Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Financial System Size in Transition Economies: The Effect of Legal Origin

Gorton and Winton (1998) link the size of the banking system in transition economies to financial stability. We provide empirical evidence consistent with their notion that the size of the financial system will be smaller in these countries. This effect holds even after controlling for the effect of rule of law and/or legal origin, and other relevant variables. Transition economy status, thus adds additional explanatory power to traditional law and finance explanations of financial development. Classification of transition economies by legal origin reveals that Russian legal origin has a strong negative effect on financial development. Regression analysis shows claims on the private sector/gross domestic product (GDP) to be 46 to 60 percentage points lower in the countries of the former Soviet Union, and 23 to 39 percentage points lower in non-Soviet transition economies compared to countries of English legal origin. There is a positive relation between claims on the private sector and the rule of law for a broad cross section of countries. Copyright (c) 2008 The Ohio State University.
Designing Eu-Us Atlantic Monetary Relations: Exchange Rate Variability and Labour Markets

The variability of the euro seems to have a statistically significant and economically small, but non-negligible, impact on labour markets in Euroland. Unemployment tends to increase and employment growth tends to fall whenever the effective exchange rate of the euro or the bilateral euro/dollar exchange rate becomes more variable. In the US a similar effect seems to be operating, but it is statistically less strong, especially concerning employment growth, which seems largely insulated from exchange rate variability. These results fit the general observation that US labour markets are more flexible and that the euro area is considerably more open than the US (exports of goods and services amount to close to 18 per cent of Euroland GDP versus only about 11 per cent for the US). Copyright Blackwell Publishers Ltd 2002.
Full expression of the cryIIIA toxin gene of Bacillus thuringiensis requires a distant upstream DNA sequence affecting transcription

The cryIIIA gene encoding a coleopteran-specific toxin is poorly expressed in Bacillus thuringiensis when cloned in a low-copy-number plasmid. This weak expression is observed when the gene is cloned only with its promoter and its putative terminator. cryIIIA gene expression was analyzed by using deletion derivatives of a larger DNA fragment carrying the toxin gene and additional adjacent sequences. The results indicate that a 1-kb DNA fragment located 400 bp upstream of the promoter strongly enhances CryIIIA production in B. thuringiensis sporulating cells. Similar results were obtained when the low-copy-number plasmid pHT304 carrying transcriptional fusions between upstream regions of cryIIIA and the lacZ gene was used. Analysis of the start sites, the sizes, and the amounts of cryIIIA-specific mRNAs shows that the enhancement occurs at the transcriptional level by increasing the number of cryIIIA-specific transcripts from the onset of sporulation to about 6 h after the onset of sporulation. The nucleotide sequence of the 1-kb activating fragment and of the 700 bp containing the promoter region and the 5' end of cryIIIA were determined. No potential protein-coding sequences were found upstream of the promoter. The major characteristic of the 1-kb activating fragment is the presence of a 220-bp A + T-rich region.
Journal of Agricultural & Food Industrial Organization Optimal Farmer Choice of Marketing Channels in the Ethiopian Banana Market

In this paper, we propose an optimal marketing decision model in the context of poor agrarian economies. We consider a risk averse banana producer who faces an optimal allocation decision on how much to sell to a cooperative vis-à-vis private traders. To validate the model, a numerical exercise was undertaken using farm-gate transaction data. The overall result suggests that under different risk scenarios, an optimal earning is obtained if a farmer allocates 70 to 85 percent of his produce to a cooperative and the rest in the private market. Any allocation more than 85 percent or less than 70 percent is likely to result in a sub-optimal solution given the current market structure
Market access effect and local tax setting: evidence from French panel data

The main purpose of this article is to assess the existence of an agglomeration rent in the French local tax setting. In order to perform that test, we first describe a simple economic geography model in which the main agglomeration force at work is the market access effect . We then estimate a derived tax-setting equation using spatial panel data for the period 1993 2003. We confirm a positive and significant relationship between the tax rate and market access, which suggests there is a taxable agglomeration rent in the French municipalities. We also observe significant mimic behaviour between French localities when they choose their rate of local business tax and vertical interactions between municipalities and regions.
Bureaucratic reform, informal sector and welfare

In this paper we formulate a three-sector general equilibrium model where one sector produces a service or good used as an intermediate input in two other sectors. Intermediate input here resembles bureaucratic (in)efficiency/control, red-tapism etc. in light of these concerns we introduce informal sector where wage is determined through competitive mechanism. We show that informal wage must go up if bureaucratic efficiency increases in general or if informal sector becomes less prone to bureaucracy related menace. However, in the welfare front the eventual impact depends on whether labor reallocation effect can outweigh the tariff revenue effect.
Impact budgétaire de l'immigration en France

