Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Welfare Measurement and Policy Evaluation in a Dual-Market Locational Equilibrium

This paper uses a model of sorting behavior across housing and labor markets in the San Francisco and Sacramento Consolidated Metropolitan Statistical Areas to evaluate the distributional welfare implications of California's new standard for ambient ozone concentrations. The model depicts working households who differ in their job skills and in their relative preferences for multiple public goods making a joint job-house choice among housing communities and labor markets that differ in the job opportunities and public goods they provide. Households reveal features of their preferences through the locations they choose, and these choices determine spatial variation in the demand for housing and the supply of labor. A companion paper develops a structural estimator which recovers preferences for public goods from the observed sorting behavior of working and retired households (Kuminoff (2007)). After combining information about preferences with information about the supply of housing and the demand for labor, the model of sorting behavior is used to simulate how wage rates, housing prices, and people's location choices would adjust to the air quality improvements needed to meet California's new standard. Converting these results into welfare measures suggests annualized benefits range from $292 to $346 per household. These estimates are less than half the size of approximations based on the standard practice of multiplying the average marginal willingness-to-pay by the size of the ozone reduction.
Cross-Border Investments and Venture Capital Exits in Europe

We examine how the exit mode (i.e., initial public offering - IPO, trade sale, or write-off) of venture capital investments is influenced by additional exit opportunities brought by cross-border investors. We perform our analyses on a sample of 1,062 financing rounds in 462 high-tech start-ups in 7 European countries. Our findings indicate that, controlling for firm performance, investor characteristics, and local exit conditions, the probability of exiting via trade sale increases with the additional set of M&A opportunities brought by cross-border investors. A similar effect, but with weaker statistical significance, is detected for IPO exits. We reveal that cross-border investors may, at least partially, compensate for insufficient local exit possibilities. They can spillover the capital market activity of their home country and enhance exit options for young ventures. International syndicates are also quicker to write-off their non-performing investments. Hence, international syndication improves the proficiency of entrepreneurial finance relationships.
With a Little Help from Our Feds: Understanding State Immigration Enforcement Policy Adoption in American Federalism

Since 2001, state governments have adopted 287(g) cooperative immigration enforcement agreements with the federal government that authorize their law enforcement personnel to assist in detaining violators of civil federal immigration law. Employing a theoretical framework drawn from theories of policy adoption, intergovernmental relations, and immigration research, we test which state-level political, sociodemographic, geographic, and economic determinants influence states to enter into such a cooperative agreement. In addition to finding that the partisanship of a state's governor, a state's effort on public welfare, and an increase in a state's percentage of Hispanics are related to the adoption of a cooperative immigration enforcement policy, we found evidence of “steam valve federalism” working not at the state level as Spiro (1997) first theorized but at the local level. When a state's localities adopt immigration enforcement agreements with the federal government, the state itself is far less likely to adopt their own. Understanding the reasons states would adopt this type of policy sheds light on current trends in state immigration policy and their effect on future state/federal intergovernmental relations.
THE RELEVANCE OF ACCURACY FOR THE IMPACT OF MACROECONOMIC NEWS ON EXCHANGE RATE VOLATILITY

We study whether the accuracy of news announcements matters for the impact of news on exchange rate volatility. We use high-frequency EUR/USD returns and releases of 20 US macroeconomic indicators and measure the precision of news in three different ways. When the precision is defined by the size of the first revision of the previous month's figure, we find that precise news increases volatility significantly more than imprecise news. Also, news on indicators that are in general more precise increase volatility more than news on typically imprecise indicators. Finally, we use real-time data to measure the ‘true’ precision of news and find that the size of the first revision of the previous month's figure is a reasonable signal of ‘true’ precision. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
The liver in 30-year-old individuals with alpha1-antitrypsin deficiency

