Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Competition and Selection in Health Insurance Markets

Competition in US health insurance markets is low and has declined in recent years. Insufficient competition is often assumed to increase plan premiums or decrease benefit quality, but the latter has been difficult to establish empirically. Moreover, why health insurance competition is so low is poorly understood. As recent health insurance expansions rely on private insurers to provide coverage, understanding why health insurance competition is low and how this affects consumers is important for policy. Paper 1 tests for a relationship between insurer competition and health plan benefit generosity. I examine the impact of a regulatory change that led to the cancellation of 40% of the private plans participating in the Medicare program. I isolate the causal effect of cancellation using variation induced by insurers who removed all plans nationally. Insurers in markets affected by cancellation responded by reducing benefit generosity. In the average market, out-of-pocket costs for a representative beneficiary increased by about $130 per year. Tests of possible mechanisms suggest that insurers primarily responded to changes in competition, rather than the policy’s direct costs or anticipated changes in enrollees’ health risks. In the least competitive markets, out-of-pocket costs increased by more than $200 a year, while in markets with the most substitutes for cancelled plans, benefit generosity barely changed. These findings have crucial implications for markets such as health insurance exchanges, as they suggest health plan quality is degraded when competition is insufficient.
Trust in the Justice Administration: Is it Dependent on the Economic Cycle and on Decentralization?

Trust in the justice administration conditions the sustainability of the very rule of law, and can even promote interpersonal trust and, hence, social capital. Inferring its determinants, which is what I seek to do for the Spanish case, is therefore of paramount importance. I find that the level of trust is dependent on the economic cycle (with evidence of anticyclicality) and independent of whether the service provision is decentralized. These outcomes suggest that citizens expect the justice administration to play a positive role in insuring them against a negative economic shock, unless the economic downturn is particularly marked, while they do not expect—independently of the state of the economy—decentralization to improve performance (or are unaware of which tier of government is responsible for its provision). Finally, we obtain indirect evidence that trust would be strengthened if the resolution rate in the civil jurisdiction were to increase substantially (by around 25%), while in the criminal jurisdiction this margin of improvement is moderate.
DNA sequence support for a close phylogenetic relationship between some storks and New World vultures

Nucleotide sequences from the mitochondrial cytochrome b gene were used to address a controversial suggestion that New World vultures are related more closely to storks than to Old World vultures. Phylogenetic analyses of 1-kb sequences from 18 relevant avian species indicate that the similarities in morphology and behavior between New World and Old World vultures probably manifest convergent adaptations associated with carrion-feeding, rather than propinquity of descent. Direct sequence evidence for a close phylogenetic alliance between at least some New World vultures and storks lends support to conclusions reached previously from DNA.DNA hybridization methods and detailed morphology-based appraisals, and it illustrates how mistaken assumptions of homology for organismal adaptations can compromise biological classifications. However, there was a lack of significant resolution for most other branches in the cytochrome b phylogenetic reconstructions. This irresolution is most likely attributable to a close temporal clustering of nodes, rather than to ceiling effects (mutational saturation) producing an inappropriate window of resolution for the cytochrome b sequences.
UWB Localization System for Indoor Applications: Concept, Realization and Analysis

A complete impulse-based ultrawideband localization demonstrator for indoor applications is presented. The positioning method, along with the method of positioning error predicting, based on scenario geometry, is described. The hardware setup, including UWB transceiver and time measurement module, as well as the working principles is explained. The system simulation, used as a benchmark for the quality assessment of the performed measurements, is presented. Finally, the measurement results are discussed. The precise analysis of potential error sources in the system is conducted, based on both simulations and measurement. Furthermore, the methods, how to improve the average accuracy of 9 cm by including the influences of antennas and signaldetection threshold level, are made. The localization accuracy, resulting from those corrections, is 2.5 cm.
Serum Iron and TIBC Parameters in Chronic Liver Disease

To assess and compare the significance of serum iron and TIBC in patients with chronic liver disease and also comparision between alcoholic and non alcoholic CLD. The study was conducted J.A. Group of Hospital during the period of June 2013 to November 2014 and about 100 patients of chronic liver disease were selected in random from patients coming to department of general medicine OPD and ward patients. The study of 100 patients with chronic liver diseases, which were examined for frequency and correlation between elevated liver enzymes, haematological parameters, ultrasound diagnosed features of chronic liver disease and indices of iron. Mean TIBC in Child Pugh class C was 276.03 + 33.48 (p value 0.00001). TIBC was higher significantly in non alcoholic CLD patients 335.47±35.91 (p value <0.00001). Mean serum iron in Child Pugh class C was 129.03 + 51.53 which was significantly higher than rest of group. Child Pugh class A has serum iron mean 82.33 + 26.59. Serum iron was significantly higher in alcoholic CLD patients 143.73±16.21 (p value <0.0001). Serum iron increased and TIBC decreased with increasing disease severity according to Child Pugh score. So there is good correlation of severity of CLD with serum iron and TIBC. In our study these changes are more in alcoholic group.
An Asymptotic Solution for Sealed Bid Common-Value Auctions with Bidders Having Asymmetric Information

