Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Urban structure matters, even in a small town

A recent study in Frederikshavn, Denmark, shows that urban structural variables influence travel behaviour, even in a small town of around 30 000 inhabitants. As might be expected, socio-economic and attitudinal factors play a role in the respondents' travelling patterns. However, when controlling for these factors and a range of other potential explanatory variables, clear relationships are also found between urban structural characteristics and travel activity. These relationships exist across most subgroups of the population. The statistical relationships found between urban structure and travel behaviour are confirmed in qualitative interviews. The distance from the residence to the downtown area is a key factor influencing the accessibility to a number of facilities. These differences in accessibility result in corresponding differences in the actual travelling distances and modal split.
The role of foreign direct investment in Indonesia's manufacturing exports

This article examines whether foreign direct investment (FDI) has contributed to the changing structure of Indonesia's manufacturing exports. It uses industry-level data from 1990 to 2008, classified by factor intensity. Our analysis reveals that FDI promotes exports in most panel observations, especially exports from physical-capital-intensive (PCI), human-capital-intensive (HCI) and technology-intensive (TI) industries. Yet by applying a differentiated cross-section-effect model, we determine that the export-generating potential of FDI is stronger in PCI, HCI and TI industries than in natural-resource-intensive or unskilled-labour-intensive industries, in which Indonesia has a comparative advantage. We also assess the influence of other determinants of export performance – namely, private domestic capital investment, GDP growth and exchange rates. Our findings have implications for policymakers seeking to sustain Indonesia's export performance.
Optimal alcohol taxation: Simulation results for Estonia

Abstract The aim of this paper is to empirically estimate the optimal level of alcohol taxes for Estonia on externality as well as fiscal grounds. For this purpose, a static general-equilibrium model with a representative agent was used. Simulation results showed that raising alcohol taxes a certain amount is warranted. However, if one were to use conservative parameter values, this result is undermined. With an eye towards future research, more reliable estimates for several parameters are required in order to increase the policy relevance of the model.
Implied Idiosyncratic Volatility and Stock Return Predictability

This paper investigates the role of volatility risk on stock return predictability. Using 596 stock options traded at the American Stock Exchange and the Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE) for the period from January 2001 to December 2010, it examines the relation between different idiosyncratic volatility measures and expected stock returns for a period that involves both the dotcom bubble and the recent financial crisis. First it is showed that implied idiosyncratic volatility is the best stock return predictor among the different volatility measures used. Second, cross-section firm-specific characteristics are important on stock returns forecast. Third, we provide evidence that higher short selling constraints impact negatively stock returns having liquidity the opposite effect.
Accelerated aging effects of mineral and vegetable transformer oils on medium voltage power transformers

The usage of vegetable oil for power transformer insulation has increased, compared to mineral oil, for its better environmental characteristics. However, although the temperature rise depending on load difference and the relationship between hottest spot temperature and life time depending on long-term operation for mineral oil immersed transformer has been studied, there is being established for vegetable oil immersed transformer. Therefore, the MV power transformers either filled with conventional mineral oil or with vegetable oil are thermally aged and the transformer oils are sampled regularly. With these samples, the chemical, mechanical and electrical characteristics of the two oils are investigated by the aging time. According to our experiment, the degradation rate of vegetable oil can be compared to that of mineral oil.
Strategic Withholding of Firm-Specific Skills in Wage Bargaining

The bargaining relationship between a firm and its incumbent worker who possesses firm-specific human capital is examined. It is shown that the worker's ability to withhold his/her skills strategically increases his/her bargaining power. Multiple efficient as well as inefficient equilibria involving delays in negotiation are characterized. When the firm has outside options, the range of both efficient and inefficient equilibria shrinks; moreover, delays are shortened in inefficient equilibria. The model predicts that wages are procyclical.
Two‐dimensional modelling of subduction zone anisotropy with application to southwestern Japan

