Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Piercing through Opacity: Relationships and Credit Card Lending to Consumers and Small Businesses during Normal Times and the COVID-19 Crisis

We investigate bank relationships in a rarely-considered context – consumer and small business credit cards. Using over one million accounts, we find during normal times, consumer relationship customers enjoy relatively favorable credit terms, consistent with the bright side of relationships, while the dark side dominates for small businesses. During COVID-19, both groups benefit, reflecting intertemporal smoothing, with more benefits flowing to safer relationship customers. Conventional banking relationships benefit consumers more than credit card relationships, with mixed findings for small businesses. Important identification issues are addressed. CARES Act consumer-delinquency reporting impediments reduce the informational value of consumer credit scores, penalizing safer borrowers.
Risk Manag Insur Rev

Jia Min Ng, Center for the Economic Analysis of Risk, Robinson College of Business, Georgia State University, Atlanta, Georgia. Email: jiamin.ng@outlook.com Abstract Decisions to purchase insurance should be a perfect place to see economic theory at work in general, and behavioral economics at work in particular. We have well‐developed theories of the demand for, and welfare evaluation of, insurance products. These theories extend relatively easily to the insights of behavioral economics. Unfortunately, the empirical literature has not maintained this tight connection. In fact, much of the empirical literature illustrates the dangers of the modern passion with agnostic economics: avoiding theory at all costs to focus on “what works. ” We identify these dangers and the implications in the literature.
Detecting Anticompetitive Acquisitions: The Role of Relative Financial Constraints

Relative financial constraints affect firms’ aggressiveness in industry competition. Using eight alternative proxies for financial constraints, we find that consistent with the deep pocket theory, in the three years following an acquisition, the unconstrained rivals tend to become follow-up acquirers while the constrained rivals are more likely to get acquired. The effect is more pronounced in M&A-intensive industries, among the rivals with more growth opportunities and lower operating efficiency. Also, the rivals would become worse off if they do not make follow-up acquisitions. Overall, these findings indicate that considering firms’ relative financial constraints can be an alternative approach to detecting anticompetitive acquisitions.
Strike the right tone: Financial analysts’ tone to acquire information in earnings conference calls

We study whether financial analysts use linguistic tone in their questions to elicit information from management during earnings conference calls. By phrasing questions negatively, analysts signal to management that they are aware of negative issues related to firm performance and are willing to push for more information. We document a positive association between analysts’ use of negative tone and the information provided by management in terms of disclosure accuracy and level. However, phrasing questions negatively is costly to analysts. When analysts use negative tone, management more often refuses to respond and answers less clearly, suggesting that analysts’ information processing costs increase. Weighing the benefits and cost, we find that analysts use negative tone when firms are exposed to large industry or macroeconomic risk, conditions where analysts likely need more information from management. This identifies financial analysts’ question phrasing as a driver of the informativeness of earnings conference calls.
Case Study: End User Development of an Agent-based Model of Malaria Transmission to Support the Design of Late-Life-Acting Insecticides for the Control of Malaria Transmission and Delay of the Evolution of Insecticide Resistance

