Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The impact of the Internet on financial markets

The editor asked to me write a short paper for the inaugural issue of the journal. I thought that it would be most fitting to write on the truly fundamental transformation of financial markets brought by the most important network of the last fifty years, the Internet. Technology always had an impact on financial markets. Often, as in the case of the telegraph, it was the use of new technology in the financial realm that necessitated the installation of the new network. Moreover, frequently, the introduction of new technology had tremendous and sometimes unexpected effects on the structure of financial markets. For example, many historians explain the eventual primacy of the New York Stock Exchange over the Philadelphia Stock Exchange on the liquidity New York attracted from orders collected over the telegraph. In the absence of the telegraph, both exchanges could survive as equals. But once the telegraph was installed, it led to the supremacy of one of the two. In another example, in recent years, another technological change, the availability of mathematical formulas for the pricing of options, spurred the mushrooming of the derivatives markets. Thus, a new global network is expected to have an impact on financial markets. In fact, the Internet, now in its eighth year as a commercial network, already has had an impact, and is expected to have a truly transforming influence on financial markets as it matures.
The effect of denture cleansing solutions on the retention of pink locator attachments after multiple pulls: an in vitro study.

PURPOSE The effect of denture cleansing solutions and multiple pulls on the retention of pink Locator patrices was studied. MATERIALS AND METHODS Five groups of pink Locator attachments (3.0 lb. Light Retention replacement patrix attachments; five in each group) were soaked for the equivalent of 6 months of clinical use in the following solutions: water (control), Efferdent, Polident Overnight, 6.15% sodium hypochlorite (NaOCL, 1:10 dilution), and Listerine mouthwash. A universal testing machine set at a 2 in/min crosshead speed was used to perform 548 pulls (548 cycles of insertion and removal). The reduction in load to dislodgement (retention) after the initial pull and the final pull and the percent reduction in retention after 6 months were compared between the groups using a one-way ANOVA followed by Tukey's Honestly Significant Difference (HSD) Test (α= 0.05). RESULTS Denture cleansing solutions significantly reduced the retentive values of pink Locator attachments after the initial pull (F = 17.435, p < 0.0001). The retentive values of Efferdent, Listerine, Polident Overnight, and water were significantly higher than the retentive value of the attachments soaked in NaOCl. After 6 months of simulated use (548 pulls), the four denture cleansing solutions had significant effects on the retentive values of pink Locator attachments (F = 5.855, p = 0.003). The retentive values for attachments soaked in NaOCl (7.29 ± 1.0 N) were significantly lower than those of attachments soaked in Listerine (15.82 ± 4.7 N) and in Polident Overnight (14.41 ± 3.6 N). These cleansing solutions also had a significant effect on the percentage of retention lost (F = 3.271, p = 0.032). The loss of retention in attachments soaked in Listerine (29 ± 9%) was significantly lower than attachments soaked in water (53 ± 12%). The loss of retention in attachments soaked in Efferdent was 49 ± 9%; in Polident Overnight, 34 ± 18%; and in NaOCl, 42 ± 11%. There was no significant difference in the percentage of retention loss between water, Efferdent, NaOCl, and Polident Overnight. There was also no significant difference in the percentage of retention loss between Efferdent, NaOCl, Polident Overnight, and Listerine. CONCLUSION NaOCl significantly decreased the retentive value of Locators. Therefore, it should not be routinely recommended for use as a denture cleanser. Listerine significantly increased the retention of the Locator attachments; however, it is premature to recommend Listerine for use as a denture cleanser.
Determinants of Donor Generosity: A Survey of the Aid Budget Literature

c Abstract: What determines the foreign aid effort of donor countries? We review the existing literature on donors' aid budgets and examine which of the suggested variables robustly determine aid effort, measured as Official Development Assistance (ODA) as a share of gross national income. More specifically, we empirically test 16 hypotheses using panel econometric methods for member countries of the Development Assistance Committee (DAC) in the 1976- 2008 period. To test for the robustness of our results, we extend our dataset to 48 possible determinants of aid budgets and apply an Extreme Bounds Analysis (EBA). In our fixed effects regressions, we find that aid inertia, the donor country's GDP per capita, the existence of an independent aid agency, and colonial history have a robust and quantitatively relevant impact on countries' aid efforts. Among the potential substitutes for aid, remittances exert a robust effect. Excluding year fixed effects, political globalization, Russian military capacity, peer effects, aid effectiveness, and government debt also play a significant role.
Foreign Direct Investment and Nigeria's Economic Growth: A Sectoral Analysis

