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Since the end of the Second World War, American society has seen the emergence of technology promising to make life easier, better and longer lasting. The more recent explosion of the Internet is fulfilling the dreams of the high‐tech pundits as it provides global real‐time communication links and makes the world's knowledge universally available. Privacy concerns surrounding the development of the Internet have mounted, and in response, service providers and website operators have enabled Web users to conduct transactions in nearly complete anonymity. While anonymity respects individual privacy, it also facilitates criminal activities needing secrecy. One such activity is money laundering, which is now being facilitated by the emerging Internet casinos industry. These casinos can be physically located anywhere with websites available worldwide. Internet casinos were a target of legislation by the US Congress, but the legislation, the Internet Gambling Prohibition Act, failed to pass. So, at the moment, Internet casinos are a virtually unregulated mechanism for laundering illegal funds.

The topic of ethics in government is hardly new. From Greek democracy to the current day, we have struggled to maintain morality and ethics in governing our societies and have failed to perfect a method.

Discusses how stability has become a value of civilisation and supposedly an effect of global interconnectedness, though the terrorist attacks of 2001 indicate that destabilisation is also possible. Explores the nature of stability, how it relates to the global financial system and to the rule of law. Goes on to the nature of terrorism and how it compares with organised crime and white‐collar crime in terms of risk and adherence to the rule of law. Outlines how the law is responding to the threats to stability, including the USA PATRIOT Act, the 2002 Terrorism Risk Insurance Act, and suggests how terrorist activity may be predicted. Compares the financial losses from terrorism with those from natural disasters, and describes private business’s use of risk management. Indicates why anti‐terrorist measures are likely to be of limited effect, and the risks of legal reforms against terrorism: these include restrictions on human rights and privacy.

The Cuban Liberty and Democratic Solidarity Act (the Act) provides for extraterritorial jurisdiction and sanctions against foreign companies which traffic in confiscated US‐owned Cuban property. The Act provides US nationals with a private right of action in US courts against foreign companies which benefit from the use of confiscated property. The Act also authorises the exclusion from US territory of any corporate officers, directors, or controlling shareholders, including their spouses and minor children, of companies which derive any economic benefit from the use of confiscated Cuban property. Moreover, s. 103(a) of Title I of the Act imposes civil liability against any lending institution with a US presence which knowingly makes any loans to persons who benefit from the use of confiscated Cuban property.

This study aims to investigate the effects of thermal–hydro interconnection on the revenues, market value and curtailment of variable renewable energy (VRE). The increasing market shares of VRE sources in the Northern European power system cause declining revenues for VRE producers, because of the merit-order effect. A sparsely studied flexibility measure for mitigating the drop in the VRE market value is increased interconnection between thermal- and hydropower-dominated regions.

A comprehensive partial equilibrium model with a high spatial and temporal resolution is applied for the analysis.

Model simulation results for 2030 show that thermal–hydro interconnection will cause exchange patterns that to a larger extent follow VRE production patterns, causing significantly reduced VRE curtailment. Wind value factors are found to decrease in the hydropower-dominated regions and increase in thermal power-dominated regions. Because of increased average electricity prices in most regions, the revenues are, however, found to increase for all VRE technologies. By only assuming the planned increases in transmission capacity, total VRE revenues are found to increase by 3.3 per cent and VRE electricity generation increases by 3.7 TWh.

The current study is, to the authors' knowledge, the first to analyze the effect of interconnection between thermal- and hydropower-dominated regions on the VRE market value, and the authors conclude that this is a promising flexibility measure for mitigating the value-drop of VRE caused by the merit-order effect. The study results demonstrate the importance of taking the whole power system into consideration when planning future transmission capacity expansions.

This paper aims to investigate the likelihood and price effects of auction hijacking – transactions conducted before a planned auction – in the residential real estate market.

Using a sample of 84,203 residential properties in Oslo, Norway for the period 2007–2017, the authors employ a probit sales choice model to study the likelihood of auction hijacking and hedonic models, fixed effects models and propensity score matching to investigate the price effects.

The authors find that auction hijacking is more likely to occur in periods of higher market activity and that hijacked auction properties sell at a premium of approximately 4% compared with properties sold at regularly conducted auctions. One possible explanation for the premium could be that risk aversion among buyers leads to a higher likelihood of hijacking offers and higher prices due to the risk reduction premium that sellers can extract.

For most households, buying a home is an investment of great economic significance, and understanding the different aspects of the auction is paramount for both buyers and sellers. Policymakers need to be aware of the market effects from auction hijacking and determine whether restrictions should be introduced.

Krull (2004) finds that US multinational corporations (MNCs) increase amounts designated as permanently reinvested earnings (PRE) to maximize reported after-tax earnings and meet earnings targets. We extend this research by examining the relationship between executive equity compensation and the opportunistic use of PRE by US MNCs, and the market reaction to earnings management using PRE designations. Firms use equity compensation to incentivize executives to strive for maximum shareholder wealth. One unintended consequence is that executives may engage in earnings management activities to increase their equity compensation. In this study, we examine whether the equity incentives of management are associated with an increased use of PRE. We predict and find strong evidence that the changes in PRE are positively associated with the portion of top managers' compensation that is tied to stock performance. In addition, we find this relationship to be strongest for firms that meet or beat forecasts, but only with the use of PRE to inflate income, suggesting that equity compensation incentivizes managers to opportunistically use PRE, especially to meet analyst forecasts.

Further, we provide evidence that investors react negatively to beating analysts' forecasts with the use of PRE, suggesting that investors find this behavior opportunistic and not fully convincing. This chapter makes an important contribution to what we know about the joint effects of tax policy, generally accepted accounting principles, and incentive compensation on the earnings reporting process.

The purpose of this paper is to describe a framework for predicting the seasonal demand for fashion based on the Bass Diffusion model of demand and the Newsvendor inventory management model. Sales and inventory management simulations based on these models have been implemented in the Julia programming language to demonstrate how theoretical models can be made operational using open-source software for the benefit of small- to medium-scale enterprises with limited resources.

The paper employs simulation models implemented in the Julia programming languages to explore the use of theoretical models of demand on the seasonal management of fashion inventory.

The research demonstrates that further exploration of the framework described is worth undertaking.

The paper employs theoretical models and is therefore conceptual in its outlook. Nonetheless it provides insights that could be explored further if real-world sales data would become available.

The framework provides simple models for predicting the demand for fashion that allows “what-if” scenarios to be constructed based on the manipulation of a few model parameters.

The framework provides low-cost analytical tools that support small fashion enterprises with regards to market understanding and the operational management requirements necessary to support those markets.

The analytical use of the Bass model of demand with the Newsvendor model of inventory management within a fashion context.

The purpose of this paper is to argue that the application of social policy in the North East of England is often characterised by tension and conflict. The agencies and professionals charged with implementation of Westminster driven policies constantly seek to deploy their knowledge of local conditions in order to make them both practical and palatable.

This paper examines the region via established literature from history, geography, sociology and social policy. The paper gives illustrations via empirical work which has evaluated initiatives to improve the health of long term health-related benefit recipients and to sustain individuals in employment in the region.

Central to the paper’s argument is the notion of “biographies of place”. The core of this idea is that places have biographies in the same way as individuals and possess specific identities. These biographies have been shaped by the intersections between environment, history, culture and economic and social policy. The paper identifies the region’s economic development, subsequent decline and the alliance of labour politics and industrial employers around a common consensus that sought economic prosperity and social progress via a vision of “modernisation” as a key component of this biography.

The paper argues that an appreciation of these spatial biographies can result in innovative and more effective social policy interventions with the potential to address issues that affect entire localities.