Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Implications of market microstructure for realized variance measurement

Volatility measuring and estimation based on intra-day high-frequency data has grown in popularity during the last few years. A significant part of the research uses volatility and variance measures based on the sum of squared high-frequency returns. These volatility measures, introduced and mathematically justified in a series of papers by Andersen et al. [1999. (Understanding, optimizing, using and forecasting) realized volatility and correlation. Leonard N. Stern School Finance Department Working Paper Series, 99-061, New York University; 2000a. The distribution of realized exchange rate volatility. Journal of the American Statistical Association 96, no. 453: 42–55; 2000b. Exchange rate returns standardized by realized volatility are (nearly) Gaussian. Multinational Finance Journal 4, no. 3/4: 159–179; 2003. Modeling and forecasting realized volatility. NBER Working Paper Series 8160. ] and Andersen et al. 2001a. Modeling and forecasting realized volatility. NBER Working Paper Series 8160. , are referred to as ‘realized variance’. From the theory of quadratic variations of diffusions, it is possible to show that realized variance measures, based on sufficiently frequently sampled returns, are error-free volatility estimates. Our objective here is to examine realized variance measures, where well-documented market microstructure effects, such as return autocorrelation and volatility clustering, are included in the return generating process. Our findings are that the use of squared returns as a measure for realized variance will lead to estimation errors on sampling frequencies adopted in the literature. In the case of return autocorrelation, there will be systematic biases. Further, we establish increased standard deviation in the error between measured and real variance as sampling frequency decreases and when volatility is non-constant.
Increased urinary nitric oxide oxidation products in children with active coeliac disease

Background: Nitric oxide (NO) production catalyzed by iNOS (inducible NO synthase) is thought to take place mainly in macrophages after activation by inflammatory mediators. NO is subsequently oxidized to nitrite and nitrate, which are excreted in urine. The concentration of inflammatory mediators in small bowel biopsy specimens from patients with coeliac disease is increased. The latter could induce increased NO production by stimulation of intestinal macrophage iNOS, resulting in high levels of urinary NO oxidation products, nitrite and nitrate (NOx). Aim: In the present study we evaluated the urinary NOx/creatinine ratios in children with active coeliac disease (n = 22), coeliac disease patients on a gluten‐free diet (n = 9), healthy (n=11) and sick control children (n = 18). Methods: The Griess reagent method was used for measuring urinary NOx. Results: Median NOx/creatinine ratios of active coeliac disease patients, coeliac disease patients on a gluten‐free diet, healthy and sick control patients were 1.21, 0.19, 0.10 and 0.13 mmol/mmol, respectively. All active coeliac disease patients showed increased NOx/ creatinine ratios. Urinary NOx/creatinine ratios of the active coeliac disease patients were significantly higher than those of healthy controls (p < 0.0001), sick controls (p < 0.0001) and coeliac disease patients on a gluten‐free diet (p < 0.0001). Conclusion: The urinary NOx/creatinine ratio is increased in patients with active coeliac disease and reverts to normal on a gluten‐free diet. □Coeliac disease, nitric oxide, urinary nitrate
Victoria: Rolling Back – or Reinventing – the Kennett Revolution?

The election of the Kennett government in 1992 heralded an era of unprecedented change in public sector employment and industrial relations in Victoria. The Employee Relations Act 1992 and the Public Sector Management Act 1992 redefined the public sector in Victoria and the relationship, both collective and individual, of public sector employees with government. In October 1999 the Kennett government unexpectedly lost office. But despite its pre-election rhetoric promising a return to more conventional arrangements, there is little indication that the Bracks government intends to significantly dismantle the Kennett legacy in public sector employment and industrial relations.
TRACING EVIDENCE OF RATIONAL INVESTOR BEHAVIOUR IN WATER MARKETS - REVISITED