Aggregate flows of foreign direct investment (FDI) to Nigeria, as in economies of the world, fall into different classified sectors of the economy. Studies on FDI in economic literature have been directed at the macroeconomic effects of FDI on economic growth. As sound as the findings of such studies appear, the growth impacts that FDI flows create on each sector of the economy are, however, masked. Thus this paper, using time-series data for the period 1970-2003 and adopting the ordinary least square technique, investigated the impacts of FDI flows on the outputs of some selected sectors in the Nigerian economy. The parsimonious form of analysis of general-to-specific was applied in the analysis of the model. The results shows that FDI flow was significant to sectoral growth of the mining and quarrying, and the transportation and communication sectors, but was not significant to the growth of the agriculture, forestry, and fishery sector. JEL classification: F21, E23, O15, O30
Regulation of the Rent-to-Own Industry: Implications of the Wisconsin Settlement with Rent-A-Center

In August 1999, the Wisconsin attorney general's office sued Rent-A-Center (RAC) for violating the state's consumer act and deceptive advertising law. The parties eventually settled in November 2002. In this article, the author evaluates the merits of the case against RAC, RAC's response to the settlement, and implications of the settlement for Wisconsin consumers as well as the rent-to-own industry.
An analysis of food security and poverty in Central Asia-case study from Kazakhstan

During the transition from planned to market-oriented economies, Central Asian countries experienced major socio-economic shocks that increased food insecurity, malnutrition and poverty. In the last 15 years, these countries underwent economic reforms in order to transform their economies, and in response to growing food insecurity and poverty levels, they adopted food self-sufficiency policies. For designing and implementing policy reforms, a good understanding of the magnitude of food insecurity and poverty and their determinants are required. Using the Kazakhstan Living Standard and Measurement Survey, this paper identifies a food poverty line and a total poverty line for Kazakhstan. Then poverty measures from both lines are compared and determinates of poverty are analysed. The results show that the total poverty line captures more of the poor population. Although there are some variations amongst the determinants of poverty under the two poverty lines, the strength of the common determinants is generally weaker when non-food expenditures are included in deriving the poverty line. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Changing Agricultural Markets: Industrialization and Vertical Coordination in the Dry Edible Bean Industry

The agricultural sector is undergoing a transformation that is altering marketing relationships to better serve customer needs. These changes are drawing consumers, processors, and farmers into closer marketing relationships, improving the flow of information up the supply chain, and enabling firms to better meet customer demand. This paper uses case studies to analyze this process as it is occurring in the dry edible bean industry. A major finding is that contracts are not necessarily used in these new marketing relationships. Other factors—such as quality monitoring, certification procedures, and reputation—were also found to be highly important. Copyright 2002, Oxford University Press.
On the impossibility of inferring cohort fertility measures from period fertility measures

A particularly important struggle faced by demographic analysts is, how to arrive at statements about family formation processes from a cohort perspective from data that are essentially collected on an annual basis. The present paper is concerned with this struggle, mostly restricted to the case of fertility. The central question investigated here is: given observed period data, what can we conclude about the completed family size of real women? I review several existing methods to infer cohort fertility from period fertility measures. The conclusion is that, for each method, its justifiability can be verified only empirically: by looking at cohort fertility directly. To illustrate how this can be done, the paper analyses fertility data from a cohort perspective for two countries, Italy and the Netherlands.
Corporate Governance in Japan and the UK: Codes, Theory and Practice

We reflect on the evolution of corporate governance and the role of institutional investors in enhancing governance in Japan and the UK. Japan places emphasis on stakeholder capitalism, whereas the UK places emphasis on shareholder capitalism. Nonetheless, in both countries, institutional investors have exerted significant influence on the evolution of corporate governance. Institutional investors in the UK have more power over company management than their Japanese counterparts, although it is alleged that these powers are not exercised to their best potential in either country.
Corporate diversification, coherence and economic performance

Within the diversification literature the concept of corporate coherence has been referred to as the ability of the firm to generate and explore synergies of various types. However, the empirical studies have insofar provided only approaches taking explicitly into account the product/market side of the phenomenon. The present paper operationalizes the concept of corporate coherence as a dynamic interconnectedness between the company's technological competencies and its downstream activities. It also provides some further empirical evidence on the widely discussed relationship between corporate diversification and performance. Specifically, it offers some (albeit rather weak) evidence that economic performance is positively influenced not by the degree of diversification per se, but by the ability of the company to increase its corporate coherence. Copyright 2004, Oxford University Press.
Gynaecomastia Associated with Saquinavir Therapy

