Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Competition Effects and Industrial Productivity:  Lessons from Japanese Industry*

This study mainly investigates the causal relation between the degree of competition, which is measured by the Lerner index, and the total factor productivity (TFP) growth rate on the basis of the Japanese industry-level panel data from 1980 to 2008. While the main finding uncovers a positive effect of competition on the TFP growth rate in manufacturing industries throughout the sample period, 1980–2008, the observed effect for non-manufacturing industries at this time is slightly negative. This unique finding of a negative competition effect suggests that the Schumpeterian hypothesis may be applicable in non-manufacturing industries.
The Role of Donations in Quality Disclosure: Evidence from Nonprofit Nursing Homes

This paper uses a quality disclosure policy—the Nursing Home Quality Initiative, which mandates the public reporting of quality information on selected dimensions—to investigate how nonprofit nursing homes react to economic incentives. The study finds that nonprofits are as responsive as for-profits to quality disclosure: quality improves along the reported dimensions and diminishes along the unreported ones. Further tests show that nonprofits may respond to donations and fail to mimic for-profits when competing with them. These findings suggest that donor response may be the motive for nonprofits to respond to quality disclosure in the same way as for-profit alternatives.
Algonquian Languages Have A-Movement and A-Agreement

Ritter and Rosen (2005) claim that Algonquian languages lack A-movement and A-binding, and they theorize that all agreement in Algonquian is agreement with -positions. I show that this proposal cannot be maintained, given facts of quantifier scope in Passamaquoddy. These facts require recognizing a step of A-movement to a derived A-position, comparable to Spec, TP in languages like English. I further contrast this movement with the movement involved in crossclausal agreement (Branigan and MacKenzie 2002) and show that the two differ in exactly the ways that A-movement and -movement differ. Algonquian languages clearly have A-movement as distinct from -movement.
Varying Heterogeneity among U.S. Firms: Facts and Implications

Abstract U.S. firms' stock return volatility rose fivefold from 1971 through 2000 and then reverted to near 1971 levels by 2006. This was driven mainly by a rise and fall in the firm-specific, rather than systematic, component of volatility. Firm-level total factor productivity growth volatility exhibited a similar pattern. We hypothesize that firm heterogeneity, reflected in firm-specific volatility, rises as a new general purpose technology (GPT) propagates across the economy and then ebbs once the GPT is widespread. Measuring GPT adoption by information technology capital intensity, we find robust cross-industry empirical evidence supporting the hypothesis.
Globalization and Domestic Operations: Applying the JC/JD Method to Japanese Manufacturing Firms*

Does outward foreign direct investment accelerate de-industrialization at home or generate domestic jobs and operations? This paper applies the job creation (JC)/destruction (JD) method to micro data of Japanese manufacturing firms and provides a bird's eye view of the dynamism of globalizing firms in terms of domestic employment, domestic establishments, domestic affiliates, exports, and imports. It examines gross and net changes in domestic operations by multinational enterprises (MNEs) that expand operations abroad (expanding MNEs), compared with non-expanding MNEs and local firms, for the periods of 1998–2002, 2002–06, 2006–08, and 2008–10. It also conducts the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test to investigate whether the changes in domestic operations and trade by expanding MNEs are larger than those by other firm types. Major findings are the following: (1) gross changes in domestic employment and domestic operations are much larger than net changes, showing restructuring dynamism and firm heterogeneity; (2) de-industrialization or the shrinkage of the manufacturing sector is not relevant except for the period 1998–2002, though a slight declining trend in manufacturing activities is observed in recent years; (3) expanding multinational small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) tends to enlarge domestic employment and domestic operations, compared with other types of SMEs; (4) expanding MNEs intensify headquarters activities; and (5) expanding multinational SMEs are likely to expand exports and imports more than other types of SMEs.
Production Networks and Trade Patterns in East Asia: Regionalization or Globalization?

This paper examines the implications of global production sharing for economic integration in East Asia with emphasis on the behavior of trade flows in the wake of the 2008 global financial crisis. Although trade in parts and components and final assembly within production networks (network trade) has generally grown faster than total world trade in manufacturing, the degree of dependence of East Asia on this new form of international specialization is proportionately larger than elsewhere in the world. Network trade has certainly strengthened economic interdependence among countries in the region with the People's Republic of China playing a pivotal role as the premier center of final assembly. However, contrary to popular belief, this has not lessened the dependence of the export dynamism of these countries on the global economy. This inference is basically consistent with the behavior of trade flows following the onset of the global financial crisis.
Images and Imaginations: An Exploration of Nanotechnology Image Galleries