Abstract Objective. Severe (PiZZ) alpha1-antitrypsin (AAT) deficiency is a risk factor for liver disease, i.e. juvenile cirrhosis in infancy, and cirrhosis and hepatoma in adulthood. Little is known about the risk of liver disease in individuals with moderate (PiSZ) AAT deficiency. To investigate the natural course of AAT deficiency, a cohort of PiZZ and PiSZ individuals identified by the Swedish National neonatal screening programme in 1972–74 is followed regularly. The aim of this study was to compare liver function in this cohort with healthy control subjects aged 30 years. Material and methods. Blood samples were obtained from 89 PiZZ, 40 PiSZ, and 84 control subjects (PiMM), and plasma levels of aspartate aminotransferase (AST), alanine aminotransferase (ALT), and γ-glutamyl (GT) transpeptidase were analysed. Results. The mean values of all liver enzymes were within the normal range in all Pi subgroups. However, the mean AST was higher in the PiZZ and PiSZ subgroups than in the PiMM subgroup (p < 0.001), and the mean ALT was higher in the PiZZ individuals than in the controls (p < 0.05), while GT did not differ significantly among the Pi subgroups. The PiZZ women taking oral contraceptives had higher mean AST and ALT (p < 0.01) and GT (p < 0.05) than the control women taking oral contraceptives. Conclusions. At the age of 30 years, PiZZ and PiSZ individuals have normal plasma levels of the transaminases AST and ALT, although they are significantly higher than those in healthy control subjects. Use of oral contraceptives seems to influence liver enzymes in PiZZ women.
Using Visitor-Employed Photography to Investigate Destination Image

Given the dominant use of visuals in destination image promotion and the call for more pluralistic approaches in tourism analysis, the purpose of this research note is to illustrate the utility of visitor-employed photography (VEP) to elicit tourist destination image. An image study conducted at a heritage site provides an example of VEP applied in this context. Challenges associated with using VEP mainly were logistical (for visitors) and resource based (for researchers). Benefits to using this method for image assessment were high response rate (95%), unprompted visitor-generated themes and visuals, and enjoyment expressed by respondents. The VEP method provided highly visual records of what best captured the visitors’ images of the site, which then can be compared to pictures used in current promotional efforts. Results provide initial support of the usefulness of VEP to generate images of a tourist attraction and to facilitate meaningful practical and theoretical integration of visitor-determined images with destination-determined images.
What do we know about sexual and reproductive health of adolescents in Europe?

Objectives Acceptance of sexual and reproductive health as fundamental to the sustainable development of societies has allowed for creation of new reproductive health programmes and policies. WHO sexual and reproductive health (SRH) strategies were developed in the WHO Regional Office for Europe (2001), as well as globally (2004). Adolescent SRH is important in both strategies. Despite these commitments, adolescents remain vulnerable to poor reproductive health. The goal of this paper is to analyse the current status of SRH of adolescents in Europe. Methods Key reproductive health indicators were chosen. Information was obtained from published studies, databases and questionnaires sent to WHO reproductive health counterparts within the health ministries in the Member States of the WHO European Region. Results Pregnancy rate, age at first sexual intercourse, contraceptive use at first and last intercourse, contraceptive prevalence, HIV knowledge, and STI rates vary widely according to the population considered. Gender difference and lack of information pertaining to SRH of all adolescent populations are other key findings. Conclusions While the SRH of most European adolescents is good, they remain a vulnerable population. Lack of standardized reproductive indicators and age specific aggregate data make it difficult to accurately assess the situation in individual countries or perform cross country comparison.
Recipient country's ‘policies’ and the effect of foreign aid on economic growth in developing countries: additional evidence

This note adds to the research which questions the recent influential view that recipient country's 'policies' play an important role in the effect of foreign aid on economic growth in developing countries. In the first step, the almost universal practice of imposing the constraint of equality on parameters of bilateral and multilateral aid is relaxed and it is shown that 'policy' has no role in the effect of aid even in those cases where the usual constrained models do show such an effect. In addition, many cases are noted where there is no indication of recipient country's policies having any role in the effect of aid on growth even in the usual constrained specifications. These cases employ not merely the Burnside-Dollar 'policy' index, which almost all scholars have used, but also two other broader measures. It is thus concluded that there is little empirical evidence to support the widely-disseminated view that redirecting aid toward countries with 'good' policies leads to more growth and greater poverty reduction in developing countries. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Environments and Strategies of Organization Start-Up: Effects on Early Survival

Examines both the separate and combined impact of environmental conditions (e.g., resource availability and competitive concentration) and organizational strategies (e.g., market breadth and market aggressiveness) on the probability of startup survival in the computer industry. It is hypothesized that young firms have a higher likelihood of survival when demand is increasing, competitive concentration is declining, they are specialist rather than generalist organizations, and they are aggressive rather than efficient organizations. It is also hypothesized that when demand is increasing and concentration is declining, startups that are generalist organizations will have a higher likelihood of survival than specialist organizations and that when demand is declining and concentration is increasing, young firms that are efficient organizations will have a higher likelihood of survival than aggressive organizations. Data were gathered from the 10-Ks and annual reports of 108 minicomputer producers in the United States founded between 1957 and 1981. Based on the criteria used to classify these 108 firms, only 44 survived through 1981 and 64 were coded as failures. Results indicate that market demand, both by itself and when interacting with strategy variables, is the primary environmental influence on the probability that startups will survive. It was also determined that when unit sales increase, specialist organizations are more likely to survive as startups than generalist organizations. In addition, aggressive startup firms are shown to have a greater survival chance than efficient startup firms. In addition, when sales are increasing, generalist strategies rather than specialist strategies do improve the likelihood of new firm survival. Finally, when sales are declining, more efficient organizations survive while more aggressive firms do not. (SFL)
R&D Capital, Rate of Return on R&D Investment and Spillover of R&D in Japanese Manufacturing Industries

