Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Politics of Retrenchment in a Social Democratic Welfare State

What explains the origins and pattern of retrenchment dynamics in Swedish old-age pensions and unemployment insurance during the 1990s? Although the economic crisis created pressure to scale back both programs, the author argues that retrenchment only occurred when and where the Social Democratic Party and some segments of the labor movement supported change. This finding suggests that the political importance of organized labor in retrenchment politics depends on the relationship between welfare-state programs and interest group structure. When interest group structure is characterized by solidaristic, centralized, encompassing organizations, the old class-based power resource model has more explanatory bite than Pierson's new politics of the welfare-state approach.
Can the Overcommercialization of Cause-Related Marketing Harm Society?

The role of social responsibility within business has been debated for decades. It appears that there is a growing understanding that doing the right thing for society can not only be good for business but is also a responsibility of the modern corporation. Causes, corporations, and society have benefited from corporate involvement with social issues. However, it also appears that in some cases, there may be potential pitfalls associated with merging social and corporate objectives. The “overcommercialization” of some activities designed to benefit society may in fact harm those that these activities are trying to help. This article examines potential pitfalls associated with cause-related marketing and provides recommendations for reducing the potential negative consequences.
Wealth Effects of Seasoned Equity Offerings: A Meta Analysis

We use meta-analysis to review studies on announcement effects associated with seasoned equity offerings. Our sample includes 168 studies from 32 leading finance journals and SSRN working papers. The studies cover different countries, but the U.S. is particularly well-represented with 120 studies. We find a significantly mean cumulative abnormal return of -1.13%. Abnormal returns are more negative for equity issues by U.S. companies and for non-U.S. rights issues. In addition, wealth effects are more negative when there is insider trading before an equity issue, when the proceeds are used for debt reduction, and for issues by dividend-paying companies. All else equal, published papers report more negative wealth effects than working papers. We identify important avenues for future research.
What's in the News? Information Content of S&P 500 Additions

I investigate the information content of S&P 500 index changes by examining the price and volume reaction of the industry and size matched firms. Using a sample of S&P 500 additions between 1976-2001, I find a significantly positive price reaction, but no volume reaction, for the matching firms. In addition, the matching-firm price reaction is negatively related to the added firm's weight in its industry. These findings suggest that the index addition conveys favorable information about the added firm and its industry. Copyright (c) 2007 Financial Management Association International.
Putting Integrity into Finance: A Purely Positive Approach

The seemingly never ending scandals in the world of finance with their damaging effects on value and human welfare (that continue unabated in spite of all the various efforts to curtail the behavior that results in those scandals) argues strongly for an addition to the current paradigm of financial economics. We summarize here our new theory of integrity that reveals integrity as a purely positive phenomenon with no normative aspects whatsoever. Adding integrity as a positive phenomenon to the paradigm of financial economics provides actionable access (rather than mere explanation with no access) to the source of the behavior that has resulted in those damaging effects on value and human welfare, thereby significantly reducing that behavior. More generally we argue that this addition to the paradigm of financial economics can create significant increases in economic efficiency and productivity.
Are Chinese warrants derivatives? Evidence from connections to their underlying stocks

In this paper, we empirically investigate warrant price behaviour in the Chinese market—the largest warrant market in the world in terms of trading volume since 2006. By examining warrant return properties, volatility behaviour and pricing errors, we document a stylized fact that call warrants have a considerable linkage with their underlying but put warrants have almost none. The combination of the arbitrage pricing theory and the resale-option bubble theory (proposed by Scheinkman and Xiong in 2003) is adopted to explain this stylized fact. Specifically, the arbitrage pricing framework tells that it is possible for puts (calls) to be overpriced (underpriced) due to short-sales prohibition in the Chinese stock market, while the resale-option bubble theory proves that puts do have bubbles but calls do not. The bubble dilutes the linkage between put prices and their underlying stock prices. Our findings have implications for Chinese investors as well as the derivatives regulator.
Investment Decision Making: A Behavioural Perspective

Reviews institutional decision making and the role of property within a multi‐asset portfolio. Discusses diversification strategies by sector and region as a means of reducing or managing risk. Indicates the mismatch that can occur between the perception of risk, current market performance and targeting of investment activity by sector. Geographical diversification is apparent by region but not by subregion in the UK. In contrast investment into European markets is weak with particular concerns relating to currency fluctuations, taxation, lease structures and asset pricing.
KINETICS OF THE POTASSIUM- AND SODIUM-ACTIVATED INFECTION OF A TRANSFORMING DEOXYRIBONUCLEIC ACID IN PNEUMOCOCCUS.