We investigate a first-price common-value auction where bidders have asymmetric information about an item of unknown value. We compute the unique Nash equilibrium when the bidders are constrained to translation-invariant bid functions. Further, this profile of bid functions is also an asymptotic Nash equilibrium (without the constraint on the bidders' strategies) as the a priori distribution of the true value becomes increasingly diffuse. All bidders have positive expected profits at equilibrium. In the second-price analogue with two bidders there is a continuum of Nash equilibria in which both bidders have positive expected profits. Journal of Economic Literature Classification Number: C7.
Sustaining State Welfare in Hard Times: Who Will Foot the Bill?

Recent studies of how European welfare systems are responding to current pressures agree that welfare states display remarkable resilience. They are being reformed rather than dismantled. New policies are concerned to contain costs and to promote activation, stressing the contribution of welfare to economic competitiveness. Will people support cost constraint? This paper analyses attitude survey data from the 1980s and 1990s to show that approval of the main welfare services is high, but, in contrast to the findings of earlier studies, there is now some evidence of declining support. Attitudes are not structured according to the accounts of the ‘new politics’ of welfare (which imply that each regime will produce its own pattern of interests in relation to the groups whose interests are entrenched by current arrangements) but reflect broad lines of income, age and gender, cross-cutting national differences. There is little support for cuts in social services, but an equally low level of willingness to pay the extra taxes and social contributions required to maintain current standards of provision in the face of rising pressures on welfare. An agenda of activation is likely to prove more acceptable politically than one of cost constraint in all regimes. The implication is that European welfare states face a straitened future, between increasing demands and constrained resources, which may lead public opinion support to dwindle further.
Presidential Politics, Stocks, Bonds, Bills, and Inflation

Several studies show no significant difference in stock market performance between Republican and Democratic presidential administrations. While the authors confirm this finding for an index of large-capitalization stocks, they find that small-capitalization stocks perform Insignificantly better during Democratic administrations (an annual return difference of over 20%). The authors also present new evidence that the debt market performs significantly better during Republican administrations. In fact, on average, they find that real returns to debt during the 1929 through 1996 period have been negative.
Analysis of Matrix-Dependent Cell Migration with a Barrier Migration Assay

Removable plastic barriers allow quantification of cell migration without damaging either the surface proteins or the cells. Cell migration plays a pivotal role in many biological processes and is modulated by cytokines and growth factors. In vivo, cells are embedded in an extracellular matrix (ECM). ECM proteins are linked to the cellular cytoskeleton by integrin adhesion receptors, which transmit extracellular signals into the cell, thereby affecting cell adhesion and migration as well as gene expression. We describe a cell migration assay that uses a barrier device to separate the cells. The assay enables quantification of the migration of adherent cells on defined matrix proteins and the ability to evaluate migration-associated characteristics of individual cells. Thus, the barrier cell migration assay is a useful tool for exploring matrix-dependent migration of adherent cells.
The effect of financial liberalization on the efficiency of Turkish commercial banks

To investigate the effects of post-1980 financial liberalization policies on the economic efficiency of Turkish commercial banks at the micro level, a nonparametric frontier methodology is applied. The distinguishing feature of this model is its capability in addressing simultaneously the developments in economic efficiency and returns to scale in a consistent fashion. The results show that financial reform seems to have succeeded in stimulating the commercial banks not only to take measures that would enhance technical and allocative efficiency, but also to go through necessary scale adjustments in order to achieve optimal scale.
Reliability-Relevance Trade-Offs and the Efficiency of Aggregation

