Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Communicating information to difficult-to-reach landholders: perspectives of natural resource management communication practitioners

Landholder participation in conservation programs is vital for achieving the environmental goals of natural resource management organisations. However, some landholders can be difficult to reach. This article presents findings based on telephone interviews with communications practitioners within 22 Australian organisations involved with promoting national resource management. The research provides insights into how communication with difficult-to-reach landholders might be improved by investigating the perceptions and communication practices of Australian national resource management communications officers and their organisations. Overall, the results indicate that differing communication strategies were used and perceived as necessary to reach different groups of landholders. Nevertheless, while organisations used a range of communication channels, there is relatively little targeting of difficult-to-reach landholders, nor evaluation of the effectiveness of communications with difficult-to-reach landholders. We suggest that greater commitment, investment, effort and careful tailoring of channel–message combinations to landholder groups are likely to be necessary to improve communications and thereby achieve greater engagement in national resource management.
The Determinants of Married Women's Autonomy in Indonesia

Abstract This paper investigates the determinants of married women's autonomy in Indonesia using the 2000 Indonesian Family Life Survey 3 (IFLS3). It considers the role of kinship norms and the effect of labor force participation on married women's autonomy. The measure of autonomy is based on self-reported answers to an array of questions relating to decision-making authority in the household. They include own-clothing, child-related and personal autonomy, physical mobility, and economic autonomy. The analysis examines if variations in women's autonomy are due to the prevailing kinship norms related to marriage in the community. In keeping with the anthropological literature, the analysis finds that living in patrilocal communities reduces physical autonomy for married women, whereas living in uxorilocal communities improves personal and child-related decision-making autonomy. Estimation results show that labor force participation, higher educational attainment, and increases in household wealth all have positive effects on married women's autonomy in Indonesia.
Spread of the West Nile virus vector Culex modestus and the potential malaria vector Anopheles hyrcanus in central Europe

Abstract Mosquito faunal studies were carried out in five separate wetland regions in the Czech Republic during 2004–2007, sampling with dry ice-baited and sentinel host-baited CDC traps. A total of 79,245 adults was identified, representing 23 mosquito species that belonged to the genera Anopheles, Culiseta, Coquillettidia, Aedes, and Culex. Our findings reveal that the mosquito fauna is enriched by new elements in the Mediterranean region. Historical and CDC trap data suggest that the newly-emerging potential malaria vector, Anopheles hyrcanus, has reached the northern limit of its distribution in the Czech Republic, and the important West Nile virus (WNV) vector, Culex modestus, has widened its distribution in the Czech Republic. No significant differences were observed in a total number of mosquitoes collected by traps baited with either the sentinel animals or with CO2, although species abundance differed. A relatively higher proportion of Cx. modestus was collected in the sentinel-baited traps, while the proportion of Cx. pipiens was higher in the CO2-baited traps.
The economics of the greenhouse effect

The recognition that economic activity is contributing to climatic change, with attendant costs that may be of large magnitudes, has set in motion a substantial research effort. This paper seeks to review the contribution of economics to analysis of the greenhouse effect and to the policies and instruments suggested as means of mitigating its damage. A brief overview of the causes and consequences of global warming is given, and a number of energy-economy forecasting models are examined. As the costs of global warming depend upon the extent to which preventative and adaptive measures are undertaken, the techniques available to evaluate these costs are surveyed. We examine extant targets for greenhouse gas emissions reduction, and explore the frameworks within which optimal policy targets can be designed. The paper also considers the narrower question of (minimized) abatement costs, and surveys the types of models used to estimate them. The merits of alternative policy instruments are examined, paying particular attention to the role that risk and uncertainty, and the costs of monitoring and implementation of policy under conditions of imperfect information, may play in the choice of instruments. Problems of international co-operation in the development of abatement policy are examined, and we consider the compensations (across both nations and generations) that are likely to be necessary conditions for effective action.
Should Economists Be Kicked Upstairs