Basil Donovan FACSHP FAFPHM, Neil J Bodsworth MD FACSHP, Brian P Mulhall MPH FACSHP1,2,4 and Debbie Allen MBChB FACSHP 1Sydney Sexual Health Centre, Sydney Hospital, PO Box 1614, Sydney NSW, 2Department of Public Health and Community Medicine, University of Sydney, NSW, 3Taylor Square Private Clinic, Sydney, NSW and 4Holden Street Centre, Sexual Health Service, Gosford Hospital, Gosford, NSW, Australia
The influence of knowledge sharing on innovation

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the effects of knowledge sharing on innovation. Two forms of knowledge sharing are examined, knowledge donating and knowledge collecting. In particular, the effects of knowledge donating and collecting on ambidexterity in organizations are also studied, with ambidexterity defined as the simultaneous achievement of exploratory and exploitative innovation.Design/methodology/approach – Primary data are collected via a questionnaire designed to measure the relationship between knowledge sharing and innovation. Data which were collected from 246 middle and top‐level managers in Turkey was explored by multiple regression analysis.Findings – The results showed that knowledge collecting had a significant effect on all types of innovation and ambidexterity, whereas knowledge donating, involving donating inside and outside the group, did not have any effect on exploratory innovation. It was also observed that in‐group knowledge donating affected both exploitative in.
Discretionary Trade Policy and Excessive Protection

This paper proposes a positive theory of tariff formation based on the idea that the optimal trade policy may be time inconsistent. A benevolent government, with redistributive goals, may have an incentive to provide unexpected protection, since the redistributive effects of trade policy are larger if the policy is unanticipated. The suboptimal, but time consistent, policy involves an excessive amount of protection. Furthermore, in a time-consistent equilibrium, tariffs may dominate production subsidies. Thus, the requirement of time consistency can lead to a reversal of the traditional normative ordering of tariffs and subsidies as instruments of trade policy. Copyright 1987 by American Economic Association.
Do International Human Rights Treaties Improve Respect for Human Rights?

After the nonbinding Universal Declaration of Human Rights, many global and regional human rights treaties have been concluded. Critics argue that these are unlikely to have made any actual difference in reality. Others contend that international regimes can improve respect for human rights in state parties, particularly in more democratic countries or countries with a strong civil society devoted to human rights and with transnational links. The findings suggest that rarely does treaty ratification have unconditional effects on human rights. Instead, improvement in human rights is typically more likely the more democratic the country or the more international nongovernmental organizations its citizens participate in. Conversely, in very autocratic regimes with weak civil society, ratification can be expected to have no effect and is sometimes even associated with more rights violation.
HRD and labour market practices in a US multinational subsidiary: the impact of global and local influences

This paper examines the extent to which the human resource development (HRD) and labour market dynamics of a US multinational subsidiary in Ireland are influenced by global and local factors. Specifically the study examines the dynamic between central control and subsidiary autonomy in relation to HRD and labour market management. Using a single case study, the author explores the extent to which the subsidiary is constrained or enabled by virtue of its US heritage, and the relative impact of the Irish environment on its operation. The findings indicate that the subsidiary possesses considerable autonomy in relation to content aspects of HRD interventions while corporate interest was primarily focused on budgetary issues. Turning to labour market management, it is argued that the subsidiary’s long‐term focus is characteristic of the welfare capitalist approach to HR management. The main manifestations of this approach in the case company are outlined, while also acknowledging the impact of sectoral and company specific factors in shaping HRD and labour market management in the subsidiary.
Dynamic Returns Linkages and Volatility Transmission Between South African and World Major Stock Markets

Abstract This paper analyses returns and volatility linkages between the South African (SA) equity market and the world major equity markets using daily data for the period 1995-2007. Also analysed is the nature of volatility, the long term trend of volatility and the risk-premium hypothesis. The univariate GARCH and multivariate Vector Autoregressive models are used. Results show that both returns and volatility linkages exist between the SA and the major world stock markets, with Australia, China and the US showing most influence on SA returns and volatility. Volatility was found to be inherently asymmetric but reasonably stable over time in all the stock markets studied, and no significant evidence was found in support for the risk-premium hypothesis.
Influence of Local Authority Transfer Fund on Service Delivery by Local Government Authorities in Kenya

