Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Acquisitions: Private Versus Public

Takeovers of privately held companies represent more than 80% of all takeovers. Despite their significance, studies of such takeovers and their impact on the wealth of shareholders are rare. Using a very large, near exhaustive, sample of listed and privately held UK targets we examine the impact of such takeovers on the risk adjusted return of listed UK acquirers over the period 1981 to 2001. Acquirers earn significant positive returns during the period surrounding the bid announcement although the gains are dependent on target status, mode of payment, and the relative size of those involved. The much quoted conclusion, derived from the experiences of listed firm bidders that the shareholders of acquiring firms fail to gain from takeovers, cannot be generalised. Acquiring a privately held company is an attractive option for maximising shareholder wealth.
The choice of drugs for schizophrenia.

Schizophrenia is a serious chronic illness that requires lifelong medication. In some patients, the illness is refractory to even highly effective medications such as clozapine, and these patients desperately need more effective treatment regimens. Less dopamine is blocked with clozapine than with other antipsychotic medications, and adding more potent dopamine-blocking drugs, such as risperidone, to clozapine may achieve better efficacy. Three randomized, controlled trials examined the strategy of adding risperidone to clozapine for patients whose illness is refractory to treatment with clozapine alone. In this issue of the Journal, Honer et al.1 report the results of a trial supported by .
Analyzing the Impact of Information and Communication Technology for Development: Lessons Learnt from the SIRCA II Program

During recent years, we have witnessed revolutionary developments of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) and their impact on people's lives. The way in which such developments contribute to socio‐economic development and empowering people depends highly on the absorptive capacity of different societies. While in developed countries, their IT‐ecosystems have the capacity for enriching themselves through empowered actors and enhanced interactions and, in turn, for continuous growth; in developing countries, such eco‐systems face challenges to produce similar results. However, the challenges faced, particularly by the countries in the Global South; in Asia, Africa and Latin America, can be transformed into opportunities if countries are able to leapfrog in the learning process and develop their human and institutional capacities. In this context, capacity‐building programs on ICT for Development (ICT4D), such as Strengthening Information Society Research Capacity Alliance (SIRCA), are of the upmost importance to developing countries. In this introduction to the SIRCA special issue of The Electronic Journal of Information Systems in Developing Countries we discuss the evolution of ICT4D policy and research, explain the experience of the SIRCA II Program, and summarizes the lessons learnt from it.
Financing Constraints: Determinants and Implications for Firm Growth in Pakistan

This study has a twofold objective: (i) to investigate the determinants of firm growth, specifically the extent to which finance constrains enterprise growth; and (ii) to explore the determinants of external financial access in Pakistan. External financial access is defined as access to credit through institutional sources such as private commercial banks, nonbank financial institutions, and state-owned banks and agencies. The study uses data from the second round of the Investment Climate Assessment Survey conducted by the World Bank in FY 2007. The methodology entails using an instrumental variable approach to estimate the impact of external financial access on firm growth while employing a probit model to explore the determinants of external financial access. The results suggest the following: First, finance is a binding constraint to firm growth in Pakistan—a 10 percent increase in the working capital financed through external sources is predicted to increase the average annual growth rate by 5.6 percentage points. Second, financial depth is important for access—across the country, access is better where there is greater penetration of financial infrastructure. Third, a range of internal factors such as size, export status, quality of human capital, and organizational form emerge as important determinants of external financial access in Pakistan.
Impact of Macroeconomic Variables on Sectoral Indices in India

The key objective of this paper is to examine the long term relationship between selected external macroeconomic variables and different sectoral indices at National Stock Exchange (NSE). For the purpose of study five macro economic variables such as Exchange Rate (USD), Crude Oil prices, Foreign Institutional Investments, Current Account Balance and Foreign Exchange Reserves have been used to magnify the impact of external macroeconomic variables on different sectors of Indian economy represented by Sectoral Indices at National Stock Exchange (NSE) viz. CNX Auto, CNX Bank, CNX Energy, CNX FMCG and CNX IT. The monthly statistical data for above mentioned variables have been used for eight years covering the period from April 2005 to March 2013. In order to examine the relationship among these variables Multiple Regression equation model (Galton, 1877) has been employed using SPSS-16. The results so obtained reveal high correlation among the variables and suggest that amongst all macroeconomic variables only Foreign Institutional Investment (FII) affects all sectoral indices however rest of the macroeconomic variables selectively affect different sectoral indices in India.
Do markets learn from experience? price reaction to stock dividends in the Turkish market

In this paper we provide an empirical analysis of the announcement and implementation of rights issues and stock dividends in the thinly traded Istanbul Stock Exchange. The efficiency of the Turkish market with respect to this information set is tested at different time horizons characterized by different development levels of the market. Evidence is detected of different price reactions for the different development phases of the market as well as for the board meeting and actual implementation information. As the market matures, neither the board meeting nor the actual implementation of stock dividends-rights offerings cause significant price reactions. Besides the traditional event study methodology, non-parametric tests such as sign and rank tests are also employed but are found to be unsuitable for this particular case.
School Principals and Education Law: What do they know, what do they need to know?

