Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Reporting Frequency, Information Precision and Private Information Acquisition

This study examines whether the choice between quarterly and semiannual reporting affects the precision of investors' information and their private information acquisition activities. In the first part of this study, we show that a firm's reporting frequency has no effect on the average precision of investors' information. However, our analysis of announcement-period price variance and share turnover shows that an increase in reporting frequency does make interim and annual financial reports a more important component of investors' information set, relative to other sources of information. In particular, the results of this analysis suggest that investors of semiannual reporters hold more precise pre-announcement information than investors of quarterly reporters. In the second part of our study, we test one explanation for this finding. We argue that an increase in a firm's reporting frequency reduces investors' incentives to acquire private information between consecutive announcement dates and, consequently, should reduce information asymmetry among investors, increase share liquidity, and stimulate trading. Consistent with this reasoning, we find that quarterly reporters have lower average bid-ask spreads and higher abnormal share turnover than semiannual reporters.
Multinational Location Decisions and the Access to Imported Inputs

Although the influence of agglomeration economies on foreign direct investment location decisions is widely recognized in the literature, the nature of positive externalities is less well understood. This paper examines a particular source, access to specialized imported inputs, by applying a conditional logit model to the location decisions of Taiwanese multinationals in China. Our evidence, based on the 2,918 foreign direct investment projects approved between 1994 to 2006 in conjunction with Chinese customs data, reveals a positive effect of access to imported intermediate inputs and capital goods on the average investment, with effects that vary by industry group, time period and investment stage.
Bone marrow stem cells and their niche components are adversely affected in advanced cirrhosis of the liver

Bone marrow (BM) is a reservoir for immune and hematopoietic cells and critical for tissue repair and regeneration. All of these functions are severely altered in cirrhosis. We investigated the cellular and functional state of BM in cirrhosis patients. We studied the histological, cellular, and molecular changes in BM of cirrhosis patients (n = 168) and controls (n = 44). Hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) and associated niche cells, mesenchymal stem cells, Schwann cells, neural fibers, and endothelial cells were evaluated by immunohistochemistry. Cytokines and growth factors were analyzed in peripheral blood and BM plasma. Cirrhotic BM showed an inverse correlation between cluster of differentiation 34+HSCs and Model of End‐Stage Liver Disease (ρ = ‐0.582, P < 0.001) and Child's scores (P < 0.038). BMs of cirrhosis patients with higher Model of End‐Stage Liver Disease (>15) showed significantly decreased HSCs, mesenchymal stem cells, Schwann cells, and neural fibers; increased interleukin‐1β (P = 0.004), tumor necrosis factor‐α (P = 0.040), and interferon‐γ (P = 0.03); and decreased oncostatin M (P = 0.04), stem cell factor (P = 0.05), and stromal cell‐derived factor 1 (P = 0.03) compared to those with lower Model of End‐Stage Liver Disease scores (≤15). The cluster of differentiation 34+ cell population was a predictor for the development of sepsis (P < 0.001), and per unit loss increased the probability of sepsis by 16%. Cirrhosis patients with fewer HSCs had lower hemoglobin (P = 0.05) and platelet counts (P = 0.05) and showed early graft dysfunction. Conclusions: Increasing severity of cirrhosis causes derangement of the hematopoietic niche and loss of HSCs, contributing to the hematological and immunological dysfunctions and reduced potential for regeneration; restoring BM functions could provide new therapeutic options in cirrhosis. (Hepatology 2016;64:1273‐1288)
Young Adults of India-Online Surfers or Online Shoppers

ABSTRACT The purpose of this study was to examine the online behavior of young adults of India. A total of 115 Internet users from 18 to 25 years of age were surveyed from the National Capital Region of Delhi, India. Results showed that young adults of India are mainly online surfers and not online shoppers. These people have a lack of knowledge and experience with online shopping. Therefore, a very small percentage of these young adults shop online and they purchase only low-cost items. They do not trust online shopping and feel that lack of touch and feel discourage their online shopping. Based on research findings, we have suggested ways to encourage online shopping by young adults. The recommendations in this article may be of value to management students, academics, and online marketers.
What about new entry? Examining the theorized role of new entry in the entrepreneurial orientation–performance relationship