This paper compares the benefits that migrants retire from the welfare system with their contribution. We show that the immigration impact on welfare system highly depends on the methodology used. Thus, when comparing at a given date the global contribution on public budget with all transfers received, immigrants appear relatively favored by the redistributive system. However, the global impact of immigration on public finance is slightly positive in the long run given the perpetual provision of working age people as well as the consideration of the net contribution of migrants’ offspring. Classification JEL : E62, F22, H6
How valuers use the value opinions of others

Theory suggest that valuers will rely on previous values estimates in the face of greater market uncertainty. Nevertheless recent research has provided evidence that experienced real estate valuers (appraisers) working in geographic areas familiar to them may not be influenced by the previous value judgement of other, anonymous experts. Presents a study which extends the previous investigation by examining appraisers valuing property in geographic areas unfamiliar to them, appraisers who therefore face significant market uncertainty. In controlled experiments valuers were asked to appraise a subject property in an area unfamiliar to them and were offered the previous value judgement of an anonymous expert as a potential anchor (reference point). A control group of experts unfamiliar with the subject market was given no reference point whatsoever. Evaluation of the experimental data revealed evidence that unlike subjects operating in areas of familiarity, subjects unfamiliar with the subject area were influenced by the provided reference point.
The role of technological and organizational innovation in the relation between market orientation and performance in cultural organizations

Purpose – This paper aims to provide evidence of the mediating effect of technological and administrative innovation on the link between market orientation and the economic and social performance of museums.Design/methodology/approach – Building on extensive literature, a model of the relationships is developed and empirically tested using survey data collected from 276 museums (135 Spanish and 141 French). Data are analyzed through structural equation modeling and/ or path modeling.Findings – In the present study, evidence is found to support the positive and significant link between market orientation and the economic and social performance of museums. The paper statistically shows that although the linkage between market orientation and performance is significant, what best accounts for enhanced performance is technological and organizational innovation.Practical implications – This study has implications for museums aiming to increase their performance and innovativeness. The study suggests that museu.
Testing Goodwin: growth cycles in ten OECD countries

Following Desai (1984), Goodwin's simple "predator-prey" growth cycle model of the economy (1967) is tested, using post-war data for ten OECD countries--Australia, Canada, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Norway, the UK and the US. At a quantitative level, Goodwin's model is found not to be adequate: (i) estimated parameter values poorly predict the cycles' centres; and (ii) Goodwin's restrictive assumptions are not justified. However, at a qualitative level, the evidence presented here for the existence of Goodwin-type cycles is extremely encouraging, justifying both existing theoretical extensions of Goodwin's model and further empirical work in this area. Copyright 2000 by Oxford University Press.
The accuracy of combining judgemental and statistical forecasts

Judgement based forecasts are widely used in practice either alone or in conjunction with computer prepared forecasts. This study empirically examines the improvement in accuracy which can be gained from combining judgemental forecasts, either with other judgemental or with quantitatively derived forecasts. Two judgemental forecasting approaches are used by each of two different groups in a laboratory setting to give four sets of judgemental forecasts for the 68 monthly time series of the M-competition. These are combined either with each other or with forecasts from deseasonalised single exponential smoothing. Combined forecasts are found to be more accurate than single forecasts with the greatest benefit realised at short forecast horizons and for easier as opposed to harder forecast series. Averaging was observed to be a far better way of combining judgemental forecasts than a judgemental, nonsystematic combination.
Mutual Fund Performance: Measurement and Evidence

The paper provides a critical review of empirical findings on the performance of mutual funds, mainly for the US and UK. Ex-post, there are around 0-5% of top performing UK and US equity mutual funds with truly positive-alpha performance (after fees) and around 20% of funds that have truly poor alpha performance, with about 75% of active funds which are effectively zero-alpha funds. Key drivers of relative performance are, load fees, expenses and turnover. There is little evidence of successful market timing. Evidence suggests past winner funds persist, when rebalancing is frequent (i.e., less than one year) and when using sophisticated sorting rules (e.g., Bayesian approaches) - but transactions costs (load and advisory fees) imply that economic gains to investors from winner funds may be marginal. The US evidence clearly supports the view that past loser funds remain losers. Broadly speaking results for bond mutual funds are similar to those for equity funds. Sensible advice for most investors would be to hold low cost index funds and avoid holding past ‘active’ loser funds. Only sophisticated investors should pursue an active ex-ante investment strategy of trying to pick winners - and then with much caution.
Economics and marketing on pricing: how and why do they differ?

