Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
On Transaction Costs, Inessential Sequence Economies and Money

In a classical Debreu-economy the opportunities open to an agent do not depend on the transaction date; in a sequence economy they may. Moreover, in a Debreu-economy households may always be interpreted as facing a " present value " budget constraint; in a sequence economy this is not always possible. Roughly speaking I shall be defining an inessential sequence economy as one in which the sequence makes no difference to what we have already deduced about the equilibrium of a Debreu-economy. I shall show that only such economies can be Pareto-efficient relative to a transactions technology and distribution of endowments amongst households. But there are also non-inessential sequence economies. This leads me to money and forward markets in money. I deal with the question: " why do agents hold money? " in a crude way, and comment on other ways, i.e. that of Grandmont and Younes [1, 2]. I show that no sequence economy in equilibrium with borrowing and lending of money can be efficient if such borrowing and lending is costly; I shall comment on the robustness of these conclusions. It will become plain that since the classical dichotomy can only fail to hold for economies with sequences which are not inessential this dichotomy seems to imply that monetary equilibria of this kind are inefficient. I start with a recapitulation of an earlier paper from which this one takes its point of departure although before that I provide the notation to be used which I hope improves on the very bad one in [3]. I then construct a sequence economy and a Debreu-economy without money so as to be able to define inessentiality, about which certain theorems are proved. I then discuss efficiency. Lastly the two economies are modified to allow for money and some of the claims made above are substantiated.
Financial Literacy and Retirement Planning: New Evidence from the Rand American Life Panel

The present paper introduces a new dataset, the Rand American Life Panel (ALP), which offers several appealing features for an analysis of financial literacy and retirement planning. It allows us to evaluate financial knowledge during workers' prime earning years when they are making key financial decisions, and it offers detailed financial literacy and retirement planning questions, permitting a finer assessment of respondents' financial literacy than heretofore feasible. We can also compare respondents' self-assessed financial knowledge levels with objective measures of financial literacy, and most valuably, we can investigate prior financial training which permits us to identify key causal links. By every measure, and in every sample we examine, financial literacy proves to be a key determinant of retirement planning. We also find that respondent literacy is higher when they were exposed to economics in school and to company-based financial education programs.
Estimating the Impact of Large Cigarette Tax Hikes

Using a statistical matching procedure to choose control groups, we find that four states that adopted large cigarette tax hikes had corresponding decreases in smoking participation of pregnant women. Using the tax hike as an instrument for smoking in birth-weight equations and pooling data across experiments, we find that smoking during pregnancy doubles the chance an infant is born with a low birth weight. Our estimates are similar to single-equation estimates where maternal smoking is treated as exogenous.
Genome-wide evidence of Austronesian–Bantu admixture and cultural reversion in a hunter-gatherer group of Madagascar

Significance The Mikea are the last known Malagasy population reported to be still practicing a hunter-gatherer lifestyle. Earlier writers thought the Mikea were descended from ancient forager groups who have maintained their way of life up to the present. However, our analyses show that the Mikea are not a remnant population and, to the contrary, derived from a recent admixture of two agriculturalist populations: the Bantu (from Africa) and the Austronesian (from east-Asia). Thus, it is probable that the Mikea have adopted their hunter-gatherer way of life through a recent cultural reversion. Linguistic and cultural evidence suggest that Madagascar was the final point of two major dispersals of Austronesian- and Bantu-speaking populations. Today, the Mikea are described as the last-known Malagasy population reported to be still practicing a hunter-gatherer lifestyle. It is unclear, however, whether the Mikea descend from a remnant population that existed before the arrival of Austronesian and Bantu agriculturalists or whether it is only their lifestyle that separates them from the other contemporary populations of South Madagascar. To address these questions we have performed a genome-wide analysis of >700,000 SNP markers on 21 Mikea, 24 Vezo, and 24 Temoro individuals, together with 50 individuals from Bajo and Lebbo populations from Indonesia. Our analyses of these data in the context of data available from other Southeast Asian and African populations reveal that all three Malagasy populations are derived from the same admixture event involving Austronesian and Bantu sources. In contrast to the fact that most of the vocabulary of the Malagasy speakers is derived from the Barito group of the Austronesian language family, we observe that only one-third of their genetic ancestry is related to the populations of the Java-Kalimantan-Sulawesi area. Because no additional ancestry components distinctive for the Mikea were found, it is likely that they have adopted their hunter-gatherer way of life through cultural reversion, and selection signals suggest a genetic adaptation to their new lifestyle.
The Disposition Effect and Individual Investor Decisions: The Roles of Regret and Counterfactual Alternatives