Principals now work in complex and challenging environments where uncertainty and change are the hallmarks of their roles and responsibilities. As such, the knowledge and capability demands on principals have expanded, including those related to education law. While these matters attracted some research interest a number of years ago, there has been little recent work in the area of principals and education law. This article reports on an exploratory study into aspects of the legal knowledge held by Tasmanian government school principals, particularly concerning non-sexual physical contact between teachers and students. The research was undertaken using a small-scale, mixed-methods research design, which required principals to respond to various legal scenarios. Three key findings emerged from the study. First, principals used two different levels of working knowledge about education law  one related to legal problems, and the other to legally-related routine activities. Second, on the particular topic of physical contact, some knowledge held by principals was not legally accurate. Third, for major legal issues, participants indicated that they acquired access to information from legal experts. The situation for routine legal matters was less clear, although in-service training and practical experience were identified as potential sources of knowledge. Participants recognised the importance of a sound knowledge of education law, especially for dealing with security and safety issues and preferred to access further information through in-service training. Notably, the findings of the study are broadly consistent with those from earlier Australian and international research, suggesting that much remains to be done in the area of principals’ education law knowledge.
To tell or not to tell: Negotiating disclosure for people living with HIV on antiretroviral treatment in a South African setting

Disclosure of HIV status occurs for a variety of reasons and in various contexts, such as to sexual partners to enable safer sexual choices, to health-care workers to access treatment and care services and to family and community members to gain various forms of support. The reasons for disclosure or non-disclosure are shaped by the relationships, needs and circumstances of people living with HIV (PLHIV) at the time of disclosure. The purpose of this study was to investigate and describe the act and experience of disclosure in order to understand how these experiences of disclosure impact on the lives of PLHIV on antiretroviral (ARV) treatment and influence adherence to treatment. Using a qualitative research design, I conducted an ethnographic study at and through the referral clinic at the Tygerberg Hospital in Cape Town, South Africa. Ninety-three adult patients (75 women) participated in the study, 32 of whom were visited at home to conduct semi-structured in-depth interviews, and 61 of them participated in a cross-sectional study at the referral clinic using researcher-administered questionnaires. A general inductive approach was used to analyse the data. Participants in both arms of the study disclosed mainly to family members, then partners and then to friends and other persons; only five had not disclosed to anyone at all. In deciding to disclose or not, the author began to see how patients negotiated their disclosure. From weighing up other people's reactions, to being concerned about the effect of their disclosure on their disclosure targets, to concealing one's status to evade untoward negative reactions towards themselves. Further, negotiating one's disclosure is not only about to whom or how to disclose, it also means finding good opportunities to disclose or conceiving ways of hiding one's status and/or medication from others in order to enhance access and adherence to their ARV treatment. Perceived rather than actual stigma played an important role in decisions not to disclose. Nonetheless, HIV remains a highly stigmatising disease. The author suggests that both the gains in support and the evasion of negative reactions from the disclosure will continue to drive negotiation of disclosure of one's status in order for patients to access and remain adherent to their treatment. Thus, areas of disclosure and concealment as they influence one's adherence to treatment need to be investigated further to facilitate adherence to treatment.
Social Stigma and Consumer Benefits

Attitudes toward genetically modified (GM) foods have been extensively studied, but there are very few studies of actual consumer purchasing behavior regarding GM foods offering a consumer benefit. Using a field choice-modeling experiment, the authors investigate the trade-off between price and social desirability in consumer choices with regard to conventional, organic, and GM fruit. What consumers say they will choose in a survey and what they actually choose in a real-purchase situation may differ substantially when their decision is framed by a socially charged issue such as genetic modification. The results are analyzed in relation to established principles of diffusion of innovation.
The Falling-Rate-of Profit Theory of Crisis: A Rational Reconstruction by Way of Obituary:

This paper traces the development of the falling-rate-of profit theory of crisis from its original and traditional version to its modern variant and finally to A. Shaikh's recent defense based on the distinction between circulating and fixed capital. At each stage the major arguments in favor of and against the falling-rate-of-profit thesis are reviewed and criticized. On balance, the conclu sions are almost universally negative: It cannot be shown in general that a rise in the organic composition of capital leads to a fall in the rate of profit; neither can it be shown that a fall in the general rate of profit necessarily induces a crisis of overproduction. Finally, Okishio's theorem is employed to show that profit- maximizing capitalists, under competitive conditions, would never adopt a tech mque which would lower the general rate of profit at a given level of wages. Thus, a fallmg-rate-of-profit crisis is not a theoretical necessity; indeed, it is not even a possibility under conditions of competitive.
The Link between Local Production Systems and Public and University Research in Italy

Small and medium-sized firms (SMEs) are increasingly regarded as engines of innovative activity, especially in some of the most dynamic local areas in Western Europe. However, most SMEs lack the adequate resources to conduct research and development (R&D), which is traditionally considered as the main source of innovation. This apparent contradiction has induced several researchers to try to answer the question of where SMEs get their knowledge inputs. This literature, which has tended to use patents as a proxy for public research, has found that SMEs are particularly sensitive to spillovers from university and public research. In this paper the authors readdress this question by using a bibliometric indicator of public research output, instead of patents, for 100 Italian provinces during the 1990s. The results highlight that there is a strong geographical connection between the territorial concentration of SMEs and public research and that this connection is sensitive to firm size.
Cognitive Behaviour Therapy Self-Help: Who Does it Help and What are its Drawbacks?

Background: Cognitive Behaviour Therapy self-help has been recommended in the NICE guidelines for the treatment of anxiety and depression. However, little is known about who benefits from self-help and the potential drawbacks and problems of using this approach. Aims: To address the current gap in knowledge, we contacted accredited BABCP practitioners to examine practitioner use and attitudes to self-help, current trends of use, and to identify possible problems with this therapy. Method: A 50% random sample of all accredited BABCP practitioners was approached, and the overall response rate for the survey was 57.6%. Results: Self-help materials were seen positively by therapists and were used by 99.6%, mainly as an adjunct to individual therapy. Only 38.2% had been trained in the use of self-help, with those trained being more likely to recommend self-help. Higher levels of patient motivation, credibility, likely adherence, self-efficacy and a lower degree of hopelessness were the five factors identified by more than 70% of respondents as predicting successful patient outcome with self-help. Non-compliance and a lack of detection of a worsening of the patient's clinical state due to reduced therapist contact were viewed as being the most important problems with self-help by more than 70% of respondents. Conclusions: Preferable patient characteristics for self-help have been identified, as have potential problems and adverse consequences.
Clinical Utility of TSH Receptor Antibodies

Context: TSH receptor antibodies (TRAb) cause Graves' disease (GD) hyperthyroidism. Widely available TRAb measurement methods have been significantly improved recently. However, the role of TRAb measurement in the differential diagnosis of hyperthyroidism, the prediction of remission of GD hyperthyroidism, the prediction of fetal/neonatal thyrotoxicosis, and the clinical assessment of Graves' ophthalmopathy (GO) are controversial. Evidence Acquisition: We reviewed and analyzed the literature reporting primary data on the clinical use of TRAb. We focused our analyses on clinical studies analyzing third-generation TRAb assays. Evidence Synthesis: The performance of TRAb in the differential diagnosis of overt hyperthyroidism is excellent, with sensitivity and specificity in the upper 90%. TRAb can accurately predict short-term relapses of hyperthyroidism after a course of antithyroid drugs but are less effective in predicting long-term relapses or remissions. Pregnancies in women with GD with negative TRAb a.
Hedging Production Risk With Options

The expected utility maximization problem is solved for producers with both price and production uncertainty who have access to both futures and options markets. Introduction of production uncertainty alters the optimal futures and options position and almost always makes it optimal for the producer to purchase put options and to underhedge on the futures market. Simulation results lend support to the practice of hedging the minimum expected yield on the futures market and hedging remaining expected production against downside price risk using put options. The results are strengthened if the producer expects local production to influence national prices and if risk aversion is higher at low income levels.
Risk, Return, and the Capital Market: The Insurer Case

