Francis Scrimgeour

The Value of Statistical Life and the Economics of Landmine Clearance in Developing Countries

Summary This paper presents estimates of the value of statistical life (VSL) in rural Thailand using the contingent-valuation (CV) method. These estimates are applied to an economic analysis of landmine clearance. The estimated VSL of US

Analysis of environmental and economic efficiency using a farm population micro-simulation model

250000 suggests that the value of lives saved from landmine clearance is at least an order of magnitude greater than the values used in existing studies.

Profitability of momentum returns under alternative approaches

New Zealands success in raising agricultural productivity has been accompanied by higher input use, leading to adverse effects on the environment. Until recently, analysis of farm performance has tended to ignore such negative externalities. The current emphasis on environmental issues has led dairy farmers to target improvements in both environmental performance and productivity. Therefore, measuring the environmental performance of farms and integrating this information into farm productivity calculations should assist in making informed policy decisions which promote sustainable development. However, this is a challenging process since conventional environmental efficiency measures are usually based on simple input and output flows but nitrogen discharge is a complex process affected by climate, pasture composition, cow physiology and geophysical variability. Furthermore, the outdoor pastoral nature of New Zealand farming means that it is difficult to control input and output flows, particularly of nitrogen. We present a novel approach to measure the environmental and economic efficiency of farms, using the Overseer nutrient budget model and spatially micro-simulated virtual population data. The empirical analysis is based on dairy farms in the Karapiro catchment, where nitrogen discharge from dairy farming is a major source of nonpoint pollution.

The efficacy of principle‐based corporate governance practices and firm financial performance: An empirical investigation

Purpose - The analysis aims to explore how momentum return changes with alternative computational methods and the extent to which the portfolio structure is important in the momentum context. Design/methodology/approach - The focus reflected in the prior research emphasises the method used by Jegadeesh and Titman and various extensions to test whether momentum returns exist. This study uses alternative methods of buying previous Winners and short-selling previous Losers to determine if this significantly changes the returns. Findings - The current study clarifies the impact of several contributory factors that impact upon estimated momentum returns. The large sample of cleaned data upon which this study is based provides a higher degree of confidence that the findings are sound and not just a statistical anomaly. Practical implications - The research is important from a practitioner perspective as details of momentum return are presented for each country using different methods, providing information regarding the most profitable country in which to invest and whether the momentum return is sustainable under different formative approaches. Originality/value - One of the important contributions of this study is a detailed empirical analysis, presenting results in a global context rather than on a single country basis.