The effect of R$50D on productivity growth in Japanese manufacturing industries is examined. Using more accurate firm R$50D expenditure data than widely used data based on financial statements, series of R$50D capital are constructed. Then, rate of return on R$50D investment is estimated. In addition, the impact of other industries' R$50D on the productivity growth of an industry is also estimated. An attempt is made to determine the effect of electronics technology upon the productivity growth of other industries through the transaction of the intermediate electronics goods with improved quality, and through the diffusion of the new technological knowledge discovered. Japanese Technology Trade 1977-1981 Copyright 1989 by MIT Press.
The Association between Corporate Governance and Audit Fees of Bank Holding Companies

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether corporate governance structures influence the audit process in terms of audit fee pricing for regulated companies. Design/methodology/approach – The paper first reviews prior literature and identifies factors within the categories of client size, audit risk, audit complexity, auditor-related issues and corporate governance characteristics that are likely to influence audit fees of banking clients. It then regresses these variables on audit fees using an ordinary least square regression model for a sample of US listed bank holding companies (BHC). Findings – The paper finds no significant association between most corporate governance variables and audit fees, suggesting that governance agents do not require additional assurance from the auditor, given close oversight by regulators. It also observes a negative association between audit committee independence and audit fees, implying that auditors reduce their effort and thus audit fees in the presence of an independent audit committee because they perceive that such committees reduce control and financial reporting risks. Originality/value – In contrast with prior findings based on non-regulated companies, governance agents in regulated companies such as BHC do not demand a more extensive audit. This reflects a substitution effect of regulatory oversight for internal governance monitoring. The paper also shows that BigN auditors modify their audit strategies in response to corporate governance mechanisms. Modifying audit strategies in accordance with the strength of governance mechanisms is consistent with recommendations in professional standards and would enable auditors to address risks more appropriately, thereby increasing audit quality and efficiency.
Media and Momentum

To be a competitive candidate for mayor in the nation’s largest cities requires one to raise substantial sums of money. In this research, the authors explore the dynamics of campaign contributions using data from the 2001 mayoral election in Los Angeles. Their primary theoretical interest is in whether contributions reflect shifts in candidates’momentum, which they measure via a content analysis of campaign press coverage. Findings indicate that contributions are a function of momentum, but the effects are not the same for all candidates. In a concluding section, the authors explain why this might be the case.
Educational Capacity Development: The Journey of Five First-generation College Graduate Teachers Through Acquisition of Social and Cultural Capital and Transmission Towards Their High School Students

The transmission of social and cultural capital is the condition under which skills, knowledge and beliefs can be acquired by students. Having benefitted from such transformative engagements, first-generation college graduates who become teachers can effectively compensate for the deficiencies yet to be known by first-generation college bound students. These students do not specifically know what they are missing, but teachers who have completed the journey do. Teachers need to be looked at as key educational resources who can provide information and support to students so that they can get ahead in the college arena. First-generation college graduates who become teachers are unique educational resources for students navigating the complex and daunting journey from a non-collegiate home to a post-collegiate career. When looking at sources of social and cultural capital for first-generation college students, each source has a unique amount of capacity and influence upon a college bound student. Following a qualitative approach of narrative inquiry, five high school teachers with the life experience of being first-generation college graduates narrated their personal journey and its relationship to helping first-generation college students. A teacher's capacity and direct opportunity to instruct students in the school setting are the foundation for this narrative inquiry. Educational capacity is the level of cultural and social capital combined that is necessary to navigate through advanced educational situations. This research provides a framework for investigating the concept of educational capacity as it is developed by first-generation college graduate teachers, the simultaneous transmission of social and cultural capital to their students, and the programmatic response by educational institutions to address the inadequate capital among low socioeconomic status students. Several common traits emerged that give perspective to the phenomena of first-generation college graduate teachers and the social and cultural capital that is transmitted to their students. Teachers can have a profound impact in the presence of deficient educational capacity. High school curricula can not prevent years of insufficient adolescent development of social and cultural capital, but targeted development of educational capacity by teachers would create an opportunity for intervention.
Asbestos real-time monitor in an atmospheric environment.