The analysis has shown that insurer investment performance parallels that of other investors; greater returns are associated with greater variability. However, with the acquisition of higher levels of investment risk insurers generally reduce the level of underwriting risk which is undertaken. Thus, insurer management apparently attempts to keep ruin probabilities within some undefinable but clearly present limits. In the process of trading off between investment and underwriting risk, a higher rate of return to net worth is sacrificed. The sacrifice of potentially higher rates of return to equity, however, does not place the insurer at a disadvantage relative to the capital market or make attractive the alternative of operating as an investment trust. Under reasonable conditions governing the risk and return associated with underwriting activities, the insurer return to net worth is in a more efficient position as the result of underwriting activities than that offered by the capital market alone. For a given risk position, the return to the insurer exceeds that available from the capital market alone. Thus, so long as marginal returns to underwriting are positive, the leveraging afforded by the expansion of premium volume produces a superior return over the traditional leveraging which might be employed by an investor in the capital market.
Currency Crises and Monetary Policy in an Economy with Credit Constraints

This paper presents a simple model of currency crises which is driven by the interplay between the credit constraints of private domestic firms and the existence of nominal price rigidities. The possibility of multiple equilibria, including a ‘currency crisis’ equilibrium with low output and a depreciated domestic currency, results from the following mechanism: If nominal prices are ‘sticky’, a currency depreciation leads to an increase in the foreign currency debt repayment obligations of firms, and thus to a fall in their profits; this reduces firms’ borrowing capacity and therefore investment and output in a credit-constrained economy, which in turn reduces the demand for the domestic currency and leads to a depreciation. We examine the impact of various shocks, including productivity, fiscal, or expectational shocks. We then analyze the optimal monetary policy to prevent or solve currency crises. We also argue that currency crises can occur both under fixed and flexible exchange rate regimes as the primary source of crises is the deteriorating balance sheet of private firms.
The determinants of management training within smaller firms in the UK. What role does strategy play

It is agreed that within the UK there is a poor level of investment in formal training and development. This is particularly evident within the small firm sector. The literature, which considers this issue, concludes that there are a number of reasons why small firm owners are, on the whole, reluctant to invest in such training for themselves and their employees. Such reasons include, ignorance of benefits, time issues, fear that training will enhance employee mobility and, critically, that there is little evidence to indicate that investment in training and development leads to enhanced firm performance. On the basis that there has been some debate and empirical investigation regarding why training does not take place, this paper takes an alternative stance and considers what issues and processes might underpin the decision to invest in training ‐ particularly management training. Findings are drawn from empirical research on a sample of firms where investment had been made in such training in the last 24 months; the indications being that such investment was not strategic or proactive but prompted by problems which threatened business performance.
Forest value orientations of interest groups in three regions varying in importance of commercial forestry

Differences in forest value orientations of interest groups were studied in Southeastern Finland, the Mauricie in Quebec, Canada and Central Labrador in Canada. The comparison is based on the idea that the current state of the forest, which reflects among other differences in the history of forest use of the area, interacts with people's forest values. The objective was to study whether people's forest value orientations are distributed along a single continuum from anthropocentric to biocentric, and whether there are trends in anthropocentric and biocentric value orientations or their polarity along the gradient of importance of commercial forestry. From a data set of 252 persons, growing inter-group differences were detected between our most and least intensively managed research areas. A high score in both anthropocentric and biocentric value orientation scales was attained simultaneously for certain groups, which may indicate the existence of a third dimension related to cultural values.
Ignorance, Pervasive Uncertainty, and Household Finance

This paper constructs a recursive utility version of a canonical Merton (1971) model with uninsurable labor income and unknown income growth to study how the interaction between two types of uncertainty due to ignorance affects strategic consumption-portfolio rules and precautionary savings. Specifically, after solving the model explicitly, we theoretically and quantitatively explore (i) how these ignorance-induced uncertainties interact with intertemporal substitution, risk aversion, and the correlation between the equity return and labor income, and (ii) how they jointly affect strategic asset allocation, precautionary savings, and the equilibrium asset returns. Furthermore, we use data to test our model? s predictions on the relationship between ignorance and asset allocation and quantitatively show that the interaction between the two types of uncertainty is the key to explain the data. Finally, we find that the welfare costs of ignorance can be very large.
The Innovation Imperative: An analysis of the ethics of the imperative to innovate in public sector service delivery

Innovating to improve public service is regarded as potentially obligatory, not merely laudable, part of good public management. However, the moral content of an obligation to innovate is not well understood. How can we innovate ethically? In academic bioethics and research ethics, the obligatory nature of the ‘research imperative’ is discussed and criticized. In this article, I outline the content of what I call the ‘innovation imperative’ and draw a parallel between the innovation imperative and the research imperative, arguing that the ethical principles that govern innovation in public service are similar to those governing research imperative in biomedical sciences.