Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Financial Inclusion and Economic Growth in Africa: Insight from Nigeria

Universally, all inclusive financial system indeed promotes economic growth. It is on the basis of this motivation that the study is primarily design to investigate the influence of financial inclusion on the growth of African economy, using Nigeria as a case study. Extrapolated time series financial inclusion data from Nigeria, covering the period of 1981 to 2013 were used in the analysis. The multiple regression models anchored on Ordinary Least Square technique is adopted in estimating the contributions of the variables. While controlling for other macroeconomic exogenous variables; the results show that financial inclusion has significant negative impact on the growth of Nigeria economy over the years. The researcher attributes the result to high level of financial exclusion of bankable adult citizens in Nigeria in particular and Africa in general. The researcher suggests more inclusive financial system in Nigeria (and Africa) with focus on the rural populace because ‘growth is good, sustained high growth is better and sustained high growth with financial inclusiveness is best of all’ especially in the developing economy. Keywords: Financial inclusion, Financial exclusion, Economic growth, Nigeria
Corporate Scandals and Capital Structure

We analyze whether companies involved in a security class action suit (SCAS) exhibit differential capital structure decisions, and if the information revealed by a corporate scandal affects the security issuances and stock prices of industry peers. Our findings show that before a SCAS is filed, companies involved in a scandal show a greater amount of security offerings than their peers and, due to equity mispricing, are more likely to use equity as a financing mechanism. Following a SCAS filing, these companies exhibit a decreasing amount of total external finance raised and lower levels of book and market leverage. Industry peers’ issuance patterns exhibit significant contagion, with reduced debt and equity issuance following the SCAS filing. Corporate scandals also have meaningful negative effects on stock prices and bond ratings. Similar to capital structure, we document contagion at the industry level with peers’ share prices yielding negative returns as well.
Moral Intuitions About Fault, Parenting, and Child Custody after Divorce

Allocations of child custody post-divorce are currently determined according to the Best Interest Standard, i.e. on what is best for the child, as compared to standards of the recent past which weighed fairness to the parents or parental fault (or marital misconduct). Since any such evolving standards rest so fully on changing cultural norms, an important question is how these standards correspond to the moral intuitions of lay citizens asked to take the role of judge in hypothetical cases. Do factors such as whether one parent had an extramarital affair influence their custody decision-making? In the current studies, a representative sample of citizens awaiting jury service were first given a neutral scenario portraying an “average” family. Almost 80% favored dividing custodial time equally between the two parents, replicating our earlier finding. Then, in Study 1, they were given a second, Test case, vignette in which either the mother or the father was said to have carried on an extramarital affair that “essentially ruined the marriage”. In Study 2, either the mother or the father was said to have sought the divorce, opposed by the other, simply because he or she “grew tired” of the marriage. For both Test cases, more than half the respondents made little or no adjustment to their parenting time allocation, but a substantial minority did, awarding the offending parent significantly less parenting time. While one might guess some respondents would be motivated to punish the adulterous parent, we believe it less likely they would believe it appropriate to punish a spouse who sought to end marriages they no longer found satisfying. Given that there was relatively little difference in our respondents' reactions to the two test cases, we therefore considered explanations, for the responses of those who did reduce parenting time, that could apply equally to both test cases. We suggest two possibilities: 1) they find the behavior in both test cases evidence that the offending parents' commitment to parenting is deficient, since they were willing to risk imposing divorce on their children by their behavior, or 2) a spouse who imposes the burden of parental separation on the children by causing divorce should be penalized, not for the offensiveness of their conduct, but for the harm they caused their children by bringing about the divorce.
In Search of an Appropriate Lower Bound. The Zero Lower Bound vs. the Positive Lower Bound under Discretion and Commitment

Abstract Using a standard New Keynesian model, we show that moderate side effects of zero lower bound (ZLB) policy suffice for positive lower bound (PLB) policy to pay off in terms of welfare, especially when central banks fail to commit. For given side effects of the ZLB, as the shock that makes the ZLB bind becomes larger and more persistent, the dominance of PLB policy over ZLB policy becomes more likely. The findings hold for flexible and rigid economies with both fast and slow potential output growth and low and high inflation targets.
Stability versus Flexibility: The Role of Temporary Employment in Labour Adjustment

In Canada, temporary workers account for 14 per cent of jobs in the non-farm business sector, are present in a range of industries, and account for 40 per cent of the total job reallocation. Yet most models of job reallocation abstract from temporary workers. This paper evaluates the importance of temporary workers in job reallocation in a multi-sector model with costly labour adjustment and temporary workers. The calibrated model captures some features of job reallocation in Canada. The paper shows that the adjustment cost parameters for permanent workers are underestimated if temporary workers are ignored. It also shows that when a shock occurs where permanent workers bear the brunt of reallocation (e.g. the 2005-2008 commodity price boom and the appreciation of the Canadian dollar), aggregate adjustment costs are underestimated if temporary workers are not accounted for.
Untutored second language acquisition