Recent studies have documented a strong tendency for individual investors to delay realizing capital losses, while realizing gains prematurely (Odean [1996], Shefrin and Statman [1985], Weber and Camerer [1996]). This tendency has been termed the "disposition effect. " The disposition effect is inconsistent with normative approaches to stock sales, such as those based on tax losses (see, for example, Constantinides [1983]). We surveyed individual investors, and found that more respondents reported regret about holding on to a losing stock too long than about selling a winning stock too soon. This finding suggests that individual investors are consistently engaging in behavior that they have been warned can cost them money and that they regret later. Two additional experiments confirm the disposition effect and the role of regret, and offer evidence about the role of an agent (broker) in the assignment of blame and regret. We show that investor satisfaction and regret are not simply functions of outcome, but are influenced by counterfactual alternatives and the type of action taken (holding versus selling). We suggest that the disposition effect may be highly related to reduction of anticipated regret.
Gender Equality, Economic Growth, and Women’s Agency: the “Endless Variety” and “Monotonous Similarity” of Patriarchal Constraints

ABSTRACT Macroeconometric studies generally find fairly robust evidence that gender equality has a positive impact on economic growth, but reverse findings relating to the impact of economic growth on gender equality are far less consistent. The high level of aggregation at which these studies are carried out makes it difficult to ascertain the causal pathways that might explain this asymmetry in impacts. Using a feminist institutional framework, this contribution explores studies carried out at lower levels of analysis for insights into the pathways likely to be driving these two sets of relationships and a possible explanation for their asymmetry.
Light adaptation in cone photoreceptors of the salamander: a role for cytoplasmic calcium.

1. Light adaptation has been studied in isolated red‐sensitive cone photoreceptors of the salamander, using suction pipette recordings of circulating current. 2. In the presence of background illumination, the response to incremental dim flashes became desensitized according to the Weber‐Fechner law. The recovery phase of the flash response was accelerated significantly, although the time‐to‐peak was reduced only slightly, and for dim backgrounds the rising phase was unaltered. 3. The role of cytoplasmic calcium concentration, Cai2+, in mediating cone adaptation was investigated by minimizing light‐induced changes in Cai2+, either by incorporating calcium buffer into the cytoplasm or by exposing the outer segment to low‐Ca2+, 0‐Na+ solution. Both treatments appeared to slow dramatically or even to eliminate the onset of light adaptation in the cone. 4. When the low‐Ca2+, 0‐Na+ solution was presented in darkness, responses to subsequent illumination were affected in a characteristic manner: (i) the response‐intensity relation was steepened and shifted to lower intensities, (ii) the response to a step of light could be predicted by integration and compression of the flash response, and (iii) the flash sensitivity declined steeply as a function of background intensity. 5. After extended exposure of the cone to bright backgrounds, the sensitivity in darkness failed to return to its original level. The flash response kinetics were faster and more biphasic than for dark‐adapted responses or for responses desensitized to a comparable degree by exposure to steady background illumination. 6. The results indicate that, in cones isolated from the pigment epithelium, the primary factor influencing the adaptational state of the cell is the cytoplasmic concentration of free calcium, but that at high intensities the effects of pigment bleaching are likely to be significant.
Fundamental indexation: An active value strategy in disguise

