Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Going public abroad: the dynamics of return spillovers in an atypical international cross listing case

In this study we investigate the dynamics of the return transmission mechanism across markets (spillover effects) in the atypical international cross listing case where the stock has gone public abroad and then cross listed in the home market. Previous studies have examined such dynamic return interactions in the typical case, where a company goes public in the domestic capital market and subsequently cross lists its stock in a foreign stock exchange. Our sample consists of Israeli stocks that went public in the US and then cross listed in the home market. The empirical evidence suggests that return spillovers are significantly positive in both directions but home-to-US return spillovers are stronger than those of US-to-home. The magnitude of the return dependencies across the home and the US markets is weaker among firms facing greater risk of information asymmetry. There is a tendency for reversal of the US market returns associated with high-volume shocks in the home market but a tendency for continuation in the opposite direction. The greater the information asymmetry facing firms the greater the tendency for continuation and the weaker the tendency for reversal.
Long-Term Inhibitory Effects of Somatostatin and Insulin-Like Growth Factor 1 on Growth Hormone Release by Serum-Free Primary Culture of Pituitary Cells from European Eel (Anguilla anguilla)

To investigate the ability of hypothalamic and peripheral factors to directly regulate growth hormone (GH) release in a primitive teleost, the European eel (Anguilla anguilla L.), we used primary cultures of dispersed pituitary cells. When cultured for 12 days in a serum-free medium, pituitary cells continuously released large amounts of GH, which exceeded the initial cellular content. Somatotropin-release inhibiting hormone (SRIH-14) dose-dependently inhibited GH release (EC50 0.75 nM) up to a maximal inhibitory effect of 95%. No desensitization of somatotropes to SRIH was observed over the 12 days of culture. Use of receptor subtype-selective SRIH agonists suggests the existence on eel somatotropes of SRIH receptor(s) related to the mammalian sst2/sst3/sst5 class rather than to the sst1/sst4 class. Insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF1) dose-dependently inhibited GH release (EC50 0.03 nM) up to a maximal inhibitory effect of 85%, without desensitization. IGF1 and IGF2 were equipotent in inhibiting GH release, whereas insulin was 1,000 times less active, suggesting the implication of a receptor related to the mammalian IGF type 1 receptor. These results indicate that eel somatotropes are active in vitro without any specific additional factors, and suggest the existence of a dominant inhibitory control of GH release in vivo. Two potential candidates for this chronic negative regulation are a neurohormone, SRIH and a circulating factor, IGF1. These data underline the early evolutionary origin of the molecular and functional SRIH-GH-IGF1 neuroendocrine axis in vertebrates.
'Iconic Design' as Deadweight Loss: Rent Acquisition by Design in the Constrained London Office Market

Britain’s land use regulation (planning) system imposes very tight restrictions on the supply of office space so creating substantial rents. An unmeasured part of the costs associated with these restrictions likely comes from compliance costs, one form of which could be rent-seeking activity (Krueger, 1974) of a gentlemanly form: employing a ‘trophy architect’ to get ‘more rentable space’ on a given site (Cheshire & Hilber, 2008). This paper finds evidence strongly supportive of this hypothesis. It employs an hedonic approach on a sample of offices sold between 1998 and 2011, defining trophy architects (TAs) as those who had won a major lifetime achievement award. Much of London is covered by absolute height restrictions but outside these areas we show that i) for a given site a building designed by a TA is more valuable, but ii) this only arises because a TA squeezes more space on a given site – an extra 19 stories, increasing the site value by an estimated 130 percent. Planning restrictiveness also varies within London by jurisdiction and the price of space is higher where restrictiveness is tighter. While these effects of trophy architects could be windfall gains to developers, we suggest a more likely interpretation is that they represent the additional but difficult to measure returns demanded for the extra risk and delays imposed by using a TA to try to game the system - hence a form of compliance cost and a deadweight loss associated with England’s planning system.
Cost Plus

This article tests the importance of cost, demand, institutional, and geographic factors on the bills that consumers pay for water and sewer service in North Carolina and the pricing signals that utilities send to customers. The authors apply spatial regression models to test whether other factors besides costs drive rate-setting practices. Results indicate that cost factors, operating ratio, temperature, the application of “outside” rates, and utilities' primary importance on affordable rates affect combined water and sewer bills at average levels of residential consumption. The study also finds that bills are significantly and positively correlated to bills paid in nearby utilities. Community income and the percent of customers below the poverty line are weakly associated with combined bills. However, utilities facing higher growth rates and those that value conservation are no more likely to send stronger pricing signals than others.
Endothelins Regulate Arachidonic Acid Release and Mitogen‐Activated Protein Kinase Activity in Schwann Cells

