Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Trade and conflict: The dyad of Greece and Turkey

The conflict-trade paradigm has been dominated by the liberal and realist schools of thought, which try to explain how and why trade affects conflict and cooperation. While the liberal point of view predicts a positive effect of levels of trade on cooperation, realists counter by arguing a negative or negligible effect at best. The article presents the basic theoretical arguments and extensions of the conflict-trade relation as espoused by the liberal school of thought and applies them to the Greco-Turkish dyad. Foreign policy conclusions are drawn from a Greek point of view, and are related to trade volume, type of trade, state of democratization, country size, contiguity, tariffs, foreign aid, and third-party effects. With few qualifications, it is shown that it would serve Greece’s best interests and promote peace in the region if Turkey were to become a full member of the European Union.
The Institutional Concentration of Authors in Top Journals of Economics during the Last Two Decades

This paper addresses the institutional concentration of authors in 15 top economics journals from 1977 to 1997. The concentration of authors' PhD affiliations is substantially higher than the concentration of authors' current affiliations. Relating input indicators, such as population, number of universities with economics departments, or manpower in economics, to publication output reduces the US dominance considerably, whereas Israel and the United Kingdom come out excellently. Exporters and importers of PhDs among universities are identified. Concentration ratios like the Herfindahl-Index lack a clear time trend. Nevertheless, the position of the United States has been weakening in recent years.
Testing the Robustness of Local Network Metrics in Research on Archeological Local Transport Networks

With the increased application of network analysis in archaeology to form hypotheses, particularly concerning the research on mobility, a need has arisen to validate the network analysis results. This paper presents a case study of a local transport network in the Dutch part of the Roman limes between 70-270 AD created using a least-cost approach, and tests the robustness of the local network metric of betweenness centrality and the archaeological interpretation thereof. It is demonstrated that while the majority of sites have a robust and thus reliable betweenness centrality, there are still a large number of sites for which the network measurements are very dependent on the precise structure of the network present. Testing robustness of network analysis results thus proves a useful tool both for validating the network modeling results as well as the archaeological interpretations of that network.
Response inhibition predicts painful task duration and performance in healthy individuals performing a cold pressor task in a motivational context

Long‐term avoidance of painful activities has shown to be dysfunctional in chronic pain. Pain may elicit escape or avoidance responses automatically, particularly when pain‐related fear is high. A conflict may arise between opposing short‐term escape/avoidance goals to reduce pain and long‐term approach goals to receive a reward. An inhibitory control system may resolve this conflict. It was hypothesized that reduced response inhibition would be associated with greater escape/avoidance during pain, particularly among subjects with higher pain‐related fear.
Family Representatives in Family Firms

Manuscript Type. Empirical. Research Question/Issue. Family control in family firms can extend beyond the direct involvement of family members, but identifying these mechanisms is difficult in most markets. We utilize unique disclosures made by Taiwanese firms to examine the role played by family representatives in listed family firms. Family representatives are non‐family members that represent the controlling family's indirect shareholdings in the firm. We examine whether family representatives are used in the same manner as family members and whether they provide net benefits or costs to shareholders. Research Findings/Insights. In our sample of listed family firms, we find that omitting family representatives understates the influence of controlling families by 46 percent. We show that family representatives are associated with net costs to shareholders, but to a lesser extent than family members. We also find that controlling families use family members and family representatives differently. Family members are more involved in older family firms and in firms founded by the family. Family representatives are more involved in acquired and second generation family firms and in larger firms with more fixed assets. Theoretical/Academic Implications. We apply agency theory to the use of family representatives and show that family representatives are being used by controlling families to extend their influence within their firms, increasing agency costs to minority shareholders. Practitioner/Policy Implications. For policymakers, our analysis shows that disclosure of family member and representative relationships within firms is important and value‐relevant to investors. Furthermore, our results suggest that firm performance could be improved by limiting the involvement of family members and family representatives in family firms.
Restaurant QSC inspections and financial performance: an empirical investigation

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to determine the relationship between QSC (quality, service and cleanliness) inspection scores and financial performance in quick service restaurants.Design/methodology/approach – Restaurant QSC inspection data were collected from 25 quick service restaurants of an international chain over a period of 18 months. Audited financial data were also collected for these participating restaurants. Using SPSS software, the data were analyzed for possible relationships between the restaurant QSC scores and the financial performance measured as total unit sales per week, revenues per available seat per week, and gross operating income for each month. Restaurant unit size is measured by total revenues per month.Findings – Contrary to the commonly held belief, the relationship between QSC variable and restaurant performance is weak. This study found there was a “V” curve in QSC inspections and financial performance when restaurant size was chosen as the moderating variable.Resea.
Management Influence on Investors: Evidence from Shareholder Votes on the Frequency of Say on Pay