In this paper, we critically examine the novel concept of fundamental indexation. We argue that fundamental indexation is by definition nothing more than an elegant value strategy, because the weights of stocks in a fundamental index and a market-capitalisation-weighted index only differ as a result of differences in valuation ratios. Moreover, fundamental indices more resemble active investment strategies than classic passive indices because (i) they appear to be at odds with market equilibrium, (ii) they do not represent a buy-and-hold strategy, and (iii) they require several subjective choices. Last but not least, because fundamental indices are primarily designed for simplicity and appeal, they are unlikely to be the most efficient way of benefiting from the value premium. Compared to more sophisticated, multi-factor quantitative strategies, fundamental indexation is likely to be an even more inferior proposition.
Linking crenarchaeal and bacterial nitrification to anammox in the Black Sea

Active expression of putative ammonia monooxygenase gene subunit A (amoA) of marine group I Crenarchaeota has been detected in the Black Sea water column. It reached its maximum, as quantified by reverse-transcription quantitative PCR, exactly at the nitrate maximum or the nitrification zone modeled in the lower oxic zone. Crenarchaeal amoA expression could explain 74.5% of the nitrite variations in the lower oxic zone. In comparison, amoA expression by γ-proteobacterial ammonia-oxidizing bacteria (AOB) showed two distinct maxima, one in the modeled nitrification zone and one in the suboxic zone. Neither the amoA expression by crenarchaea nor that by β-proteobacterial AOB was significantly elevated in this latter zone. Nitrification in the suboxic zone, most likely microaerobic in nature, was verified by 15NO2− and 15N15N production in 15NH4+ incubations with no measurable oxygen. It provided a direct local source of nitrite for anammox in the suboxic zone. Both ammonia-oxidizing crenarchaea and γ-proteobacterial AOB were important nitrifiers in the Black Sea and were likely coupled to anammox in indirect and direct manners respectively. Each process supplied about half of the nitrite required by anammox, based on 15N-incubation experiments and modeled calculations. Because anammox is a major nitrogen loss in marine suboxic waters, such nitrification–anammox coupling potentially occurring also in oceanic oxygen minimum zones would act as a short circuit connecting regenerated ammonium to direct nitrogen loss, thus reducing the presumed direct contribution from deep-sea nitrate.
Intrageneric structure of Streptococcus based on comparative analysis of small-subunit rRNA sequences.

The partial 16S rRNA sequences of 24 Streptococcus species were determined by reverse transcription. A comparative analysis of these sequences and the sequences of seven previously studied streptococcal species revealed the presence of several clusters within the genus. The clusters obtained from the sequence analysis agreed in general with the groups outlined on the basis of the results of nucleic acid hybridization studies, but there were some exceptions. The pyogenic group was extended to include Streptococcus agalactiae, S. parauberis, S. porcinus, and S. uberis. Four oral groups were discerned; these four groups centered on S. mutans, S. salivarius, S. anginosus, and S. oralis. Some species (e.g., S. suis and S. acidominimus) did not cluster with any particular group. Our findings are discussed in the context of data from other genetic and chemotaxonomic studies.
Merit Pay Practices: Implications for Pay-Performance Relationships

This study uses a Monte Carlo simulation to examine how the relationship between pay and performance is affected by the pay system, measurement error in appraising performance, the consistency of true performance over time, and the rules governing promotion decisions. The authors find that conventional merit systems achieve a considerably better link between pay and performance than does a bonus system with periodic adjustments in base wages. A bonus system without periodic base wage adjustments also performs less well than conventional merit systems, because merit systems benefit from the consistency of true performance over time. One surprising finding is that even very substantial error in the measurement of performance has only a modest effect on the pay-performance correlation.
Elevated levels of anti‐endotoxin antibodies in patients with bilateral idiopathic acute anterior uveitis