Abstract: Immortalized rat Schwann cells (iSC) express endothelin(ET) receptors coupled to inhibition of adenylyl cyclase and stimulation ofphospholipase C (PLC). These effects precede phenotypic changes and increasedDNA synthesis. We have investigated the role of ETs in the regulation ofarachidonic acid (AA) release and mitogen‐activated protein kinases (MAPKs). Both ET‐1 and ET‐3 increased AA release in iSC. This effect was sensitive tothe phospholipase A2 (PLA2) inhibitorsE‐6‐(bromomethylene)tetrahydro‐3‐(1‐naphthalenyl)‐2H‐pyran‐2‐oneand arachidonyl‐trifluoromethyl ketone but was insensitive to inhibitors ofPLC or phospholipase D‐dependent diacylglycerol generation. ET‐1‐dependent AArelease was also unaffected by removal of extracellular Ca2+ andblocking the concomitant elevation in [Ca2+]i,consistent with participation of a Ca2+‐independentPLA2. Treatment of iSC with ETs also resulted in activation ofextracellular signal‐regulated kinase, c‐Jun‐NH2‐terminal kinase(JNK), and p38 MAPK. A cause‐effect relationship between agonist‐dependent AArelease and stimulation of MAPKs, but not the opposite, was suggested byactivation of JNK by exogenous AA and by the observation that inhibition ofMAPK kinase or p38 MAPK was inconsequential to ET‐1‐induced AA release.Similar effects of ETs on AA release and MAPK activity were observed incultures expanded from primary SC and in iSC. Regulation of these effectorsmay mediate the control of proliferation and differentiation of SC by ETsduring peripheral nerve development and regeneration.
Political Turmoil, Economic Crisis, and International Migration in DR Congo: Evidence from Event-History Data(1975-2007)

The aim of this study is to document the impact of political and economic crises in DR Congo on international migration using a recent longitudinal survey on international migration conducted in Kinshasa. The data was collected in Kinshasa (DR Congo) in August-September 2007 as part of a research project called “Crisis and international migration in DR Congo”. The survey was conducted among a representative sample of 945 households in Kinshasa, the capital city of DR Congo. This paper is organized around three objectives. The first objective is to measure the impact of economic and political crises on the risks of international migration, using event history analyses. The second objective is to evaluate separately the impact of crises on migration to African countries and to developed countries (mainly Europe and North America). Our results show notably that political crises have a strong impact on migration to developed and developing countries in similar ways. The third objective of this study is to evaluate if sudden economic and political changes influence different people in different ways. We show that migration is less sensitive to crises among the better educated than among the less educated.
Wage Differentials in Italian Social Enterprises

In Italy social enterprises include more than 7,000 institutions with around 250,000 workers serving more than three million people, a big share of which disadvantaged. Using the ICSI 2007 survey conducted by a pool of Italian universities on a representative sample of social enterprises, we analyze the determinants of nominal and real wages (adjusted for the cost of living in the area of residence). Our two main findings show that: i) low wages, absence of «direct» education premia and gender wage gaps may reduce attractiveness of this sector (beyond intrinsic motivations) for young talented workers even though indirect education premia in terms of higher probability of becoming manager exist; ii) cooperative wage differentials are sensitive to regional disparities in PPP even though they do not fully compensate for them: nominal wages are higher in Northern Italy but, after adjusting for the cost of living, they become higher in the South.
Returns to Individual Traders of Futures: Aggregate Results

By means of a data set previously unavailable for academic research, actual trading histories of individual futures traders are examined. With this more detailed data, the author is able to (1) test the risk/return hypothesis directly; (2) include a much larger segment of the market than before; and (3) use actual instead of hypothetical t rading strategies. It is shown that the commercial (hedging) traders are most profitable, while noncommercial (speculative) traders earn n egative or zero profits. Because speculators are not receiving reward s for the risks they willingly absorb, the theory of normal backwarda tion and its extension can be rejected. Copyright 1987 by University of Chicago Press.
Consensus Among Public Managers as Strategy for Standardization of Performance Indicators

ABSTRACT The usefulness of performance indicators increases when organizations compare their data. However, most discussions have failed to emphasize two lines of action that could improve the relevance of such comparisons: a) agreement among service managers on the indicators to be used in the evaluation; b) homogenization of the indicators to be used by organizations, and of the process used to calculate them. In this context, this paper proposes a methodology based on the participation of and consensus among managers, which helps to standardize the construction and presentation of performance indicators. The aim of this proposal is to improve the comparative evaluation of organizations. Finally, in order to test the proposal, a practical application is carried out on the local culture departments of nine large municipalities in southern Spain.
Grower heterogeneity and the gains from contract farming: The case of Indian poultry

