International University in Geneva

Traditional valuation metrics such as the Price-to-Earnings (P/E) ratio are widely used but often misleading when comparing companies within the same sector. This paper demonstrates the irrelevance of the P/E ratio in such cross-company analyses by introducing a more comprehensive framework based on the Potential Payback Period (PPP) and its derivative, the Stock Internal Rate of Return Including Price Appreciation (SIRRIPA). Using the cases of Palantir Technologies, NVIDIA, and Micron Technology as of September 26, 2025, this study shows that while their P/E ratios vary by a factor of nearly 30, their SIRRIPA values converge within a narrow range (5.8% - 7.4%), consistent with long-term equilibrium returns observed between stocks and bonds. This convergence reveals a hidden market rationality: once growth, discount rate, and risk are accounted for, companies in the same sector exhibit similar intrinsic, risk-adjusted returns. The analysis is further vindicated by market performance over the past year, during which all three stocks experienced substantial price increases broadly aligned with their previously estimated SIRRIPA-based intrinsic returns. The paper also highlights the plateau effect, where extremely high P/E ratios cease to influence implied returns, as illustrated by Palantir. Furthermore, it emphasizes the sensitivity of both PPP and SIRRIPA to earnings growth projections, underscoring the need for scenario analysis in valuation. Ultimately, SIRRIPA serves as the equity equivalent of a bond’s Yield to Maturity (YTM)—a universal, yield-based metric that restores rational comparability among stocks and bridges the analytical gap between equity and fixed-income valuation.

Abstract Government subsidies for fossil fuels, agricultural production, and fisheries amount to trillions of dollars per year. This funding harms economic efficiency, disrupts trade, and actively exacerbates the global environmental and climate crises. Moreover, the scale of these subsidies far exceeds the support provided to industries and activities that contribute to the transition towards a low-carbon and sustainable future economy. In seeking to discipline such subsidies, trade law has traditionally focused on whether the funding distorts trade without regard to the rationale or purpose of the subsidies. In this article, we argue that this approach to subsidies is at once incompatible with (i) the original vision of multilateral trade law, (ii) what is needed to manage international economic interdependence in today’s world, and (iii) the present moment’s urgent need to take seriously sustainable development as the ultimate objective of the trading system. The reform package we present in this article calls for a reframing of WTO subsidies rules on a foundation that gauges alignment with sustainable development alongside trade distortions, with sustainability becoming the first and foremost test of whether subsidies should be permitted—consistent with the sustainable development mandate in the Marrakesh Agreement that established the WTO.

The idea of commercial-assisted suicide lives a marginal existence in the bioethical literature, despite its significant presence in popular culture. The practice of commercial-assisted suicide (CAS) is defined as suicide assistance performed for a financial reward through a contractual agreement between a customer and a service-provider, who does not necessarily need to be a medical professional. While CAS does indeed offer some potential solutions regarding the moral controversies surrounding physician-assisted suicide (PAS), I defend the idea that adopting it as policy ultimately proves morally indefensible and practically inefficient. This is due to the fact that the commodification of a given good necessarily implies the creation of a market of said good; as such, what I propose in this paper is a moral and practical evaluation of a market of CAS. In order to do so, I first examine the arguments in favor of CAS as put forward by Roland Kipke, who argues that any liberal defense of PAS necessarily implies a defense of CAS. In the first section, I argue against this idea using the liberal values of autonomy and equality of opportunity. In the second section of the paper, I argue that a market of CAS would be gravely dysfunctional due to one particular characteristic of death, namely, that is not compensable ex post. I conclude by arguing that while the practice of CAS may not prove morally problematic, the inevitable market that it will create should it be legalized most certainly will.