ABSTRACT Throughout the brief history of nanoscience and nanotechnology, the prominence of digital images and animations is noteworthy. Many appear in online image galleries that provide an important public interface for presenting and promoting scientific research. In this essay, the authors examine a selection of images from image galleries, identify some of their features and functions, and discuss how the artistic and scientific conventions used to present these images define nanotechnology for both researchers and members of the broader public.
Too Many Notes: Computers, Complexity and Culture in Voyager

The author discusses his computer music composition, Voyager, which employs a computer-driven, interactive & virtual improvising orchestra that analyzes an improvisor's performance in real time, generating both complex responses to the musician's playing and independent behavior arising from the program's own internal processes. The author contends that notions about the nature and function of music are embedded in the structure of software-based music systems and that interactions with these systems tend to reveal characteristics of the community of thought and culture that produced them. Thus, Voyager is considered as a kind of computer music-making embodying African-American aesthetics and musical practices.
The Reviewof Economicsand Statistics

Performance may enhance survival probability. When it does, the induced lack of randomness challenges robust and unbiased inference. If survivors are sorted into two groups based on past performance, spurious persistence has been demonstrated if variance in performance is heterogeneous. However, as we show both theoretically and with simulations, if performance is categorized finely, the spurious persistence will be J-shaped; that is, at the bottom better performance in one period ‘‘predicts’’ worse performance for another period. We propose a simple t-test applied to the quadratic coefficient in a regression to distinguish between a spurious J-shape and monotonic patterns. Mutual funds, our example, exhibit the monotonically increasing pattern produced by true performance persistence.
Monetary Policy when Interest Rates Are Bounded at Zero

This paper assesses the importance of the zero lower bound on nominal interest rates for the interest-rate channel of monetary policy. We simulate several interest-rate setting policy rules with either high or low inflation targets. We determine the extent to which the zero bound prevents real rates from falling, thus cushioning aggregate output in response to negative spending shocks. For small temporary and large permanent shocks, the output path with zero inflation lies modestly below that for higher inflation. For large shocks persisting a few quarters, differences in output paths across high- and low-inflation scenarios can be larger.
The U.S. Business Cycle, 1867–2006: A Dynamic Factor Approach

Abstract We estimate a Stock/Watson index of economic activity to assess U.S. business cycle volatility since 1867. We replicate the Great Moderation of the 1980s and 1990s and find exceptionally low volatility also in the Golden Age of the 1960s. Postwar moderation relative to pre-1914 occurs under constant but not time-varying factor loadings, suggesting structural change toward more volatile sectors. For comparable series, the U.S. postwar business cycle was as volatile overall as under the Classical Gold Standard, but much less so during the Great Moderation and the Golden Age.
Approximating Exogenous Variation in R&D: Evidence from the Kentucky and North Carolina SBIR State Match Programs

Abstract This paper exploits policy discontinuities at U.S. state borders to examine the effect of R&D investments on innovative projects. We examine the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) State Match program, which offers noncompetitive grants to federally awarded SBIR Phase I projects that are eligible to compete for Phase II. Results from SBIR activity (2002–2010) indicate heterogeneous treatment effects. Notably, the positive differential effects are moderated by firms within the science and health fields and with less previous SBIR success. The State Match effectively stabilized Phase II trends in contrast to neighboring states that experienced greater declines from the concurrent recession.
Inequality and Institutions

This paper presents theory and evidence on the relationship between inequality and institutional quality. We exhibit a model in which the two may dynamically reinforce each other and set to test this relationship with a broad array of institutional measures. The double causality between institutional strength and a more equal distribution of income is empirically established using dynamic panel and linear feedback analysis.
Screen Twice, Cut Once: Assessing the Predictive Validity of Applicant Selection Tools

Despite their widespread use, there is little academic evidence on whether applicant selection instruments can improve teacher hiring. We examine the relationship between two screening instruments used by Spokane Public Schools to select classroom teachers and three teacher outcomes: value added, absences, and attrition. We observe all applicants to the district (not only those who are hired), allowing us to estimate sample selection-corrected models using random tally errors and variation in the level of competition across job postings as instruments. Ratings on the screening instruments significantly predict value added in math and teacher attrition, but not absences—an increase of one standard deviation in screening scores is associated with an increase of about 0.06 standard deviations of student math achievement, and a decrease in teacher attrition of 3 percentage points. Hence the use of selection instruments appears to be a key means of improving the quality of the teacher workforce.
Determinants of Dividend Policy: A Study About the Impact of Changing Firm Characteristics on Dividend Payout Ratios

