Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
State tax subsidies to bolster the long-term care insurance market

Abstract This paper examines long-term care insurance sales to assess whether state income tax subsidies are effective in encouraging the private purchase of long-term care insurance. Drawing from the most comprehensive available sales data on long-term care insurance policies, cross-state and over-time variation in sales data during the late 1990s and early 2000s are analysed. This analysis uses a panel model with fixed effects controls for potential endogeneity between state provision of tax subsidies and actual sales of long-term care insurance policies. Income, health and family support factors are significant determinants in the sale of long-term care insurance, but the tax incentives provided by many state governments do not induce any more sales of long-term care insurance than could be expected without such incentives. These costly subsidies have not been prudent uses of public dollars, and have not helped states cope with the challenge of long-term care costs.
The Takeover and Selection Effects of Foreign Ownership in Germany: An Analysis Using Linked Worker-Firm Data

We use a linked employer-employee data set from Germany to estimate the wage effect of foreign-affiliates in East and West Germany. In addition, the wage effects of the large number of West German affiliates which are located in East Germany are also considered. The implemented techniques allow us to control both for worker- and plant-level unobserved components of earnings. We find large selection effects both in terms of worker and firm unobserved components of wages. The selection effect is larger for East German plants. Once it is taken into account, the genuine takeover effect is small and in some cases insignificantly different from zero. In contrast to the selection effect, the takeover effect is slightly larger in West Germany, where it amounts to 2.7 %.
The culture of practice in pre‐school provision: outsider and insider perspectives

This paper explores, contrasts, and considers some of the implications of the different ways in which the culture of practice in pre‐school provision is construed by various actors (‘outsiders’ and ‘insiders’) in the enterprise. ‘Outsiders’ means those with responsibility for the formulation of the curriculum, the inspection of provision and the training of pre‐school staff (typically managers and assessors). The perspectives of two types of insiders, that is, pre‐school practitioners and children, are considered. Differences are mapped out in the perspectives of outsiders and of insider practitioners and insider children, drawing on findings from a series of research projects carried out (between 1996 and 2001) investigating aspects of pre‐school provision in Scotland. The evidence suggests that outsiders adopt an espoused culture that envisages practitioners fulfilling prescribed roles to deliver a curriculum that will allow children to achieve planned outcomes and which is largely independent of context. In contrast, the implicit culture of practitioners arises from the context of the setting in which they work, is dynamic, flexible, and focuses on maintaining desirable activities in the playroom rather than specified progress goals. The children’s perspective is characterized by a focus on play, making choices to satisfy individual preferences and enjoying the company of other children. This study goes on to link these differences to differing pressures and responsibilities that rest on outsiders and insiders and their differing construction of childhood in the context of pre‐school provision. The paper concludes with a consideration of some of the implications of these differences for innovations in practice, the initial and continuing education of practitioners, accounting for practice and planning for provision in a way that recognizes differences, and the need to test tentative educational knowledge in context, rather than assume a consensual body of knowledge.
The Engines of a Viable Agriculture: Advances in Biotechnology, Market Accessibility and Land Rentals in Rural China

Three vital ingredients that underpin the continued progress of China's agriculture are the emergence of a well-financed, effective system of agricultural research and development, major improvements in agricultural commodity markets and increasingly effective land rental markets. The way in which these vital elements are having a positive impact on farmers' livelihoods is highlighted.
Shipping freight derivatives: a survey of recent evidence

In an industry that is characterized by highly volatile prices, seasonality, strong business cycles, cyclicality and capital intensiveness, risk management is extremely important. Ship-owners and charterers face enormous risks, which emanate from fluctuations in freight rates, bunker prices, interest rates, foreign exchange rates and vessel values. These risks substantially affect the interplay between revenue and cost. Modern risk management techniques, involve the use of financial derivatives products, some of which have been developed exclusively for protecting (hedging) against the adverse price fluctuations of the aforementioned sources of risk in shipping. By using derivatives products, ship-owners and charterers can secure (stabilize) the level of their future income or costs and thus reduce uncertainty and unforeseen volatility of their cash-flow. To explore the importance of hedging freight rate risk in shipping operations, a survey of recent empirical evidence that has appeared in economic studies has been conducted. Developments over the past 20 years have been fast, with certain amount of research carried, which has helped to understand better the special features of these derivatives markets. They are all summarized in the current study, which can provide the stepping stone for further work in the area of shipping derivatives and risk management in shipping.
The Effects of No Child Left Behind on School Services and Student Outcomes. Conference Paper.

