Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
TRANSPORT TECHNOLOGY AND ECONOMIC EXPANSION: THE GROWTH CONTRIBUTION OF RAILWAYS IN LATIN AMERICA BEFORE 1914*

ABSTRACT This paper measures the direct contribution of railways to economic growth before 1914 in four Latin American economies with large railway systems (Argentina, Brazil, Mexico and Uruguay) using growth accounting techniques. The outcomes of the analysis indicate that the growth contribution of railways in Uruguay was very low. By contrast, in Argentina and Mexico railways provided huge benefits, amounting to 20-25% of income per capita growth before 1914. Finally, in Brazil, the growth contribution of railways was even higher, although this was largely a consequence of the stagnation of the Brazilian economy. These results provide an example of a technology whose growth contribution was much higher in some peripheral economies than in the core countries where it was developed. RESUMEN En este artículo se estima, aplicando las técnicas de contabilidad del crecimiento, la contribución directa de los ferrocarriles al crecimiento económico, antes de 1914, de cuatro economías latinoamericanas con sistemas ferroviarios muy desarrollados (Argentina, Brasil, México y Uruguay). Los resultados del análisis indican que la contribución directa de los ferrocarriles al crecimiento económico uruguayo fue muy baja. En cambio, los ferrocarriles proporcionaron a Argentina y México unos beneficios directos de enorme magnitud, que representaron entre el 20% y el 25% del crecimiento de la renta per cápita de esos países antes de 1914. Finalmente, la contribución de los ferrocarriles brasileños al crecimiento económico fue todavía mayor, aunque ello fue en gran medida consecuencia del estancamiento de la economía brasileña. Estos resultados ofrecen un ejemplo de una tecnología cuya contribución al crecimiento fue mucho mayor en algunas economías periféricas que en los países industrializados en los que esa tecnología se desarrolló.
Labour relations policies in multinational companies: A three-country study of power dynamics

It is generally assumed that multinational companies will, to some extent at least, adapt their practices to host country environments. However, recent work suggests that this process of adaptation is yet more complex and uneven. It is our contention that subsidiary policy on labour relations is not simply the product of adaptation from and to home and host institutional environments but is in fact shaped by the multiple power relations that characterize multinational company subsidiaries. This three country comparison between Argentina, Canada, and Mexico shows that a policy of strong engagement with trade unions requires the presence of actors that can mobilize power resources. It is when both management and workers have power resources that subsidiaries are more likely to develop a policy of strong engagement with trade unions.
Analyst Coverage and Intangible Assets

type="main" xml:lang="en"> This study examines the relation between analysts' incentives to cover firms and the extent of their intangible assets. Because intangible assets typically are unrecognized and estimates of their fair values are not disclosed, absent analyst coverage firms with more intangible assets likely have less informative prices. Accordingly, we expect analysts have greater incentives to cover firms with more intangible assets and, thus, predict they have higher analyst coverage. As predicted, we find that analyst coverage is significantly greater for firms with larger research and development and advertising expenses relative to their industry, and for firms in industries with larger research and development expense. We also predict and find that analyst coverage is increasing in firm size, growth, trading volume, equity issuance, and perceived mispricing, and is decreasing in the size of the firm's analysts' brokerage houses and the effort analysts expend to follow the firm. These findings indicate that analyst coverage depends on private benefits and costs of covering a firm. We also test hypotheses related to analyst effort. We predict and find that analysts expend greater effort to follow firms with more intangible assets, after controlling for other factors associated with analyst effort. Our evidence indicates that intangible assets, most of which are not recognized in firms' financial statements, are associated with greater incentives for analysts to cover such firms, and greater costs of coverage. An open question is whether financial statement recognition of intangible assets could more efficiently provide information about such assets to investors.
Immigrant Entrepreneurs in 272 SMSAs

Utilizing data collected from the 1980 public-use sample of the U.S. Census, we examine the effect of percentage foreign born in the labor force upon aggregate self-employment rate in 272 SMSAs. Because mean self-employment among the foreign born was higher than among the native born, an increased percentage in the foreign born in a SMSA labor force caused increased aggregate self-employment. Also, as a result of renewed immigration during the 1970s, and the resulting increase in the foreign-born component of the civilian labor force, nonfarm self-employment in the United States increased about 3% above what would have been expected from a comparable “influx” of native-born workers. Depending on which method of estimation one selects, this immigration-prompted increase explains from 16% to 52% of the decade's total increase in nonfarm self-employment, a surprising reversal of nearly 10 decades of uninterrupted decrease. Rate of self-employment among immigrants had no effect upon the rate of or returns to self-employment of native-born workers in general or native blacks in particular.
Inter-organizational controls and organizational competencies: episodes around target cost management/functional analysis and open book accounting

