Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Industrial Concentration under the Rule of Reason

Robert Bork thought that antitrust restrictions on horizontal mergers should be confined to already highly concentrated markets. Actual policy, which had been much more restrictive, adopted Bork’s recommendation in the early 1980s. This paper examines the connection between this policy shift and concentration in the manufacturing sector. I find that concentration, which had been unchanged on average for all of the 20th century, began rising at the same time that merger policy changed. Concentration has increased steadily over the entire post-Bork period. The increase has been especially pronounced in consumer goods industries, which were already becoming more concentrated in the pre-Bork era. I find little difference in the underlying trends between already highly concentrated industries and the rest of manufacturing. Neither slowing growth in domestic manufacturing nor growing imports seem sufficient to explain the increased concentration.
Policy Watch: The Family and Medical Leave Act

This article summarizes the provisions of the Family and Medical Leave Act, its possible effects on labor markets, and the resulting changes in the ability of workers to take leave. The author concludes that the actual provisions of the act are quite modest and have yielded neither large benefits to workers nor imposed significant costs on employers. One reason for this is that few workers gained significant new rights to time off work because the legislation contains many exemptions and employees often had other mechanisms for obtaining leave prior to its enactment.
High-Definition Style Rotation

That various “styles” of stocks perform differently suggests a strategy of rotating a portfolio’s allocations across styles — growth, value, large-cap, and small — in line with changes in the economic environment. The issue then is how to define style. A “high-definition” approach looks at many stock attributes to disentangle the effects of each. Because the approach results in a detailed map of returns to stock attributes, it offers potential to provide better returns than those of naive style rotation strategies.
Monitoring the Diversity of the Poverty Outreach and Impact of Microfinance: A Comparison of Methods Using Data from Peru

Many microfinance institutions claim to be oriented to a double bottom line, but while methods of financial performance assessment are widely agreed the same cannot be said about social performance. Monitoring social performance is most useful when it reveals variation in both outreach and impact over time and between clients. Data from a village banking programme in Peru is used to compare two methods for assessing each. On poverty outreach, we favour monitoring of proxy indicators for clients against national household survey data, and on impact we recommend making more use of individual in-depth interviews.
Ultraviolet radiation directly induces pigment production by cultured human melanocytes

In humans the major stimulus for cutaneous pigmentation is ultraviolet radiation (UVR). Little is known about the mechanism underlying this response, in part because of the complexity of interactions in whole epidermis. Using a recently developed culture system, human melanocytes were exposed daily to a physiologic range of UVR doses from a solar simulator. Responses were determined 24 hours after the last exposure. There was a dose‐related increase in melanin content per cell and uptake of 14C‐DOPA, accompanied by growth inhibition. Cells from donors of different racial origin gave proportionately similar increases in melanin, although there were approximately tenfold differences in basal values. Light and electron microscopy revealed UVR‐stimulated increases in dendricity as well as melanosome number and degree of melanization, analogous to the well‐recognized melanocyte changes following sun exposure of intact skin. Similar responses were seen with Cloudman S91 melanoma cells, although this murine cell line required lower UVR dosages and fewer exposures for maximal stimulation. These data establish that UVR is capable of directly stimulating melanogenesis. Because cyclic AMP elevation has been associated in some settings with increased pigment production by cultured melanocytes, preliminary experiments were conducted to see if the effects of UVR were mediated by cAMP. Both α‐MSH and isobutylmethylxanthine (IBMX), as positive controls, caused a fourfold increase in cAMP level in human melanocytes and/or S91 cells, but following a dose of UVR sufficient to stimulate pigment production there was no change in cAMP level up to 4 hours after exposure. Thus it appears that the UVR‐induced melanogenesis is mediated by cAMP‐independent mechanisms.
Earnings and Expected Returns

The aggregate dividend payout ratio forecasts aggregate excess returns on both stocks and corporate bonds in post-war US data. Both high corporate profits and high stock prices forecast low excess returns on equities. When the payout ratio is high, expected returns are high. The payout ratio's correlation with business conditions gives it predictive power for returns; it contains information about future stock and bond returns that is not captured by other variables. The payout ratio is useful because it captures the temporary components of earnings. The dynamic relationship between dividends, earnings and stock prices shows that a positive innovation in earnings lowers expected returns in the near future, but raises them thereafter.
Winning ARC grants: comparing accounting with other commerce-related disciplines