The Local Authorities Transfer Fund (LATF) is an intergovernmental transfer system, supplementing the financing of service delivery within the framework of fisc0al decentralization. LATFâ€™s objectives are to improve service delivery, enhance financial management and accountability as well as reduce debts accumulated by local authorities. The purpose of this study was to establish the influence of LATF on service delivery by local authorities, focusing on Siaya Municipal Council. We gauged residentsâ€™ perspectives about improvement of water supply, garbage collection, and sewerage services. We sourced primary data from 188 household heads and 202 market traders. The study found that 63.2% of the participants believed that there was no change in water supply consistency, while 69.5% reported the same about adequacy of water provided by the Council. Besides, 55.6% of the participants indicated that garbage collection had deteriorated, while 63.8% said the same about sewerage services. The findings suggest that access to LATF resources over the preceding decade had not improved service delivery in Siaya Municipality. Delivery of services was constrained by political interference (57.4%), procurement malpractices (44.1%), weak revenue base (38.7%), and understaffing (33.1%), among other factors. In view of this, local authorities should shape up to meet the current service demand, as well as gear up to address the needs of urban population, which is set to grow over the coming years.
Growth, inequality, and poverty in Latin America: historical evidence, controlled conjectures

How have growth and inequality affected poverty reduction in Latin America over the long run? On the basis of the available evidence on growth and inequality tentative answers and conjectures are proposed about the long run evolution of poverty in Latin America. Modern Latin America experienced sustained growth since mid nineteenth century only brought to a halt during the 1980s. Inequality, in turn, rose steadily until a high plateau in which it has stabilized over the last four decades of the twentieth century. A calibration exercise on the basis of Lopez and Serven (2005) recent empirical research suggests that absolute poverty has experienced a long-run decline in Latin America since the late nineteenth century, interrupted in the 1890s and the 1930s, and only reversed in the 1980s. Growth emerges as the main element underlying the reduction in absolute poverty, and almost exclusively in the second half of the twentieth century.
Revisiting purchasing power parity for nine transition countries: a Fourier stationary test

This study applies the stationarity test with a Fourier function proposed by Becker et al. to test the validity of long-run purchasing power parity (PPP) in a sample of transition countries from January 1995 to December 2008. The empirical results indicate that PPP does not hold for most of the transition countries studied, with the exception of Lithuania. Our results have important policy implications for these transition countries.
Do regulations matter? The effects of cross-listing on analysts' coverage and forecast errors: A comparative analysis

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to compare foreign listings on regulated and unregulated exchanges, and civil and common-law companies to test the effects of cross-listing (CL) on the firm's number of analysts and the accuracy of their forecast. Design/methodology/approach - The study is a comparative one. The empirical test employs both univariate and multivariate analyses and a sample of 584 cross-listed firms along with the number of analysts and analysts' forecast errors (FE). Findings - After controlling for the firm's size, risk, earnings surprise, and industry, the results show that analysts become more active around CL on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) and PORTAL compared to CL on AMEX, NASDAQ, NYSE and over the counter (OTC). On the contrary, no statistically significant decrease in the magnitude of analysts' FEs was reported, suggesting no increase in the quantity of analysts' information. The results hold for both civil and common-law countries. Research limitations/implications - The study is limited to the use of cross-listed firms only. Future research should include non-cross-listed firms. As for the implications, the evidence indicates that the choice between CL on regulated or unregulated exchanges in the USA has no impact, either on the decision of an analyst to follow the firm or on the quantity of information available about that firm. In addition, the evidence suggests that analysts are more inclined to follow firms that cross-list on the LSE than on the US regulated exchanges. Moreover, PORTAL, as an unregulated market, provides surprising evidence on the significant role of the US large institutional investors in attracting the highest number of analysts per firm compared to other regulated exchanges. Originality/value - The paper compares CL on regulated and unregulated exchanges in the USA and UK for both civil and common-law firms. It contributes to the existing literature on CL and information disclosure and has implications for academics, market regulators, professionals, and multinational firms.
Exploring the Interactive Effect of Time Control and Justice Perception on Job Attitudes

ABSTRACT We investigated the associations between supervisor-related time control and two-job attitudes, and the moderating effects of distributive justice on these associations. A total of 505 full-time employees in Hong Kong responded to a structured telephone survey. The results showed that time control and perceived distributive justice were positively related to both job satisfaction and organizational commitment. More importantly, the positive relationships between time control and the two job attitudes were stronger when perceived distributive justice was high rather than low. These findings contrast with the typical buffering effects of organizational justice, in which perceived justice attenuates the beneficial effects of positive stimuli. Theoretical and applied implications of these findings are discussed.