The literature on shareholder voting has mostly focused on the influence of proxy advisors on shareholder votes. We exploit a unique empirical setting enabling us to provide a direct estimate of management’s influence. Analyzing shareholder votes on the frequency of future say on pay votes, we find that a management recommendation for a particular frequency is associated with a 26% increase in voting support for that frequency. Additional tests suggest that the documented association is likely to capture a causal effect. Management influence varies across firms and is smaller at firms where perceived management credibility is lower. Compared to firms adopting an annual frequency, firms following management’s recommendation to adopt a triennial frequency are significantly less likely to change their compensation practices in response to an adverse say on pay vote, consistent with the notion that a less frequent vote results in lower management accountability.
Is the "Beijing Consensus" Now Dominant?

note • This essay is based on views first expressed in the 2010 Max Fry Annual Lecture, “The Impact of the Financial Crisis on Development Thinking,” delivered at the University of Birmingham, United Kingdom, on October 13, 2010. The author expresses his thanks to several colleagues and to participants in Birmingham and Islamabad for helpful comments on that paper, and to John Helliwell and Martin Ravallion for prompt replies to email inquiries. Is the “Beijing Consensus” Now Dominant?
Prepayment risk and holding period for residential mortgages in Singapore ‐ Evidence from condominium transactions data

Prepayment risk is a key concern in securitized real estate. Using repeat sales in transaction data to proxy for holding period and prepayment, this paper provides the first rigorous analysis of residential mortgage prepayment in Singapore. The prepayment rate for new condominiums is increasing in the holding period and exhibits spikes in the fourth and sixth years. The likelihood of observing a subsequent sale and the prepayment rate increases in floor level, sentiment and other investment return, but decreases in floor area and mortgage rate hikes. Appreciation in the property price also tends to increase the probability and rate of prepayment. In contrast, owners of larger property units and HDB upgraders are less likely to resell their properties. The evidence also suggests that the likelihood of prepayment is lowered after the anti‐speculation measures were introduced in May 1996.
Hedonic regressions: mis-specification and neural networks

There is an emerging literature in the field of hedonic regressions which successfully applies flexible functional forms. In contrast, numerous authors report hedonic regressions with relatively simple functions, often with little or no attempt to consider interaction terms and higher level powers. Such simple functions perform relatively well in spite of good a priori grounds for quite complex interaction effects. Indeed, the studies are characterised by a general indifference to testing these more flexible models, even when degrees of freedom permit. Using detailed scanner data, hedonic functions for the UK TV market are estimated and tested for interaction effects. For a case study of the market, higher level interaction effects are tested for and compare the results with those from a neural network, with its property of ‘universal approximation’. The use of neural networks is particularly novel in this context and some general findings on their suitability emerge.
Continuous-Time Sunspot Equilibria and Dynamics in a Model of Growth

Abstract This article is concerned with the existence of sunspot equilibria in a continuous-time growth setting. It brings alternative approaches in the self-fulfilling prophecies literature: continuous time, global dynamics, and non-stationarity. The main contribution of the use of continuous-time methods is to allow for a complete understanding of the global dynamical properties of these stochastic equilibria within a non-stationary economy. In this model, fluctuations in growth rates occur through a self-fulfilling prophecies mechanism. Journal of Economic Literature Classification Numbers: E12, E32, O41.
Forecasting Financial Time Series: Normal GARCH with Outliers or Heavy Tailed Distribution Assumptions?

The use of GARCH models is widely used as an effective method for capturing the volatility clustering inherent in financial returns series. The residuals from such models are however often non-Gaussian, and two methods suggest themselves for dealing with this; outlier removal, or use of non-Gaussian innovation distributions. While there are benefits to both, we show that the latter method is better if interest centers on volatility and value-at-risk prediction. New volatility measures based on OHLC (open high low close) data are derived and used. Use of OHLC measures are shown to be superior to use of the naive estimator used in other GARCH outlier studies.
Macroeconomic Volatility and Counterfactual Inflation‐Targeting in Hong Kong

The present paper evaluates macroeconomic adjustment in Hong Kong with an estimated dynamic stochastic general equilibrium (DSGE) model under a fixed exchange rate regime. We find that exports and world inflation shocks are the dominant sources of GDP volatility, with the risk premium taking on importance during the Asian crisis after 1997. A counterfactual simulation, assuming a flexible exchange rate regime with inflation targeting, shows that inflation would have decreased slightly, but interest‐rate volatility would have increased significantly. The welfare gains from switching out of the currency board system appear to be marginal.
Revisiting talent management, work-life balance and retention strategies