These three capacities—the construction capacity, the copying capacity, and the communication capacity—are closely interconnected, and they draw largely on the same cognitive resources, such as memory, perception, and reasoning. But they are not the same. Our ancestors, when creating the first linguistic systems, had little to copy; they had to build linguistic systems, in a way which we can only speculate about. This process, in whichever way it was achieved, is surely neither momentaneous nor done by a single person, and therefore, it also involved a great deal of copying from others. Nowadays, people are rarely confronted with the need to construct a new linguistic system; but everybody is confronted with the need to copy at least one existing system. This process is what we call language acquisition. It involves the copying capacity, it involves the construction capacity, it also involves—and dramatically changes—the capacity to communicate by linguistic systems. Normally, we all experience this transition in childhood, with no or little guided intervention on the part of the social environment, but it can also happen at a later age, with or without systematic intervention. Language acquisition is a natural process; it does not need tutoring. But its study is deeply shaped by a certain view that is naturally invited by the context in which
Farmers' knowledge, perceptions and practices in mango pest management in the Mekong Delta, Vietnam

A survey of mango farmers' knowledge, perceptions and practices in pest management was conducted during the dry season of 1998 in the Mekong Delta, Vietnam. Identification and control of pests was often based on damage symptoms, rather than on recording of causal agents. Damage caused by the seed-borer Deanolis albizonalis (Hampson) was often wrongly attributed to the fruit flies Bactrocera dorsalis Hendel. Nearly all farmers applied calendar sprays of insecticides (97%) and fungicides (79%) from pre-flowering until harvest, with on average 13.4 and 11.6 applications per year, respectively. Pyrethroids were most popular (57%), followed by organophosphates (25%) and carbamates (15%). Around 20% of the insecticides used belonged to WHO Toxicity Class I, while the rest nearly all belonged to Class II. Half of all the target sprays were done with three pyrethroid products only. Farmers' estimated yield loss due to insect pests was strongly correlated to estimated pest severity. Due to pesticide sellers' recommendations, farmer's sprayload significantly increased from 26 to 37 sprays per year, whereas the number of insecticide products used per farmer increased from 2.6 to 3.9 with advice fromextension staff and media. Expenditure for pesticides was correlated with that of fertilizers. There was no relationship between the amount of pesticides sprayed and yield. On-farm research is needed to evaluate whether significant savings can be obtained given a more judicious use of pesticides. Only 10% of the 93 participating farmers knew about natural enemies, all of which were predators.
Evidence from Goodwill Non-impairments on the Effects of Unverifiable Fair-Value Accounting

SFAS 142 requires firms to use unverifiable fair-value estimates to determine goodwill impairments. Standard setters suggest managers will use the discretion given by such estimates to convey private information on future cash flows, while agency theory predicts managers will use the discretion opportunistically. We test these alternative hypotheses using a sample of firms with market indications of goodwill impairment (firms with book goodwill and two successive years of book-to-market ratios above one). We find non-impairment of goodwill is increasing in firm characteristics predicted to be associated with greater managerial discretion. We also find evidence that the discretion is being used in a manner consistent with agency-based predictions. The evidence does not confirm managerial discretion is being used to convey private information. * We thank Paul Healy, S. P. Kothari, Richard Leftwich (the editor), Sugata Roychowdhury, Edward Riedl, the anonymous referees, and seminar participants at Chinese University of Hong Kong, Harvard University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, University of Alberta, and University of Connecticut for helpful comments; the division of research at Harvard Business School for research assistance; and Harvard University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology for financial support. Any errors are our responsibility. 1
Research on the redshift evolution of luminosity function and selection effect of GRBs

We study the redshift evolution of the luminosity function (LF) and redshift selection effect of long gamma-ray bursts (LGRBs). The method is to fit the observed peak flux and redshift distributions, simultaneously. To account for the complex triggering algorithm of Swift, we use a flux triggering efficiency function. We find evidence supporting an evolving LF, where the break luminosity scales as $L_b\propto (1+z)^{\tau}$, with $\tau =3.5^{+0.4}_{-0.2}$ and $\tau =0.8^{+0.1}_{-0.08}$ for two kind of LGRB rate models. The corresponding local GRB rates are $\dot{R}(0)=0.86^{+0.11}_{-0.08} \yr^{-1}\Gpc^{-3}$ and $\dot{R}(0)= 0.54^{+0.25}_{-0.07} \yr^{-1}\Gpc^{-3}$, respectively. Furthermore, by comparing the redshift distribution between the observed one and our mocked one, we find that the redshift detection efficiency of the flux triggered GRBs decreases with redshift. Especially, a great number of GRBs miss their redshifts in the redshift range of $1<z<2.5$, where "redshift desert" effect may be dominated. More interestingly, our results show that the "redshift desert" effect is mainly introduced by the dimmer GRBs, e.g., $P<10^{-7}\ergs /\s/\cm^2$, but has no effect on the brighter GRBs.
Dividend Policy Behavior in Emerging Stock Markets: Evidence from Vietnamese Stock Market