Purpose: Endotoxins have been proved to be responsible for acute anterior uveitis (AAU) in animals in a well‐established experimental model of endotoxin‐induced uveitis (EIU). The purpose of our study was the detection of antibodies against endotoxins of selected enterobacteria in the serum of patients with idiopathic AAU and searching for correlations between the levels of these antibodies and the presence of HLA‐B27 antigen as well as characteristic signs of EIU such as bilaterality and the absence of spontaneous recurrences of the disease.
Further Evidence on Short-Run Results for New Issue Investors

In a recent article, Professors Stoll and Curley (hereinafter referred to as S–C) examined results for new issues during a short-run period and over long-run periods. The authors concluded that, “investors in new small issues floated under Regulation A in 1957, 1959, and 1963 experienced lower long-run rates of return than if they had invested in a portfolio of large stocks represented by the Standard and Poor's Industrial Average. ” It was pointed out that these long-run results were consistent with the results of similar studies. Alternatively, regarding short-run results it was concluded that “in the short run, the stocks in the sample showed a remarkable price appreciation. ” In fact, “short-run price appreciation was, however, considerably greater than the index appreciation. ” They refer to this short-run performance as “. … perhaps the most interesting and certainly the most puzzling phenomenon encountered in the study. ”
Climate governance, justice, and transnational civil society

Justice dilemmas associated with climate change and the regulatory responses to it pose challenges for global governance, arguably hampering progress and raising concerns over efficacy and relevance. Scholarly literature suggests that transnational civil society groups can help address problems of governance and injustice that cross borders and pit states against each other. Findings of a comparative, qualitative study of climate justice advocacy suggest, however, that civil society groups' work in the US and EU is significantly shaped by institutional factors specific to those regimes, limiting advocates' broader impact. Moreover, political opportunities for the pursuit of climate action, and justice particularly, have diminished in those settings. By contrast, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) provides greater opportunities for discussions of justice, although civil society actors are significantly constrained within it. It is argued that greater roles for civil society in the UNFCCC could prove constructive in the face of current challenges connected with justice issues. Three themes in civil society advocacy linking principles of global justice with current climate policy debates are summarized. Finally, it is suggested that the first iteration of the UNFCCC Periodic Review provides timely opportunities to more fully draw upon civil society's potential contributions toward a fair and effective global climate regime. Policy relevance The roles of civil society organizations in climate governance were examined in three policy contexts: the UNFCCC, the US, and the EU, with special attention to advocacy addressing issues of equity and justice, identified as key challenges for a post-2012 global agreement. Findings suggest that (1) civil society roles are significantly constrained in each context, and (2) political opportunities for climate advocacy have diminished since 2009 in the US and EU, underlining (3) the continued salience of the UNFCCC as a forum for engagement and the construction of effective and equitable climate policy. Potential exists for increased civil society involvement at the UNFCCC to help resolve obstacles based in divergent national priorities. Three areas of justice-focused civil society activity are reviewed for current negotiation topics and the governance structure of the institution. The current UNFCCC Periodic Review is identified as an opportunity to increase civil society involvement.
Sensitivity and Specificity of Suspected Case Definition Used during West Africa Ebola Epidemic

Rapid early detection and control of Ebola virus disease (EVD) is contingent on accurate case definitions. Using an epidemic surveillance dataset from Guinea, we analyzed an EVD case definition developed by the World Health Organization (WHO) and used in Guinea. We used the surveillance dataset (March–October 2014; n = 2,847 persons) to identify patients who satisfied or did not satisfy case definition criteria. Laboratory confirmation determined cases from noncases, and we calculated sensitivity, specificity and predictive values. The sensitivity of the defintion was 68.9%, and the specificity of the definition was 49.6%. The presence of epidemiologic risk factors (i.e., recent contact with a known or suspected EVD case-patient) had the highest sensitivity (74.7%), and unexplained deaths had the highest specificity (92.8%). Results for case definition analyses were statistically significant (p<0.05 by χ2 test). Multiple components of the EVD case definition used in Guinea contributed to improved overall sensitivity and specificity.
MHC‐Restricted T Cell Activation: Analysis with T Cell Hybridomas