Purpose – This paper aims to examine the themes of talent management, work-life balance (WLB) and retention strategies in the hospitality industry. The study was undertaken through an analysis of the key themes in the most recent literature. The paper uses a framework incorporating organisational and industry attributes, personal employee dimensions, work-life conflict and organisational strategies and examines these in relation to whether job satisfaction, organisational commitment and employee retention improve. Design/methodology/approach – The paper uses employee turnover literature to underpin a discussion of successful talent management. Using a key word search in both the hospitality literature and more mainstream management research, it divides the literature into four themes, namely, employee attitudes, personal employee dimensions, WLB and organisational strategies for employee retention. Findings – The key findings emerging from this examination of the literature show that WLB appears to have b.
Perspectives on High World Real Interest Rates

Real interest rates in the United States have reached extremely high levels in the last several years. This surge in real rates at all maturities has not lacked explanations. Large current and prospective deficits, tight money, better profit prospects, financial deregulation, and increased uncertainty are among the factors than have been blamed for high real rates. If one looks only at the performance of the U.S. bond market, it is difficult to discriminate among possible explanations for the behavior of real interest rates. This paper examines the worldwide behavior of interest rates and the performance of other asset markets besides the U.S. bond market in order to better explain high real rates.
Are Fishers Poor or Vulnerable? Assessing Economic Vulnerability in Small-Scale Fishing Communities

Abstract An index of economic vulnerability is developed and used with a more conventional measure of income poverty to explore vulnerability and chronic poverty in isolated rural communities. The method is applied to data from remote rural fishing–farming communities in Congo. The analysis highlights the high vulnerability of full-time fisherfolk and identifies mobility as a key factor increasing vulnerability. In line with other recent economic research, our work also shows that households can remain highly vulnerable even when their incomes lie well above the average local income. These different results are consistent with the more specialised literature on small-scale fisheries, confirming the robustness of the analysis proposed in this paper.
Human resource management and performance: a review and research agenda

There is a growing body of evidence supporting an association between what are termed high performance or high commitment human resource management (HRM) practices and various measures of organizational performance. However, it is not clear why this association exists. This paper argues that to provide a convincing explanation of this association we need to improve our theoretical and analytic frameworks in three key areas. These are the nature of HRM, and especially the rationale for the specific lists of HR practices; the nature of organizational performance; and the linkage between HRM and performance. A model is presented within which to explore these linkages. The existing literature on HRM and performance is reviewed in the light of this analysis to identify key gaps in knowledge and help to focus further the research priorities.
Aristotle on Politics

in the bibliography. It is perhaps brave of someone whose first language is German to have undertaken a translation into English. In fact, however, the only real solecisms occur in the introduction: it is impossible to break a chink off a hedonist's or anyone else's armour (p. xix); we don't keep facts under our thumb (p. xliii) when we're keeping them hidden. If the translation itself is free of these awkwardnesses, that is because it is too plain for the danger to arise. The less said about B. 's book the better. In the translation he tries so hard to be literal and to achieve one-to-one correspondences that his English ranges from that of a schoolchild's translation exercise to that of an old-fashioned phrasebook for Eastern Europeans. In his commentary, B. seems almost stubbornly to highlight trivial aspects of the dialogue an adverb, a phrase, a rare tense or grammatical construction and to downplay or completely ignore the philosophically interesting aspects which F. discusses so well. I don't quite know what to call his Straussian approach: it is not philosophy; it is not philosophical exegesis; it is not literary criticism. Most of the time it is undisciplined free association. The arguments of the commentary are driven more or less entirely by B. 's own ideas rather than by anything to be found in the text.
Patterns of interaction between national and multinational corporations and Brazilian universities/public research institutes

This paper aims to investigate the patterns of interaction between national and multinational corporations located in Brazil and universities/public research institutes (PRIs) in that country. To this end, we used a database involving 319 questionnaires answered by those responsible either for R&D activities, or for the interactions with universities and PRIs in firms located in Brazil. Such data were evaluated through a descriptive analysis and a multiple correspondence analysis method to verify the existence of distinct patterns of university--firm interactions concerning national and multinational corporations. The conclusions of the study suggest that there are no significant differences between the cooperation patterns of national and multinational corporations with Brazilian universities/PRIs. Copyright The Author 2012. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com, Oxford University Press.
Adding value in supply chains by improving operational efficiency using data envelopment analysis: a case from published data