Purpose – The purpose of this general review paper is to provide a comparison and evaluation of the treatment of pricing by the disciplines of economics and marketing.Design/methodology/approach – It is from three perspectives that the marketing and economics approaches to pricing are reviewed, namely, buyers' response to price, firm's determination of price, and industry‐ or economy‐wide role of price.Findings – A comparative review of the relevant marketing and economics literature shows that there are important differences between the two disciplines in their treatment of pricing. Marketing demonstrates a richer and more empirically based treatment of the pricing issue from the buyer's perspective, while economics is unchallenged from the economy‐wide perspective. The differences found between the marketing and economics approaches to pricing are mostly due to their different historical origins, primary concerns and doctrinal evolution. In contrast, interdisciplinary loans especially from behavioral sc.
Green management and financial performance: a literature review

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to carry out a literature review of the quantitative studies that have analyzed the impact of green management on financial performance.Design/methodology/approach – An examination of the literature was undertaken to review the quantitative studies that analyze the influence of environmental management on financial performance. A total of 32 studies were identified, examining the environmental variables used, the financial performance variables, the statistical analyses, and the main findings obtained by these studies.Findings – Results are mixed, but studies where a positive impact of environment on financial performance is obtained are predominant. In addition, the findings show that the set of firms, industries and countries are varied. Some studies use environmental management variables and other works employ environmental performance variables, and regression analysis prevails.Research limitations/implications – The study does not consider studies that analyze t.
Gibrat's Law and the Growth of Canadian Cities

This paper tests for the existence of diseconomies of size for Canadian cities using Gibrat's Law. If diseconomies of size are not present, then the growth rate of cities is shown to contain a unit root. Therefore, testing for Gibrat's Law is equivalent to testing for unit roots commonly found in the time series literature. Our tests indicate that Gibrat's Law cannot be rejected for the seven largest Canadian cities.
Hubungan Kandungan Informasi Arus Kas, Komponen Arus Kas dan Laba Akuntansi dengan Harga atau Return Saham

The Indonesian Institute of Accountants (IAI) published the Statement of Financial Accounting Standard (PSAK) No. 2, “Statement of Cash Flows” requires companies to publish the statement of cash flows beginning from January 1, 1995. The objective of the study is to examine the association of information content of total cash flows, components of cash flows, and accounting income with stock prices or stock returns. Another objective of the study is to compare the predictive power of between of total cash flows and accounting income with their relation to stock prices or stock returns. As much as 54 manufacturing firms listed in the Jakarta Stock Exchange (BEJ) were taken as a sample using a purposive sampling method. Data from audited financial statements were taken from Indo-exchange files. The statistics method used to test hypotheses is a linear multiple regression. Two models were considered: levels and return models. The multicollinearity test shows that there is no association between independent variables in the regression models, indicating multicollinearity is a serious problem. The heteroscedasticity test shows that variances of disturbances are constant for all observation in independent variables. Therefore, heteroscedasticity is not a problem. Results from diagnostic tests suggest that regression models used in this study are unbiased. The empirical results indicate that disaggregation of total cash flows into their components as required by PSAK No.2 are significantly associated with stock prices in the levels model. This means that the accounting authority has correctly mandated the publication statement of cash flows. In contrast, the results of the study indicate that total cash flows, components of cash flows, and accounting income are not associated with stock returns in the return model.
Albumin transcytosis across the epithelium of the lactating mouse mammary gland

Murine milk contains 18 mg ml−1 serum albumin, a concentration equal to that in the serum of the lactating mouse. We examined cellular transport using in vivo methods in the mouse. At steady state the specific activity of 125I‐albumin injected into the blood stream was equal in plasma and whey, confirming that milk albumin is extra‐mammary in origin. Fluorescent albumin crossed the gland from basolateral surface to lumen via cytoplasmic vesicles, but was not transported in the apical to basal direction. Albumin was segregated from transferrin at the basal surface of the epithelial cells and did not colocalize with either caveolin‐1 or ‐2. Vesicular transport was not disrupted by filipin providing additional evidence that, unlike the vascular endothelium, caveoli are not involved. Cytoplasmic albumin was localized to vesicles containing IgA and transport was disrupted by agents that interfere with clathrin‐mediated endocytosis. Together, these findings provide evidence that albumin is transported across the mammary epithelium by the same pathway as immunoglobulin. The possibility that the massive transfer of albumin into mouse milk is mediated by fluid phase transport is considered.
Effects of vitamin E supplementation on bone metabolism in nicotine-treated rats.