We describe an end-user developed agent-based simulation of malaria transmission. The simulation's development is a case study demonstrating an approach for non-technical investigators to easily develop useful simulations of complex public health problems. We focused on malaria transmission, a major global public health problem, and insecticide resistance (IR), a major problem affecting malaria control. Insecticides are used to reduce transmission of malaria caused by the Plasmodium parasite that is spread by the Anopheles mosquito. However, the emergence and spread of IR in a mosquito population can diminish the insecticide's effectiveness. IR results from mutations that produce behavioral changes or biochemical changes (such as detoxification enhancement, target site alterations) in the mosquito population that provide resistance to the insecticide. Evolutionary selection for the IR traits reduces the effectiveness of an insecticide favoring the resistant mosquito population. It has been suggested that biopesticides, and specifically those that are Late Life Acting (LLA), could address this problem. LLA insecticides exploit Plasmodium's approximate 10-day extrinsic incubation period in the mosquito vector, a delay that limits malaria transmission to older infected mosquitoes. Since the proposed LLA insecticide delays mosquito death until after the exposed mosquito has a chance to produce several broods of offspring, reducing the selective pressure for resistance, it delays IR and gives the insecticide longer effectivity. Such insecticides are designed to slow the evolution of IR thus maintaining their effectiveness for malaria control. For the IR problem, the simulation shows that an LLA insecticide could work as intended, but its operational characteristics are critical, primarily the mean-time-to-death after exposure and the associated standard deviation. We also demonstrate the simulation's extensibility to other malaria control measures, including larval source control and policies to mitigate the spread of IR. The simulation was developed using NetLogo as a case study of a simple but useful approach to public health research.
The Promises and Pitfalls of WealthTech: Evidence from Online Marketplace Lending

WealthTech (WT) holds the promise to “democratize financial service” by serving the underserved market segments with affordable, quality, and transparent wealth management services. This paper assesses the competence and integrity of WT using a unique, order-level data set on WT vis-à-vis human bidders from a Chinese online marketplace lending platform. We find WT outperforms human investors by a significant margin due to WT’s informational and speed advantage to cherry-pick high quality and mispriced investment opportunities. We also find a misalignment of interest when the platform’s private benefit in loan origination conflicts with WT users’ returns. In a dynamic view, we show the return of both WT users and non-WT users declines as the WT dominates the market. We also discuss the corresponding regulatory strategies.
A Statistical Mechanics Sampling of Financial Networks Under Bilateral Netting Constraints

We propose a statistical mechanics approach to the problem of financial network reconstruction and systemic risk when participants benefit from bilateral netting agreements. We apply physical reasoning to directly estimate individual financial liabilities from data on both total gross and net positions of total liabilities and total assets. We map this constrained network reconstruction problem to an energy-minimization one, to which we apply a Markov Chain Monte Carlo algorithmic to sample from this restricted space. These samples are then used to evaluate the impact of bilateral netting strategies to individual defaults and contagion. As an application, we employ this method to derivative networks and derive individual probabilities of default of banks. The comparison against popular alternative methods underlines the importance of restricting sample solutions to those compatible with the netting strategies of banks. We also provide an R package implementing our methodology.
Quasi-Indexer Ownership and Insider Trading: Evidence from Russell Index Reconstitutions

The prior literature on the association between institutional ownership and insider trading has produced a mixed set of results. These results are difficult to interpret because the association between them is likely endogenous and prior studies have not employed effective identification strategies to address this issue. In this study, we examine the effects of quasi-indexer institutional ownership on insider trading using the plausibly exogenous discontinuity in quasi-indexer ownership around the Russell 1000/2000 index cutoff. Using both regression discontinuity and instrumental variable research designs, we find higher quasi-indexer ownership leads to less insider trading (both buys and sells) and less profitable sell trades. The effects for sells are concentrated among insider trades that, ex ante, are more likely to be based on private information. Our evidence on the profitability of buys is mixed. In addition, we find firms with higher quasi-indexer ownership are more likely to have and/or more strictly enforce blackout policies.
Observability and Social Image: On the Robustness and Fragility of Reciprocity

Theoretical and empirical findings suggest that individuals are sensitive to the observability of their actions and the downstream consequences of this observability. We connect three streams of literature (social preferences, behavior change, and social norms) to investigate the conditions for which these claims are valid. Across multiple high-powered studies, we examine the mechanisms through which observability of one's actions affects pro-sociality, when and why it sometimes fails, and how to utilize social and economic incentives to enact behavior change. Our three main results are: (i) observability alone has very little positive effect and can even backfire; (ii) inequality aversion drives the observed backfiring of observability; (iii) increasing the salience of norms can mitigate unintended consequences and successfully increase pro-sociality. From a policy perspective, our results highlight the potential pitfalls of simple behavioral interventions.
V-shapes

