Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Informational Efficiency and the Open Economy

A TROUBLESOME FEATURE of existing stochastic macroequilibrium models of the open economy is the nature of the informational assumptions usually made. Most of these models assume that full contemporaneous information on all relevant macrovariables is freely available to economic agents. This is the assumption made, for example, in Cox [7], Driskill and McCafferty [10], Driskill [8], and Turnovsky [17,18] among others. Further, when information gaps are introduced, the lack of full current information refers to the inability of domestic agents to correctly identify permanent versus transitory components of movements in either the (currently observed) domestic money supply (as in Ueda [20]) or the (observable) foreign price level [2, 16, 5]. Yet, prevailing economic reality is characterized by the availability of differentiated current information to economic agents. Information or data on variables relevant to "auction" markets such as asset markets is far more easily and frequently available than information that relates to markets that are "contractual" in nature, such as commodity markets. A financial newspaper such as the Wall Street Journal, for example, provides daily information on half a dozen foreign prime interest rates, a multitude of U.S.
Consumption Growth, the Interest Rate, and Financial Literacy

We study a model in which financial sophistication improves portfolio returns and therefore the incentive to substitute consumption intertemporally. The model delivers a Euler equation in which consumption growth is positively correlated with financial sophistication. We test the model's prediction using panel data on consumption and financial literacy from the Italian Survey of Household Income and Wealth (SHIW) and an appropriate instrumental variables procedure. We find that consumption growth is positively correlated with financial literacy. Under plausible assumptions, we provide estimates of the intertemporal elasticity of substitution that are in line with those in the literature (between 0.2 and 0.4). We complement our results with direct evidence on the link between financial literacy and return on saving.
Emerging Health Properties of Whey Proteins and Their Clinical Implications

The nursery rhyme “Little Miss Muffet sat on a tuffet (small stool) eating her curds and whey. …” is recognition of the fact that over the centuries “curds and whey”, the two major components of cow's milk, have been widely accepted as part of a healthy diet. Milk provides complete nourishment for the neonate for six months from birth, containing factors that help develop various organ systems including the brain, immune system, and the intestine. Importantly it provides immune protection at a time when the neonates own immune system, though fully developed, is albeit immature. Many adult consumers include cow's milk as part of a healthy diet as it provides protein and essential nutrients, vitamins, and minerals, in particular calcium for strong bones. There is a growing appreciation that milk, and in particular whey, contains components that not only provide nutrition, but can also prevent and attenuate disease, or augment conventional therapies, when delivered in amounts that exceed normal dietary intakes. This paper reviews the emerging health properties of whey proteins and their clinical implications.
New Species of Bordetella, Bordetella ansorpii sp. nov., Isolated from the Purulent Exudate of an Epidermal Cyst

ABSTRACT A gram-negative bacillus, SMC-8986T, which was isolated from the purulent exudate of an epidermal cyst but could not be identified by a conventional microbiologic method, was characterized by a variety of phenotypic and genotypic analyses. Sequences of the 16S rRNA gene revealed that this bacterium belongs to the genus Bordetella but diverged distinctly from previously described Bordetella species. Analyses of cellular fatty acid composition and performance of biochemical tests confirmed that this bacterium is distinct from other Bordetella species. Furthermore, the results of comparative sequence analyses of two protein-coding genes (risA and ompA) also showed that this strain represents a new species within the genus Bordetella. Based on the evaluated phenotypic and genotypic characteristics, it is proposed that SMC-8986T should be classified as a new species, namely Bordetella ansorpii sp. nov.
Inflation Targeting, Committee Decision Making and Uncertainty

The transparency and openness of the monetary policymaking process at the Bank of England has provided very detailed information on both the decisions of individual members of the Monetary Policy Committee and the information on which they are based. In this paper we consider this decision making process in the context of a model in which inflation forecast targeting is used but there is heterogeneity among the members of the committee. We find that internally generated forecasts of output and market generated expectations of medium term inflation provide the best description of discrete changes in interest rates. We also find a role for asset prices through the equity market, foreign exchange market and housing prices. There are also identifiable forms of heterogeneity among members of the committee that improves the predictability of interest rate changes. This can be thought of as supporting the argument that full transparency of monetary policy decision making can be welfare enhancing.
What Are Microfoundations?