This paper argues that inter-organisational management controls such as open book accounting and target cost management/functional analysis create new possibilities for management intervention. When such controls were introduced in the two firms analysed in this paper they not only had a role in enabling control of and insight into inter-organisational processes at a distance. They also took part in re-presenting corporate phenomena such as technology organisation and strategy and thereby re-translating the 'identify' or 'core competence' of the firms. Therefore, inter-organisational management controls craft for themselves a new space for management, which has only inter- but also intra-organisational effects.
The Long‐Run Negative Drift of Post‐Listing Stock Returns

After firms move trading in their stock to the American or New York Stock Exchanges, stock returns are generally poor. Although many listing firms issue equity around the time of listing, postlisting performance is not entirely explained by the equity issuance puzzle. Similar to the conclusions regarding other long-run phenomena, poor postlisting performance appears related to managers timing their application for listing. Managers of smaller firms, where initial listing requirements may be more binding, tend to apply for listing before a decline in performance. Poor postlisting performance is not observed in larger firms. Copyright 1995 by American Finance Association.
Feasibility of cardiac output estimation by ultrasonic cardiac output monitoring in the prehospital setting

The possible benefits of ultrasonic cardiac output monitoring (USCOM) in emergency medicine practice could be significant if evaluated in a goal-directed protocol. The aim of this study was to perform a feasibility study in a physician-staffed prehospital emergency medicine system. This study enrolled a convenient sample of 50 patients with circulatory distress. Main criteria were visualization of acceptable curves and obtaining interpretable values. Acceptable curves and interpretable values (main criterion) were obtained for 35 patients (70%). In case of failure, the patient was very often dyspneic (80 vs. 23%, when the technique was successful, P<0.001). Mean duration of USCOM examination was 105±60 s. The acceptable success rate for a new technique we observed and the high easy-to-use score suggests that the use of USCOM is feasible in prehospital emergency medicine.
The Role of Task-fit in Employees' Adoption of IT in Chinese Hotels

Employees' task fit to information technology (IT) adoption is considered to be important for IT processing in the service industry. However, few studies can be found in the literature. Based on the task-technology fit theoretical model and using 599 survey respondents, this study explores the relationships among employees, IT management support, task itself, and task-IT fit of hotel employees in China. The result, with ANOVA analysis, shows that there is a significant difference among task-IT fit and employees' IT usage or working experience. Further, the results of structural equation modeling suggest that the IT maintenance support exhibits impact on task-IT fit.
Protection of Renal Ischemia Injury using Combination Gene Silencing of Complement 3 and Caspase 3 Genes

Background. Ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) injury occurs in clinical kidney transplantation, which results in graft dysfunction and rejection. It has been documented that I/R injury is associated with complement activation and renal cell apoptosis. The purpose of this study was to develop a strategy to prevent I/R injury using small interfering RNA (siRNA) that target complement 3 (C3) and caspase 3 genes. Methods. siRNA-expression vectors were constructed to target C3 and caspase 3 genes. Gene silencing efficacy was assessed using real-time polymerase chain reaction. In vivo gene silencing was performed by hydrodynamic injection with C3 and caspase 3 siRNA. Renal I/R injury was induced through clamping the renal vein and artery for 25 min. I/R injury was evaluated using kidney histopathology, blood urea nitrogen (BUN), serum levels of creatinine, and survival. Results. Effective gene silencing was first confirmed in vitro. Notably upregulated expression of C3 and caspase 3 genes was observed from 2 to 48 hr after I/R injury, which were effectively and specifically inhibited by C3 and caspase 3 siRNA. In comparison with control mice, serum levels of creatinine and BUN were also significantly decreased in C3 and caspase 3 siRNA-treated mice. Furthermore, the therapeutic effect of siRNA was assessed in a severe, lethal I/R injury experiment, in which siRNA treatment significantly reduced mortality. Tissue histopathology showed an overall reduction in injury area in siRNA-treated mice. Conclusions. This is the first demonstration that renal I/R injury can be prevented through silencing the complement gene and apoptosis gene, highlighting the potential for siRNA-based clinical therapy.
Analysis of Rural and Urban Consumer Behavior Toward New Food Products Using a Food-Related Lifestyle Instrument