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to examine whether accounting researchers in Australia more proactively pursued government-sponsored Australian Research Council (ARC) research funding in the post-Enron period than researchers in other commerce-related disciplines. Design/methodology/approach - The study measures disciplinary research activity using successful Australian Research Council Linkage and Discovery grants for the period 2000 to 2008. The study identifies the number of grants received, the total dollar amount funded, the number of participating institutions, individual researchers and (where applicable) partnering organisations. Using these criteria, the study compares the success of accounting with that of banking and finance, economics and business and management. Findings - The study highlights accounting's failure to attain comparable levels of research funding relative to other commerce-related disciplines (both in terms of grants and dollars), even given the public profile of accounting events post-Enron. The study reveals a significantly higher “elite institution effect” exists in accounting and lower levels of academic and commercial partnerships when compared to other disciplines. The study examines potential reasons for the lack of ARC funding won by accounting researchers. Practical implications - The persistently low level of representation of accounting researchers among ARC grant winners during this period appears counterintuitive to the traditional “professional model” that links university-based disciplinary members with practitioners. Why accounting, as a high-profile profession diverges from this model should be of concern to researchers, universities and the accounting profession. Originality/value - The study's use of comparative ARC data extends and contextualises earlier studies that have sought to examine the state of accounting research in Australia.
The reliance of external auditors on internal auditors

External auditors often rely on other professionals for the audit of the financial statements of their clients. Generally, external auditors rely on clients’ internal auditors. Reliance on internal auditors results in cost savings to the client. The objective of this study is to determine which of the criteria as mentioned by AI 610 will be used by the external auditors to evaluate the work of the internal auditors. Respondents of the study consist of those from the big four and non‐big four firms located in Kedah and Penang. A one‐quarter replicate of 28 Kempthorne's design was used to determine the experimental task. The findings of the study indicate that technical competence and scope of function are the two most important criteria that external auditors consider in their reliance on internal auditors. Malaysian Institute of Accountants (MIA), being the standard setter of the auditing standards in Malaysia, will have to develop precise and operational criteria for these factors in planning the audits. The study also shows that there was consistency in audit judgement.
Work for the Household: Its Nature and Consequences for Husbands and Wives

This paper examines the conditions under which work for the household is performed, comparing these conditions and their effects with those of paid employment. Although there are some significant differences, the working conditions of housework do not differ greatly from those of paid employment. There are, however, as expected, marked sex differences in spheres of responsibility and activity. Wives are responsible for and actually do a vastly wider range of household tasks than husbands. In terms of its effects, housework has decided psychological consequences for women whether or not they are employed outside the home. Men are less affected by housework than women and in different ways. Employed women react similarly to similar housework and paidwork conditions; this is not the case for men. The pattern of findings is congruent with the hypothesis that responses to household labor, as to paid employment, are conditional on the imperativeness of work conditions. The fact that wives have greater housework responsibilities than husbands makes work in the home particularly salient for women's psychological functioning.
Detecting long-term changes to vegetation in northern Canada using the Landsat satellite image archive

Analysis of coarse resolution (∼1 km) satellite imagery has provided evidence of vegetation changes in arctic regions since the mid-1980s that may be attributable to climate warming. Here we investigate finer-scale changes to northern vegetation over the same period using stacks of 30 m resolution Landsat TM and ETM + satellite images. Linear trends in the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) and tasseled cap indices are derived for four widely spaced national parks in northern Canada. The trends are related to predicted changes in fractional shrub and other vegetation covers using regression tree classifiers trained with plot measurements and high resolution imagery. We find a consistent pattern of greening (6.1–25.5% of areas increasing) and predicted increases in vascular vegetation in all four parks that is associated with positive temperature trends. Coarse resolution (3 km) NDVI trends were not detected in two of the parks that had less intense greening. A range of independent studies and observations corroborate many of the major changes observed.
Portfolio Characteristics and Net Asset Values in REITs

The most dramatic change in the real estate industry in recent years has been the rapid increase in securitization through real estate investment trusts (REITs). Many factors have contributed to the growth of REIT initial and secondary public offerings, including changes in capital requirements for commercial lenders making mortgage loans more costly, and changes. in tax laws reducing the favoured status of other ownership forms. ' It is often argued that REITs trade at discounts to the net asset value of the underlying properties, but the only evidence of this is indirect.2 This paper summarizes the first direct evidence on premiums and discounts that were computed using a large sample of equity REITs from 1985-92. Descriptive statistics are examined in three ways. First, we analyze the sizes, property types, incomes, expenses, and diversification of the equity REITs for each year. Next, the data were segmented by property type and size class. Each REIT was classified as an apartment, warehouse, retail, office or diversified REIT. The size segmentation is based on quartiles derived from total assets. In the third part of our analysis, we then look at differences within each size segment in expenses, cash flow yield, diversification, and capital structure.
Price fairness perceptions and hotel customers’ behavioral intentions