With the National Water Initiative in place the Council of Australian Governments are actively pursuing the commoditisation of water entitlements. This will result in all water entitlements being separated from land ownership, and new water registers being established with the same features as the Torrens Title system for land. It is expected that this development will encourage the development of more sophisticated instruments and derivative products for water entitlements, products that will enable both a more speculative investment and trade in water products, as well as allowing water users to better manage the uncertainty associated with supply. Investors in real property make a capital investment hoping to derive a periodic cash-flow from rental and a capital gain after a reasonable holding period. Such an investment will yield a given return often expressed as an internal rate of return. In this paper we will deal with water entitlements in a similar manner. A water entitlement yields a seasonal allocation of water which can be use for irrigation or can be sold every year, just as a property can be leased. At the 2005 PRRES conference, we presented some initial analyses using this investment rationale, based on ten years of data from the Goulburn-Murray Irrigation District and some simple cash-flows (Bjornlund and Rossini, 2005). In this paper we extend these analyses with a longer time period of thirteen years and the use of more complex cash-flow analyses under different decision making scenarios as to when to sell the seasonal allocations. These scenarios include selling at the peak, trough and midpoint of the annual price cycle; selling water equally over the ten “water months”; selling water based on a naive forecast from the peak sales period in the previous year; and selling water during the six “high season” months based on seasonal indices. These analyses are used to assess returns that investors could have achieved through an investment in water entitlements. Long term cycle factor analyses are also discussed to determine the extent to which entitlement prices follow allocation prices over the longer term. Initial results from discounted cash flow analysis indicate that the returns from investments in water entitlements have become more stable as the market matures and that the returns are more comparable to other similar investments. Initial results from cycle factor analyses indicate that the movement in prices of water entitlements and allocations are reasonably synchronized and that the price fluctuation of allocation prices is about twice that of water entitlements.
Second Sourcing and the Experience Curve: Price Competition in Defense Procurement

We examine a dynamic model of price competition in defense procurement that incorporates the experience curve, asymmetric cost information, and the availability of a higher cost alternative system. We model acquisition as a two-stage process in which initial production is governed by a contract between the government and the developer. Competition is then introduced by an auction in which a second source bids against the developer for remaining production. We characterize the class of production contracts that are cost minimizing for the government and that induce the developer to reveal private cost information. When high costs are revealed, these contracts result in a credible cutoff of new system production in favor of the still higher cost alternative system.
Loss of GluN2B-Containing NMDA Receptors in CA1 Hippocampus and Cortex Impairs Long-Term Depression, Reduces Dendritic Spine Density, and Disrupts Learning

NMDA receptors (NMDARs) are key mediators of certain forms of synaptic plasticity and learning. NMDAR complexes are heteromers composed of an obligatory GluN1 subunit and one or more GluN2 (GluN2A–GluN2D) subunits. Different subunits confer distinct physiological and molecular properties to NMDARs, but their contribution to synaptic plasticity and learning in the adult brain remains uncertain. Here, we generated mice lacking GluN2B in pyramidal neurons of cortex and CA1 subregion of hippocampus. We found that hippocampal principal neurons of adult GluN2B mutants had faster decaying NMDAR-mediated EPSCs than nonmutant controls and were insensitive to GluN2B but not NMDAR antagonism. A subsaturating form of hippocampal long-term potentiation (LTP) was impaired in the mutants, whereas a saturating form of LTP was intact. An NMDAR-dependent form of long-term depression (LTD) produced by low-frequency stimulation combined with glutamate transporter inhibition was abolished in the mutants. Additionally, mutants exhibited decreased dendritic spine density in CA1 hippocampal neurons compared with controls. On multiple assays for corticohippocampal-mediated learning and memory (hidden platform Morris water maze, T-maze spontaneous alternation, and pavlovian trace fear conditioning), mutants were impaired. These data further demonstrate the importance of GluN2B for synaptic plasticity in the adult hippocampus and suggest a particularly critical role in LTD, at least the form studied here. The finding that loss of GluN2B was sufficient to cause learning deficits illustrates the contribution of GluN2B-mediated forms of plasticity to memory formation, with implications for elucidating NMDAR-related dysfunction in disease-related cognitive impairment.
Athletics versus Academics? Rejoining the Evidence from SAT Scores

The present paper provides statistical evidence of the positive role played by athletics within the mission of higher education. With data provided by the National Collegiate Athletic Association, the present study employs a superior measure of athletic success as advertising to that of previous studies, and provides evidence that basketball success at colleges and universities in the US aids these institutions in attracting quality students—who themselves are seeking the institution offering an optimal bundle of consumption and investment benefits with regard to human capital attainment. The evidence presented here supports previous studies which point out that athletics may indeed enhance the mission of a university
A Note on the Theory and Measurement of Trust in Explaining Differences in Economic Growth

This paper takes issue with the trend to attribute differences in economic growth rates to differences in interpersonal trust. I discuss the World Values Survey (WVS) measure that is used to operationalise trust at the macro level. I hypothesise that there is a mismatch between the theoretical argument and the empirical operationalisation of trust. Instead of measuring trust, the WVS measure may instead proxy the well-functioning of institutions. I provide circumstantial evidence for this thesis by a principal components analysis of trust and institutions and a robustness test of Zak and Knack's (2001. Trust and growth, Economic Journal, vol. 111, 295--321) seminal study on trust and economic growth. Copyright 2006, Oxford University Press.
Competencies associated with growth of women-led SMEs