SUMMARY We present a series of 2-D numerical models of viscous flow in the mantle wedge induced by a subducting lithospheric plate. We use a kinematically defined slab geometry approximating the subduction of the Philippine Sea plate beneath Eurasia. Through finite element modelling we explore the effects of different rheological and thermal constraints (e.g. a low-viscosity region in the wedge corner, power law versus Newtonian rheology, the inclusion of thermal buoyancy forces and a temperature-dependent viscosity law) on the velocity and finite strain field in the mantle wedge. From the numerical flow models we construct models of anisotropy in the wedge by calculating the evolution of the finite strain ellipse and combining its geometry with appropriate elastic constants for effective transversely isotropic mantle material. We then predict shear wave splitting for stations located above the model domain using expressions derived from anisotropic perturbation theory, and compare the predictions to ∼500 previously published shear wave splitting measurements from seventeen stations of the broad-band F-net array located in southwestern Japan. Although the use of different model parameters can have a substantial effect on the character of the finite strain field, the effect on the average predicted splitting parameters is small. However, the variations with backazimuth and ray parameter of individual splitting intensity measurements at a given station for different models are often different, and rigorous analysis of details in the splitting patterns allows us to discriminate among different rheological models for flow in the mantle wedge. The splitting observed in southwestern Japan agrees well with the predictions of trench-perpendicular flow in the mantle wedge along with B-type olivine fabric dominating in a region from the wedge corner to about 125 km from the trench.
Travel motivations and destination choice: A study of British outbound market

Abstract Knowledge of people's travel motivations and its association with destination selection plays a critical role in predicting future travel patterns. The objectives of this study were to uncover the underlying push and pull factors of motivation associated with British outbound pleasure travelers as well as to identify key motivational factors that have significant effects on destination choice. Six push factors and five pull factors were found. “Knowledge seeking” and “cleanliness & safety” were perceived as the most important push and pull factors respectively. The results of logistic regression analyses snowed that the British tend to visit the U.S. for “fun & excitement” and “outdoor activities,” Oceania for “family & friend togetherness,” and Asia to seek a “novel experience. ” The findings of differential motivational factors across seven destinations suggest that a destination can capitalize on its strengths with an optimal combination of push and pull factors to attract and retain the British travelers.
Financial Liberalization and Banking Crises: The Role of Capital Inflows and Lack of Transparency

This paper shows that the liberalization of capital inflows may undermine bank stability in emerging markets. After financial liberalization, uninformed international investors rationally provide large amounts of funds at low cost. This enables insolvent banks to accumulate bad loans. In equilibrium, when a substantial amount of losses may have been accumulated, solvent banks do not find it any longer optimal to issue debt at the interest rate that would compensate investors for risk. Investors anticipate this and stop holding bank debt. When the market for bank liabilities breaks down, insolvent banks default. I show that, because of wasteful investment, the liberalization of capital inflows may decrease aggregate welfare.
Local Policy Responses to Globalization: Place‐Based Ownership Models of Economic Enterprise

The destabilizing forces wrought by economic globalization increasingly buffet local communities throughout America. This article explores a local policy strategy for coping with the effects of these forces and restoring some degree of stability to local economies. This strategy entails the creation of place-based ownership models of economic enterprise. With ownership and control held in a more collective or community-oriented fashion, such enterprises tend to anchor or root investment more securely in communities, providing a counterforce to globalization. We present and critically assess six place-based ownership models while providing illustrative examples to demonstrate how each model can work in practice. Even during the recent long-running economic expansion in the United States, a sober mood shrouded many American communities. Buffeted by the destabilizing forces wrought by economic globalization, localities struggled mightily to cope with the effects of these forces and restore some degree of stability to their economies. This quest for community economic stability—in which communities possess job opportunities and a general level of economic activity to provide a decent standard of living for their populations over a sustained period of time—preoccupied, and continues to preoccupy, the hearts and minds of local policymakers throughout the America. Drawing on large national surveys of local economic development policies, Clarke and Gaile (1997) delineated and categorized the myriad policy strategies for community stabilization that localities are employing as a response to globalization (also see Clarke & Gaile, 1998). Communities are pursuing classic locational policies to lower production factor costs (land, labor, and capital) relative to other cities through, for example, tax incentives or other subsidies for businesses (also see Peterson, 1981). They also are pursuing world-class community policies, developing innovative production capacities to gain a niche in the global economy via, for example, public-private partnerships, encouragement of research
Performance pay, monitoring environments, and establishment performance