The phenomenology of MHC-restricted T lymphocyte interactions has been well defined. Cells of the T helper/inducer subset recognize antigen in association with Class 11 MHC gene products (Rosenthal & Shevach 1973, Shevach & Rosenthal 1973). This recognition occurs on the surface of an antigen presenting cell and accounts for the MHC genetic restriction of such cell interactions (Paul & Benacerraf 1977, Schwartz et al. 1978, Swierkosz et al. 1978). This description of T cell specificity and interaction is documented by over a decade of research which we will not attempt to review here. While the rules governing the activation of MHC-restrictedT cells are well described, the underlying mechanisms are not precisely defined. This article will focus on our j i recent experimental approach to analyze these issues. Most of our understanding of T lymphocyte biology has come from in vivo studies and in vitro experiments utilizing heterogeneous T cell populations. These methodologies have certain inherent limitations, among which are the low frequency of specific T lymphocytes and the potential for multiple complex cellular interactions. The further analysis of MHC-restricted T cell activation will require more defined experimental systems. In the past several years a better understanding of T cell activation and of the factors concerned has allowed for the isolation and propagation of T cell lines and clones of defined specificity. Two basic strategies have been devised. The first approach is to clonally expand and propagate normal immune T lymphocytes by appropriate antigen stimulation with or without growth factors (Sredni et al. 1980, Fathman & Kimoto 1980). The alternate approach has been to immortalize T lymphocytes by fusion with a continuously dividing tumor cell. Our studies have employed this latter technology to obtain antigen-specific MHC-restricted T cell hybridomas. The use of such T cell hybrid clones to explore mechanisms of MHC restriction.
Distal movement of maxillary molars using miniscrew anchorage in the buccal interradicular region.

OBJECTIVE To quantify the treatment effects of interradicular miniscrew anchorage and to confirm the validity of the clinical usage of interradicular miniscrews in the distal movement of maxillary molars in nonextraction treatment. MATERIALS AND METHODS Twenty-four maxillary molars were moved to the distal using miniscrews placed in the interradicular space between the second premolar and the first molar at an oblique angle of 20 to 30 degrees to the long axis of the proximal tooth. The teeth were evaluated as to how the molars were moved to the distal with the use of lateral cephalograms and dental casts. RESULTS Maxillary molars were moved to the distal by 2.8 mm with distal tipping of 4.8 degrees and intruded by 0.6 mm. Maxillary incisors were moved to the distal by 2.7 mm with palatal tipping of 4.3 degrees. Molar extrusion and/or consequent mandibular rotation was not observed in any patient. CONCLUSION Miniscrews placed in the maxillary interradicular space provide successful molar distal movement of 2.8 mm without patient compliance and with no undesirable side effects such as incisor proclination, clockwise mandibular rotation, or root resorption.
Does employee ownership survive the transition

Privatisation to employees has been common in Estonia and in other transition economies, but some evidence suggests that employee ownership is declining. In this paper, I use the concept of “degeneration” from the literature of worker co-operatives to explain this decline. In the first part of the paper, I draw from the literature of complementarities in firm performance and apply the argument to the problem of stability of ownership structures. In the second part of the paper, I use evidence from management interviews and employee questionnaires taken at six Estonian enterprises with employee ownership. The evidence suggests that employee ownership is rapidly declining in Estonia. The main reason for the decline is that ownership is not extended to new employees.
Outsourcing Human Resources

This article examines human resources outsourcing (HRO) at the State of Texas Health and Human Services Commission (HHSC). It describes the emergence of HRO in the public sector and analyzes the HHSC case. The article develops an eight-dimension conceptual framework for assessing the appropriateness of public HRO and demonstrates the framework's usefulness by applying it to the HHSC case.