Under the No Child Le Behind Act (NCLB), in theory, schools on the margin for meeting AYP face strong short-term incentives to increase students’ pass rates on specific exams, and may change their behavior accordingly. Using a comprehensive, national, school-level data set concerning schools’ AYP status, student characteristics, and student test score performance, as well as NCLB test score performance and school characteristics, the authors predict which schools were near the margin for failing to meet their state’s AYP standards in math and reading. Variance in state policies creates several cases where schools near the margin for satisfying their own state’s AYP requirements would have almost certainly failed or almost certainly passed AYP if they were located in other states. Using the nationally representative Early Childhood Longitudinal Survey (ECLS), the authors examine how NCLB incentives affect students’ academic achievement and non-academic outcomes, and school resource allocation. States vary widely in the percent of schools that fail or struggle to meet AYP, with cross-state variation in student academic aptitude or in exam difficulty explaining relatively little of this variation. Rather, cross-state variation in AYP failure rates is due to states’ choice of policy parameters concerning AYP rules, such as the minimum student enrollment size required for student subgroups’ pass rates to contribute to a school’s AYP status, the size of confidence intervals and the “safe harbor” rules that effectively lower the minimum pass rates required for smaller subgroups to pass AYP. Our very preliminary results suggest that NCLB pressure influences student and staff attitudes and teachers’ time use and instructional strategies but has little net effect on mean student test score growth on low-stakes exams.
Board composition in small enterprises

This paper reports the results of three empirical studies of boards of directors in small enterprises in Norway. Most studies of boards of directors are concerned with the situation in large corporations. This article provides insights into board attributes and board functions in small firms. The Studies reported found that board composition is an important factor in describing and analyzing directorates. They also found that the composition of the board of directors is a function of company size and ownership structure, and that board composition varies with industry. The studies found differences in the board's strategy involvement between industries.
On the Structure of Cyclotomic Fourier Transforms and Their Applications to Reed-Solomon Codes

This paper is focused on cyclotomic Fourier transforms in GF(2m), and on their applications to algebraic decoding of Reed-Solomon codes, like the evaluation of syndromes and of error locator (or evaluator) polynomials. Cyclotomic transforms are much more efficient than straightforward evaluation. In particular, the number of multiplications is quite small. In this paper it is shown that also the number of additions can be considerably reduced with respect to previous analyses. A simple interpretation of the cyclotomic Fourier transform best suited for the evaluation of syndromes allows to assemble the required matrix easily and quickly, even in large fields. Fast construction of such matrices is important to obtain the best results, since as many matrices as possible must be generated and compared. It is shown that both the structure of the matrix and of bilinear convolutions need to be exploited, to reduce the complexity of the costly part of cyclotomic Fourier transforms, which is a matrix-vector product. Heuristic algorithms for matrix-vector product are to be run as many times as possible to obtain the best transform. It is shown with several examples that very good results can be obtained even with very simple algorithms.
Three novel mutations in the PORCN gene underlying focal dermal hypoplasia

Focal dermal hypoplasia (FDH) is an X‐linked dominant disorder characterized by patchy dermal hypoplasia with digital, ocular and dental abnormalities. Very recently, mutations in the PORCN gene were demonstrated to cause FDH. Here, we described three unrelated Thai girls who were sporadic cases of FDH. One of them had unilateral athelia, which has never been described in FDH. Mutation analysis by polymerase chain reaction sequencing the entire coding regions of PORCN successfully revealed three potentially pathogenic mutations, c.373+1G>A, c. 737_738insA and c.1094G>A (p.R365Q). One was found in each of three patients. In addition, another sequence variant c.682C>T (p.R228C) with an inconclusive role was found in one patient and her unaffected mother. The two missense mutations were not detected in at least 100 ethnic‐matched control chromosomes, and all four mutations had never been previously described. X chromosome inactivation studies showed random patterns in all of them. This study demonstrates that PORCN is the gene responsible for FDH across different populations and extends the total number of confirmed mutations to 26.
Retail operations strategies

Purpose – The purpose of this study is to examine the role and contribution of an operations strategy for the retailer.Design/methodology/approach – The methodology is mainly qualitative empirical research.Findings – Analyses of the data collected reveals that the respondent organisations had a number of strategic aspirations and these objectives could be isolated, described and classified. It became apparent that the development and deployment of an operations strategy was closely related to these longer‐term business aims. The research was able to establish clear correlations between the application of these strategies and the achievement of both strategic and tactical objectives over a period of time.Originality/value – The work demonstrates support for the contention that the use of an operations strategy is important to fuel the success of these organisations. It also questions the lack of emphasis given to this aspect in the strategic literature and most conceptual models of strategy.
Why some firms persistently out-perform others: investigating the interactions between innovation and exporting strategies