This study examines the causal relationship between consumers’ price fairness perceptions and behavioral intentions in the context of online hotel bookings. Using a cross-sectional sample of 506 customers of a budget hotel chain in the United Kingdom, structural equation modeling (using the partial least squares approach), multigroup t-test, and permutation tests were conducted to (1) validate the structural model where price fairness is the exogenous variable and behavioral intention is the endogenous variable and (2) examine whether the causal model is invariant (equivalent) across customers from different market segments—including, first-time and repeat customers, leisure, and business travelers. Results from the analysis supported a significant, direct relationship between customers’ perceptions of price fairness and behavioral intentions. The results of the multigroup test and permutation tests further indicated that first-time leisure customers are more sensitive to dynamic pricing practices and tend to perceive these practices as unfair. Thus, the budget hotel chain may want to be very cautious with new customers who are not familiar with this pricing practice.
Increased binding affinity and valence of recombinant antibody fragments lead to improved targeting of tumoral angiogenesis.

The formation of new blood vessels (angiogenesis) is an important step in tumor progression. Molecules capable of selectively targeting markers of angiogenesis may offer opportunities for the in vivo imaging of aggressive tumors and for the delivery of toxic agents to the tumoral vasculature. Using antibody phage display libraries and combinatorial mutagenesis, we isolated single-chain Fv antibody fragments, which recognize with different affinities the same epitope of the ED-B domain of fibronectin, a marker of angiogenesis. Two single-chain Fv fragments, E1 and L19, with dissociation constants of 41 nM and 0.054 nM, respectively, were investigated for their ability to target F9 murine teratocarcinoma grafted s.c. in nude mice when injected i.v. in either monomeric or homodimeric form (Mr 27,000 and 54,000, respectively). Biodistribution studies, performed at two time points (4 h and 24 h) with radiolabeled samples, showed that the higher affinity antibody targets the tumor significantly better than the lower affinity one, in terms both of tumor:organ ratios and of the amounts of antibody delivered to the tumor. In particular, more than 20% of the injected dose of dimeric L19 accumulated per gram of tumor at 4 h; the tumor:organ ratios at 4 h and 24 h were in the (2.1-8.6):1 and (10.3-29.4):1 range, respectively. This study demonstrates that, although vasculature represents only a small fraction of the total tumor mass, anti-ED-B antibodies can selectively target tumors in vivo and that this process is particularly efficient if very high-affinity binders are used.
THE ELASTICITY OF SUBSTITUTION AS AN ENGINE OF GROWTH

This paper characterizes the elasticity of factor substitution in one-sector convex growth models with a general production function. It shows that an elasticity of substitution that is asymptotically greater than unity is a sufficient (but not a necessary) condition for the existence of a lower bound on the marginal product of capital, which in turn can lead to unbounded endogenous growth. Hence, an elasticity of substitution that eventually becomes greater than unity can counteract the role of diminishing returns to capital. This renders factor substitution a powerful engine of growth.
Southern European Welfare Regimes and the Worsening Position of Women

The article contributes to the current debate on welfare regimes, bringing together the widespread need for a fourth welfare regime besides Esping-Andersen's well-known typol ogy, and the results of its feminist critique. It is particularly in the case of Southern European countries that a gendered point of view seems crucial, to define the specificities of a different path in developing social protection. On the other hand, comparative analyses on gender and welfare state only seldom consider Mediterranean countries. In these countries the concept of subsidiarity formulated for continental-corporatist welfare regimes has to be modified: the family is still centre stage, but in the sense that only certain social risks are covered largely by the welfare state, those against which the family cannot protect itself. On the contrary, the state does not support families' normal functioning, as usually happens in etatist conservative countries. The only form of help on the part of the state has so far been to tolerate family strategies which bring together many ‘bread-crumbs’ of revenue. Since this relationship between the family and social policies has usually remained invisible, it is highly probable that today's rationalizing interventions on social provisions may have even worse effects on women's condition. Some recent transformations of Italian welfare state are analysed as an example of such a danger.
Caste, Kinship, and Life Course: Rethinking Women's Work and Agency in Rural South India