Several prior studies find that firms pursue a long-term dividend target payout ratio with a fairly standardized speed of adjustment in developed markets. However, some studies conducted in emerging markets show strange findings that firms have target dividend payout ratios but they fail to follow stable dividend polices. This study examines dividend policy behavior in Vietnamese stock market, an emerging stock market without mandatory dividend payment using fixed effects regression for panel data. The research results support the partial adjustment model that firms in Vietnamese stock market have stable dividend policy behavior.
Influence of different doses of Iopromide on renal function of elderly patients

This study aims to investigate influences of different doses of hypisotonic non-ionic contrast agent (Iopromide) on renal function of elderly patients. A total of 30 cases of elderly patients without a history of nephrosis and with normal renal function were divided into two groups according to the different doses of received contrast agent. Influences of Iopromide on renal function were observed by detecting blood urea nitrogen (BUN), serum creatinine (Scr) and creatinine clearance rate (Ccr) at the postoperative 2nd and 5th day. There was no significant difference for BUN, Scr and Ccr levels before angiography and at the 2nd and 5th days after operation between two groups of patients (P > 0.05). At the postoperative 2nd day, Scr of two groups of patients slightly increased and Ccr slightly reduced. At the 5th day, they restored to the levels before angiography. Based on the results, we believe one dosage of not more than 294 ml non-ionic contrast agent Iopromide is relatively safe for elderly patients.
Effect Of Spacing And Fertilizer On The Growth And Yield Of Onion

The experiment was conducted at the On-Farm Research Division (OFRD), Agricultural Research Station, Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute (BARI) Daulatpur, Khulna to study the effects of spacing and fertilizer on the growth and yield of onion. Three spacing viz. 10 × 10 cm, 15 ×10 cm and 15 × 15 cm with three fertilizer combinations viz. soil test based fertilizer dose (STB); integrated plant nutrient system (IPNS) based fertilizer dose and farmers’ practice were studied on the growth and yield of onion. The two factor experiment was laid out in a randomized c omplete block design (RCBD) with three replications. The size of unit plot was 1.5 × 1.2 m. The results demonstrated that plant spacing had significant effects on growth, yield components and yield of onion. Different fertilizers exhibited significant variation in respect of individual bulb weight, bulb diameter and yield. The maximum bulb weight and yield were recorded in IPNS based fertilizer dose while the combined effect of fertilizer and plant spacing had significant effect on growth and yield of onion. The highest yield was obtained from the spacing of 15 × 10 cm coupled with IPNS based fertilizer dose and the lowest yield was found in 15 × 15 cm spacing with farmers’ practice.
Who Can Explain the Mauritian Miracle: Meade, Romer, Sachs or Rodrik?

This paper examines different explanations--initial conditions, openness to trade and FDI, and institutions--of the Mauritian growth experience since the mid-1970s. We show that arguments based on openness to trade and FDI are either misleading or incomplete, and the transmission mechanism insufficiently identified. However, even when correctly articulated, openness appears to be a proximate rather than an underlying explanation for the Mauritian experience. The institution-based explanation offers greater promise. Ultimately, however, the econometric results indicate that existing explanations may be incomplete. Some idiosyncratic factors, particularly Mauritian diversity and the responses to managing it, may provide the missing pieces in the story of Mauritius's success.
The precessing jets of 1E 1740.7-2942

Context. 1E 1740.7-2942 is believed to be one of the two prototypical microquasars towards the Galactic center region whose X-ray states strongly resemble those of Cygnus X-1. Yet, the bipolar radio jets of 1E 1740.7-2942 are very reminiscent of a radio galaxy. The true nature of the object has thus remained an open question for nearly a quarter of a century. Aims. Our main goal here is to confirm the Galactic membership of 1E 1740.7-2942 by searching for morphological changes of its extended radio jets in human timescales. This work was triggered as a result of recent positive detection of fast structural changes in the large-scale jets of its 'twin' GRS 1758-258. Methods. We carried out an in-depth exploration of the VLA public archives and fully recalibrated all 1E 1740.7-2942 extended data sets in the C configuration of the array. We obtained and analyzed matching beam radio maps for five epochs, covering years 1992, 1993, 1994, 1997 and 2000, with an angular resolution of a few arcseconds. Results. We clearly detected structural changes in the arcminute jets of 1E 1740.7-2942 on timescales of roughly a year, which set a firm distance upper limit of 12 kpc. Moreover, a simple precessing model was simultaneously fitted to the five observing epochs available. The observed changes in the jet flow are strongly suggestive of a precession period of ~1.3 years. Conclusions. The fitting of the precession model to the data yields a distance of ~5 kpc. This value, and the observed changes, rule out any remaining doubts about the 1E 1740.7-2942 Galactic nature. To our knowledge, this microquasar is the second whose jet precession ephemeris become available after SS433. This kind of information is relevant to the physics of compact objects, since the genesis of the precession phenomenon occurs very close to the interplay region between the accretion disk and the compact object in the system.
Post-operative delirium: a review of diagnosis and treatment strategies