It has been well over a decade since Lumpkin and Dess first suggested new entry to represent the principal outcome of an entrepreneurial orientation (EO). Yet, little consideration has been given to the implications of conceptualizing new entry as a phenomenon distinct from EO. This article draws attention to inconsistent assumptions concerning the role of new entry across the two dominant conceptualizations of EO, discusses empirical challenges with exploring new entry as an outcome of EO, and provides a longitudinal test of the causal chain linking EO to future new entry behaviors and eventual performance outcomes.
Human capital indicators, business performance and market‐to‐book ratio

Purpose – For many authors, the difference between the market value of companies' shares and their book value is the consequence of intellectual capital (IC). To test this, this paper suggests a methodology to study the relationship between IC indicators and the market‐to‐book ratio (MBR). In addition, it presents an exploratory application of that methodology in the field of human capital (HC) and within the Spanish banking industry. In this research, the relationships between HC, MBR and other business performance indicators are measured.Design/methodology/approach – The methodology mentioned above creates a score for each of the three main IC components: human, structural and relational capital. These scores try to measure the relative position of companies in the same industry in each of the IC blocks. Then, a global score is set, combining the scores of the previous blocks. For these calculations to be done, a common set of indicators in the companies studied is needed. The lack of balance nowadays b.
Foreign Entry Mode and Performance: The Moderating Effects of Environment

As the trend toward economic globalization increases, the internationalization of small and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) has become an important topic. Research on the performance outcomes of foreign market entry strategies has been primarily considered from the perspective of the multinational corporations. In this paper hierarchical regression analyses were conducted on archival data of 123 publicly held manufacturing SMEs based in the United States to test a contingency model that hypothesizes more of the performance variance is explained when the foreign market entry mode is aligned strategically with domestic and foreign environmental factors. The results indicate that firms will have a higher rate of international revenue growth using no‐equity‐based (exporting) foreign market entry modes in growing domestic environments. International revenue growth is higher for equity‐based modes when foreign market risks are high. The findings should provide managers of SMEs with contextual evidence for making successful foreign market entry decisions.
Insights on the Global Macro-Finance Interface: Structural Sources of Risk Factors Fluctuations and the Cross-Section of Expected Stock Returns

This study contributes to the investigation of the macro-finance interface by assessing the economic content and risk-based interpretation of widely employed risk factors in the specification of empirical asset pricing models, i.e., Fama–French size and value, Carhart momentum, as well as the more recent Pastor–Stambaugh liquidity and Adrian–Etula–Muir leverage factors. Strong support for their risk-based interpretation, encompassing evidence on cause, persistence and direction of the size, value and momentum effects, and new insights on the specification of systematic risk, are provided.
Toll‐Like Receptor‐3‐Activated Human Mesenchymal Stromal Cells Significantly Prolong the Survival and Function of Neutrophils