Although heterogeneity in the performance of firms is a well-established stylized fact, we still lack full understanding of its origins and the reasons why it persists. Instead of assuming that performance differences are exogenous, this article focuses on two endogenous strategies--innovation and global engagement--and interprets them as two ways to accumulate knowledge and improve firms' capabilities. We are particularly interested in analyzing interactions between these strategies and their effect on firms' performance. By using a firm-level panel dataset drawn from a Japanese large-scale administrative survey for the years 1994--2003, we first find that innovation and exporting strategies are characterized by complementarities, which define coherent productive models or patterns of learning. Second, we show that these different strategies lead to various performances in terms of productivity and survival. Third, by using a propensity score-matching approach, we show that these differences in performance are lasting. Overall, our article shows that the interaction of innovation and export investments is a source of permanent differences in performance among firms. Copyright 2010 The Author 2010. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Associazione ICC. All rights reserved. , Oxford University Press.
Headache and Temporomandibular Disorders: Evidence for Diagnostic and Behavioural Overlap

To assess the diagnostic and behavioural overlap of headache patients with temporomandibular disorders (TMD), individuals recruited from the general population with self-described headaches were compared with non-headache controls. The examination and diagnostic procedures in the Research Diagnostic Criteria (RDC) for TMD were applied to both sets of subjects by a blinded examiner. Following their examination, subjects used experience sampling methods to obtain data on pain, tooth contact, masticatory muscle tension, emotional states and stress. Results showed that a significantly higher proportion of the headache patients received an RDC/TMD diagnosis of myofascial pain than non-headache controls. Headache patients also reported significantly more frequent and intense tooth contact, more masticatory muscle tension, more stress and more pain in the face/head and other parts of the body than non-headache controls. These results are similar to those reported for TMD patients and they suggest that headache patients and TMD patients overlap considerably in diagnosis and oral parafunctional behaviours.
Modelling Productivity Effects of Trade Openness: A Dual Approach

A cost function framework is used to model the productivity effect of trade openness in terms of cost saving. The idea of ‘cost saving’ is closer to the entrepreneur's view of productivity. An entrepreneur would expect a reduction in the cost of production if trade openness brings any benefits to their firm. The output-enhancing (primal) productivity effect of openness is obtainable from the cost-saving (dual) productivity effect through the cost-output link. The cost-function framework also enables us to investigate whether trade openness induces firms to adopt a technology that is biased towards the use or saving of any factor of production. An empirical exercise based on time series data for the Australian two-digit manufacturing industries reveals significant cost-saving and output-enhancing productivity effects of trade openness. Trade openness is biased towards the saving of labour and the use of capital. These results are quite insensitive to the choice of alternative measures of openness.
Identification of Facial Shape by Applying Golden Ratio to the Facial Measurements: An Interracial Study in Malaysian Population

Background: The “golden ratio” is considered as a universal facial aesthetical standard. Researcher's opinion that deviation from golden ratio can result in development of facial abnormalities. Aims: This study was designed to study the facial morphology and to identify individuals with normal, short, and long face. Materials and Methods: We studied 300 Malaysian nationality subjects aged 18-28 years of Chinese, Indian, and Malay extraction. The parameters measured were physiognomical facial height and width of face, and physiognomical facial index was calculated. Face shape was classified based on golden ratio. Independent t test was done to test the difference between sexes and among the races. Results: The mean values of the measurements and index showed significant sexual and interracial differences. Out of 300 subjects, the face shape was normal in 60 subjects, short in 224 subjects, and long in 16 subjects. Conclusion: As anticipated, the measurements showed variations according to gender and race. Only 60 subjects had a regular face shape, and remaining 240 subjects had irregular face shape (short and long). Since the short and long shape individuals may be at risk of developing various disorders, the knowledge of facial shapes in the given population is important for early diagnostic and treatment procedures.
Effects of satisfaction on service loyalty dimensions

This study examines overall satisfaction effects on individual loyalty dimensions and causal relationships between the latter. Between the statistically significant effect estimates of satisfaction on loyalty dimensions the strongest was the one on 'word-of-mouth' followed by that on 'retention intentions'. The direct effect on 'business extension intentions' was statistically insignificant. Indirect effects on 'retention intentions' and 'business extension intentions', via 'word-of-mouth' were three-fold and four-fold stronger than the direct ones respectively. The causality of relationships between loyalty dimensions was found to run along the path: 'word-of-mouth' → 'retention intentions' → 'business extension intentions'. Previous findings indicating that service loyalty dimensions are interrelated and the causality runs from 'affectionate' to 'continuance' loyalty are supported. It is confirmed that 'word-of-mouth' communication enhances the communicators' own loyalty. Customer satisfaction campaigns, in services industries, would yield more if primarily targeted at enhancing customers' 'affectionate' rather than 'continuance' commitment.
The Effect of Abundance Variations on Estimates of the Densities of Broad-Line Region Clouds in Quasars