During the Covid-19 pandemic, the digital divide was often identified as an obstacle to online teaching, and inequalities in education were sometimes observed. This challenge could be addressed by making online teaching more efficient through the application of good practices. Given that there are similarities between diplomatic negotiating practice and teaching practice, it is worth examining whether good practices developed in online diplomatic negotiation are transferable to online teaching. The aim of this paper is to examine good practices in online negotiation and explore how such good online practices could be transferred to teaching. The research is informed by the author’s first-hand experience from practice in both international diplomatic negotiation and academic teaching. The paper identifies a number of practices from online negotiation that are equally effective in online teaching. It focuses on communicational aspects, mutual understanding (monitoring and optimisation of understanding), motivation to listen, attention, active participation, and non-verbal communication. Some unresolved challenges of online teaching remain though, which are not addressed in this paper.

This article is a review of modification of somatic cells by nucleus transfer for multiplication mostly known as cloning, regarding ethics, governance, implications, and business usages of cloning. The article raises questions to researchers, as well as ethical and sociological considerations of current practices, through article reviews and case analysis.

Abstract The aim of this article is to analyse the essential methodological function of history in expanding the horizons of the study and practice of international law. Furthermore, showing that to reach a deeper understanding of international law it is not only necessary to use history in general, and the history of international law in particular, but also what Marc Bloch called the craft of the historian. The analysis will be conducted on two parallel levels. The first one focused on the work of historians and aimed at understanding methodologies of historical inquiry and techniques of writing and argumentation. This will be done by “dissecting” pieces of particularly relevant scholarly work by authors such as Eric Williams, John Gallagher and Ronald Robinson. The second one, instead, will analyse the transposition of those techniques and methodologies across the disciplinary border, into international law, and consider the (beneficial) effects of such transposition by looking at concrete models of how the craft of the historian can be successfully integrated in both international legal scholarship (José-Manuel Barreto) and international judicial-legal reasoning (Christopher Weeramantry).

Nicotine is naturally present in many crops, including but not limited to tobacco, eggplant, and tomatoes. Only in the tobacco plant is nicotine present in high enough quantities (~2% of dry weight) to have pharmacological effects. People have recognized the stimulating effects of the smoke created by burning dried tobacco leaves for thousands of years, and cigarette smoking remains the most common form of nicotine uptake from tobacco. Decades of epidemiologic data show that smoking causes a number of serious diseases (including cardiovascular diseases, lung cancer, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease [COPD]). Undoubtedly, the best way to avoid the harm from smoking is to never start. For current smokers, quitting smoking altogether is the most effective way to reduce the risk of harm and smoking-related disease. Along with other aspects such as taste and ritual, nicotine is one of the reasons people smoke. Nicotine, while addictive and not risk-free, is not the primary cause of smoking-related diseases. Indeed, experts agree that smoking-related diseases are caused primarily by chronic exposure to the harmful constituents that are produced when tobacco is burning. Nevertheless, many people still mistakenly believe that nicotine is a major cause of tobacco-related diseases. While nicotine-containing products should not be used by certain groups of people - such as minors, people with or at risk of heart disease, diabetes, epilepsy, or seizure, pregnant or breast-feeding women or women who think they may be pregnant - delivery of nicotine by less harmful means can support public health goals by encouraging smokers who would otherwise continue smoking to switch to less harmful products. It is, therefore, pivotal to address the biggest misconceptions about nicotine to empower smokers to make informed decisions. In this article, we discuss basic facts about nicotine, its effects on the human body, as well as the risks related to nicotine consumption.

Abstract Performance reporting in sunshine regulation is subjected to disclosure biases, because agents may game the regulation or encounter difficulties in complying. These biases limit the appraisal of the impact of sunshine regulation on performance. We investigate the behavioral causes of such disclosure biases by focusing on transaction cost economizing and opportunism. We provide an original methodology to take into account information asymmetries in principal–agent relationships. We focus on water utilities management in France. Our data set includes 795 observations covering water utilities and performance indicators characteristics. It allows for comparisons of revealed and observed performances and identifies different types of disclosure biases. Findings indicate that opportunism is a significant motivation for disclosure biases, while, unexpectedly, transaction costs are not a direct trigger of disclosure biases.