Bone marrow‐derived mesenchymal stromal cells (BM‐MSCs) are stromal precursors endowed with extensive immunomodulative properties. In this study, we aimed to assess whether Toll‐like receptor‐3 (TLR3)‐ and TLR4‐activated BM‐MSC influence human neutrophil (PMN) responses under coculture conditions. We show that TLR3 triggering by polyinosinic:polycytidylic acid dramatically amplifies, in a more significant manner than TLR4 triggering by lipopolysaccharide, the antiapoptotic effects that resting BM‐MSC constitutively exert on PMN under coculture conditions, preserving a significant fraction of viable and functional PMN up to 72 hours. In addition, TLR3‐ and TLR4‐activated BM‐MSC enhance respiratory burst ability and CD11b expression by PMN. The coculture in the absence of cell contact and the incubation of PMN in supernatants harvested from TLR3‐ and TLR4‐activated BM‐MSC yield comparable results in terms of increased survival and immunophenotypic changes, thus suggesting the involvement of endogenous soluble factors. Neutralizing experiments reveal that the biological effects exerted on PMN by TLR3‐activated BM‐MSC are mediated by the combined action of interleukin 6, interferon‐β (IFN‐β), and granulocyte macrophage colony‐stimulating factor (GM‐CSF), while those exerted by TLR4‐activated BM‐MSC mostly depend on GM‐CSF. MSC isolated from thymus, spleen, and subcutaneous adipose tissue behaves similarly. Finally, the effects exerted by TLR3‐ or TLR4‐stimulated BM‐MSC on PMN are conserved even after the previous priming of BM‐MSC with IFN‐γ and tumor necrosis factor‐α. Our data highlight a novel mechanism by which MSC sustain and amplify the functions of PMN in response to TLR3‐ and TLR4‐triggering and may consequently contribute to inflammatory disorders. STEM CELLS 2011;29:1001–1011
Benefits and Tensions of Shadow Education: Comparative Perspectives on the Roles and Impact of Private Supplementary Tutoring in the Lives of Hong Kong Students

Over half of Hong Kongs secondary students receive private supplementary tutoring, and in the last grade of secondary schooling the proportion exceeds 70%. Such tutoring is widely called shadow education because it mimics the regular system − as the curriculum in the schools changes, so it changes in the shadow; and as the regular school system expands, so does the shadow. The scale of private tutoring has grown significantly in the last two decades, and has become a standard feature of the lives of many families. Some tutoring is provided one-to-one by professionals, semi-professionals or amateurs; other tutoring is provided in small groups; and yet other tutoring is provided in lecture formats. Such tutoring demands significant financial investment by households, and also consumes substantial amounts of students time. Some tutoring has benefits in helping slow learners to keep up with their peers and in stretching further the learning of high achievers. Parents may also prefer to pay other people to manage homework and related stresses. However, tutoring can also increase pressures on young people, and is not always effective. This paper presents Hong Kong data within a framework that compares local patterns with those in other parts of the world. It raises questions about the implications of patterns and about appropriate responses for families, educators and policy makers.
Switzerland's Regulatory European Integration: Between Tacit Consensus and Noisy Dissensus

Switzerland's relationship with the EU is closely related to some of the transformations of domestic politics during the last decades. This contribution analyses the development of Switzerland's legal integration measures over time and explores their correlation with indicators of domestic political change, namely party positions and the salience of European integration in the electorate. It suggests that party positions and issue salience of European integration did not prevent the rather dynamic development of Switzerland's legal integration measures for two reasons: On the one hand, parties were generally in favour of the ‘bilateral way’ and related policies and European integration lost salience over the twenty years under study. On the other hand, a considerable share of legal integration measures was conducted by the government and the federal administration following mechanisms foreseen in the sectoral agreements. These measures as well as domestic rule transpositions proved not to be related to indicators of domestic political change, whereas legal integration measures in need of approval by parliament were correlated to party positions and issue salience. The analysis builds on an empirical dataset including all sectoral agreements and all federal laws transposing EU rules in the period 1990 – 2010. The results are based on descriptive analyses and Poisson regression estimates.
Inequality and Intergenerational Mobility in Schooling: The Case of Mexico*

The authors consider two hypotheses for crowding at the lower-secondary level and the reversal in intergenerational mobility: 1) the economic crisis of the 1980s and 2) institutional barriers to the continued expansion of schooling. Though the crisis appears to have played a role we find evidence that institutional barriers are also important. The existence of these barriers is problematic for the long-term prospects of educational expansion because it suggests a deep-rooted limit of the system and not just a temporary setback. This article proceeds as follows. Section II discusses the links between schooling inequality intergenerational mobility in schooling and income inequality. Section III describes the data and provides an overview of educational expansion over the past 47 years. Section IV establishes trends in intergenerational schooling mobility. Section V ponders the causes and implications of the recent slowdown in schooling mobility and Section VI concludes. (excerpt modified)
Improved outcome for very elderly patients with diff use large B-cell lymphoma in the immunochemotherapy era