The food-related lifestyle (FRL) instrument was utilized to analyze rural and urban consumers and divide population samples into FRL consumer segments. Attributes of both geographic regions' consumer choice and attitudes toward the selection and purchase of new food products are explored. The findings of the research suggest urban consumers are more responsive toward new food products and the modes of influence have a greater impact on the urban market segment. The findings of the research displayed a preference by both rural and urban consumers toward the same five salient factors when selecting new food products: price, quality, taste, health issues, and nutritional composition. The article identifies the dynamics of new food product selection and provides a consumer profile for rural and urban market segments using the labels of Uninvolved consumers, Hedonistic food consumers, Adventurous food consumers, Careless food consumers, Conservative food consumers, and Rational food consumers.
Effect of SEC Financial Reporting Release No. 48 on Derivative and Market Risk Disclosures

This study compares the disclosures about derivatives and market risk made by 25 SEC registrants in the years before (1996) and after (1997) the adoption of Financial Reporting Release No. 48 (SEC 1997) (FRR No. 48). FRR No. 48 requires firms to disclose how they account for derivatives and provide quantitative and qualitative disclosures about exposure to market risk. Market risk disclosures, encouraged but not required under FAS No. 119, improved greatly under FRR No. 48 but varied widely in detail and clarity. The majority of registrants provided quantitative and qualitative disclosures of market risk; however, only about half of these firms discussed the details and limitations of their risk measurement models and disclosures. Further, certain required or strongly recommended contextual disclosures were almost completely absent. Firms appear to prefer relatively complicated but more discreet disclosure formats to simpler but more revealing disclosure formats. Overall, while registrants greatly increas.
Moral Hazard and Reciprocity

We investigate the motives behind reciprocal behavior by making selfish acts anonymous and not common knowledge. In one treatment, subjects were assigned to the role of proposer or responder and played a trust game with random matching for 20 rounds. In a second treatment, the modified game, the procedures were the same, but responders were allowed to choose with only 80% probability. With 20% probability, responders were restricted to keep any money passed. Only responders knew whether they were restricted or not. We find that the behavior of responders is different in this modified trust game. The fact that responders can hide selfish acts generates more selfish behavior. This in turn makes proposers less likely to pass money to responders, thereby destroying trust. We find important session effects in the standard trust game but less so in the modified game. Our experiments show that information conveyed in actions is important to subjects’ decisions.
The effects of hiring and firing regulation on unemployment and employment: evidence based on survey data

We use the results of surveys among senior business executives to measure the strictness of hiring and firing regulations. The survey data are more likely than objective indicators (used in almost all previous studies) to correctly capture the de facto strictness of these regulations and their relevance to the performance of the labour market. Using data from 19 industrial countries for the period 1992 to 2002, we find that more flexible regulations are likely to lower unemployment and to increase employment rates. While the effects on the general population appear to be modest, the effects on female, young and low-skilled workers seem to be substantial.
Sources of Professional Employees’ Job Involvement

The purpose of the current study was to investigate antecedents of job involvement of professional employees working in government work settings. In that effort, this study examined whether four key characteristics of professional employees’ jobs: variety, significance, autonomy, and feedback, as well as their perceptions regarding their agency’s mission, rewards system, and the extent of their participation in decision-making process determine the level of their job involvement. These linkages were examined with data collected through an organizational survey from 764 professional employees working in geographically distributed offices in a large state agency. The analysis indicated that more than half of the total variance in professional employees’ job involvement could be predicted reliably by perceptions regarding the characteristics of their jobs and agency’s reward system. The results also showed that perception of an attractive and worthwhile agency mission accentuated the positive effect of task significance on professional employees’ job involvement. Implications of these findings for managing professional employees in government agencies are discussed.
Racial Differences in Determinants of Live Donor Kidney Transplantation in the United States

Few studies have compared determinants of live donor kidney transplantation (LDKT) across all major US racial‐ethnic groups. We compared determinants of racial‐ethnic differences in LDKT among 208 736 patients who initiated treatment for end‐stage kidney disease during 2005–2008. We performed proportional hazards and bootstrap analyses to estimate differences in LDKT attributable to sociodemographic and clinical factors. Mean LDKT rates were lowest among blacks (1.19 per 100 person‐years [95% CI: 1.12–1.26]), American Indians/Alaska Natives‐AI/ANs (1.40 [1.06–1.84]) and Pacific Islanders (1.10 [0.78–1.84]), intermediate among Hispanics (2.53 [2.39–2.67]) and Asians (3.89 [3.51–4.32]), and highest among whites (6.46 [6.31–6.61]). Compared with whites, the largest proportion of the disparity among blacks (20%) and AI/ANs (29%) was attributed to measures of predialysis care, while the largest proportion among Hispanics (14%) was attributed to health insurance coverage. Contextual poverty accounted for 16%, 4%, 18%, and 6% of the disparity among blacks, Hispanics, AI/ANs and Pacific Islanders but none of the disparity among Asians. In the United States, significant disparities in rates of LDKT persist, but determinants of these disparities vary by race‐ethnicity. Efforts to expand preESKD insurance coverage, to improve access to high‐quality predialysis care and to overcome socioeconomic barriers are important targets for addressing disparities in LDKT.
Governance and HIV Prevalence in African Countries

