Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Firm Dynamics and Productivity Growth: A Review of Micro Evidence from OECD Countries

This paper surveys recent empirical studies exploring aggregate productivity growth based on firm dynamics, focusing on micro-data from OECD countries. Aggregate productivity growth can be analysed as a sum of two separate processes. i) Changes in productivity in individual firms at a given size (relative to market). And, ii) a reallocation process due to compositional effects arising from the expansion and contraction of existing firms as well as from entry and exit of firms (namely, firm dynamics). After reviewing theoretical explanations and empirical methods for firm dynamics and productivity growth, the paper looks into major findings from the manufacturing sector under three subsections: firm dynamics, productivity correlates, and productivity decomposition. The paper also reviews methodological issues and some findings from the emerging literature of empirical studies on the service sector . Cette etude passe en revue les etudes empiriques recentes qui examinent la croissance de la productivite globale en se basant sur la dynamique de l'entreprise, et en particulier en utilisant des donnees individuelles de firmes de pays de l'OCDE. La croissance de la productivite globale peut etre analysee comme etant le resultat de deux procedes distincts, soit i) les changements de la productivite des firmes individuelles a taille donnee (par rapport au marche); et ii) le processus de reallocation du a l'expansion et a la contraction des firmes existantes, aussi bien qu'a des entrees et sorties des entreprises (a savoir, la dynamique de l'entreprise). Apres avoir examine les explications theoriques et les methodes empiriques d'analyse de la dynamique de l'entreprise et de la croissance de la productivite, l'etude considere les resultats principaux du secteur manufacturier dans trois sous-sections : la dynamique de l'entreprise, les correlats de la productivite et la decomposition .
THE RUSSIAN SEAFOOD REVOLUTION: SHIFTING CONSUMPTION TOWARDS AQUACULTURE PRODUCTS

A food consumption revolution is taking place in Russia. After decades of severe constraints on food consumption options under the communist regime Russian consumers are now adopting new food products—including seafood products – at a high pace. Since Russian consumers have previously had very limited seafood consumption choices, the market can be seen as an interesting laboratory for investigating consumer responses to products that have previously not been available. Among imported seafood products are both wild and farmed species. Furthermore, Russian imports include both traditional species such as herring, and ‘new’ species such as pangasius. We analyze market integration among seafood products using Russian monthly import prices from 2002 to 2007 on several products, such as herring, salmonids and pangasius. We find that pangasius compete in the white fish segment, and is a price leader. In the salmonids market, farmed salmon trout appears to be the price leader, both in the fresh and frozen market segment.
Seasonality and Wage Responsiveness in a Developing Agrarian Economy

This paper studies the wage responsiveness of labour supply and demand, simultaneously addressing the twin issues of the non-clearing of developing rural labour markets and seasonality. It employs a data set pertaining to south-central India, and limits itself to the agricultural market for daily-rated labour (by far the predominant form of wage contract in the sample villages). Estimating a theoretically robust and empirically justified disequilibrium model of the agricultural labour market, we find no evidence of backward-bending supply curves or 'vertical' demand curves, contrary to findings in the literature. Further, while the agricultural labour market appears to be in equilibrium during the kharif (or rainy) season, it manifests excess supply in the rabi (or post-rainy) season. Copyright 2004 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
Perceptions of NCAA Division I Athletes on Motivations Concerning the use of Specialized Academic Support Services in the Era of the Academic Progress

This paper examines the motivations of NCAA Division I athletes of the need and usefulness of specialized academic support services in the era of the Academic Progress Rate (APR). Specifically, an evaluation of the historical context of these services and how they came to be so prevalent and deemed as a necessity for academic success of NCAA Division I college athletes is discussed, along with many of the unintended consequences and potential affront to academic integrity due to the competitive nature of NCAA Division I athletics and the perceived pressure on academic centers to keep athletes eligible to compete. The purpose of this study is to examine the motivations of athletes to use these services, using the theoretical construct of Vroom’s Expectancy Theory, (1964). The study attempts to determine through research based conclusions if the athletes believe these services are needed to enhance academic persistence and potential for graduation and the motivations for using or not using them. This is a mixed method study taken from a stratified proportional sample of athletics in a mid-major athletic conference during the development of the APR rules and regulations. Conclusions are mixed as to motivations of athletes toward the need and viability of these services even in the face of changing academic requirements. The results are also influenced by ethnicity, gender, sport played in college, current grade point average, and high school college preparatory course GPA. The contribution to the literature is that little empirical research exists on athlete motivational perceptions of the need and adequacy of these services considering the extra layer of academic requirements via the APR.
ECHOCARDIOGRAPHIC EVALUATION OF LEFT VENTRICULAR FUNCTION AFTER ACUTE MYOCARDIAL INFARCTION