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to offer an empirical analysis of contract farming (CF) for poultry in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh in India. Design/methodology/approach - Through a probit equation, the factors that matter to their participation in contracting are evaluated. The estimation of income gains is considered within a treatment effects model. The risk benefits from contracting are estimated by simulating the variability of returns if the contract farmers were to be independent growers. Findings - This paper shows that the poultry integrators in Andhra Pradesh are able to appropriate almost the entire efficiency gains from contracting. Yet, the contract growers are better off with the contract. This outcome is because of grower heterogeneity and the way it is employed in the selection of contract growers. The paper also finds that contract growers do gain substantially in terms of risk reduction. Research limitations/implications - The CF literature reminds us that these arrangements often fail because of opportunistic behavior. The poultry example shows that contracting is a useful institution when processor interests are closely aligned to that of the grower. This paper describes the circumstances under which this alignment is obtained. Originality/value - First, it adds to the small and growing body of work that estimates the income gains to contract growers. Second and going beyond existing work on developing countries, this paper also addresses the risk benefits from contracting. Thirdly, this paper estimates the income gains from contracting to the processing firms.
Growth Versus Equity: The Continuum of Pro-Poor Tourism and Neoliberal Governance

This paper proposes a model which integrates tourism in a continuum of poverty alleviation strategies within the antipodes of neo-liberalism and protectionism. It is argued that despite growing evidence in favour of regulative and (re)distributive approaches that in practice come closer to protectionism than neoliberalism, the most influential international organisations, as well as governments worldwide, follow a largely neoliberal laissez-faire approach to poverty alleviation coupled with market-friendly ‘pro-poor’ supplements. This paper argues that tourism per se fits very well into neoliberal interpretations of poverty alleviation, while it tends to aggravate poverty-enhancing inequalities if allowed to operate in a free market environment. Drawing on evidence from current research into poverty alleviation, it is argued that in order to be pro-poor, growth must deliver disproportionate benefits to the poor to reduce inequalities which have been found to limit the potential for poverty alleviation. Hence, it is necessary to shift policy focus from growth to equity, which calls for strong institutions capable of regulating the tourism industry and distributing assets in order to facilitate ‘pro-poor growth’. In this respect, this paper challenges the conventional pro-poor tourism approach with its implicit growth-bias, where strategies are judged as pro-poor if they deliver net benefits to ‘the poor’ even if ‘the rich’ benefit disproportionately. However, through a contextualisation with the reality of politico-economic governance, this paper shows that strategies enhancing equity through shifting benefits towards the poor and, importantly, the poorest, are unlikely to be pursued in practice given policy-makers' neoliberal bias and systemic constraints. Hence, only strategies that are largely in sync with a neoliberal ideology and the ‘World Bank orthodoxy’, such as industry self-regulation or government incentives, have much potential to be implemented on a large-scale basis. More radical approaches such as pro-poor regulation and distribution – the equity side of the continuum – are bound to remain predominantly rhetoric of some United Nations organisations.
Assumptions and challenges of open scholarship

Researchers, educators, policymakers, and other education stakeholders hope and anticipate that openness and open scholarship will generate positive outcomes for education and scholarship. Given the emerging nature of open practices, educators and scholars are finding themselves in a position in which they can shape and/or be shaped by openness. The intention of this paper is (a) to identify the assumptions of the open scholarship movement and (b) to highlight challenges associated with the movement’s aspirations of broadening access to education and knowledge. Through a critique of technology use in education, an understanding of educational technology narratives and their unfulfilled potential, and an appreciation of the negotiated implementation of technology use, we hope that this paper helps spark a conversation for a more critical, equitable, and effective future for education and open scholarship.
A Political-Economic Analysis of Free-Trade Agreements

This paper demonstrates that bilateral free-trade agreements can undermine political support for further multilateral trade liberalization. If a bilateral trade agreement offers disproportionately large gains to key agents in a country, then their reservation utility is raised above the multilateral free-trade level, and a multilateral agreement would be blocked. Bilateral agreements between countries with similar factor endowments are most likely to have this effect. It also follows that bilateral free-trade agreements can never increase political support for multilateral free trade. Copyright 1997 by American Economic Association.
Implementation of an innovative RFID application in libraries