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to identify the entrepreneurial competencies that women SME owners perceive to be important to the success of their business, and the competencies that women with high turnover growth rate deem important, and makes a comparison between the two sets of competencies. Design/methodology/approach – A questionnaire-based survey of female entrepreneurs in England and Wales collected data on those entrepreneurial competencies that women perceived to be important for their business, alongside key business performance measures, such as turnover growth rate. A ranking of the top ten competencies that women thought were important for success was generated; this ranking was compared with a list of four competencies identified as being important by those women whose businesses exhibited high business growth. Findings – All of the competencies perceived by the whole group to be important to the success of their business were personal and relational competencies. This is in stark c.
The Impact of Mergers and Acquisitions on the Efficiency of the U.S. Banking Industry: Further Evidence

Using the Stochastic Frontier Approach (SFA), this study investigates the cost and profit efficiency effects of bank mergers on the US banking industry. We also use the non-parametric technique of Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) to evaluate the production structure of merged and non-merged banks. The empirical results indicate that mergers have improved the cost and profit efficiencies of banks. Further, evidence shows that merged banks have lower costs than non-merged banks because they are using the most efficient technology available (technical efficiency) as well as a cost minimizing input mix (allocative efficiency). The results suggest that there is an economic rational for future mergers in the banking industry. Finally, mergers may allow the banking industry to take advantage of the opportunities created by improved technology. Copyright 2007 The Authors Journal compilation (c) 2007 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
Dynamic linkages between housing and lot prices: Empirical evidence from Helsinki

The price of vacant land zoned for housing is expected to be tightly linked to housing prices. In informationally efficient markets, vacant lot price movements should not lag changes in housing prices. In practice, however, the leading role of housing appreciation with respect to vacant lot price growth may be caused by factors such as thin trading and lack of publicly available data on transactions in the lot market. Based on a vector error-correction model employing quarterly data from the Helsinki Metropolitan Area over 1988Q1-2008Q2, this study shows that housing price movements lead price changes in the market for vacant lots and housing prices react to shocks in the demand side fundamentals more rapidly than lot prices. Overall, the empirical results give support to the hypothesis that house prices respond to shocks influencing the value of developed land first, after which the price level of vacant lots reacts to the information revealed by housing prices. Hence, the results indicate that the market for lots is more informationally inefficient than the housing market. Furthermore, the empirical findings suggest that construction costs too react to income and interest rate shocks.
The Role of Financial, Macroeconomic, and Non-financial Information in Bank Loan Default Timing Prediction

We assess the use of bank loan information in predicting the timing to default. We use unique data on defaults in small and medium enterprises maintained by the Central Bank of Portugal which includes financial accounting and macroeconomic indicators, as well as non-financial information. The findings are indicative of the incremental predictive ability of non-financial information over and above macroeconomic and financial accounting information in the baseline, industry, and in- and out-of-sample models. Specifically, total credit secured by firms is, as expected, negatively and significantly related to default. Gross domestic product is negatively and significantly related to default, and benchmark market rate is positively and significantly associated with default. The findings also reveal that firms which are operated by partners, which have stronger financial support from partners, and which possess operational assets exhibit lower hazards of default. The study indicates that non-financial information and macroeconomic indicators assessed alongside financial accounting data can significantly improve the forecasting performance of default models.
Financial Development and Economic Growth: An Egg‐and‐Chicken Problem?

This study uses a Granger causality procedure to investigate the relationship between financial development and economic growth. The authors estimate a vector autoregression (VAR) model for nine OECD countries and China. They argue that a time-series approach is superior to a cross-sectional one and that the VAR framework avoids technical problems common in other time-series models. Evidence is presented of bidirectional causality between financial development and growth in half of the countries and reverse causality in three others. There is little support for the hypothesis that finance "leads" growth, and caution must be exercised in making general conclusions about this relationship. Copyright 2001 by Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
Workers, Workplaces and Working Hours

This article uses the British Workplace Employee Relations Survey 1998 dataset to evaluate the importance of firm-level factors in determining weekly hours of work in Britain, to analyse the amount of variation of hours within firms, and to assess whether workers are sorted into firms on the basis of hours. Nearly a third of the explained variation in weekly hours of work can be ascribed to firm-level differences, which are unrelated to any observed worker characteristics. Firm-level 'policies' are especially important in the private-services sector. A further 40 per cent of variance can be attributed to the effect within firms of different occupation, skills and family characteristics. Finally, about a quarter of the explained variation in working hours is due to a sorting process of workers to firms, especially on the basis of skill and occupation. Copyright Blackwell Publishing Ltd/London School of Economics 2007.
Tiebout Bias and the Demand for Local Public Schooling