This study uses cross‐section and panel data from the 1998 Workplace Employee Relations Survey to explore contextual influences on the relationship between performance‐related pay (PRP) and organizational performance. While it finds strong evidence that the use of PRP can enhance performance outcomes, it also determines that this relationship is qualified by the structure of workplace monitoring environments. In addition, it presents evidence that managers learn about optimum combinations of pay system and monitoring environment through a process of experimentation. Finally, although there exists a robust positive association in these data between use of PRP and pay inequality, it appears that these higher levels of inequality carry no performance penalty.
A Violent Future? Political Risk Insurance Markets and Violence Forecasts

There is a substantial literature that has linked past acts of violence to investment. In this article, we argue that the appropriate mechanism linking violence to investment is investor perceptions of risk, in which forward-looking investors attempt to predict the likelihood of future political violence. We take advantage of a new data source—the price paid by investors to purchase risk insurance coverage—to more accurately capture how risk is assessed in investment decision making. Building on the civil war literature, we offer a broad explanatory model of variation in violence risk in the developing world. After controlling for recent past experiences with violence, we find that wealth and democracy significantly affect the perception of risk, whereas demographic factors and natural resource endowments have limited, if any, influence.
The effects of age and set size on the fast extraction of egocentric distance

ABSTRACT Angular direction is a source of information about the distance to floor-level objects that can be extracted from brief glimpses (near one's threshold for detection). Age and set size are two factors known to impact the viewing time needed to directionally localize an object, and these were posited to similarly govern the extraction of distance. The question here was whether viewing durations sufficient to support object detection (controlled for age and set size) would also be sufficient to support well-constrained judgments of distance. Regardless of viewing duration, distance judgments were more accurate (less biased towards underestimation) when multiple potential targets were presented, suggesting that the relative angular declinations between the objects are an additional source of useful information. Distance judgments were more precise with additional viewing time, but the benefit did not depend on set size and accuracy did not improve with longer viewing durations. The overall pattern suggests that distance can be efficiently derived from direction for floor-level objects. Controlling for age-related differences in the viewing time needed to support detection was sufficient to support distal localization but only when brief and longer glimpse trials were interspersed. Information extracted from longer glimpse trials presumably supported performance on subsequent trials when viewing time was more limited. This outcome suggests a particularly important role for prior visual experience in distance judgments for older observers.
Average Funds versus Average Dollars: Implications for Mutual Fund Research

The top 5% of actively managed U.S. equity mutual funds in 2012 had greater aggregate TNA than the remaining 95% of funds combined. This skewness in size has implications for mutual fund research: What is true of the average fund is not necessarily true of the average dollar. We explore several key findings in the literature with an eye on this distinction. Our results indicate that if the goal of mutual fund research is to understand the importance of the industry to investors, then researchers should consider the experience of the average dollar, rather than the average fund.
From the industrial district to the district group: An insight into the evolution of capitalism in italy1

Brioschi F. , Brioschi M. S. and Cainelli G. (2002) From the industrial district to the district group: an insight into the evolution of local capitalism in Italy, Reg. Studies 36, 1037–1053. The aim of this paper is two-fold: to analyse the extent of corporate grouping in the main industrial districts of Emilia Romagna and the reasons for their formation and development; and to show how their evolution in recent years requires rethinking the very concept of industrial district in favour of a unit of analysis capable of grasping the role taken by ownership linkages among firms. In this respect, we suggest a taxonomy of business groups that brings out the key role played by ‘district groups‘. The choice of Emilia Romagna as our field of investigation is motivated by the fact that in a number of ways the region's industrial system represents a paradigmatic model of local capitalism, combining the large-scale presence of industrial districts with a marked entrepreneurial spirit, strong social cohesion and an exceptionally efficient system of local institutions and intermediate organizations. In this sense, even though we start from the empirical study of a case (albeit a significant one like that of Emilia Romagna), our paper has the more general purpose of depicting the forms and ways through which a special form of local capitalism characterized by the massive presence of industrial districts has evolved, while at the same time signalling the need to reconsider the theoretical concepts and methods of empirical inquiry used to analyse and interpret the new forms taken on by local capitalism in Italy. 1 Earlier versions of this paper were presented at: the 2001 conference of the Italian Association of Regional Science (AISRE) in Venice; the 2001 national meeting of L'Industria in Bologna; the 2001 meeting of the Portuguese Regional Science Association (APDR) in Villa Real; the 2000 congress of the European Regional Science Association (ERSA) in Barcelona; the 1999 meeting of the Italian Economic Association (SIE) in Ancona; and workshops of the University of Bologna, University of Urbino, University of Lecce and University of Padua between 1999 and 2001.
Schistosoma mansoni: host antigen occurrence on worms recovered from laboratory vertebrate animals