In the extant organizational, management, and strategy literatures there are now frequent calls for microfoundations. However, there is little consensus on what micro- foundations are and what they are not. In this paper we first (briefly) review the history of the microfoundations discussion and then discuss what microfoundations are and are not. We highlight four misconceptions or "half-truths" about microfoundations: (1) that microfoundations are psychology, human resources, or micro-organizational behavior, (2) that borrowed concepts constitute microfoundations, (3) that microfoundations lead to an infinite regress, and (4) that microfoundations deny the role of structure and institutions. We discuss both the partial truths and the misconceptions associated with the above understandings of microfoundations, and we argue that questions of social aggregation and emergence need to be center stage in any discussion of microfoundations. We link our arguments about microfoundations and aggregation with closely related calls for new areas of research, such as "behavioral strategy" and the domain of multilevel human capital research. We discuss various forms of social aggregation and also highlight associated opportunities for future research, with a specific focus on the origins of capabilities and competitive advantage.
Testing Behavioral Finance Theories Using Trends and Sequences in Financial Performance

Models based on psychological biases can explain momentum and reversal in stock returns, but risk overfitting of theory to data. We examine a central psychological bias, representativeness, which underlies many behavioral-finance theories. According to this bias, individuals form predictions about future outcomes based on how closely past outcomes fit certain categories. To produce out-of sample tests, we use accounting performance to identify these categories and test the idea that investors misclassify firms and thus make biased forecasts. We find evidence of short-term accounting momentum, consistent with the idea that investors fail to immediately incorporate new information, but find no support for long-term reversal related to accounting performance. Contrary to theory, we find little evidence that the consistency of past accounting performance is related to future returns
Adversity in Childhood and Mental Health in Adulthood: The Role of Social Capital

The study examines whether social capital fosters resilience among individuals who are at a high risk of developing mental distress in adulthood. Results suggest that social capital is not associated with a reduction in the probability that high-risk individuals will experience mental distress, while one form of social capital, membership in groups and associations, appears to play a protective role among low-risk individuals. Overall, our research suggests that policies aimed at increasing social capital would not be able to reduce the gap in mental health between disadvantaged individuals and the rest of the population.
Coopeting to Survive; Surviving Coopetition

This study is based on an inductive study, and it aims to present the theoretical distinctions of the possible unintended effects caused by coopetition. The study focuses on San Benedetto SpA, an Italian drinks and bottling company that survived competition in the soft drinks and beverages industry thanks to a coopetition-driven strategy. In addition to competitors such as Ferrero and Schweppes, big players such as Coca-Cola and Pepsi Co. signed contracts with San Benedetto. However, following coopetition, there emerged several differently originated interferences in the firm's original business model. This study highlights that the inability to fully foresee the effects of coopetition, and eventually to metabolize them, might in the long run turn coopetition from opportunity into a trap.
The Orthogonal Response of Stock Returns to Dividend Yield and Price-to-Earnings Innovations

This study investigates how returns on the S&P 500 index respond orthogonally to dividend yield and price-to-earnings innovations. The unrestricted vector autoregressive (VAR) analysis of monthly data from 1871 to 2012 shows that the response of returns on the S&P 500 index to dividend yield innovation, based on the 12-month horizon, is positive in the first three months, negative in the 4th through 7th months and positive again after that. The returns on the S&P 500 index are negative in the first five months following price-to-earnings shock. The results of the Granger causality tests indicate that dividend yield and price-to-earnings cause the movement in stock returns.
Lost in Translation: The Social Investment Perspective and Gender Equality

The social investment perspective is replacing standard neoliberalism in Latin America as well as Europe. With it come ideas about social citizenship that reconfigure the citizenship regimes of the three regions. The responsibility mix is equilibrated to give a greater role for the state, although as investor rather than spender; access to citizenship rights shifts to incorporate the excluded and marginalized; and governance practices alter to emphasize decentralization to the local and the community. The main idea of the social investment perspective is that the future must be assured by investing in children and ending the intergenerational transmission of disadvantage. With this set of child-centered policy ideas, the equality claims of adult women and attention to their needs are sidelined in favor of those of children, including girls.
How might hospitality organizations optimize their performance measurement systems

Purpose – The purpose of the paper is to explore the use of “old” and “new” performance measurement (PM) techniques in a joint venture (JV) set up by two partners, a global hotel chain and a Portuguese company.Design/methodology/approach – The empirical data upon which this paper is based was collected through a prolonged contact with the specific organizational context. Qualitative or semi‐structured interviewing is the main source of information.Findings – The paper finds that budgeting and budgetary control practices have been the cornerstone of the PM activity at the JV, where few “new” management accounting techniques are used. Yet, changes were made to the way the “old” PM techniques are drawn on and they have been supplemented with rolling forecasts prepared at the hotel level. The objectives are to encourage local managers to become more forward‐looking and to broaden the knowledge of the global partner about the future operating activities of the JV. Simultaneously, local adaptations of PM practi.
Estimating Amenity Benefits of Coastal Farmland