Abstract The prognosis of diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) has improved significantly since the introduction of immunochemotherapy (rituximab [R] with cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, vincristine, prednisone [CHOP]). However, few outcome data are available for very elderly patients (80 years). Therefore, we compared all patients with DLBCL aged 80 years diagnosed in the Gothenburg area during two time periods (2006–2009, “post-R” and 1997–2000, “pre-R”). Forty and 30 patients were identified, corresponding to 23.5% and 20.5%, respectively, of the entire population with DLBCL. Estimated 3-year progression-free (PFS) and overall (OS) survival was better post-R than pre-R: 41% vs. 17% (p = 0.015) and 41% vs. 17% (p = 0.01), respectively. Fifty-three percent of post-R patients were treated with curative intent with a moderately reduced R-CHOP regimen (median relative dose intensity: 0.86). At a median follow-up of 29 months, the 3-year PFS and OS were 70% (p = 0.018) and 76% (p = 0.0089), respectively. In conclusion, moderately reduced R-CHOP is tolerable and effective for a considerable number of very elderly patients with DLBCL and high age by itself should not be a reason for excluding a patient with DLBCL from such treatment.
On Testing the Arbitrage Pricing Theory: Inter-Battery Factor Analysis

This paper tests the Arbitrage Pricing Theory (APT) by estimating the factor loadings that are consistent between two industry groups of securities. One of the pitfalls in the study by Roll and Ross is that the factors estimated in one group may not be the same with the factors estimated in another group. This raises some concerns on the acceptability of their conclusions. For our study, we employ inter-battery factor analysis which enables us to estimate factor loadings by constraining the factors to be the same between two different groups. Our results show that there seem to be five or six inter-group common factors that generate daily returns for two industry groups of securities, and these inter-group common factors do not seem to depend on the size of groups. Also, based on our cross-sectional tests on the risk premia, we conclude that the APT should not be rejected. THE ARBITRAGE PRICING THEORY (APT) introduced by Ross [35, 36] provides another model for explaining the relationship between return and risk. The APT may be conceived as an alternative to the well-known Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM) introduced by Sharpe [39], Lintner [27], and Mossin [29] and later modified by Black [1]. Both models assert that every asset must be compensated only according to its systematic risk. One of the major differences is that, in the CAPM, the systematic risk of an asset is defined to be the covariability of the asset with the market portfolio, whereas, in the APT, the systematic risks are defined to be the covariability with not only one factor but also possibly with several economic factors. Another difference is that the CAPM requires the economy to be in equilibrium whereas the APT requires only that the economy has no arbitrage opportunities. Note that the absence-of-arbitrage condition is necessary but not sufficient for the economy to be in equilibrium. Thus, the APT is a more fundamental relationship than the CAPM in the sense that a rejection of the APT implies the rejection of the CAPM but not vice versa. Despite numerous attempts, the CAPM has not been satisfactorily tested and, furthermore, Roll's critique [32, 33] casts serious doubts on the testability of the CAPM itself. Roll argues that the linear relationship between return and risk will hold for any efficient portfolio. Thus, unless the market portfolio is observed, a test of the CAPM using ex post data is ambiguous; it results only in testing the
Grain pricing and transportation: dynamics and changes in markets.