Data envelopment analysis (DEA) has been used in many studies to measure the efficiency of supply chains. There, the authors primarily used the traditional Charnes-Cooper-Rhodes (CCR) and Banker-Charnes-Cooper (BCC) models to measure relative efficiency of decision-making units in the supply chain, and their main focus was on enhancing the efficiency of inefficient units. In this paper, using the CCR model with intrinsic assurance regions (IAR), we focus on how to make cost savings in a supply chain by projecting inefficient supply units on to the efficient frontier. By analysing suppliers' data already published in the literature, we demonstrate how to add value in the supply chain by improving operational efficiency of inefficient supply units.
Canberra's competitiveness in the national context

Canberra occupies a unique position in the Australian urban landscape. It is the national capital and the largest inland city. Internationally and at home, it is also known as a planned city. This study moves beyond the entrenched perception of Canberra as a planned capital city. It situates Canberra in the Australian urban system through the lens of a new model of urban competitiveness that incorporates dimensions of productivity, sustainability and liveability. Through benchmarking Canberra's progress against other Australian major cities, the results provide a comprehensive understanding of Canberra's competitiveness in the national context. They identify Canberra's competitive strength and weakness, and provide evidence-based implications for policy-making towards a productive, sustainable and liveable Canberra and its enhanced competitiveness.
The roles of tidal evolution and evaporative mass loss in the origin of CoRoT-7 b

CoRoT-7 b is the first confirmed rocky exoplanet, but, with an orbital semimajor axis of 0.0172 au, its origins may be unlike any rocky planet in our Solar system. In this study, we consider the roles of tidal evolution and evaporative mass loss in CoRoT-7 b's history, which together have modified the planet's mass and orbit. If CoRoT-7 b has always been a rocky body, evaporation may have driven off almost half its original mass, but the mass loss may depend sensitively on the extent of tidal decay of its orbit. As tides caused CoRoT-7 b's orbit to decay, they brought the planet closer to its host star, thereby enhancing the mass loss rate. Such a large mass loss also suggests the possibility that CoRoT-7 b began as a gas giant planet and had its original atmosphere completely evaporated. In this case, we find that CoRoT-7 b's original mass probably did not exceed 200 Earth masses (about two-third of a Jupiter mass). Tides raised on the host star by the planet may have significantly reduced the orbital semimajor axis, perhaps causing the planet to migrate through mean-motion resonances with the other planet in the system, CoRoT-7 c. The coupling between tidal evolution and mass loss may be important not only for CoRoT-7 b but also for other close-in exoplanets, and future studies of mass loss and orbital evolution may provide insight into the origin and fate of close-in planets, both rocky and gaseous.
WNT2 Regulates DNA Synthesis in Mouse Granulosa Cells Through Beta-Catenin1

WNTs are secreted extracellular signaling molecules that transduce their signals by binding to G protein-coupled receptors of the frizzled (FZD) family. They control diverse developmental processes, such as cell fate specification, cell proliferation, cell differentiation, and apoptosis. Although WNT signaling has been shown to be essential for development of the ovary, its mechanistic role in folliculogenesis within the adult ovary has not been studied extensively. Therefore, the objective of this study was to investigate the regulation and function of WNT2 signaling in mouse granulosa cells. Immunostaining identified WNT2 as being expressed in granulosa cells throughout folliculogenesis, but with varying signal strength: in sequential sections, WNT2 immunoreactivity was strongest in healthy antral follicles but weak in atretic follicles. Knockdown of WNT2 expression using transfected short interfering RNA decreased DNA synthesis in granulosa cells, whereas WNT2 overexpression using a recombinant viral vector enhanced it. WNT2 knockdown led to accumulation of glycogen synthase kinase-3beta (GSK3B) in the cytoplasm but reduced the expression of beta-catenin. Conversely, WNT2 overexpression reduced the expression of GSK3B in the cytoplasm and induced beta-catenin translocation from the membrane into the nucleus. Beta-catenin knockdown also inhibited DNA synthesis in granulosa cells and neutralized the effect of WNT2 overexpression. WNT2/beta-catenin signaling had a slight effect on the apoptosis of granulosa cells. Taken together, the data indicate that WNT2 regulates beta-catenin localization in granulosa cells, and WNT2/beta-catenin signaling contributes to regulating their proliferation.
Shari’ah issues in Islamic banking: a qualitative survey in Malaysia

Purpose - – The purpose of this paper is to examine the customers’ perception regarding the current Design/methodology/approach - – The study uses a qualitative approach to understand in detail the customers’ perception and experiences about Findings - – The findings revealed that the interviewees have considerable exposure and awareness of the current criticisms of the Originality/value - – This research is the first to study the