Academic folklore has it that faculty of the same discipline seldom meet together, even for merriment and diversion, but that the conversation turns to a conspiracy inevitably being wrought upon them by their university's administration.1 Economists are not immune from such suspicions about the competence of academic administrators. If economists were running academe, they tend to believe, a good dose of competition, incentives, marginal analysis, and a realistic appreciation for opportunity costs would surely boost efficiency. Some economists do get to reallocate inputs on the basis of marginal revenue products, and some have actually met a payroll. A handful have worked their way into executive offices of Fortune 500 firms; others manage smaller consulting businesses. The largest concentration of economists in complex leadership and management positions, however, is in academe itself. These economists are the subject of this article. The belief of colleagues in the humanities and natural sciences that economists would make better administrators than incumbents seems widespread. The only exception to this faith in economists occurs, it seems, at institutions where an incumbent is already an economist! The esteem in which economists are held as prospective university administrators by noneconomists, however, seems frequently based on false premises. Consider this quotation from a conversation in the faculty lunchroom: "Economists know all about money, and balancing (and cutting) a budget. They can read a balance sheet and an income statement, and know how to reconcile a checkbook. " These proponents of economists-as-good-administrators have apparently never conducted empirical research to check, for example, the accuracy of their premises with a few economists' spouses who have struggled to untangle a checkbook bordering on chaos, or who have tried in vain to convince their economist partners that personal expenditures are also subject to a budget constraint. Seldom do the champions of economists as academic administrators argue that an understanding of economics provides an edge in recognizing trade-offs, tracing indirect effects of policy changes, being alert to alternatives, focusing on incremental benefits and costs, ignoring past mis
Credit Risk and the Macro Economy in an Affine Term Structure Model

In this paper, I develop a joint affine macro-finance model of the term structures of US Treasury yields and US corporate bond yields to study the interrelation between corporate lending conditions and the macro economy. A model with inflation, industrial production growth and three latent factors is able to explain the dynamics of a wide range of rating classes and maturities. An economy-wide latent credit risk factor is identified to study the role of credit conditions in the business cycle. In-sample model dynamics and out-of-sample macroeconomic forecasts provide evidence that credit conditions contain information about the business cycle that are not contained in the Treasury term structure. In addition, the term structure model and its separation of risk premia and factor expectations is the best method to use yield curve data in macro forecasts. Therefore, credit conditions form an integral part of the transmission process of monetary policy and highlight the necessity to integrate credit information and term structure models into policymakers' theoretical business cycle models.
Effects of overvaluation and exchange rate volatility over industrial investment: empirical evidence and economic policy proposals for Brazil

The present article aims to analyze the recent behavior of real exchange rate in Brazil and its effects over investment per worker in Brazilian manufacturing and extractive industry. Preliminary estimates presented in the article shows an over-valuation of 48% of real exchange rate in Brazil. The reaction between the level (and volatility) of real exchange rate and investment (per worker) in Brazil is analyzed by means of a panel data econometric model for 30 sectors of Brazilian manufacturing and extractive industry. The empirical results show that the level and volatility of real exchange rate has a strong effect over investment per worker in Brazilian industry. Finally, we conclude the article presenting a proposal for a new macroeconomic regime that aims to produce an acceleration of economic growth of Brazilian economy and, by that, a catching-up process with developed countries.
Issues and challenges facing social work supervision in the twenty-first century

This article discusses the issues and challenges facing social work supervision in the twenty-first century. The key issues explored concern: (1) the evolving nature of supervision and its relationship to the professionalization of social work practice; (2) the influence of changes within health and social service organizations, professions and regulatory authorities upon supervision; and (3) the influence of evidence-based practice discourse on social work supervision. The challenges arising from this discussion pertain to: (i) the need to reconstruct the theory of social work supervision to align with the plurality and diversity of supervision practices; (ii) the case for revisiting the sanctioning, mandating and regulation of supervision; and (iii) the development of a future research agenda for supervision that focuses on how supervision contributes to social work practice with clients and the social work practitioner's competence. The article concludes with suggestions regarding how social work scholars can contribute to the development of supervision both locally and internationally.
Liquidity determination in an order-driven market

We exploit full order level information from an electronic FX broking system to provide a comprehensive account of the determination of its liquidity. We not only look at bid-ask spreads and trading volumes, but also study the determination of order entry rates and depth measures derived from the entire limit order book. We find strong predictability in the arrival of liquidity supply/demand events. Further, in times of low (high) liquidity, liquidity supply (demand) events are more common. In times of high trading activity and volatility, the ratio of limit to market order arrivals is high but order book spreads and depth deteriorate. These results are consistent with market order traders having better information than limit order traders.
Time to Ditch the NAIRU

The concept of a natural rate of unemployment, or nonaccelerating inflation rate of unemployment (NAIRU), remains controversial after twenty-five years. This essay presents a brief for no-confidence, in four parts. First, the theoretical case for the natural rate is not compelling. Second, the evidence for a vertical Phillips curve and the associated accelerationist hypothesis that lowering unemployment past the NAIRU leads to unacceptable acceleration of inflation is weak. Third, economists have failed to reach professional consensus on estimating the NAIRU. Fourth, adherence to the concept as a guide to policy has major social costs but negligible benefits.
Scale Factor, R 2, and the Choice of Levels versus Returns Models