There have been many studies in the past which have studied the relationship between dividend policy of a firm its characteristics. This study builds upon these and extends the research to publicly traded, North American firms in the past 30-year time period (1989-2019). The key question that this research paper aims to answer is which, if any, firm characteristics have any causal relationship with the dividend payout ratio of the firm. This study also looks at the appearing and disappearing phenomenon of cash dividends in the past 30 years and aims to reconcile the changing characteristics of the firms to this phenomenon. This is done by creating sub-periods within the dataset and observing the changing characteristics of the firms and the possible impact on the dividend payout ratios of the firms. It was found that size and liquidity produce statistically significant results in terms of having some relationship the dividend payout ratios of the firms. After performing the Granger-Causality test, it was determined that only liquidity of the firm has some causal relationship with the dividend payout ratio of a firm.
Workers beneath the Floodgates: Low-Wage Import Competition and Workers’ Adjustment

Abstract Using employee-employer matched data, I analyze the impact of a low-wage trade shock on manufacturing workers in a high-wage country, Denmark, and how they adjust to the shock over a decade. I derive causal effects by exploiting the dismantling of the Multifiber Arrangement quotas on products from China upon its WTO accession as a quasi-natural experiment and use within-industry, within-occupation heterogeneity in workers’ exposure to this shock. I find significant negative long-run effects on earnings and employment trajectories and identify job instability in the service sector as a main adjustment friction, concentrated among workers with manufacturing-specific education and occupation. The results establish the importance of specific human capital in trade adjustment and provide evidence of skill upgrading as workers rebuild lost human capital through education.
Rethinking Design Education for the 21st Century: Theoretical, Methodological, and Ethical Discussion

A New Worldview? Even the most cursory look at recent literature and production in design would be sufficient to reach the conclusion that the general landscape is safe, quiet, and serene. It is, therefore, not really original to claim that we are in a period of necessary change, be it in design education, practice, or research. Although the reasons invoked in support of this diagnosis may vary considerably, they generally are considered to reside within the field of design itself. For instance, Hugues Boekraad and Joost Smiers mention "the disturbing effect of product engineering and marketing on design and the visual arts" as the main issue to be addressed currently. ' This problem is, without doubt, a central concern today, but it can be considered as a symptom of a wider issue to which all other professions also are confronted: engineering, medicine, education, social work, law, etc., as if in its very foundations, contemporary practical philosophy were in crisis. In other words, one is bound to conclude that the reasons for the current situation in design are to be found mainly outside of the field of design. This explains the very wide-and, to some extend quite ambitious and pretentiousscope of this essay. I do not think it necessary to dwell too long on the diagnosis of our current situation. Let me just say that I tend to agree with the idea that we are in a paradigm shift, although I don't necessary share all the analyses and reports which have been made on this quite controversial topic. Our current paradigm; by that I mean the shared beliefs according to which our educational, political, technological, scientific, legal, and social systems function without these beliefs ever being questioned, or discussed, or even explicitated, this paradigm may be-and indeed has been-characterized in various ways. For my part, I retain the following main characteristics: its materialistic underlying metaphysics; its positivistic methods of inquiry; and its agnosticist, dualistic worldview. There is no reason why the disciplines of design would escape the influence of this general framework. Indeed, all the drifts one is witnessing today in design can be attributed to one or all of H. Boekraad and J. Smiers, "The new academy," European Joumal of Arts Education 11: 1 (Nov. '98): 60-65. This text actually is a manifesto calling for the foundation of a "new academy" of arts and design. The manifesto was launched as a working paper at the European League of Institutes of the Arts (ELIA)
Coordination of Verbs and Two Types of Verbal Inflection

The author provides new evidence based on coordination of verbs concerning the analysis of verbal inflection in English and Japanese. The evidence supports the idea that whereas English finite verbs are fully inflected when entering syntactic derivation, Japanese verbs and their inflectional morphemes are separated in syntax and are merged in the phonological component. If so, Universal Grammar has both types of verbal inflection available for particular languages to employ
DP is Not a Scope Island

This squib is concerned with inverse linking constructions. May (1977) introduced this term for cases where a quantificational DP occurs inside another DP and takes wider scope than the containing DP. In this squib, I argue that May's (1977) TP-adjunction analysis of inverse linking is required, which entails that DP cannot be an island for QR. Specifically, I show that the inversely linked (or contained) QP can take scope separate from the containing QP when scope relative to a scope-taking verb or scope relative to negation is considered.
Helping Consumers Use Nutrition Information: Effects of Format and Presentation

