lawyers use E-voice to drive firm compensation: The “greedy associates” phenomenon

Discussions and Conclusions How can we distinguish the GA phenomenon from unions? Unions’ raison d’etre is employee representation through collective bargaining, supported by a permanent institutional structure of professional officers and business agents and a revenue base from dues. The GA sites are idiosyncratic, based on the voluntarism and self-interest of secret founders, and lack any sort of disciplined approach to negotiation. Both unions and the GAs have adversarial relationships with management. Rather than bargaining, however, the GAs engage in concerted and surreptitious sniping. Both gather and share information, but unions use it to advance the interests of the collective whereas the GAs are left to their own individual devices when dealing with their employers. The GA sites suffer from problems of possible disinformation being posted by partners and others in the firms, and there have at times been false postings. The sock-puppet issue not only masks identities but also distorts the communication flow such that it is difficult to distinguish real conversations from ersatz relationships.     

Historiography and National Identity among the Eastern Slavs: Towards a New Framework

The article surveys Tsarist, Soviet and Western historiography of Russia and how this affected the national identities and inter-ethnic relations among the three eastern Slavs. Western historiography of Russia largely utilised an imperialist and statist historiographical framework created within the Tsarist empire during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Although this framework was imperialist it was gradually accepted as 'objective' by the Western scholarly community. Yet, this historiography was far from being 'objective'. After 1934 Soviet historiography also reverted to the majority of the tenets found in Tsarist historiography. Within Tsarist, Western and Soviet historiographies of 'Russia' eastern Slavic history was nationalised on behalf of the Russian nation which served to either ignore or deny a separate history and identity for Ukrainians and Belarusians. In the post-Soviet era all 15 Soviet successor states are undertaking nation and state building projects which utilise history and myths to inculcate new national identities. The continued utilisation of the Tsarist, Western and Soviet imperial and statist historiographical schema is no longer tenable and serves to undermine civic nation building in the Russian Federation. This article argues in favour of a new, non-imperial framework for histories of 'Russia' territorially based upon the Russian Federation and inclusive of all of its citizens.