This paper analyzes a potential scale effect on the regression R2 to determine if a scale factor can reconcile the arguments concerning the choice between the price levels model and the returns model. Analytically, it is shown that the scale effect depends on the unknown scale-free economic relation and is generally unpredictable. This makes it difficult to choose one model over the other on the basis of controlling for a scale problem. Empirically, it is shown that a scale factor cannot explain the observed discrepancy between the R2 patterns from the levels and the returns models. The results support the view that the two models likely represent two different economic relations and that the model choice depends on the researcher's belief and the research question at hand rather than any scale factor concerns.
Do Liberal Arts Colleges Exhibit Economies of Scale and Scope?

This study empirically estimates a multiple-product fixed total cost function and output relationship for liberal arts colleges in the United States. Statistical results based on data for 295 private liberal arts colleges suggest that there are both economies of scale and economies of scope in higher education. Furthermore, product-specific economies of scope do exist for all output levels and activities. Research activity at liberal arts colleges is not cost effective.
The Measurement of Efficiency of UK Airports, Using a Stochastic Latent Class Frontier Model

In this paper, the latent stochastic frontier model is used to estimate the technical efficiency of UK airports. These airports are ranked according to their technical efficiency for the period 2000--06 and the airports are disentangled and segmented by the cost frontier model, which leads us to advise the implementation of policies by segments. Economic implications arising from the study are also considered.
Sex Composition of Children, Parental Separation, and Parity Progression: Is Finland a Nordic Outlier?

Background: Previous studies that have studied parental gender preferences for children have analysed either divorce or parity progression. We use Finnish register data that make it possible to study both events simultaneously by following the same couples with children over time. Objective: Our aim is to study how the sex composition of children relates to parental separation and continued childbearing, considering that within the same institutional context both aspects likely reflect gender preferences for children. Methods: We perform parity-specific Cox regressions where parity progression and separation (divorce or split up) are treated as two competing events. Results: Our results suggest that, in the 1970s and early 1980s, there was a parental boy preference in Finland, which makes the country different from its Nordic neighbours. Both the risks of divorce and continued childbearing were higher among couples with only girls than among those with only boys. This difference had attenuated considerably since the 1970s, and was practically non-existent in the 1990s. Complementary analyses of married and cohabiting couples’ risk of split up and continued childbearing support the conclusion. Conclusions: As compared with the other Nordic countries, Finland seems to have experienced a later development of implementing modern family roles and a more egalitarian distribution of parents’ attention to sons and daughters. The lag might be due to a relatively late and fast industrialisation and urbanisation process. Comments: Like in the United States, the boy preference seems to have attenuated over time, which would be in correspondence with an increased secularisation and gender equalisation of society.
Sepsis-induced myocardial depression is associated with transcriptional changes in energy metabolism and contractile related genes: A physiological and gene expression-based approach*

Background:Increased nitric oxide production and altered mitochondrial function have been implicated in sepsis-induced cardiac dysfunction. The molecular mechanisms underlying myocardial depression in sepsis and the contribution of nitric oxide in this process however, are incompletely understood. Objectives:To assess the transcriptional profile associated with sepsis-induced myocardial depression in a clinically relevant mouse model, and specifically test the hypothesis that critical transcriptional changes are inducible nitric oxide synthase-dependent. Design:Laboratory investigation. Setting:University affiliated research laboratory. Subjects:C57/BL6 wild type and congenic B6 129P2-Nos2tm1Lau/J (iNOS−/−) mice. Interventions:Assessment of myocardial function after 48 hrs of induction of polymicrobial sepsis by caecal ligation and perforation. Measurements and Results:We compared the myocardial transcriptional profile in C57/BL6 wild type mice and congenic B6 129P2-Nos2tm1Lau/J litter mates after 48 hrs of polymicrobial sepsis induced by caecal ligation and perforation. Profiling of 22,690 expressed sequence tags by gene set enrichment analysis demonstrated that inducible nitric oxide synthase −/− failed to down regulate critical bioenergy and metabolism related genes including the gene for peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma coactivator 1. Bioinformatics analysis identified a striking concordance in down regulation of transcriptional activity of proliferator-activated receptor gamma coactivator 1-related transcription factors resulting in sepsis associated myocardial remodeling as shown by isoform switching in the expression of contractile protein myosin heavy chain. In inducible nitric oxide synthase −/− deficient mice, contractile depression was minimal, and the transcriptional switch was absent. Conclusions:Metabolic and myosin isoform gene expression switch in sepsis-induced myocardial depression is inducible nitric oxide synthase-dependent. Furthermore, we suggest that the molecular switch favoring the expression of fetal isoforms of contraction related proteins is associated with regulation of proliferator-activated receptor gamma coactivator 1 and related transcription factors in an inducible nitric oxide synthase-dependent manner.
Impact of Ownership Type on Environment-Strategy Linkage and Performance: Evidence from a Transitional Economy