Recent policy efforts aimed at curbing obesity rates in the United States have focused primarily on mandated posting of calorie information. However, the research to date suggests that such interventions have relatively little impact on consumer choices. This paper explores whether alternative approaches to communicating nutrition information might increase its impact on consumer choice as well as whether the presence of calorie information affects the effectiveness of other policy approaches. Study 1 tests a variety of methods for conveying nutrition information to promote choice of lower-calorie snack items, including basic numerical information, contextualized numeric information, and heuristic cues such as traffic lights and letter grades. Results suggest that using heuristic cues to communicate the information holds special promise for changing behavior. Study 2 examines the interactive impact of calorie labeling and choice architecture (presenting options in caloric sequence), and shows that calorie information has a beneficial impact, but only when organization of snacks by caloric content facilitates use of the information. These results speak to the importance of understanding how combinations of policy approaches can trigger nonobvious consumer responses, activating different psychological processes when implemented together or individually. They suggest that novel policies to enhance the effectiveness of existing legislation deserve further investigation.
Striving for No: Saudi Arabia in the Climate Change Regime

The international relations literature often assumes that negotiators in global regimes are actively seeking a collective agreement to the problem on the table. There are cases, however, where a delegation may instead be striving for no, that is, participating with the aim of obstructing a deal. This article explores the challenges surrounding such cases of obstructionism, using the example of Saudi Arabia in the climate change regime. It examines the evidence for diagnosing Saudi Arabia as an obstructionist in that regime, the delegation's negotiating tactics, strategies for addressing obstructionism, and finally the repercussions for both the climate change regime, and Saudi Arabia itself. In conclusion, the article considers whether Saudi Arabia may be moving beyond obstruction.
Performance in Mixed-Sex and Single-Sex Competitions: What We Can Learn from Speedboat Races in Japan

Abstract In speedboat racing in Japan, men and women compete under the same conditions and are randomly assigned to mixed-sex or single-sex groups for each race. We use a sample of over 140,000 individual-level records to examine how male-dominated circumstances affect women’s racing performance. Our fixed-effects estimates reveal that women’s race time is slower in mixed-sex than all-women races, whereas men’s race time is faster in mixed-sex than men-only races. The same result is found for place in race. Moreover, in mixed-sex races, men are more aggressive, as proxied by lane changing, than women in spite of the risk of being penalized for rule infringement.
The Entry and Exit of Workers and the Growth of Employment: An Analysis of French Establishments

Using data that permit a distinction between flows of workers (directly measured) and job creation and destruction (again, directly measured), we develop employment and job flow statistics for a representative sample of French establishments from 1987 to 1990. Annual job creation can be characterized as hiring three persons and separating two for each job created in a given year. Annual job destruction can be characterized as hiring one person and separating two for each job destroyed in a given year. When an establishment is changing employment, the adjustment is made primarily by reducing entry and not by changing the separation rates. There is considerable simultaneous hiring and separation, even controlling for skill group. Two-thirds of all hiring is on short-term contracts, and more than half of all separations are due to the end of these short-term contracts.
Is the Effect of Competition on Price Dispersion Nonmonotonic? Evidence from the U.S. Airline Industry

Abstract We investigate the effect of competition on price dispersion in the airline industry. Using panel data from 1993 to 2008, we find a nonmonotonic effect of competition on price dispersion. An increase in competition is associated with greater price dispersion in concentrated markets but with less price dispersion in competitive markets—an inverse-U relationship. Our empirical findings are consistent with an oligopolistic second-degree price discrimination model and encompass contradictory findings in the literature.
More Choice, Less Crime

Previous research debates whether public school choice improves students' academic outcomes, but there is little examination of its effects on their nonacademic outcomes. We use data from a nationally representative sample of high school students, a previously developed Tiebout choice measure, and metropolitan-level data on teenage arrest rates to examine how public school choice affects students' propensity to be arrested or to join a gang. Adolescents in metropolitan areas with more public school choice are less likely to be associated with criminal activity, suggesting that the benefits of public school choice extend outside the classroom.
Getting Religion? The Puzzling Case of Islam and Civil War

From 1940 to 2000, Islam was involved in a disproportionately high number of civil wars compared with other religions, such as Christianity or Hinduism. To help explain the overrepresentation of Islam in these wars, this article introduces a theory of “religious outbidding. ” The theory holds that embattled political elites will tender religious bids when they calculate that increasing their religious legitimacy will strengthen their chances of survival. In combination with three overlapping factors—the historical absence of an internecine religious civil war similar to the Thirty Years’ War in Europe, proximity of Islam's holiest sites to Israel and large petroleum reserves, and jihad (i.e., defense of Islam as a religious obligation), religious outbidding accounts for Islam's higher representation in religious civil wars. The article includes a statistical analysis of the role of religion in civil wars and tests the logic of the argument of religious outbidding in the case of Sudan's two civil wars.