Background: The study was taken up to evaluate the left ventricular systolic and diastolic function after acute myocardial infarction (AMI) in male patients. Method: A hospital based study was conducted at tertiary care centre in UP, India with 60 male healthy controls and 125 confirmed cases of AMI admitted to the coronary care unit who fulfilled the inclusion criteria. After a clinical examination/history taking, left ventricular (LV) functional parameters were assessed by echocardiography in M-mode. The data obtained was analyzed using Microsoft Excel2010 software. Results: The predominant sites of myocardial infarction (MI) were antero-septal MI (57.6%), with inferior wall MI (28%), and lateral wall MI (4.8%). Body mass index (BMI) was in overweight category in both study groups. A statistically significant difference was noted in haemodynamic parameters with lower values noted in AMI cases. Statistically significant differences with lower values in AMI cases were noted in Stroke volume (p<0.001), cardiac output (p<0.001), Ejection fraction (p<0.001) and Fractional fibre shortening (p<0.001) when compared with healthy subjects. A statistically significant decrease in E (p=0.015), increase in A (p<0.001) and decrease in E/A ratio (p=0.015) was noted in AMI cases when compared with healthy controls. Conclusion: The overall LV function was decreased among acute myocardial infarction patients. Echocardiographic assessment provides prognostic information which helps to stratify risks and initiate rationale therapeutic measures to reduce morbidity and mortality associated with it.
The Definition and Causes of Microfinance Over-Indebtedness: A Customer Protection Point of View

With over-indebtedness emerging among microfinance customers, the industry's sustainability and social impact are at risk. Filling a void in the literature, this paper develops a definition of over-indebtedness that is appropriate for customer protection purposes. It provides a framework for the causes of over-indebtedness that highlights the role of external influences and the responsibility of lenders. It recognises the role borrowers play in their own over-indebtedness. This paper challenges several misconceptions and oversimplifications about microfinance over-indebtedness. These include the belief that default-based risk management indicators are sufficient to signal concerns in relation to customer protection. Further misconceptions are the undesirability of consumption loans, as well as the benefits of competition, of regular instalment schedules, of a zero-tolerance policy and of annual percentage rates. By enhancing our understanding of microfinance over-indebtedness and its causes, this paper provides the means for measuring over-indebtedness and tailoring solutions to its root causes. The analysis shows that combating over-indebtedness does not automatically mean reducing access to microcredit. Although a soundevaluation of repayment capacity is essential, tailoring products to clients' needs also reduces over-indebtedness.
What Does Futures Market Interest Tell Us about the Macroeconomy and Asset Prices?

Economists have traditionally viewed futures prices as fully informative about future economic activity and asset prices. We argue that open interest could be more informative than futures prices in the presence of hedging demand and limited risk absorption capacity in futures markets. We find that movements in open interest are highly pro-cyclical, correlated with both macroeconomic activity and movements in asset prices. Movements in commodity market interest predict commodity returns, bond returns, and movements in the short rate even after controlling for other known predictors. To a lesser degree, movements in open interest predict returns in currency, bond, and stock markets.
On aggregate empirical studies relating population variables to economic development.

Empirical studies of the cross-national relationship between the rates of economic development and population growth may reasonably be interpreted as providing consistently strong evidence of the absence of a negative causal effect of the latter upon the former. The most important positive effects of additional people--improvement of productivity through the contribution of new ideas and the learning-by-doing resulting from increased production volume--appear in the long run and are cumulative. Together with this positive long-term effect the absence of an observed negative medium-term effect upon economic growth is adduced as sufficient evidence that in the very long run more people have a positive net effect. (SUMMARY IN FRE AND SPA) (EXCERPT)
Calendar effects in daily ATM withdrawals

