Paid Paternity Leave By Country 2015

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When a baby is born, parents usually take time off to care of the newborn. In addition to mothers, fathers also take leave to spend time with the baby.

However paid parental leave for fathers by law tend to vary between countries. The following chart shows the Paid Paternity Leave for fathers by Country 2015:

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Paternity Leave by Country-New

Source: International Women’s Day: What fathers can do for gender equality, OECD Insights Blog. Mar 9, 2016

A few takeaways:

  • The US gives no paid paternal leave for fathers. This is not shocking since even most mothers are not entitled to paid leave by law to take care of a newborn.
  • South Korea and Japan offer a full year of paid leave for fathers but most men seem to make use of them.
  • It is not just the amount of time off that is offered is important. The percentage of salary paid during the leave also matters. In this regard, Iceland and Sweden offer liberal amounts with paid salary at over 60 per cent of last earnings.

The Number of Listed Companies by Country

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Update: *** Go to The Number of Listed Companies by Country 2016 ***

The number of publicly listed companies vary widely between countries. Generally the total number of listed companies are higher in the developed world than the emerging and frontier markets. However certain emerging markets such as India, China, Brazil has relatively high number of public companies listed. The following chart shows the number of listed companies by country at the end of December, 2015:

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Total Listed Companies by Country-2015

Notes:

Data shown above is only member exchanges of the WFE

Only stocks listed on major exchanges of countries are included. That is, for China data is from the Shanghai Stock Exchange and does not include the Shenzhen Exchange. Similarly for India, data is from the Bombay Stock Exchange and excludes National Stock Exchange.

Nasdaq OMX Nordic Exchange* – This exchange is the market for Scandinavian countries

Euronext* * – This exchanges companies listed on many European countries such as France, Belgium, The Netherlands, etc.

Data Source: World Federation of Exchanges (WFE)

A few observations:

  • With 5,836 firms, India’s Bombay Stock Exchange has the highest number of companies listed even beating the US.
  • The U.S. has the second highest listings with 5,283 firms in both the NYSE and NASDAQ.
  • Among the BRICs, Russia has the lowest number of listings.
  • Frontier markets such as Dubai, Slovenia, Kazakhstan, etc. have less than 100 companies listed on the exchanges.
  • Though the number of companies are high in countries like India and China, the total market capitalization of these companies are relatively smaller compared to the exchanges in the developed world.
  • Of the Middle Eastern countries, Israel tops the rank with 461 companies listed.
  • Due to a larger and vibrant economy, South Africa has more than double the number of listed firms than Nigeria.

Download (in Excel format):

The full WFE Report on listings, market caps, etc. The report has a wealth of info in addition to the number of listed companies.

Related:

Knowledge is Power: European Stocks, Pripyat, Market Volatility Edition

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Thought of the Day: Never ever invest in IPOs. They are not suitable for retail investors.

Andre-2

Photo: Andrej Ciesielski in Hong Kong

For more awesome photos of Andrej visit his site.

Infographic: Nuclear Energy and Its Uses

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Nuclear Energy is one of the cleanest form of energy in the world. Due to rising demand for energy, especially in developing countries, nuclear power is being considered as a source of electricity-generating options.

Globally France is the top country in terms of  electricity generation from nuclear energy. It is interesting that the smaller countries of Slovakia and Hungary are the next world leaders followed by Ukraine. Developing countries such as Brazil, China and India depend on nuclear power for less than 5% of their total electricity production. Brazil does not need need nuclear power since it is a large country with a small population and almost infinite amount of water sources such as the Amazon. Hence the country generates most of its electricity from hydro power plants.

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Nuclear Energy and its Uses

 

Source: Sputnik News

Length of Bear Markets Since 1920s

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Bear markets are painful for equity investors but generally tend to occur every few years or so. Bull markets are always followed by bear markets and vice versa. From the dot-com crash to the recent global financial crisis, bear markets are not an aberration but are part of feature of equity markets. Though investors hate getting mauled by the bear, the good news is that bear market duration are shorter than most people think. So investors that hand on to their holdings during these market conditions perform well in the long run.

According to an article by Mark Hulbert in today’s journal, it takes am average of 3.1 years after a bear market starts for stocks to recover fully.

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Length of Bear Markets

Source: Bear Markets Can Be Shorter Than You Think, WSJ, Mar 8, 2016

A few takeaways:

  • Investors should not panic and sell their holdings during bear markets.
  • Long-term investors can grab stocks on the cheap when their blood on the streets.
  • When bears attack the markets, high quality stocks tend to get thrown out along with losers. So investors with cash to deploy have plenty of pickings to choose from.
  • Automatic dividend reinvestment becomes a returns amplifier during bear markets as additional shares are added to a portfolio at lower prices.
  • Extreme bearishness in the markets when everyone throws in the towel and pundits and retail investors alike fee the world is about to end is usually the best time to buy stocks. Early 2009 is one such example.

Update:

Average Length of Time for S&P 500 Recovery:

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SP 500 Recovery Period

Source: Market Volatility: What If You Don’t Have Time to Recover?, Schwab, Mar 9, 2016

Also checkout: Total Returns During US Equity Secular Bull and Bear Markets Since 1877, TFS, June 18, 2017