Suchergebnisse

After decades of growth and popularity, the international investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) regime has come under intense criticism recently-particularly concerning the perceived chilling effect the regime imposes on states' ability to regulate in the public interest. This Article seeks to contextualize this criticism by examining the historical antecedent of ISDS in international law: the law of diplomatic protection. It proceeds to focus on the flexibility of ISDS as a critical advance over diplomatic protection, and shows how ISDS has evolved over time-particularly as developed states have moved from approaching the regime from a predominantly investment-exporting perspective to a more balanced perspective that accounts for inbound foreign investments. In concrete terms, the inherent flexibility of ISDS has permitted it increasingly to protect states' interests in regulating in the public interest, while at the same time protecting foreign investment against inappropriate governmental interference. The Article ultimately argues that the ISDS system should be permitted to continue to evolve to arrive at the appropriate equilibrium for its time

"This inaugural issue of the World Bank Groupl's Global Investment Competitiveness report presents novel analytical insights insights and empirical evidence on foreign direct investment;s (FDI) drivers and contributions to economic transformation. Three key features distinguish this report from other publications on FDI studies. Firstly, its insights come from a variety of sources, including a new survey of investor perspectives, extensive analysis of available data and evidence, and a thorough review of international best practices in investment policy design and implementation. Secondly, the report provides targeted, in-depth analysis of FDI differentiated by motivaion, sector, and geographic origin and destination of investment. Thirdly, the report offers practical and actionable recommendations to developing country governments. The report's groundbreaking survey of more than 750 executives of multinational corporations investing in developing countries finds that--in addition to political stability, security, and macroeconomic conditions--a business-friendly legal and regulatory environment is the key driver of investment decisition. The report also explores the potential of FDI to create new growth opportunities for local firms, assesses the effectiveness of fiscal incentives in attracting FDI, analyzes the characteristics of FDI originating in developing countries--so-called South-South and South-North FDI--and examines the experience of foreign investors in countries afflicted by conflict and fragility"--Back cover

Reporting organizations' corporate social responsibility activities is difficult - a lack of regulation means that the communication of these activities varies significantly and there is a multitude of ways in which mistakes can be made. The author provides the tools and insights required to produce investor-friendly CSR reports and includes a chapter showing how the investors can integrate CSR in their quantified analysis of investment-opportunities. Features include formulas, conversion standards and CSR note tables which enable the book to be used as a practical handbook as well as in the classroom.Written by an experienced compliance officer with years of experience in reporting CSR, this book is an easy-to-follow guide for practitioners and students and will be required reading for students of accounting, financial reporting and auditing as well as those in industry who want to improve their organization's reporting standards.

PurposeThis study proposes a framework based on salience theory and shows that focusing on one type of risk (idiosyncratic or systemic) can explain overpricing of securities ex ante, and resales at low prices during crisis periods.Design/methodology/approachThe author consider an overlapping generations (OLG) model where each generation lives for two periods and there is no population growth. Agents (investors) start their lives with an endowment W > 0 and have mean-variance utility. They invest their endowment when young and consume when old. Each period, the young investors optimally choose their portfolio from different risky assets acquired from the old generation, all assumed to be in fixed supply.FindingsThe author show that investor salience bias can explain excess volatility of asset prices and the resulting fire-sales in periods of financial turmoil. A change in salience – from one component (idiosyncratic) to the other (systemic) – will generate excess volatility. Interestingly, higher risk aversion generally exacerbates the excess volatility of prices. Moreover, the model predicts that if a big systemic shock hits the financial system, due to salience bias the price of systemic assets falls sharply. This relates to the observed fire-sales of assets during the global financial crisis.Practical implicationsThe proposed model and results suggest that there may be a scope for intervention in financial markets during turbulences. In terms of ex ante policies the study suggests that investors and regulator should use better risk assessment technologies.Originality/valueThis is the first study constructing a tractable model based on the argument that investor salience may exacerbate the excess volatility of prices during financial downturns. The author relate salience to two types of risk; idiosyncratic and systemic and assume that investors' risk perception is biased towards the type of risk that is currently salient based on prior beliefs or past data. The author show that the diversification fallacy of the precrisis period, where seemingly safe assets were overpriced, can be explained by agents overweighing idiosyncratic risk and ignoring systemic risk.

Purpose
Institutional investors in emerging markets are increasingly under pressure to integrate environmental, social and corporate governance considerations into their investment analyses and ownership practices. Old Mutual Investment Group (OMIG) is a South African-based institutional investor that has long been regarded as a pioneer in responsible investing. The purpose of this study was to examine the nature and effectiveness of OMIG's private shareholder activism endeavours over the period 1 January 2014 to 30 June 2018.


Design/methodology/approach
A unique database was constructed using proprietary, point-in-time data for 69 listed companies covering 283 private engagements. Binary logistic regressions were conducted to test the hypothesised relationships.


Findings
The majority of the private engagements centred on executive remuneration. This finding was not unexpected given the large and growing wage gap in South Africa. Close to two-thirds of OMIG's private deliberations were successful. Engagement success was positively associated with a targeted company's capacity to change and desire to protect its reputation.


Research limitations/implications
This study only investigated the private shareholder engagement actions of a single, well-resourced institutional investor.


Practical implications
The findings serve as an encouragement to other investors who are contemplating a more active approach to change unethical and unsustainable corporate policies and practices.


Originality/value
This unique analysis sheds light on the determinants and success of private shareholder activism in an emerging market.

Professor A. F. M. Maniruzzaman considers the impact of a spectacular growth of investor-state dispute resolution by arbitration over the last two decades, looking at issues raised by excessive investor-state arbitral awards with wider implications beyond the field of arbitration itself, such as concerns about the role of arbitrators vis-à-vis the respondent state's public interest in regulating various matters including environmental protection, low-carbon investments, social and human rights; dire economic consequences flowing from arbitrators' decisions who lack in democratic legitimacy of a domestic or international judicial institution; and inconsistency in arbitral interpretation of investment treaty obligations, hence unpredictability in arbitral decisions on similar or identical issues.

AbstractWe reexamine investor tendency to overweight recent experiences when predicting future performance of firms by examining a sample of firms making private equity placements. Our findings are consistent with the projection argument that investors use the recent experiences of other firms to predict the success of placing firms. Specifically, we find that the placements preceded by a larger number of recently very successful firms are associated with the significantly more favorable market reaction to the placement announcement and significantly poorer post‐placement stock price performance.