INTRODUCTION Nicotine has been shown to exert negative effects on bone. This study determined whether vitamin E supplementation is able to repair the nicotine-induced adverse effects in bone. METHODS 24 male rats were divided into three groups. The fi rst group was the baseline control and killed untreated at the beginning of the study. Groups 2 and 3 received nicotine at 7 mg per kg for three months but during the second and third months, group 2 was supplemented with alpha-tocopherol (N+ATF) while group 3 was given palm tocotrienol mixture (N+TT). Serum interleukin-1 (IL-1), serum interleukin-6 (IL-6), serum osteocalcin, urine deoxypyridinoline (DPD) and bone calcium content were measured. RESULTS Palm tocotrienol mixture was able to prevent the increment of IL-1 and IL- 6 due to nicotine treatment. No changes were seen in the osteocalcin levels, but the N+ATF group had lower urine DPD levels after treatment. However, bone-remodelling index revealed no significant changes. No significant differences were seen in the femoral bone calcium content results, although the fourth lumbar bone calcium content was reduced in both groups with 66.5 percent reduction in the N+ATF group and 59.6 percent reduction in the N+TT group. CONCLUSION Palm tocotrienol mixture was better than alpha-tocopherol in reversing the effects of nicotine on IL-1 and IL-6. Both forms of vitamin E were not able to restore the nicotine-induced bone calcium loss, but the N+ATF group suffered a greater loss. Tocotrienol seemed to be superior to alpha-tocopherol in combating against the adverse effect of nicotine.
SOS Regulation of the Type III Secretion System of Enteropathogenic Escherichia coli

ABSTRACT Genomes of bacterial pathogens contain and coordinately regulate virulence-associated genes in order to cause disease. Enteropathogenic Escherichia coli (EPEC), a major cause of watery diarrhea in infants and a model gram-negative pathogen, expresses a type III secretion system (TTSS) that is encoded by the locus of enterocyte effacement (LEE) and is necessary for causing attaching and effacing intestinal lesions. Effector proteins encoded by the LEE and in cryptic prophage are injected into the host cell cytoplasm by the TTTS apparatus, ultimately leading to diarrhea. The LEE is comprised of multiple polycistronic operons, most of which are controlled by the global, positive regulator Ler. Here we demonstrated that the LEE2 and LEE3 operons also responded to SOS signaling and that this regulation was LexA dependent. As determined by a DNase I protection assay, purified LexA protein bound in vitro to a predicted SOS box located in the divergent, overlapping LEE2/LEE3 promoters. Expression of the lexA1 allele, encoding an uncleavable LexA protein in EPEC, resulted in reduced secretion, particularly in the absence of the Ler regulator. Finally, we obtained evidence that the cryptic phage-located nleA gene encoding an effector molecule is SOS regulated. Thus, we demonstrated, for the first time to our knowledge, that genes encoding components of a TTSS are regulated by the SOS response, and our data might explain how a subset of EPEC effector proteins, encoded in cryptic prophages, are coordinately regulated with the LEE-encoded TTSS necessary for their translocation into host cells.
The Moderating Effect of Relative Performance Evaluation on the Risk Incentive Properties of Executives' Equity Portfolios

We offer evidence that the use of Relative Performance Evaluation (RPE) in CEOs’ incentive contracts influences the effect of risk-taking incentives on both the magnitude and composition of firm risk. We find that when the incentive design lacks RPE features, the incentive portfolio vega motivates CEOs to increase total risk through the systematic component because it can be hedged. In contrast, when the incentive design includes RPE features, CEOs prefer idiosyncratic risk because RPE filters out the systematic component of firm performance. We also document that the use of RPE reinforces the incentive portfolio vega's effect on the total risk.
Transcription factors, sucrose, and sucrose metabolic genes interact to regulate potato phenylpropanoid metabolism

Much remains unknown about how transcription factors and sugars regulate phenylpropanoid metabolism in tuber crops like potato (Solanum tuberosum). Based on phylogeny and protein similarity to known regulators of phenylpropanoid metabolism, 15 transcription factors were selected and their expression was compared in white, yellow, red, and purple genotypes with contrasting phenolic and anthocyanin profiles. Red and purple genotypes had increased phenylalanine ammonia lyase (PAL) enzyme activity, markedly higher levels of phenylpropanoids, and elevated expression of most phenylpropanoid structural genes, including a novel anthocyanin O-methyltransferase. The transcription factors Anthocyanin1 (StAN1), basic Helix Loop Helix1 (StbHLH1), and StWD40 were more strongly expressed in red and purple potatoes. Expression of 12 other transcription factors was not associated with phenylpropanoid content, except for StMYB12B, which showed a negative relationship. Increased expression of AN1, bHLH1, and WD40 was also associated with environmentally mediated increases in tuber phenylpropanoids. Treatment of potato plantlets with sucrose induced hydroxycinnamic acids, flavonols, anthocyanins, structural genes, AN1, bHLH1, WD40, and genes encoding the sucrose-hydrolysing enzymes SUSY1, SUSY4, and INV2. Transient expression of StAN1 in tobacco leaves induced bHLH1, structural genes, SUSY1, SUSY4, and INV1, and increased phenylpropanoid amounts. StAN1 infiltration into tobacco leaves decreased sucrose and glucose concentrations. In silico promoter analysis revealed the presence of MYB and bHLH regulatory elements on sucrolytic gene promoters and sucrose-responsive elements on the AN1 promoter. These findings reveal an interesting dynamic between AN1, sucrose, and sucrose metabolic genes in modulating potato phenylpropanoids.