There has been a long-standing discrepancy between the densities deduced from studies of the variability of quasar emission lines and those inferred from standard photoionization analyses. We have found that the higher metal abundances now believed to be present in most quasars lead to the higher densities being predicted by photoionization models. We explain why this is so.
Musculoskeletal Disorders Among Spine Surgeons: Results of a Survey of the Scoliosis Research Society Membership

Study Design. Survey of surgeon members of the Scoliosis Research Society. Objective. To assess the prevalence of musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) among spine surgeons. Summary of Background Data. Spinal deformity surgery is characterized by long duration and repetitive, forceful tasks. The purpose of this study is to describe the type and prevalence of MSDs among orthopedic spine surgeons. Methods. A modified version of the physical discomfort survey was sent to surgeon members of the Scoliosis Research Society via standard mail and e-mail. A total of 3 attempts to contact potential respondents were made, with 62% (561/904 × 100) responding. Mean respondent age was 54 years. Mean annual total caseload was 147, of which 62 were of spinal deformity. A total of 84% of the respondents had an active surgical practice. Results. The most common self-reported diagnoses included neck pain/strain/spasm (38%, 215/561), lumbar disc herniation/radiculopathy (31%, 172/561), cervical disc herniation/radiculopathy (28%, 155/561), rotator cuff disease (24%, 134/561), varicose veins or peripheral edema (20%, 112/561), and lateral epicondylitis (18%, 99/561). For lumbar disc disease, 7.1% (40/561 × 100) and for cervical disc disease, 4.6% (26/561 × 100) of spine surgeons underwent surgery. Among active spine surgeons, multiple linear regression analysis revealed that total caseload correlated with neck pain (P = 0.01) and lower extremity edema (P = 0.03), while the number of deformity cases correlated with wrist pain (P = 0.003) and hand pain (P = 0.03). Age was correlated with shoulder (P = 0.03), elbow (P = 0.04), and hand pain (P = 0.02). Number of years in practice did not correlate with MSDs. Conclusion. Compared with disease estimates in the general population, spine surgeons have a higher prevalence of MSDs. Our cohort underwent surgical intervention for lumbar (7.1%) and cervical (4.6%) disc disease at rates far exceeding disease estimates in the general population. Increased awareness among spine surgeons may lead to earlier treatment and, ultimately, enhanced preventive measures.
Escalation and Cooperation in Conflict Situations

We present a new game-theoretic analysis of an abstract auction game that captures essential strategic aspects of escalation phenomena. Two competitive adversaries commit resources irreversibly in order to win an indivisible prize; the winner will take the prize while both winner and loser incur the cost of their bids (investments). Following O'Neill (1986), we first reexamine a discrete version of the game and emphasize some strategic considerations that give rise to new bidding strategies of players. These new strategies, however, confirm O'Neill's result qualitatively: Rational players should not bid against each other. We then introduce a more general model of the game and show that escalatory competitive bids are compatible with equilibrium play. Equilibria with escalating bidding eventually realize a “draw”: Initial firmness (leading to escalation) is followed by conciliatory behavior that eventually implements a common commitment level.
The Flight from Maturity

Why did the failure of Lehman Brothers make the financial crisis dramatically worse? The financial crisis was a process of a build-up of risk during the crisis prior to the Lehman failure. Market participants tried to preserve an option or exit by shortening maturities - the "flight from maturity". With increasingly short maturities, lenders created the possibility of fast exit. The failure of Lehman Brothers was the tipping point of this build-up of systemic fragility. We produce a chronology of the crisis which formalizes the dynamics of the crisis. A crisis is a dynamic process in which "tail risk" is endogenous.
Impact of demographic variables on voluntary labour turnover in South Africa

This paper demonstrates the relevance of employee demographic variables as extended factors in the voluntary turnover process since these models currently do not sufficiently explain the factors impacting the turnover decision. Over 1000 managers and knowledge workers were surveyed using a cross-sectional questionnaire to identify potential similarities in demographic variables in the decision to leave the organisation. Findings indicate that various demographic variables (age, race and gender) influence whether pull or push factors are cited in the turnover process. In addition, it is found that the level of education has a stronger relationship to employee mobility than race, which contradicts the current sentiment in the South African labour market. Furthermore, it is concluded that demographic variables of employees should be considered in the extension of contemporary turnover models. The findings have implications for human resource management practices in organisations that are more dependent on knowledge workers. Consequently, the findings have implications for current prevailing theory on voluntary turnover research.