In this study I contend that the ownership type has a significant impact on the environment-strategy configurations amongst different firms in a transitional economy. The influence of ownership type on the environment-strategy configuration is tested, based on an analysis of surveys of 201 managers from four types of companies in China: state-owned, collectively-owned, privately-owned, and foreign joint ventures. Results support the central notion that each ownership type exhibits a distinct environment-strategy configuration, which in turn has important performance implications for the firms.
An Empirical Comparison of Alternate Schemes for Combining Electricity Spot Price Forecasts

In this paper we investigate the use of forecast averaging for electricity spot prices. While there is an increasing body of literature on the use of forecast combinations, there is only a small number of applications of these techniques in the area of electricity markets. In this comprehensive empirical study we apply seven averaging and one selection scheme and perform a backtesting analysis on day-ahead electricity prices in three major European and US markets. Our findings support the additional benefit of combining forecasts for deriving more accurate predictions, however, the performance is not uniform across the considered markets. Interestingly, equally weighted pooling of forecasts emerges as a viable robust alternative compared with other schemes that rely on estimated combination weights. Overall, we provide empirical evidence that also for the extremely volatile electricity markets, it is beneficial to combine forecasts from various models for the prediction of day-ahead electricity prices. In addition, we empirically demonstrate that not all forecast combination schemes are recommended.
Doubly stochastic point processes in reinsurance and the pricing of catastrophe insurance derivatives.

This dissertation presents pricing models for stop-loss reinsurance contracts for catastrophic events and for catastrophe insurance derivatives. We use doubly stochastic Poisson process or the Cox process for the claim arrival process for catastrophic events. The shot noise process is able to measure the frequency, magnitude and time period needed to determine the effect of the catastrophe. This process is used for the claim intensity function within the Cox process. The Cox process with shot noise intensity is examined by piecewise deterministic Markov process theory. We apply the Cox process incorporating the shot noise process as its intensity to price stop-loss catastrophe reinsurance contracts and catastrophe insurance derivatives. In order to calculate fair prices for reinsurance contracts and catastrophe insurance derivatives we need to assume that there is an absence of arbitrage opportunities in the market. This can be achieved by using an equivalent martingale probability measure in our pricing models. The Esscher transform is used to change probability measure. The dissertation also shows how to estimate the parameters of claim intensity using the likelihood function. In order to estimate the distribution of claim intensity, state estimation is employed as well. Since the claim intensity is not observable we filter it out on the basis of the number of claims, i.e. we employ the Kalman-Bucy filter. We also derive pricing formulae for stop-loss reinsurance contracts for catastrophic events using the distribution of claim intensity that is obtained by the Kalman-Bucy filter. Both estimations are essential in pricing stop-loss reinsurance contracts and catastrophe insurance derivatives.
Executive Compensation and Regulation-Imposed Governance: Evidence from the California Nonprofit Integrity Act of 2004

ABSTRACT: This study examines the impact of the California Nonprofit Integrity Act of 2004 on CEO compensation costs in affected organizations. Contrary to the stated objective of the Act that executive compensation is “just and reasonable,” we find that CEO compensation costs for affected nonprofits during the post-regulation periods have increased by about 6.3 percent when compared with a control group of comparable unaffected nonprofits. In addition, the relative increase in CEO compensation appears to come from nonprofits that have experienced greater regulatory cost increases. We do not find evidence that the Act resulted in a change in CEO pay performance sensitivity. The observed CEO pay increase is not systematically different across nonprofits that underpaid versus those that overpaid their CEOs during pre-Act periods. Overall, this paper highlights the unintended consequences of regulatory attempts to enhance governance in the not-for-profit sector.
The predictive power of ranking systems in association football

We provide an overview and comparison of predictive capabilities of several methods for ranking association football teams. The main benchmark used is the official FIFA ranking for national teams. The ranking points of teams are turned into predictions that are next evaluated based on their accuracy. This enables us to determine which ranking method is more accurate. The best performing algorithm is a version of the famous Elo rating system that originates from chess player ratings, but several other methods (and method versions) provide better predictive performance than the official ranking method. Being able to predict match outcomes better than the official method might have implications for, e.g., a team’s strategy to schedule friendly games.