This paper analyses the calendar effects present in Automated Teller Machines (ATM) withdrawals of residents, using daily data for Portugal for the period from January 1st 2001 to December 31st 2008. The results presented may allow for a better understanding of consumer habits and for adjusting the original series for calendar effects. Considering the Quarterly National Accounts' procedure of adjusting data for seasonality and working days effects, this correction is important to ensure the use of the ATM series as an instrument to nowcast private consumption.
β‐catenin promotes bone formation and suppresses bone resorption in postnatal growing mice

Genetic studies in the mouse have demonstrated multiple roles for β‐catenin in the skeleton. In the embryo, β‐catenin is critical for the early stages of osteoblast differentiation. Postnatally, β‐catenin in mature osteoblasts and osteocytes indirectly suppresses osteoclast differentiation. However, a direct role for β‐catenin in regulating osteoblast number and/or function specifically in the postnatal life has not been demonstrated. Addressing this knowledge gap is important because low‐density lipoprotein receptor‐related protein 5 (LRP5), a coreceptor for WNT signaling proposed to function through β‐catenin, controls osteoblast number and function in postnatal mice or humans. To overcome the neonatal lethality caused by embryonic deletion of β‐catenin in early‐stage osteoblast‐lineage cells, we use the Osx‐CreERT2 mouse strain to remove β‐catenin in Osterix (Osx)‐expressing cells by administering tamoxifen (TM) temporarily to postnatal mice. Lineage‐tracing experiments in the long bones demonstrate that Osx‐CreERT2 targets predominantly osteoblast‐lineage cells on the bone surface, but also transient progenitors that contribute to bone marrow stromal cells and adipocytes. Deletion of β‐catenin by this strategy greatly reduces the bone formation activity of the targeted osteoblasts. However, the targeted osteoblasts rapidly turn over and are replaced by an excessive number of non‐targeted osteoblasts, causing an unexpected increase in bone formation, but an even greater increase in osteoclast number and activity produces a net effect of severe osteopenia. With time, the mutant mice also exhibit a marked increase in bone marrow adiposity. Thus, β‐catenin in postnatal Osx‐lineage cells critically regulates bone homeostasis by promoting osteoblast activity and suppressing osteoblast turnover, while restraining osteoclast and marrow fat formation. © 2013 American Society for Bone and Mineral Research.
Booms and Busts: Asset Dynamics, Disaster, and the Politics of Wealth in Rural Mongolia

Asset‐based approaches in poverty research argue that trajectories of asset accumulation and decumulation in rural, agricultural livelihoods can be located in the connections between household asset endowments and exposure to shocks. Though these frameworks show that wealth and its “other,” poverty, can be persistent over time, there is a critical lack in understanding the political and historical mechanisms of that persistence including the dynamic interaction between resource access, socioeconomic inequality, and risk management. In this article, I use contemporary and historical livestock data collected from rural pastoralists in Mongolia to demonstrate that asset dynamics are largely an effect of historical processes of dispossession and impoverishment, and the resulting unequal distribution of risks and resources, rather than a cause. As such, I argue that booms and busts in household herds must be seen through a kaleidoscope of emerging and shifting institutions where differences in endowments, entitlements, and risk exposure are filtered through local cultural politics. In conclusion, I argue that by contextualizing rather than eschewing asset‐based approaches, researchers can uncover the politics of excess as a politics of access and shed light on the cultural and institutional foundations of wealth, surplus, and their “others. ”
Preferential and Non-Preferential Approaches to Trade Liberalization in East Asia: What Differences Do Utilization Rates and Reciprocity Make?

Previous studies on the impacts of free trade agreements (FTAs) in East Asia have assumed full utilization of preferences. The evidence suggests that this assumption is seriously in error, with the estimated uptake particularly low in East Asia. In this paper, we assume a more realistic utilization rate in estimating impacts. We find that actual utilization rates significantly diminish the benefits from preferential liberalization, but in a non-linear way. Reciprocity is an important motivation for pursuing FTAs over unilateral actions, although the Doha Round could deliver the same outcome if only it could be concluded. We isolate the impact of reciprocity, but find that the additional benefits also depend on utilization rates. Furthermore, the potential for trade deflection combined with possible retaliatory actions could negatively affect members and non-members. In the absence of Doha, the multilateralization of preferences, even without reciprocity, is the practical route that is most likely to deliver the greatest benefits to members. Global liberalization, while difficult to attain, would maximize world welfare while posing no risk in its realization.
Tumor‐derived microvesicles in the tumor microenvironment: How vesicle heterogeneity can shape the future of a rapidly expanding field