SUMMARY: Study of the kinetics of the effect of KCl and NaCl on the genetic transformation process has shown that an activation of a 3 min.-old DNA-bacterial complex by 0·2m-salt is responsible for a several-fold increase in the frequency of transformation. It is assumed that this is due to activation of a temperature-dependent metabolic process which is connected with the penetration of DNA into the competent cells. Studies of the kinetics of DNA penetration, by the addition of deoxyribonuclease as a function of time, in the presence and absence of the activating salts, indicate that competence is also a state of increased permeability to macromolecules. The activating effect of both sodium and potassium chlorides bears some relation to the stage of competence achieved and to the dilution or non-dilution of the receptor culture.
Reciprocated community support and small town - small business success

This paper presents an empirical test of the significance of reciprocated community support, in contrast with traditional economic factors and unilateral support, in the success of small businesses in small towns. The central hypothesis is that entrepreneurs who make non-market contributions to their community and whose community supports them, are more likely to consider their businesses to be successful. Logistic regression is used to analyse survey data from over 800 small businesses in 30 small towns of the state of Iowa (USA). The authors found that the interaction effect of an entrepreneur's service to the community, reciprocated by community support of the business, is the single most significant determinant of business success among dozens of indicators and characteristics of the respondent, the business, and the small towns in the sample. In addition, it was found that business people who feel successful expect to expand. These findings are relevant to rural development. The expansion of existing.
Ethnicity, capital formation, and conflict

Ethnicity plays an ambiguous role in the great transformation. On the other hand, ethnicity creates: By providing inentives that organize the flow of resources across generations, it provides the capital for urban migration and the acquisition of skills for industrial employment. On the other hand, ethnicity destroys : Ethnic conflict leads to costly acts of violence. Using data drawn largely from Africa, this paper explores the two faces of ethnicity. In so dong, it finds that the presumed link between ethnicity and violence is more complex and less threatening than most assume. Those who claim a straightforward link are making an elementary error in the reading of tabular data.
Societal Conditions and the Gender Difference in Well-Being

Findings from a meta-analysis on gender differences in self-esteem (Zuckerman et al., 2016) suggest that the relation between the degree to which societal conditions are favorable to women and gender difference in self-esteem might be quadratic; when conditions improve, women’s self-esteem (relative to that of men) trends downward but when conditions continue to improve, women’s self-esteem begins to trend upward. Testing whether these relations generalize to subjective well-being, the present study found a quadratic relation between improving societal conditions and the gender difference in life satisfaction and positive affect (women are lower than men when societal conditions are moderately favorable compared to when they are at their worst and at their best); the relation was linear for negative emotion (women report more negative emotions than men when societal conditions are better). Directions for future research that will address potential explanations for these results are proposed.
Still playing the game at arm's length? The selective re-investment in British sport, 1995–2000

The paper critically reviews and evaluates British sport policy and governance structures that have influenced the national sport policy community in the past decade. The review primarily draws on work underlying neo-pluralist perspectives as well as developing the notions of power and authority to aid understanding of the changing power relations and ideologies influencing sport policy development. Two policy issues are considered in detail: the establishment and distribution policies of the National Lottery, and elite sport initiatives. It is argued that the period since 1995 represents a distinct period of 'selective re-investment' in British sport with subtle changes in emphasis, post– 1998 following the influence of the New Labour administration. It is also suggested that the nature of government intervention in sport is changing despite recent rhetoric that the 'arm's length' principle is being maintained.
Efficacy and Safety of Retreatment with Ipilimumab in Patients with Pretreated Advanced Melanoma Who Progressed after Initially Achieving Disease Control

Purpose: Ipilimumab is a fully human monoclonal antibody against cytotoxic T-lymphocyte–associated antigen-4 (CTLA-4) that has been shown to improve survival in patients with pretreated, advanced melanoma in a phase III trial. Some patients in this study who initially responded to ipilimumab treatment but later progressed were eligible for retreatment with their original randomized regimen. Here, outcomes for these patients concerning baseline characteristics, best overall response, and disease control rate are assessed and considered with respect to the overall study population. Experimental Design: In the phase III study, 676 pretreated patients were randomly allocated to treatment with ipilimumab 3 mg/kg plus gp100 vaccine, ipilimumab 3 mg/kg plus placebo, or gp100 vaccine alone. Of these patients, 32 had a partial or complete objective response or stable disease after treatment and met the eligibility criteria for retreatment, although a total of 40 patients were retreated. Results: Best overall response rates (complete responses plus partial responses) for 31 retreatment-eligible patients in the ipilimumab plus gp100 and ipilimumab plus placebo groups were 3 of 23 (13.0%) and 3 of 8 (37.5%), respectively, and disease control rates were 65.2% and 75.0%. No new types of toxicities occurred during retreatment and most events were mild-to-moderate. Conclusion: Ipilimumab provided durable objective responses and/or stable disease in qualifying patients who received retreatment upon disease progression with a similar toxicity profile to that seen during their original treatment regimen. Clin Cancer Res; 19(8); 2232–9. ©2013 AACR.
A framework to manage the measurable, immeasurable and the unidentifiable financial risk