This paper studies how an accountant's method of aggregating information in a financial report is affected by differences in the reliability and relevance of components of the report. We study a firm that hires an accountant to produce a report that reveals information to investors regarding the returns to the firm's past investments. In constructing the report, the accountant must combine information elicited from the firm's manager with other information directly observable to the accountant. The manager's information is assumed to be directly observable only by the manager and to be of superior quality to the other information available to the accountant. Reliability-relevance trade-offs arise because as the accountant places more weight on the manager's report, potentially more useful information gets included in the report, at the cost of encouraging the manager to distort his or her information to a greater extent. Capital market participants anticipate this behavior and price the firm accordingly. We show how the market's price response to the release of the firm's aggregate report, the efficiency of the firm's investment decisions, and the manager's incentives to manipulate the soft information under his or her control are all affected by-and affect-the aggregation procedure the accountant adopts. In addition, we identify a broad range of circumstances under which aggregated reports are strictly more efficient than disaggregated reports because aggregation tempers the manager's misreporting incentives. We also demonstrate that, as any given component of the aggregated accounting report becomes softer, the equilibrium level of the firm's investment diminishes and the market places greater weight on the remaining components of the report. Copyright University of Chicago on behalf of the Institute of Professional Accounting, 2004.
Convergence Among the Submarkets in Australian Regional Building and Construction Sector

Studies on market convergence are well considered in the literature. However, the majority of the previous research focused on housing markets and few studies have concentrated on construction markets. Owing to a simultaneously dramatic increase in the construction prices of the sub-markets in the building construction sector in Australia, this paper aims to identify the convergence among these markets, involving house construction market, other-residential building construction market, and non-residential building construction market. To achieve it the Granger causality test and generalized response function depending on the vector error correction model with the quarterly data of Australia’s eight states from 1998 to 2010 will be applied. Based upon the econometric tests, the price diffusion patterns among these construction markets have been identified. Research on the convergences of construction markets not only helps construction firms perform well in business operations and arbitrage activities, but also provides policy makers with useful information for enacting effective construction policies for national perspectives and approaches to infrastructure planning.
Food and poverty in the Americas: institutional and policy obstacles to efficiency in food aid

This article reviews trends in poverty, hunger, and food security in the Americas; examines some of the principal processes, institutions, and policies which generate unsustainable development; and speculates on reforms required at all levels in order to improve food security. While food aid offers opportunities for alleviating poverty and hunger, it may contribute to intensifying rather than resolving livelihood crises. Since the World Food Programme is a major player in the context of food aid, some issues crucial for WFP policies in the Americas are considered.
Optimal investment, consumption and retirement decision with disutility and borrowing constraints

In this paper we consider a general consumption, portfolio and retirement optimization problem in which a working investor has borrowing constraints. Closed-form solutions are obtained for the utility maximization problems, and numerical procedures are given for the general utility function under borrowing constraints. Moreover, we apply the results to the special utility function, the constant relative risk-aversion utility function, and the numerical results suggest that the restriction to borrowing future labor income makes the investor retire at a lower critical wealth level than in the case of no borrowing constraints.
A New Meta-Heuristics of Optimization with Dynamic Adaptation of Parameters Using Type-2 Fuzzy Logic for Trajectory Control of a Mobile Robot

Fuzzy logic is a soft computing technique that has been very successful in recent years when it is used as a complement to improve meta-heuristic optimization. In this paper, we present a new variant of the bio-inspired optimization algorithm based on the self-defense mechanisms of plants in the nature. The optimization algorithm proposed in this work is based on the predator-prey model originally presented by Lotka and Volterra, where two populations interact with each other and the objective is to maintain a balance. The system of predator-prey equations use four variables (α, β, λ, δ) and the values of these variables are very important since they are in charge of maintaining a balance between the pair of equations. In this work, we propose the use of Type-2 fuzzy logic for the dynamic adaptation of the variables of the system. This time a fuzzy controller is in charge of finding the optimal values for the model variables, the use of this technique will allow the algorithm to have a higher performance and accuracy in the exploration of the values.
A DYNAMIC MODEL OF WELFARE REFORM

A dynamic structural model of labor supply, welfare participation, and food stamp participation is estimated using the 1992, 1993, and 1996 panels of the Survey of Income and Program Participation. Details of various policies including welfare time limits, work requirements, and Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) are incorporated formally in the budget constraint. Policy simulations reveal that the economy accounts for half of the increase in the labor supply of female heads of family between 1992 and 1999. A time limit results in a larger efficiency gain than a work requirement or a direct reduction in welfare benefits. A reform package can lead to both a reduction in the government expenditure and an improvement in utility. The EITC expansion results in a substantial efficiency gain among individuals with the lowest expected wage. These individuals are almost unaffected by the economic expansion, but their income and utility increase significantly under the reform package.
High Aspect Ratio Vertical Cantilever RF-MEMS Variable Capacitor

