Benchmark indexes have become important in financial markets for portfolio investment. In this paper, we study how international equity and bond market indexes impact asset allocations, capital ...flows, asset prices, and exchange rates across countries. We use unique monthly micro-level data of benchmark compositions and mutual fund investments during 1996–2014. We find that movements in benchmarks appear to have important effects on equity and bond mutual fund portfolio allocations, including passive and active funds. The effects persist after controlling for time-varying industry-level factors, country-specific effects, and macroeconomic fundamentals. Changes in benchmarks not only impact asset allocations, but also capital flows, abnormal returns in aggregate stock and bond prices, and exchange rates. These systemic effects occur not just when benchmark changes are announced, but also later, when they become effective. By impacting country allocations, benchmarks explain apparently counterintuitive movements in capital flows and asset prices, as well as contagion effects.
•We study how benchmark indexes affect equity and bond mutual fund portfolio allocations across countries•Benchmark indexes impact both passive and active mutual fund portfolios•By affecting portfolios, benchmarks also impact capital flows, asset prices, and exchange rates across countries•Systemic effects occur not just when benchmark changes are announced, but also later, when they become effective•Benchmarks explain apparently counter intuitive movements in capital flows and asset prices, as well as contagion effects
Several key events in 1949–1955, starting with the transition from Yishuv to sovereign Israel, gave the Israeli political structure its contours and had a dramatic impact on the Revisionist wing of ...the Israeli body politic. It manifested as an organizational change, i.e., the establishment of two new parties—Herut and the Reshimat ha-Lohamim (Fighters’ List)—alongside the senior Revisionist Party. The very establishment of these parties, Herut in particular, was not an inevitable development within the Revisionist camp. During the electoral campaign for the Constituent Assembly (January 25, 1949), later to become the First Knesset, a bitter struggle took place among the three of them. By July 1951, Herut was the sole political body with Revisionist tendencies that survived in the polls. Nevertheless, the struggle continued over the years, in a new form but with the same people. Herut endured under Menachem Begin while the far Right congregated under Israel Eldad and the circle surrounding his journal, Sulam le-Mahshevet Herut Yisrael (Ladder to a Philosophy of Jewish Freedom). The collective memory has it that this struggle was waged against Menachem Begin’s leadership, which the far Right construed as overly moderate. Research on that era, however, has overlooked both the Israeli far Right and the topics associated with it.
Thus, the article presents Eldad’s attitude toward Herut and its leader, Begin, and its influence on the legitimacy granted to Begin in Israel’s first years, through the prism of Eldad’s journal. The main argument is that, during the period reviewed, Eldad’s circles attempted to influence Herut into becoming a radical-Right party. The gambit failed and had two outcomes. First, from the mid-1950s onward, the far Right headed in a new direction that set it apart from Herut and, thereby, marginalized itself. Second, joining of Herut by elements of the radical Right in 1949–1955 reinforced the legitimacy of Begin’s leadership. Thus, contrary to the radicals’ aim, this demarche strengthened not only Begin as a leader but also the Herut Party’s moderate views.
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•The 1996 Lijiang earthquake coseismic deformation was detected by JERS-1 SAR images.•Source parameters were estimated by inverting displacement fields obtained by InSAR.•The ...earthquake can be explained by slip along two listric normal faults.•Two fault slip sub-events occurred; the second was triggered by the first sub-event.
The northwestern Yunnan rift zone in the Yunnan Province of China is a seismically active region located along the western boundary of the Sichuan–Yunnan Block on the eastern margin of the Qinghai–Tibetan Plateau. An earthquake with a magnitude of 6.6 (Mw) occurred in this region on February 3, 1996. The Lijiang earthquake was the largest normal-faulting event to occur along the western boundary of the Sichuan–Yunnan Block in the last 40years. In this study, we used L-band JERS-1 (Japanese Earth Resources Satellite-1) SAR data sets from two descending orbits to detect surface deformation signals surrounding the epicentral region in order to estimate the source parameters through an inversion of the displacement fields. The results indicated that the earthquake can be explained by slip along two segments of the ∼N–S trending listric normal fault, named the Lijiang–Daju fault. Coseismic deformation patterns and slip distributions revealed that the earthquake consisted of two sub-events, which were also suggested by seismological results. Based on an analysis of the static Coulomb stress change, the second sub-event was likely triggered by the first sub-event. The central segment of the Lijiang–Daju fault, which has an eastward-convex geometry, did not rupture during the earthquake. This phenomenon was probably related to a geometrical discontinuity at the fault-bend area of the Lijiang–Daju fault.
The proportion of US food that is imported is increasing; most seafood and half of fruits are imported. We identified a small but increasing number of foodborne disease outbreaks associated with ...imported foods, most commonly fish and produce. New outbreak investigation tools and federal regulatory authority are key to maintaining food safety.
Conflict settings and refugee camps can be chaotic places, with large and rapid population movements, exacerbated public health problems, and ad hoc health services. Reproductive health care that ...includes family planning is of heightened importance in such settings, however, funding and resources tend to be constrained and geared towards acute health services such as trauma management and infectious disease containment. Here we report on the complexities and challenges of providing family planning in a post-emergency refugee setting, using the example of the largest refugee camp on the Thai-Myanmar border, in existence now for over 30 years. Data from 2009 demonstrates an upward trend in uptake of all contraceptives, especially long acting reversible contraception (LARC) and permanent methods (e.g. sterilization) over time. Increased uptake occurred during periods of time when there were boosts in funding or when barriers to access were alleviated. For example a surgeon fluent in local languages is correlated with increased uptake of tubal ligation in females. These data indicate that funding directed toward contraceptives in this refugee setting led to increases in contraceptives use. However, contraceptive uptake estimates depend on the baseline population which is difficult to measure in this setting. As far as we are aware, this is the longest reported review of family planning services for a refugee camp setting to date. The lessons learned from this setting may be valuable given the current global refugee crisis.
Das Buro Escher GuneWardena wurde 1996 in Los Angeles gegrundet und hat sich seitdem in verschiedenen Bereichen international einen Namen gemacht: Geschaftsraume werden wie konzeptuelle Kunst ...behandelt; ihre Wohnhauser am Hang wirken als poetische Antworten auf die ortlichen Bedingungen; und ihre denkmalgerechten Umbauten galten so sensiblen Ikonen der Moderne wie dem Haus Eames oder der Chemosphere von John Lautner, beide in Los Angeles. Die Zusammenarbeit mit Kunstlern wie Sharon Lockhart, Mike Kelley und Stephen Prina bestatigt ihre Bedeutung in der Kunstwelt. Das Buch dokumentiert 28 ausgewahlte Projekte, darunter auch Ausstellungsdesign und Kunstinstallationen.
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