There are important challenges to the grain handling and shipping industries. The study evaluated changes in marketing costs for the primary grain marketing functions and quantified measures of risk. The results indicate that 1) basis risk has increased; 2) all marketing costs have increased; 3) the increase in rail tariffs were less than those for the other modes; 4) car values, on average declined; 5) FSC’s had moderate changes in absolute terms; 6) handling margins have had fairly substantial increases, particularly at port; and 7) the riskiness in rail shipping costs are less than those of competing modes and functions. The regression model indicated the following variables had significant impacts on origin basis values: shipping costs, ocean rate spreads, outstanding export sales, handling industry concentration, measures of rail cars late, the ratio of supplies to storage capacity, futures prices and spreads (in addition to a few other minor impacts).
The Problems of Establishing Internal Audit in the Sudanese Public Sector

This paper uses interview and direct observation research methods to explain the failure to establish internal audit in the Sudanese public sector. The specific problems highlighted in this paper of low salary levels, low levels of staff training and expertise, low esteem and motivation of staff are seen in the context of a very limited technological infrastructure, and a lack of co-operation and co-ordination between the various parties responsible for internal audit in the public sector. Internal audit in the Sudan takes place against a background of economic stagnation and political instability, and within a culture in which corrupt and irregular practice is endemic and institutionalized at all levels of society. In such circumstances and without the political will to strengthen its potential and practice it is likely that internal audit will continue to be marginalized in the foreseeable future.
Reinvestigating the relationship between exchange rate uncertainty and private investment in Iran: An application of bounds test approach to level relationship

This paper re-examines the effects of exchange rate uncertainties on investment for the period of 1960 to 2007 by using annual data and applying bounds test approach to cointegration in the Iranian economy. There are many unusual policy changes and external shocks, resulting in the occurrence of multitude breaks in Iranian macroeconomic variables. As standard unit root tests, such as Augmented Dickey-Fuller (ADF) and Philips-Perron (PP) tests, are biased towards the null of a unit root in the presence of structural breaks, The study apply Lee and Strazicich tests to test the null hypothesis that the series has unit root against the alternative of stationary with endogenous structural change. The study use generalized autoregressive conditional heteroscedasticity (GARCH) family models to generate time-varying conditional variance of exchange rate as a standard measure of exchange rate uncertainty. This paper, contributes to the literature by employing the bounds test approach to cointegration proposed by Pesaran, et al. (2001) to investigate the long-run equilibrium relationship between exchange rate uncertainty and investment in Iran. The empirical evidence points out that exchange rate uncertainty has negative impacts on investment in Iran. Key words: Exchange rate uncertainty, investment, bounds test, Iran.
Government Quality and Vertical Power-Sharing in Fractionalized States

Recent empirical studies have demonstrated that ethno-linguistic diversity has a negative relationship with quality of government (QoG). In response to this challenge, states have two broad options with respect to vertical power-sharing. One, they can attempt to integrate various factions by adopting a unitary, centralized constitution. Two, they can accommodate minority groups with ethno-federalism, giving them a degree of regional autonomy. Using numerous QoG indicators in a cross-sectional regression from 1995 to 2004, the data show that ethno-federalism outperforms its integrationist rival for each QoG measure employed in the analysis. While numerous other empirical studies have examined the impact of ethno-federal institutions on either civil conflict or separatism, this is the first to assess the effects of this institution on government quality relative to integrationist states. Copyright 2009, Oxford University Press.
The Labor Market Status of Immigrants: Effects of the Unemployment Rate at Arrival and Duration of Residence

Combining Current Population Survey samples from November 1979, April 1983, June 1986, and June 1988, all of which included data on country of birth and year of immigration, the authors examine patterns of immigrant employment and unemployment. Human capital was less strongly linked to employment status for immigrant men than for native-born white men, probably because human capital acquired outside the United States was only imperfectly transferable to the U.S. labor market. Immigrants had some initial difficulty finding work, but their employment and unemployment rates quickly attained levels comparable to those of the native-born. There is no evidence that immigrants who arrived in a recession were subjected to a long-term “scarring” effect. Immigrants' labor market status appears to have been somewhat more sensitive to cyclical changes in economic activity than was that of the native-born.