An electrostatically actuated, microwave microelectromechanical system variable capacitor fabricated using deep X-ray lithography is presented. A single exposure has been used to produce the novel high aspect ratio microstructure, which includes a thin, vertically oriented, movable nickel cantilever beam and a 40:1 vertical aspect ratio capacitance gap. The 0.8-pF capacitor operates in the 1-5GHz region and has Q-factors of 36 at 4GHz and 133 at 2 GHz. The variable capacitance ratio is 1.24:1 over a 20-V tuning range at 4GHz
Forecasting UK stock market volatility

The paper analyses the forecasting performance of a variety of statistical and econometric models of UK FTA All Share and FTSE100 stock index volatility at the monthly, weekly and daily frequencies under both symmetric and asymmetric loss functions. Under symmetric loss, results suggest that the random walk model provides vastly superior monthly volatility forecasts, while random walk, moving average, and recursive smoothing models provide moderately superior weekly volatility forecasts, and GARCH, moving average and exponential smoothing models provide marginally superior daily volatility forecasts. If attention is restricted to one forecasting method for all frequencies, the most consistent forecasting performance is provided by moving average and GARCH models. More generally, results suggest that previous results reporting that the class of GARCH models provide relatively poor volatility forecasts may not be robust at higher frequencies, failing to hold here for the crash-adjusted FTSE100 index in particular.
Institutions and Outward Foreign Direct Investment2

Abstract This paper explores the influence of the quality of a host country’s institutional environment on outflows from that country of foreign direct investment. The main finding of this paper is that such quality does play an important role, particularly with respect to governance quality and political stability. This implies that better institutional conditions may reduce undesirable outflows of capital, and the quality of those institutions may impact FDI effectiveness in host countries.
Using the Coorientation Model to Compare Community Leaders' and Local Residents' Views About Hudson River Ecosystem Restoration

We compared the views of community leaders in the Hudson River Valley, New York State, to identify different perspectives on ecosystem restoration of the Hudson River estuary. We found three distinct types of community leaders. All thought ecosystem restoration was important, but they varied on which specific actions were more important to implement. We used the coorientation model to examine the degree of agreement, accuracy, and congruency between community leaders' views and local residents' views. Community leaders were not in complete "agreement" with residents, but two of the three community leader groups had some views in common with them. In general, community leaders could not predict accurately the views of local residents. Community leaders consistently underestimated the importance residents placed on actions related to protection of the environment. They overestimated the importance of economic development to residents. Congruency was low between community leaders' views and their perception of residents' views.
The mental health of clean-up workers 18 years after the Chernobyl accident

Background The psychological aftermath of the Chernobyl accident is regarded as the largest public health problem unleashed by the accident to date. Yet the mental health of the clean-up workers, who faced the greatest radiation exposure and threat to life, has not been systematically evaluated. This study describes the long-term psychological effects of Chernobyl in a sample of clean-up workers in Ukraine. Method The cohorts were 295 male clean-up workers sent to Chernobyl between 1986 and 1990 interviewed 18 years after the accident (71% participation rate) and 397 geographically matched controls interviewed as part of the Ukraine World Mental Health (WMS) Survey 16 years after the accident. The World Health Organization (WHO) Composite International Diagnostic Interview (CIDI) was administered. We examined group differences in common psychiatric disorders, suicide ideation and severe headaches, differential effects of disorder on days lost from work, and in the clean-up workers, the relationship of exposure severity to disorder and current trauma and somatic symptoms. Analyses were adjusted for age in 1986 and mental health prior to the accident. Results Relatively more clean-up workers than controls experienced depression (18.0% v. 13.1%) and suicide ideation (9.2% v. 4.1%) after the accident. In the year preceding interview, the rates of depression (14.9% v. 7.1%), post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) (4.1% v. 1.0%) and headaches (69.2% v. 12.4%) were elevated. Affected workers lost more work days than affected controls. Exposure level was associated with current somatic and PTSD symptom severity. Conclusions Long-term mental health consequences of Chernobyl were observed in clean-up workers.
Wicked Challenges at Land's End: Managing Coastal Vulnerability Under Climate Change

With continuing influx of large numbers of people into coastal regions, human stresses on coastal ecosystems and resources are growing at the same time that climate variability and change and associated consequences in the marine environment are making coastal areas less secure for human habitation. The article reviews both climatic and nonclimatic drivers of the growing stresses on coastal natural and human systems, painting a picture of the mostly harmful impacts that result and the interactive and systemic challenges coastal managers face in managing these growing risks. Although adaptive responses are beginning to emerge, the adaptation challenge is enormous and requires not just incremental but also transformative changes. At the same time, such “wicked” problems, by definition, defy all-encompassing, definitive, and final solutions; instead, temporary best solutions will have to be sought in the context of an iterative, deliberately learning-oriented risk management framework.