Purpose – This paper aims to considers how to extend RFID applications given the limited funds and budgets in libraries. RFID can replace barcodes and magnetic strips for security control and collections management.Design/methodology/approach – This study describes the Shih‐Hsin University Library UHF RFID system which uses long distance induction to assist in three innovative applications. The three applications are regional seeking and positioning for collections in mis‐shelves or collections loss in library, statistics calculation in usage frequency and length of book reading, and instant library guiding service. This research explains the implementation of the tag frequency, the construction of the multi‐transceiver and existing TCP/IP network appliances.Findings – The application not only estimates benefits in advance and lower the risk of failure setups, but it also provides innovative library services.Originality/value – This study discusses issues and possible solutions in the process of implement.
New Construction and Reconstruction: Impact on Growth of Sub-Regions of Mainland Portugal

Based on a panel made up of 28 sub-regions (NUT III) of mainland Portugal for the period 1995-2006, we show that building reconstruction has a positive impact on the economic growth of sub-regions of mainland Portugal, whereas the effect of new construction seems to be of negligible importance. The empirical evidence obtained in this study lets us make suggestions on urban policy for countries in general, and for Portugal in particular, namely to concentrate on reconstruction rather than new buildings.
Changing graph use in corporate annual reports: a time-series analysis

Graphs in corporate annual reports form part of a powerfully designed annual report package that offers considerable potential for “impression management. ” The primary purpose of this paper is to determine whether graph use depends on corporate performance. Time-series analysis, not previously used in the financial graphs literature, allows discretionary changes in graph use by companies to be identified and related to changes in individual companies' corporate performance over time. Based on the prior financial graphs and accounting choice literature, we develop two hypotheses that relate changes in graph use to changes in corporate performance. These hypotheses focus on the aggregate and individual company levels. We base our analysis on the corporate annual reports of 137 top UK companies that were in continued existence during the five-year period from 1988 to 1992. At both the aggregate and individual company levels, we find the decision to use key financial variable (KFV) graphs, the primary graphical choice, to be associated positively with corporate performance measures. This finding is consistent with the manipulation hypothesis - that is, that financial graphs in corporate annual reports are used to “manage” favorably the reader's impression of company performance, and hence that there is a reporting bias.
Structural and energetic requirements for a second binding site at the dimeric β-lactoglobulin interface

Through experimental and theoretical approaches, it has been shown that bovine β-lactoglobulin (βlg) uses its hydrophobic cavity or calyx as the primary binding site for hydrophobic molecules, whereas the existence of a second ligand binding site at the dimeric interface has only been structurally identified for vitamin D3 (VD3). This binding exists even in the thermally denatured state, suggesting the prevalence of this secondary site. Although crystallographic experiments have suggested that VD3 can bind to both monomeric and dimeric states without significant structural differences, theoretical and experimental reports have proposed some structural requirements. Thus, in this study, based on known experimental data, the dynamic interaction of VD3 with the monomeric or dimeric forms of βlg was investigated through a protocol combining blind docking and 2 microsecond molecular dynamics simulations coupled with binding free energy and per-residue binding free energy decomposition analyses using the Molecular Mechanics Generalized Born Surface Area approach. Binding free energy calculations allowed us to estimate the energetic differences of coupling VD3 at the calyx and the dimeric interface for the monomeric or dimeric state, revealing that the dimeric structure is required to form a stable complex with VD3 at the dimeric interface. This also has an important impact on the dimerization process, whereas although the monomeric state also forms a stable complex with VD3 at the dimeric interface, the incorporation of the entropy component contributed to producing a marginally favorable binding free energy. Finally, the per-residue decomposition analysis provided energetic information about the most relevant residues in stabilizing the different systems.
Negotiating Military Alliances: Legal Systems and Alliance Formation

Do domestic legal systems affect states' propensity to form military alliances? This article, building upon the existing research in international relations, adopts a socio-legal approach to understanding international treaty making. By focusing on the essence of international negotiations—communication between states' representatives—I argue that negotiating parties who share a common legal language have a common a priori understanding concerning concepts under discussion. Domestic laws operating within states impact the process of creation of international law embodied in treaties. Empirical analyses show that states with similar legal systems are more likely to form military alliances with one another. Additionally, domestic legal systems influence the way that states design their alliance commitments. In general, my findings suggest that the influence of domestic laws does not stop at “the water's edge. ” It permeates the interstate borders and impacts the relations between states, especially the treaty negotiating and drafting process. International negotiators bring their legal backgrounds to the negotiating table, which influences both their willingness to sign treaties and the design of the resulting agreements.
Product development, imitation and economic growth: A note

Abstract A dynamic North – South general equilibrium model of international product cycle is presented in this paper. The qualitative effects of strengthening intellectual property rights (IPR) on the balanced growth rate of the world economy is studied in two alternative cases: (i) imitation is direct from North to South; (ii) multinationalization is the channel of product transfer.