Previous studies based on data from the World Bank have shown a negative association between governance and HIV prevalence. Using the Index of African Governance, this study investigates the correlation between governance and HIV prevalence in all African countries (N = 53) in order to determine which dimension of governance is more predictive of this relationship. No statistically significant association was found between governance and HIV prevalence across the whole spectrum of countries. In the multivariate analysis, the most predictive dimension of governance, " Rule of Law, Transparency and Corruption " was found to be positively associated with HIV prevalence across all African countries (p <.001), Beta =. 816 . When grouped by clusters, only two regions (North and West Africa) out of five showed negative significant associations between governance and HIV prevalence. The analysis of socio cultural and geographical factors revealed significant associations with HIV prevalence; religion and HIV prevalence (p < .003), region, and HIV prevalence (p < .001). French colonial heritage was found to be negatively associated with HIV prevalence. This study suggests that geographical location and religion predict HIV prevalence rather than governance. International organizations and public health program managers should consider these findings in the implementation of large multi-country and regional HIV programs in Africa. In presenting this thesis as a partial fulfillment of the requirements for an advanced degree from Georgia State University, I agree that the Library of the University shall make it available for inspection and circulation in accordance with its regulations governing materials of this type. I agree that permission to quote from, to copy from, or to publish this thesis may be granted by the author or, in his absence, by the professor under whose direction it was written, or in his absence, by the Associate Dean, College of Health and Human Sciences. Such quoting, copying, or publishing must be solely for scholarly purposes and will not involve potential financial gain. It is understood that any copying from or publication of this dissertation which involves potential financial gain will not be allowed without written permission of the author. All theses deposited in the Georgia State University Library must be used in accordance With the stipulations prescribed by the author in the preceding statement. Users of this thesis who not regularly enrolled as students at Georgia State University are required to attest acceptance of the preceding stipulation by signing below. Libraries borrowing this …
Unbounded liabilities, capital reserve requirements and the taxpayer put option

When firms access unbounded liability exposures and are granted limited liability, then an all equity firm holds a call option, whereby it receives a free option to put losses back to the taxpayers. We call this option the taxpayer put, where the strike is the negative of the level of reserve capital at stake in the firm. We contribute by (i) valuing this taxpayer put, and (ii) determining the level for reserve capital without a reference to ratings. Reserve capital levels are designed to mitigate the adverse incentives for unnecessary risk introduced by the taxpayer put at the firm level. In our approach, the level of reserve capital is set to make the aggregate risk of the firm externally acceptable, where the specific form of acceptability employed is positive expectation under a concave distortion of the cash flow distribution. It is observed that, in the presence of the taxpayer put, debt holders may not be relied upon to monitor risk as their interests are partially aligned with equity holders by participating in the taxpayer put. Furthermore, the taxpayer put leads to an equity pricing model associated with a market discipline that punishes perceived cash shortfalls.
World Cities in Asia: Cliques, Centrality and Connectedness

The world's leading cities are linked to one another by the flow of commodities, information and people to form part of the fabric of the world system. They are linked hierarchically, with some cities occupying more prominent positions than others in this global network of urban places. While this network is relatively stable, it is not immutable. The late 20th century saw deindustrialisation in the core countries, the shift of industries towards less developed countries, economic boom (and bust) in several developing countries and rapidly increasing global interdependence. Accompanying these changes has been the dramatic rise of several Asian cities in the hierarchical global system of urban places. This research describes the changing place of Asian cities in the world system of cities by using formal network analytical techniques with data on airline travel between all pairs of about 100 world cities from 1975 to 1997.
Speaker Variations Influence Speechreading Speed for Dynamic Faces

We investigated the influence of task-irrelevant speaker variations on speechreading performance. In three experiments with video digitised faces presented either in dynamic, static-sequential, or static mode, participants performed speeded classifications on vowel utterances (German vowels /u/ and /i/). A Garner interference paradigm was used, in which speaker identity was task-irrelevant but could be either correlated, constant, or orthogonal to the vowel uttered. Reaction times for facial speech classifications were slowed by task-irrelevant speaker variations for dynamic stimuli. The results are discussed with reference to distributed models of face perception (Haxby et al, 2000 Trends in Cognitive Sciences 4 223–233) and the relevance of both dynamic information and speaker characteristics for speechreading.