Information transmission from tumor cells to non‐tumor cells in the surrounding microenvironment via microvesicles is a more recently studied form of intercellular signaling that can have a marked impact on the tumor microenvironment. Tumor‐derived microvesicles (TMVs) are packed with information including signaling proteins and nucleic acids, and can be taken up by target cells, enabling paracrine signaling. While previous research has focused on how vesicles released from pathologic cells differ from normal cells, the heterogeneity that exists within the TMV population itself is not fully characterized, and only beginning to be appreciated. In this review, we summarize current understanding of the biogenesis and roles of shed TMVs in the tumor microenvironment, and speculate on the consequences for tumor cell signaling in light of the hypothesis that there exists variance within the TMV population. The analysis of differential signaling upon cell‐TMV interactions provides insights into potential mechanisms of intercellular communication.
Spatial stochastic frontier models: controlling spatial global and local heterogeneity

In the last decade special attention has been focused on estimating a firm’s efficiency and productivity; Stochastic Frontier Analysis (SFA) has been one of the most used techniques that allows the separation of inefficiency from stochastic noise, assuming homogeneous technology is available to all producers and that there is independence between observations. However, this second assumption is violated data are spatial auto-correlated, thus biasing statistical inference. Attention has, therefore, shifted to models that allow the controlling of heterogeneity introducing, in the model or in the error term, contextual variables correlated with inefficiency. In our paper we propose viewing the spatial external factors (natural or artificial) in a new way: instead of identifying ex-ante a multitude of determinants, often statistically and economically difficult to detect, we suggested using an original methodology that, following a classical SFA approach, splits efficiency into three components: the first one is linked to the spatial lag, the second one to the DMU’s specificities, and the third to the error term. Finally, we tested our method using simulated data and examined the Italian wine sector, testing the ability to control spatial, global and local heterogeneity.
Introducing an innovative robot-based mobile platform for programming learning

The present study introduces an Android based application that focuses on promoting students' learning experience when interacting with Lego Mindstorms Robotic Kit NXT. A thorough investigation of the current literature reveals that there are numerous applications attempting to overcome the limitations of Lego platform which, however, appear to only partially succeed in significantly improving children's engagement in fruitful learning. Their main limitations are that they either function on an elemental level or suffer from a general lack of creating effectively room for children to test their abilities and other curiosities. Aiming at confronting these limitations, the proposed android application, which is referred to as MyNXT, was created and presented. MyNXT offers direct access control along with the choice to program using simple linear logic through an easy and a user friendly environment with built in instructions for all ages. Concluding, the proposed application constitutes a stepping to an educating platform, which can facilitate the learning needs of children in contemporary times.
Expected Volatility, Unexpected Volatility, and the Cross-Section of Stock Returns

The existing literature finds conflicting results on the cross-sectional relation between expected returns and idiosyncratic volatility. We contend that at the firm level, the sample correlation between unexpected returns and expected idiosyncratic volatility can cloud the true relation between the expected return and expected idiosyncratic volatility. We show strong evidence that unexpected idiosyncratic volatility is positively related to unexpected returns. Using unexpected idiosyncratic volatility to control for unexpected returns, we find expected idiosyncratic volatility to be significantly and positively related to expected returns. This result holds after controlling for various firm characteristics, and is robust across different sample periods.
Social Support Structures and Predictors of Depression in Persons Who Are Seropositive

Survey data from 87 seropositive individuals were analysed to assess the extent to which: (1) the social-support network changes over the course of three levels of seropositivity (HIV asymptomatic, HIV symptomatic and AIDS); (2) certain types of support providers are associated with lower depression; and (3) the relative contribution of support network diversity, emotional support from several categories of providers (family of origin, friends, spouses/partners, and weak ties) and locus of control to depression. Results indicate that the support-network structure changes when symptoms appear, most notably reliance on weak ties decreases and on family of origin increases. Results also indicate that persons drawing on a particular support provider are no less depressed than persons not drawing on that support provider. However, health, social locus of control and increasing levels of emotional support from friends, family and weak ties all make independent contributions to lower depression. Future research is suggested to explore the transition points among HIV asymptomatic, HIV symptomatic and AIDS conditions.