Traditionally, financial risk management has mainly focused on the types of risk that can be identified and measured. Many actuarial and statistical theories and models have been developed in the past, to quantify such risks. However, high-profile events such as Black Monday, the Asian financial crisis, 9/11 terrorist attacks, the Enron scandal, and more recently the global financial crisis, has repeatedly proven to the financial world that risks which matter to the stability of financial firms are often immeasurable and unidentifiable. Hence, simply focusing on the measurable risks is inadequate for a sound management of financial risks. In this paper, we develop a holistic framework to identify (if possible), measure (if possible), and manage the measurable, as well as the immeasurable, and the unidentifiable risks. We identify four realms of financial uncertainties and point out that each realm possesses a unique set of challenges to risk management. Moreover, we show that the tools needed to grapple each realm of uncertainty are fundamentally different, therefore stressing the importance of the need for awareness of these separate realms of uncertainty. The paper provides a discussion of methods available for assessing and managing each realm of uncertainty, and their limitations, by drawing from risk management techniques used in various fields of science and other industries.
Tightening Cav (Dus) Bounds By Using A Parametric Model

This paper presents a new method of setting an upper bound for the aggregate error of an accounting population using Dollar Unit Sampling (DUS; see Anderson and Teitlebaum [1973]). The most widely used DUS bound setting procedure is the Stringer bound (Felix, Leslie, and Neter [1982]). This nonparametric procedure is popular because it produces a reliable bound for a wide variety of accounting populations. A disadvantage of the Stringer bound is that it is not statistically efficient, particularly when the population has low taintings. Other CA V (Combined Attributes and Variables) bounds have demonstrated the same problem (Reneau [1978]). A statistically inefficient bound may cause the auditor to conclude erroneously that the aggregate error may exceed a given material size, thereby promoting costly overauditing. The classical bound, an alternative distribution-free procedure that depends on the normality of the sampling distribution of the point estimator, is asymptotically efficient but unreliable in sample sizes used by auditors (Frost and Tamura [1986]). A simple parametric procedure is feasible if the underlying distribution of taintings is identified. We present an example of a parametric procedure using the power function density as a model and demonstrate the
The Efficacy of Ultrabrief-Pulse (0.25 millisecond) Versus Brief-Pulse (0.50 millisecond) Bilateral Electroconvulsive Therapy in Major Depression

Objectives: Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is an effective treatment for patients with major depression but carries the risk of memory impairment. Bilateral ECT with ultrabrief pulses, instead of brief pulses, seems to result in a significant decrease in memory impairment. This study explores whether patients treated with ultrabrief-pulse bilateral ECT achieve a similar treatment effect compared with patients treated with regular brief-pulse bilateral ECT. Methods: This retrospective study included 65 patients with major depression treated with bilateral ECT, in the period 2002 to 2008. The patients were divided into 2 groups, depending on whether they received a pulse-width treatment of 0.5 (46 patients) or 0.25 millisecond (19 patients). Depressive symptoms were assessed with the 17-item Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression (HAM-D) score. Treatment outcomes were mean decrease in HAM-D score and treatment response rates and remission rates. Results: The mean decrease in HAM-D score in the 0.25- and 0.50-millisecond groups was 20.1 (SD, 8.9) and 19.3 (SD, 9.2), respectively (difference not significant); response rates were 73.6% and 75.6%, and final remission rates were 42.1% and 45.6%, respectively. Thus, the decreases in HAM-D score and the response and remission rates were very similar in both groups. Conclusions: In this study population, the use of ultrabrief-pulse (0.25 millisecond) bilateral ECT resulted in equivalent treatment outcome and efficacy compared with bilateral ECT with a brief pulse (0.50 millisecond).
The role of agglomeration in entrepreneurship: empirical evidence from Italy

Entrepreneurial orientation (EO) has become a central concept in the domain of entrepreneurship, which has received a substantial amount of theoretical and empirical attention. Particularly, the relationship between EO and business performance represents an area of considerable importance where research is needed. Previous studies have illustrated that this relationship may vary across different types of environments. The purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of EO on performance at a regional level. To our knowledge, this issue has not been analysed previously at this level of aggregation. This paper implements Italian data on dairy sector and two Italian regions to examine empirically the degree of concentration in the sector and the role of a firm’s agglomeration on the magnitude of the link between EO and an business performance. The results suggest that the current distribution of production places important role in the relationship between EO and business performance.
Are public school teacher salaries paid compensating wage differentials for student racial and ethnic characteristics?