Until recently, estimates of demand functions for public goods were obtained (either with aggregate or micro survey data) using single equation estimation techniques. However, demand estimates may be biased when in dividuals' choices of communities are dependent upon the quantity and quality of public good provided. This paper spells out the nature of this bias (called Tiebout bias) and suggests an improved maximum-likelihood estimation technique. The technique is applied to a data set involving local public education in Michigan. Copyright 1987 by MIT Press.
Signalling and Screening

This major Handbook comprehensively surveys the rapidly growing field of the economics of education. It is unique in that it comprises original contributions on an exceptional range of topics from a review of human capital, signalling and screening models, to consideration of issues such as educational externalities and economic growth, funding models, determinants of educational success, the educational production function, educational standards and efficiency measurement. Labour market issues such as the market for teachers and the transition of students from school to work are also explored.
Synthesis and Antimicrobial Activities of Some Isocoumarin and Dihydroisocoumarin Derivatives

A new series of the isocoumarin derivatives of ibuprofen, fluribiprofen, naproxen, valproic acid and 1-naphthoic acid have been synthesized via condensation of homophthalic acid with their respective acid chlorides. The conversion of the latter two isocoumarins into ( dl )-3,4-dihydroisocoumarins has also been achieved. Most of the synthesized compounds showed antifungal and antibacterial activities.
The gradual transformation? The incremental dynamics of macroprudential regulation

This article focuses on the transformatory potential of macroprudential ideas following the financial crash of 2008, examining how they are being mediated by existing institutional contexts and how and why the task of building a new body of technical macroprudential knowledge is proceeding slowly. It is argued that the movement toward a form of macroprudential regulation has a distinctly incremental dynamic that means any macroprudential transformation will be a gradual process that is likely to span a decade or more. Using Peter Hall’s framework of three orders of policy change across substantive and temporal dimensions, the article argues that the macroprudential ideational shift can be compared to third order change. In this sense, it was intellectually radical and took place rapidly in a period of around six months. However, intellectual radicalism does not automatically translate into a radical change in regulatory practice,because of a variety of countervailing political, institutional, and informational variables. In this respect, the task of developing first and second order macroprudential policy is proving to be a much more politically contested process. Furthermore, macroprudential policy is being developed by cautious technocrats who rely on the gradual accumulation of data and evidence to justify policy. The result is a distinctly incremental dynamic to macroprudential policy development that displays many of the features of a process that historical institutionalists refer to as “layering. ”
Effect of progesterone combined with chemotherapy on epithelial ovarian cancer.

OBJECTIVE To identify an effective auxiliary therapy for epithelial ovarian cancer. METHODS Progesterone acetate given at 250 mg intramuscularly twice a week for 1 month followed by increased administration to 500 mg intramuscularly every two weeks for 3 years was used in combination with platinum based chemotherapy to treat patients with epithelial ovarian cancer as a first-line therapy. Prognoses of the patients receiving progesterone combined with chemotherapy (progesterone group) and those receiving chemotherapy only (control group) were compared. RESULTS Three-year recurrence and survival conditions of the progesterone and control groups were as follows. Stage Ia: no patient relapsed or died in either group. Stage Ib-Ic: three-year recurrence rates were 14.2% and 37.5%, respectively (P = 0.2845); three-year survival rates were 92.3% and 87.5% (P = 0.7221). Stage II: 1 patient relapsed and died among the 3 patients in the progesterone group; among the 4 patients in the control group, 1 patient relapsed, none died. Stage III: three-year recurrence rates were 30.8% and 64.3%, respectively (P = 0.1170); three-year survival rates were 85.7% and 42.9%, respectively (P = 0.005). Stage IV: 4 patients relapsed and 1 patient died among the 7 patients in the progesterone group; both the patients in the control group relapsed and died. CONCLUSIONS The results indicated that progesterone combined with platinum based chemotherapy as a first-line therapy may improve the prognosis of advanced epithelial ovarian cancer, but would not change the prognosis of early stage epithelial ovarian cancer.
ON HYPERBOLIC TIME DISCOUNTING IN EXHAUSTIBLE RESOURCE MODELS: AN APPLICATION TO WORLD OIL RESOURCES

ABSTRACT. Recent research on discounting in long term economic models involves hyperbolic discounting, in which the marginal discount rate shrinks as time passes. To investigate hyperbolic discounting and exhaustible resource allocation, this work develops a discrete‐time world oil model and model solution procedure, then uses the model to examine the consequences of adopting conventional (constant annual) discounting when hyperbolic discounting is appropriate, of adopting one hyperbolic discount rate path when a different hyperbolic path is appropriate, and of adopting hyperbolic discounting when conventional discounting is appropriate. Five conventional and two hyperbolic discount rate paths are considered. One hyperbolic path is that used by Nordhaus and Boyer [2000]; the other is that recommended by Weitzman [2001]. The generality of the findings is also assessed.