Delirium, a syndrome characterized by disturbances in consciousness and attention, is a serious post-operative complication. Medical professionals have been trying to manage delirium for the past 2,000 years, and yet the pathophysiology and the best treatment remain unclear. Failure to diagnose and adequately treat delirium creates harmful situations for patients. Delirium has been shown to be associated with longer lengths of stay, facility discharges, and increased mortality. The following review highlights what is currently known about post-operative delirium (POD) and ways to best manage it. This review will explore risk factors in both cardiac and noncardiac surgery, discuss risk stratification models, examine commonly used tools to diagnose delirium, and evaluate current evidence as it relates to possible ways to treat delirium. For patients experiencing POD, geriatric consultation and multi-component interventions have both been shown to reduce the incidence of delirium. Current literature does not support the use of antipsychotics, benzodiazepines, cholinesterase inhibitors, or melatonin in the management of POD. Finally, intraoperative dexmedetomidine has not been associated with lower rates of delirium, but its use postoperatively in the ICU has been linked to less delirium when compared to propofol. At this time, non-pharmacological measures remain the hallmark of treatment. Continued research in the best strategies for delirium management is needed.
UNEXPECTED HIGH BRIGHTNESS TEMPERATURE 140 PC FROM THE CORE IN THE JET OF 3C 120

We present 1.7, 5, 15, 22 and 43 GHz polarimetric multi-epoch Very Long Baseline Array observations of the radio galaxy 3C 120. The higher frequency observations reveal a new component, not visible before 2007 April, located 80 mas from the core (which corresponds to a deprojected distance of 140 pc), with a brightness temperature about 600 times higher than expected at such distances. This component (hereafter C80) is observed to remain stationary and to undergo small changes in its brightness temperature during more than two years of observations. A helical shocked jet model—and perhaps some flow acceleration—may explain the unusually high Tb of C80, but it seems unlikely that this corresponds to the usual shock that emerges from the core and travels downstream to the location of C80. It appears that some other intrinsic process in the jet, capable of providing a local burst in particle and/or magnetic field energy, may be responsible for the enhanced brightness temperature observed in C80, its sudden appearance in 2007 April, and apparent stationarity.
Identification through Heteroscedasticity: What If We Have the Wrong Form of Heteroscedasticity?

Abstract Klein and Vella (2010) and Lewbel (2012) respectively propose estimators that utilize the heteroscedasticity of the error terms to identify the coefficient of the endogenous regressor in a standard linear model, even when there are no exogenous excluded instruments. The assumptions on the form of heteroscedasticity are different for these two estimators, and whether they are robust to misspecification is an important issue because it is not straightforward how to justify which form of heteroscedasticity is true. This paper presents some simulation results for the finite-sample performance of the two estimators under various forms of heteroscedasticity. The results reveal that both estimators can be substantially biased when the form of heteroscedasticity is of the wrong type, meaning that they lack robustness to misspecification of the form of heteroscedasticity. Moreover, the J statistics of the over-identification test for the Lewbel (2012) estimator has low power under the wrong form of heteroscedasticity in the cases considered. The results suggest that it is not enough for researchers to justify only the existence of heteroscedasticity when using the proposed estimators.
How to make a tragedy: on the alleged effect of ethnicity on growth

This paper questions the line of reasoning followed by several authors, notably Easterly and Levine according to which ethno-linguistic fragmentation, because it leads to poor policies, is the main factor explaining the 'tragedy' of low African growth. A first set of criticism concerns the model itself and stresses that current empirical work is unable to convincingly identify the channels through which ethnic fragmentation affects growth: (i) polarization may be more relevant than fragmentation, (ii) the various tests of the effect of ethnicity on the quality of policy are far from being conclusive. A second set of remarks concerns the relevance of these studies to Africa: the African sub-sample is often quite limited, and the relationship is unstable (according to Chow tests). It actually appears that ethnicity has a more important effect on growth in Africa than elsewhere. This still needs to be explained and is not as such an explanation for lower African growth. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.