The present paper examines the relationship between public school teacher salaries and the racial concentration and segregation of students in the district. A particularly rich set of control variables is included to better measure the effect of racial characteristics. Additional analyses included Metropolitan Statistical Area fixed effects and longitudinal teacher salary data. The results are generally consistent with a positive compensating wage differential for working in districts with a higher percentage of Black and Latino students. The longitudinal results also suggest that more segregated districts may pay lower salaries.
Study of the infection of human blood derived monocyte/macrophages with hepatitis C virus in vitro

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is essentially hepatotropic, but clinical observations based on quasispecies composition in different compartments or on viral RNA detection in cells suggest that the virus is able to infect and persist in cells other than liver cells. It was shown previously that peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) are permissive to HCV replication in vitro but at a very low rate. Since different viruses associated with chronic infections are known to persist in monocyte/macrophages, it is important to determine whether these mononuclear blood cells are susceptible preferentially to HCV. In order to study HCV interaction with monocytes/macrophages, these cells were isolated from the blood of healthy donors and incubated with HCV genotype 1b positive sera. The detection by RT‐PCR of the positive‐ and negative‐strand RNA in the cells at different times and the increase in the amount of intracellular viral RNA measured by the branched DNA assay suggest that monocyte/macrophages can support HCV RNA replication. The rate, however, is very low. The analysis of hypervariable region 1 (HVR‐1) nucleotide sequences indicated that some minor variant present in the inoculum might display a specific tropism for the monocytes/macrophages. These results provide evidence that human monocytes/macrophages might represent a reservoir for HCV. This cell tropism may be a crucial factor in the pathogenesis of hepatitis C. J. Med. Virol. 65:14–22, 2001. © 2001 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Efficient Storage Capacity in Power Systems with Thermal and Renewable Generation

Power systems with high shares of wind and solar power have to balance their intermittent nature. Pumped-hydro storage plants can provide the required flexibility, while thermal backup plants offer an alternative. This paper proposes a capacity planning model to describe the efficient technology portfolio. Drawing on a residual load duration curve, we derive the efficient storage capacity and discuss its dependence on cost parameters, as well as the effect of periods with renewable generation in excess of load. A case study for Germany applies the model and highlights the impact of CO2 prices on storage efficiency.
Clinical practice guidelines for the psychosocial care of adults with cancer

Clinical practice guidelines are increasingly being developed in medical settings to provide evidence‐based recommendations to guide the clinical care of patients. The development of Clinical practice guidelines for the psychosocial care of patients with medical illness is a newer initiative, and more complex as the target audience includes health care professionals from diverse backgrounds. In Australia, the National Breast Cancer Centre and National Cancer Control Initiative have collaborated to develop Clinical practice guidelines for the psychosocial care of adults with cancer, funded by the Australian Government Department of Health and Ageing. This paper outlines the development of these guidelines in the international context, gives an overview of their content, and describes strategies for their implementation and evaluation. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
The Time Pattern of the Internationalization of Production

Abstract This paper offers an explanation for the development of international trade, foreign direct investment and the activity of multinational companies in developed countries after the Second World War. A two-country±two-sector±onefactor general equilibrium model is set up and applied in an evolutionary framework. The model features the stylized facts: exports and production abroad increase with falling distance costs, exports increase earlier than production abroad and companies in larger countries internationalize their production earlier than their competitors in smaller countries do.
The Disconcerting Pyramids of Poverty and Inequality of Sub-Saharan Africa

Poverty and inequality in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) should not be ascertained only on the basis of scarce and unreliable income distribution statistics, but should also take into account social conditions. Recent, widely disseminated claims that poverty and inequality have increased over the past 30 years are based on regional income estimates with falling medians and rising upper variances over that period. Graphically, this translates into pyramid-shaped income distributions that, perversely, shift to the left and widen over time. However, during the same period social indicators improved significantly (if insufficiently), and we argue in this paper that such a trend represents progress with social equity in SSA. This point is illustrated through the configuration of alternative social pyramids that move for most of the last 30 years in the right direction. However, more recently, social indicators are being set back by the HIV/AIDS pandemic, which will generate greater and more dehumanizing poverty in the years ahead even if meaningful economic growth is achieved. As underscored by the multiplicity of pyramid representations, poverty and inequality time trends in SSA can thus best be described as disconcerting in that they remain arguably illusive and definitely disturbing.