This paper investigates differences in non-market farmland amenity values estimated using distinct methodologies, with a focus on the potential causes and policy implications. The paper compares farmland amenity values generated by a hedonic property value model and a contingent choice model, both estimated from data collected in the Peconic Estuary System of Suffolk County, NY. The analysis demonstrates that a combination of non-market valuation methodologies can provide policy insights not otherwise available to those relying on any single approach, and illustrates types of information that may be obscured by methodologies used in isolation. Copyright 2001 Gatton College of Business and Economics, University of Kentucky.
Duffy antigen receptor and genetic susceptibility of African Americans to acute rejection and delayed function.

BACKGROUND The unique distribution of the alleles for the Duffy antigen receptor complex (DARC) that binds to chemokines may be associated with the rates of acute rejection and delayed allograft function (DGF) among African Americans. METHODS A prospective, multicenter cohort study enrolled 222 African American recipients of cadaveric renal allografts from eight adult transplant centers. Subjects were typed by allele-specific polymerase chain reaction (ASPCR) for the polymorphism at position 535 that determines the level of transcription. Associations of DARC genotypes were examined in Cox hazards models with episodes of acute rejection and in logistic regression models with the development of DGF. RESULTS FyB Null homozygosity was observed among 67% of the recipients. Fifteen percent of the study cohort experienced at least one episode of acute rejection, and the incidence of DGF was 42.5%. The number of FyB Null alleles and FyB Null homozygosity had no detectable association with the rate of acute rejection (P > 0.50) or with the development of DGF (P > 0.50). CONCLUSION The susceptibility of African American recipients to acute rejection and to DGF was not confirmed to be associated with DARC alleles or genotype. Future studies should exclude a potential role of donor-related DARC in transplant outcomes.
Administrative Reform in Public Management: Paradigms, Principles, Paradoxes and Pendulums

The universal administrative reform movement in public management of the past two decades, as illustrated in the three articles on administrative reform in Britain, Australia and New Zealand which follow this article, has obviously been driven in large part by the requirement that governments respond to the fiscal stresses brought about by changes in the international economic system on the one hand and by the unrelenting demands for government services and regulations in national political systems on the other. These stresses have led to the paramountcy of policy responses aimed at budgetary restraint and at downsizing the public services of governments, as well as - various measures to privatize government operations and to deregulate private economic enterprises. Within the context of these developments, two major sets of ideas have come to influence the design of governance and management therein. They are not unrelated to the policy responses which have come to be characterized as ”neo-conservative,” but they have a separate identity. The first set of ideas, emanating from the school of thought known as public choice theory, focuses on the need to reestablish the primacy of representative government over bureaucracy. The second set of ideas, now generally referred to as the “managerialist” school of thought, focuses on the need to reestablish the primacy of managerial principles over bureaucracy. Taken together, they have had a profound impact on the ways in which governments are structured for the purposes of administering public affairs. Although the changes which have been introduced or proposed as a result of these two sets of ideas might be regarded as a ”return to the basics” of representative government and public administration, there is an important sense in which the fundamental prescriptions of the two proceed from quite different premises about what constitutes public management. The coupling of the two thus must inevitably give rise to tensions, if not outright contradictions, in the implementation of these ideas. At the same time it is clear that these tensions and contradictions are inherent in the governance of modern administrative states (Waldo 1984). It is not illogical, therefore, that governments should attempt to pursue the
Tour Leader Attachment and Customer Citizenship Behaviors in Group Package Tour: The Role of Customer Commitment

The tour leader plays a critical role in travel decisions. Recently, the attachment theory has been extended into the domain of travel behavior. However, little academic attention has been paid to the attachment of tour leader. The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of tour leader attachment on customer citizenship behaviors (CCBs). Furthermore, the study investigated the extent to which customer commitment mediates the relationship between tour leader attachment and CCBs. Online survey data from 459 tourists indicate that tour leader attachment is positively related to CCBs. Furthermore, customer commitment mediates the relationship between tour leader attachment and CCBs. Implications of these findings as well as future research are subsequently discussed.
Multi-Level Governance and the Study of the British State