The concentration of asbestos fiber aerosols can be monitored by measuring the polarization of laser light scattered by asbestos fibers. The principle of discriminating asbestos fibers is based on the theoretically expected difference in polarization at a scattering angle of 170 deg between cylindrical and spherical airborne particles; polarization at this scattering angle should be positive for cylindrical particles such as asbestos fibers but should be negative or close to zero for spherical mineral particles. We constructed an experimental asbestos real-time monitor that uses a strong electric field to align the airborne particles, that uses lasers having linear polarization with an equal amplitude in parallel and perpendicular components to the aligned long axis of particles, and that simultaneously detects the two components of the linear polarization of light scattered at 170 deg, i.e., close to the backscatter. Experiments that were performed to detect the light scattered from airborne standard asbestos fibers showed that the measured polarization fits theoretical prediction. The concentrations of airborne asbestos fibers obtained by the asbestos real-time monitor were consistent with those estimated by the standard phase contrast microscope method.
Australian wines in the British wine market: A hedonic price analysis

The market share of New World wines sold in many European countries has increased dramatically over the past decade. More aggressive marketing, together with a more distinct and recognizable labeling scheme, are often regarded as the keys to the marketing success of these new wines. This article employs hedonic price analysis to identify the values that marketers and consumers place on the information carried by the label of Australian wines in the British wine retail market. Although many grape varieties are given a highly distinct valuation by market participants, our results also suggest that consumers consider regions jointly with grape varieties as proxies for brands. This contrasts with the general observation that grape varietal labeling is the distinctive feature of New World wines. Marketing implications are examined by considering the revenue impact of changes in labeling at the retail level. lJEL citations: L150, D12, C21.r © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Agribusiness 20: 287-307, 2004.
Expanding the phenotypic spectrum of lupus erythematosus in Aicardi-Goutières syndrome.

OBJECTIVE Aicardi-Goutières syndrome (AGS) is an early-onset encephalopathy resembling congenital viral infection that is characterized by basal ganglia calcifications, loss of white matter, cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) lymphocytosis, and elevated interferon-alpha levels in the CSF. Studies have shown that AGS is an autosomal-recessive disease linked to mutations in 5 genes, encoding the 3'-repair DNA exonuclease 1 (TREX1), the 3 subunits of ribonuclease H2 (RNASEH2A-C), and sterile alpha motif domain and HD domain-containing protein 1 (SAMHD1). In this study we further characterized the phenotypic spectrum of this disease. METHODS Clinical and laboratory data were obtained from 26 patients fulfilling the clinical diagnostic criteria for AGS. Genomic DNA was screened for mutations in all 5 AGS genes by direct sequencing, and sera were analyzed for autoantibodies. RESULTS In 20 patients with AGS, 20 mutations, 12 of which were novel, were identified in all 5 AGS genes. Clinical and laboratory investigations revealed a high prevalence of features (some not previously described in patients with AGS) that are commonly seen in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), such as thrombocytopenia, leukocytopenia, antinuclear antibodies, erythematous lesions, oral ulcers, and arthritis, which were observed in 12 (60%) of 20 patients with AGS. Moreover, the coexistence of AGS and SLE, was for the first time, demonstrated in 2 patients with molecularly proven AGS. CONCLUSION These findings expand the phenotypic spectrum of lupus erythematosus in AGS and provide further insight into its disease mechanisms by showing that activation of the innate immune system as a result of inherited defects in nucleic acid metabolism could lead to systemic autoimmunity.
Stakeholders Model of Governance in Islamic Economic System

The paper discusses the design of an efficient and optimal corporate governance structure of a firm within Islamic economic system. The objective of this paper is to identify factors, which will influence corporate governance within an Islamic economic system and to examine if corporate governance model will be ‘shareholder’- or ‘stakeholder’- centered? The paper argues that the governance model in Islamic economic system is a stakeholder-oriented model where governance structure and process at system and firm level protect rights of stakeholders who are exposed to any risk as a result of firm’s activities. Whereas conventional system is struggling with finding convincing arguments to justify stakeholders’ participation in governance, the foundation of a stakeholder model is found in Islam’s principles of property rights, commitment to explicit and implicit contractual agreements and implementation of an effective incentive system. The paper also discusses the implication of a stakeholder model on depositors, Islamic financial institutions, and regulators.