This paper reexamines the linkages between women's work, agency, and well-being based on a household survey and in-depth interviews conducted in rural Tamil Nadu in 2009 and questions the prioritization of workforce participation as a path to gender equality. It emphasizes the need to unpack the nature of work performed by and available to women and its social valuation, as well as women's agency, particularly its implications for decision making around financial and nonfinancial household resources in contexts of socioeconomic change. The effects of work participation on agency are mediated by factors like age and stage in the life cycle, reproductive success, and social location – especially of caste – from which women enter the workforce.
The relationships between Arctic sea ice and cloud-related variables in the ERA-Interim reanalysis and CCSM3

This study uses reanalysis data from ECMWF ERA-Interim and GCM output from the CCSM3 to investigate how sea ice and clouds interact locally (within individual grid boxes) and whether similar variability between the two datasets is captured. During autumn (October), the vertically integrated low cloud amount increases over increased sea ice in the reanalysis, but decreases in the GCM output. Closer inspection, however, reveals that both datasets have more low cloud cover over increased sea ice within the lower boundary layer (1000–925 hPa for the reanalysis and 1000–975 hPa for the GCM output), but they differ in their integrated response within the lower troposphere. These results highlight the differences between the datasets and show the importance of understanding where cloud changes occur, because clouds vary in their effect on the radiation budget as a function of height.
Capital Mobility in Neoclassical Models of Growth

The empirical evidence reveals conditional convergence in the sense that economies grow faster per capita if they start further below their steady-state positions. For a homogeneous group of economies - like the U.S. states, regions of western European countries, and the GECD countries - the convergence is unconditional in that the poor economies grow faster than the rich ones. The neoclassical growth model for a closed economy fits these facts if capital is viewed broadly to encompass human investments, so that diminishing returns to capital set in slowly, and if differences in government policies or preferences about saving lead to heterogeneity in steady-state positions. Yet if the model is opened to allow for full capital mobility, then the predicted rates of convergence for capital and output are much higher than those observed empirically. We show that the open-economy model conforms with the evidence if an economy can use foreign debt to finance only a portion of its capital, even if 50% or more of the total. The problems in using human capital as collateral can explain the required imperfection in the credit market.
Early Years Centres for pre-school children with primary language difficulties: what do they cost, and are they cost-effective?

BACKGROUND High levels of early language difficulties raise practical issues about the efficient and effective means of meeting children's needs. Persistent language difficulties place significant financial pressures on health and education services. This has led to large investment in intervention in the early years; yet, little is known about the actual and relative costs of early years provision. AIMS To profile the different costs incurred by two Early Years Centres (EYCs) partially funded by the charity I CAN and children receiving what might be termed 'routine' NHS speech therapy to provide an analysis of cost efficiency and equity. METHODS & PROCEDURES Costings for service provision for 91 children (mean age 2;9) were collected. The activity of staff at each site and the cost of staff allocated to services were computed. Data on other resources were also collected. OUTCOMES & RESULTS The cost per child per session was on average 12 pounds. Despite the longer course of intervention in the first centre (10 compared with 6 weeks), the cost of the course per child was of the same order (245 pounds compared with 253 pounds). The annual cost of the early years provision per child was higher relative to the costs of the NHS provision, 645 pounds compared with 181 pounds in one EYC (A) and 462 pounds compared with 173 pounds in the other (B). When the cost of standard nursery provision was factored in, the difference in annual costs was rather less, with 5298 pounds for the early years provision (EYC A) relative to 4276 pounds in the comparison group. By contrast, the annual cost of early provision rises to 5926 pounds relative to 8861 pounds in the comparison group (EYC B). CONCLUSIONS The cost of the EYCs is relatively low and given the positive outcomes reported in the study of which this economic evaluation is a part, there is a good case for saying that they represent an efficient use of resources. The strengths and limitations of the economic evaluation are considered and the need for long-term evaluations is highlighted.
East Meets West

Both formal and informal crime control are used to deter people from engaging in criminal behavior that is harmful to the well-being of society. Formal criminal justice control uses the law and official government agencies to promote compliance, whereas informal criminal justice control uses morals and social institutions to encourage people to be law abiding. This study examined survey data to determine the importance of each form of social control among Chinese and U.S. college students. Chinese students were more likely to view formal and informal crime control as important mechanisms. Furthermore, Chinese students ranked the blending of formal and informal crime control as being more important.