Regression analyses of results from the Times Higher Education (THES)-Ranking and Shanghai University's Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU)-Ranking from 2010-2014 show fluctuations in the rank and score for lower scoring universities (below position 50) which lead to inconsistent "up and downs" in the total results, especially in the THES-Rankings. Furthermore year-to-year results do not correspond in THES-and ARWU-Rankings for universities below rank 50. We conclude that the observed fluctuations in the THES do not correspond to actual university performance and ranking results are thus of limited conclusiveness for the university management of lower scoring universities. We suggest that THE and ARWU alter their ranking procedure insofar as universities below position 50 should be ranked summarized only in groups of 25 or 50. The year to year changes in the ARWU scores are very small, so essential changes from year to year could not be expected, so therefore we argue to publish the ranking less frequently. Additionally, we argue for introducing a standardization process for ranking data in both rankings by using common suitable reference data to create calibration curves represented by non-linearity or linearity. PeerJ PrePrints | https://dx.doi.org/10.7287/peerj.preprints.938v1 | CC-BY 4.0 Open Access | rec Abstract 11 Regression analyses of results from the Times Higher Education (THES)-Ranking and Shanghai 12 University's Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU)-Ranking from 2010-2014 show 13 fluctuations in the rank and score for lower scoring universities (below position 50) which lead to 14 inconsistent "up and downs" in the total results, especially in the THES-Rankings. Furthermore year-15 to-year results do not correspond in THES-and ARWU-Rankings for universities below rank 50. We 16 conclude that the observed fluctuations in the THES do not correspond to actual university 17 performance and ranking results are thus of limited conclusiveness for the university management of 18 lower scoring universities. We suggest that THE and ARWU alter their ranking procedure insofar as 19 universities below position 50 should be ranked summarized only in groups of 25 or 50. The year to 20 year changes in the ARWU scores are very small, so essential changes from year to year could not be 21 expected, so therefore we argue to publish the ranking less frequently. Additionally, we argue for 22 introducing a standardization process for ranking data in both rankings by using common suitable 23 reference data to create calibration curves represented by non-linearity or linearity. 24 25

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Dollar cost averaging (DCA) is a widely employed investment strategy in financial markets. At the same time it is also well documented that such gradual policy is sub-optimal from the point of view of risk averse decision makers with a fixed investment horizon T > 0. However, an explicit strategy that would be preferred by all risk averse decision makers did not yet appear in the literature. In this paper, we give a novel proof for the suboptimality of DCA when (log) returns are governed by Lévy processes and we construct a dominating strategy explicitly. The optimal strategy we propose is static and consists in purchasing a suitable portfolio of path-independent options. Next, we discuss a market governed by a Brownian motion in more detail. We show that the dominating strategy amounts to setting up a portfolio of power options. We provide evidence that the relative performance of DCA becomes worse in volatile markets, but also give some motivation to support its use. We also analyse DCA in presence of a minimal guarantee, explore the continuous setting and discuss the (non) uniqueness of the dominating strategy.

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Standard-Nutzungsbedingungen:Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden.Sie dürfen die Dokumente nicht für öffentliche oder kommerzielle Zwecke vervielfältigen, öffentlich ausstellen, öffentlich zugänglich machen, vertreiben oder anderweitig nutzen.Sofern die Verfasser die Dokumente unter Open-Content-Lizenzen (insbesondere CC-Lizenzen) zur Verfügung gestellt haben sollten, gelten abweichend von diesen Nutzungsbedingungen die in der dort genannten Lizenz gewährten Nutzungsrechte. Abstract This paper analyzes the evolution of private returns to tertiary education during the period of transition from a socialist to a market economy using the personal income tax data of all Slovenian workers employed between 1994 and 2008. We document a rich interplay between supply and demand in the labor markets of high school and university graduates. We show that, in spite of significant increases in the labor supply, the demand for university graduates dominated and increased the rates of return in the early period of transition (1994)(1995)(1996)(1997)(1998)(1999)(2000)(2001), while in the later period (2001)(2002)(2003)(2004)(2005)(2006)(2007)(2008) the opposite was the case. We also provide evidence on considerable heterogeneity in the rates of return between genders, levels, and fields of study, with particularly large (low) returns to the fields that were suppressed (favored) during socialism. These initial differences in returns have, however, gradually declined. Terms of use: Documents in