SUMMARY By transferring Schistosoma mansoni (12 to 14-day-old worms) from one host into the peritoneal cavity of a host of a different species, it was possible to demonstrate that worms grown in rats, hamsters, Mastomys natalensis and Cebus monkeys were rejected by recipient animals previously immunized against red blood cells of the donor hosts. These results suggest that host-like antigens are acquired by S. mansoni in all hosts. The transfer of worms into the peritoneal cavity has proved to be a simple and convenient method for studying the presence of host antigens in S. mansoni.
Public Funding of Professional Sports Stadiums: Public Choice or Civic Pride

Many state and local governments have subsidized the construction of arenas and stadiums for the use of professional sports teams. They often justify the subsidies with claims that the stadiums generate positive externalities, including public goods. Some research using Contingent Valuation Method surveys has shown that such public goods may be valuable, but no published research has yet found a case in which the value of the public goods alone could justify public construction of a new stadium or arena. This suggests that the public choice argument for public subsidy of sports may play a role. This paper uses a bivariate probit model to extend the analysis of data from a previous study to show that, while public goods may contribute to a community's willingness to subsidize sports, public choice factors also play a role. The analysis clarifies the genesis of civic pride and its relationship to sports and other cultural amenities in a city.
Effects of Statins on Regeneration of Olfactory Epithelium

Background This study was performed to investigate whether statins can enhance the recovery of the olfactory epithelium (OE) damaged by 3-methylindole (3MI), an olfactotoxicant, and to compare the effects with those of steroids. Methods Randomized placebo-controlled trial was performed. Fifty-four healthy female Sprague–Dawley rats (aged 9–10 weeks and weighing 160–180 g each) were randomly allocated to the statin-treated, steroid-treated, or control groups. Olfactory loss was induced using i.p. injection of 3MI in adult rats. Atorvastatin (10 mg/kg for 4 weeks), prednisolone (1 mg/kg for 2 weeks), or normal saline (1 cc for 4 weeks) was then administered per os with a gastric tube. Hematoxylin and eosin (H&E) staining and immunohistochemical staining were performed to evaluate the change of thickness and the arrangement of the OE, and immunoreactivity to protein gene product (PGP) 9.5 and proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA). Results The statin-treated group showed the earliest increase of the thickness of the OE (p = 0.002 at 7 days after 3MI injection) and the immunoreactivity to PCNA (p = 0.032 at 7 days after 3MI injection) among the three groups. The immunoreactivity to PGP 9.5 showed significantly better improvement at the 7th and 28th days after 3MI injection compared with the steroid-treated or control groups (p = 0.002 and p < 0.001, respectively). Conclusion Statins might enhance the proliferation and neuroregenesis of the OE after 3MI injection.
From Circle of Poison to Circle of Virtue: Pesticides, Export Standards and Kenya's Green Bean Farmers

In response to growing consumer concerns, developed-country governments have reduced permissible pesticide residue levels in food. Many food retailers have developed even more stringent private food safety protocols relating to pesticide use, storage and disposal and passed them on to their suppliers. Exporters in developing countries enforce these developed-country pesticide standards (DC-PS) by subjecting farmers to close monitoring. This study explores the effects of enforcing compliance with DC-PS on smallholder farmers' pesticide-related health costs. Results suggest that enforcing DC-PS encourages farmers to use protection that lowers pesticide-induced morbidity, hence reducing farmers' health costs from pesticide exposure. The study concludes that there are health benefits to family farmers from complying with DC-PS beyond the acknowledged income generation from selling fresh produce in premium export markets. Copyright (c) 2009 The Authors. Journal compilation (c) 2009 The Agricultural Economics Society.
Women in TV advertising: a comparison between the UK and France

States that since the beginnings of the women’s movement, in the 1970s, increasing attention has been focused on the way women are portrayed in advertisements. Earlier studies concentrated on print advertisements, but as video recording became more accessible it was possible to analyse television commercials. These studies found that there was evidence of female sex‐role stereotyping in portraying domestic situations and employment. Studies in France found similar results to those in the USA and the UK. The study aims to compare the roles of women in television advertising in the UK and France and draw conclusions as to how French and UK advertisements differ in their portrayal of women.