The British State is currently being restructured through a process of constitutional and institutional reform. This process contributes to other changes that are creating an increasingly complex range of inter-governmental relationships of shifting and opaque jurisdictional boundaries together with a redefinition of state-society relations. In light of this, observers are increasingly making reference to an emergent system of ‘multi-level governance’ within Britain. The focus of this article is conceptual. The aim is to assess the value of multi-level governance as an analytical framework that can contribute to understanding the changing nature of the British State. In doing so, we identify and apply the two models or types of multi-level governance developed by Hooghe and Marks (2004). We conclude that while multi-level governance has its limitations, it has great potential as a contrastive concept when juxtaposed with the Westminster Model.
REFINE: A Randomized Trial Comparing Cyclosporine A and Tacrolimus on Fibrosis After Liver Transplantation for Hepatitis C

REFINE was a 12‐month, prospective, open‐label study in 356 patients receiving de novo liver transplantation for hepatitis C virus (HCV) cirrhosis, randomized to cyclosporine A (CsA) or tacrolimus with (i) no steroids, IL‐2 receptor antibody induction and mycophenolic acid, or (ii) slow steroid tapering. The primary analysis population based on availability of liver biopsies comprised 165 patients (88 CsA, 77 tacrolimus). There was no difference in the primary endpoint, fibrosis stage ≥2 at 12 months, which occurred in 63/88 CsA‐treated patients (71.6%) and 52/77 tacrolimus‐treated patients (67.5%) (odds ratio [OR] 1.11; 95% CI 0.56, 2.21; p = 0.759). Similarly, no significant between‐group difference occurred at month 24 (OR 1.15; 95% CI 0.47, 2.80; p = 0.767). Among steroid‐free patients, fibrosis score ≥2 was significantly less frequent with CsA versus tacrolimus at month 12 (7/37 [18.9%] vs. 16/38 [42.1%]; p = 0.029). HCV viral load was similar in both the tacrolimus‐ and CsA‐treated cohorts. Mean blood glucose was significantly higher with tacrolimus from day 15 onward. Biopsy‐proven acute rejection, graft loss and death were similar. These results showed no differences in posttransplant HCV‐induced liver fibrosis between patients treated with CsA or tacrolimus in steroid‐containing regimens, whereas CsA in steroid‐free protocols was associated with reduced severity of fibrosis progression at 1 year posttransplant.
Trends and Directions in the Development of a Strategic Management Theory of the Family Firm

This article provides a review of important trends in the strategic management approach to studying family firms: convergence in definitions, accumulating evidence that family involvement may affect performance, and the emergence of agency theory and the resource–based view of the firm as the leading theoretical perspectives. We conclude by discussing directions for future research and other promising approaches to inform the inquiry concerning family business.
Three-dimensional structure of the human small intestinal mucosa in health and disease.

Variations in the three-dimensional structure of the small intestinal mucosa have only been appreciated since the dissecting microscope was introduced as a tool for examining mucosal specimens (Rubin, Brandborg, Phelps, and Taylor, 1960). Although it is now widely accepted that the changes in mucosal structure from finger villi to leaves, convolutions, and a flat mucosa are all gradations of a single process, the reason for the mucosa adopting these morphological variations in disease states has remained largely obscure. Different authors have quoted a variety of possible mechanisms. Townley, Cass, and Anderson (1964) suggested that the primary mucosal defect was injury to the exposed upper parts of the villi causing denudation of the epithelium and basement membrane, and that these bare tips of villi 'fused', forming leaves and convolutions by 'bridging', producing a flat mucosa as progressively more of these villous clumps fused together. Himes and Adlersberg (1958) also suggested that epithelial cell injury caused villous fusion and clumping. Shiner and Doniach (1960), on the other hand, considered that the appearances could be the result of simple villous atrophy due to the 'defective formation and viability of villous epithelial cells'. Swanson and Thomassen (1965) in a study of tropical sprue also subscribed to the idea of villous fusion, but considered that this began at the base of the villi rather than at the tips. Previous studies of mucosal structure under the dissecting microscope have been limited in that only the upper part of the villi is directly visible, as the thick epithelial cell layer precludes any vision of the base of villi, of crypts, and of the crypt/villus relationship. In the present study the mucosa has been examined under the dissecting microscope after autolysis of epithelial cells, and histologically by serial horizontal cross sections through conventionally fixed specimens.
The Economics of Soil Fertility Management in Malawi

We estimated a normalized translog yield-response model using African farm-household survey data to compare the yield of smallholder maize production under integrated soil fertility management (ISFM) and chemical-based soil fertility management. Controlling for other factors, maize yield responses were higher under ISFM. Results suggest ISFM practices would significantly improve the profitability of smallholder maize production, especially under escalating fertilizer prices.