An insidious form of market inefficiency, by which prices lose their informativeness and wealth is distributed arbitrarily, translates into V-shapes, that is sudden changes of the sign of the price drift. We use this insight to develop a new tool for the detection of reverting drift, the V-statistic. We apply this tool to (i) quantify the extent of this kind of market inefficiency in the U.S. stock market during the Covid-19 pandemic;and (ii) show the harmful consequences of V-shapes on financial stability by estimating the huge loss suffered by Italian taxpayers (0.45B euros) in May 2018, when a transient crash hit the secondary bond market during a Treasury auction.
Pre-Positioning and Local-Purchasing for Emergency Operations Under Budget and Supply Uncertainty

Problem definition: Considering a mix of pre-positioning and local purchasing, common to cover humanitarian demands in the aftermath of a rapid-onset disaster, we propose policies to determine pre-position stock. These formulations are developed in the presence of demand, budget and local supply uncertainties, and for single items delivery. <br><br>Academic/Practical Relevance: The immediate period aftermath of a disaster is the most crucial period during which humanitarian organizations must supply relief items to beneficiaries. Yet, due to many unknowns such as time, place, and magnitude of a disaster, supply management is a significant challenge, and these decisions are made intuitively. The features and complexities we examine have not been studied in the literature. <br><br>Methodology: We derive properties of the optimal solution, identify exact solution methods, and determine approximate methods that are easy to implement. <br><br>Results: We (i) characterize the interplay of supply, demand, and budget uncertainties, as well as the impact of product characteristics on optimal prepo stock levels, (ii) show in what conditions, the prepo stock is a simple Newsvendor solution, and (iii) discuss the value of emergency funds. <br><br>Managerial Implications: We show that budget level is a key determinant of the optimal policy. When it is above a threshold, inventory increases in disaster frequency and severity, but the reverse is true otherwise. When budget is limited, the rate of savings from improved forecasts is amplified (attenuated) for critical (noncritical) items, reflecting opposing directional effects of mismatch cost and cost of insufficient funding. Our model can also be used to estimate the value of initiatives to mitigate constraints on local spend, (e.g., a line of credit underwritten by large donors that is available during the immediate relief period).
Piotr Korczak

This paper provides an empirical investigation of cross-listing’s implications for companies and stock exchanges in the newly-established capital markets in Central Europe. We find that companies experience a permanent value enhancement, and cumulative abnormal returns reach a strongly significant level of 25 % around Depository Receipts offering. The results show that cross-listing is an efficient tool of raising capital when the local market is underdeveloped. We observe that stock liquidity improves after international listing what indicates that foreign trading venues attract new investors and do not deteriorate local capital markets’ quality. Average turnover ratio in the domestic market increases significantly by 34 %. JEL Classification: G14, G15, G20
Does Investor Behavior Vary by Firm Life Stage? Evidence from Earnings Announcement Reactions∗

Prior literature documents that corporate decisions are influenced by firm life stage, yet the relationship between investor behavior and firm life stage is not well understood. Using a cash flow-based life stage classification, this study finds that investor reactions to earnings announcements differ by firm life stage. Introduction and decline stage companies exhibit three-day cumulative abnormal returns (CARs) around positive earnings surprises that are at least 123 bps lower than firms in growth, maturity, and shake-out stages. These companies also exhibit reactions to negative earnings surprises that are at least 55 bps lower than firms in other life stages. Moreover, the inverted V-shaped pattern in lottery return spreads around earnings announcements documented in Liu, Wang, Yu, and Zhao (2020) is strongest for introduction and decline stage firms and weaker for firms in other life stages. Comparing lottery stocks to non-lottery-like stocks, immediate reactions to positive earnings surprises are less positive for introduction and decline stage firms but are more positive for firms in other life stages. Our findings suggest that noise/retail traders are attracted to speculation in hard-to-value introduction and decline stage stocks, where overoptimistic speculation is met with disappointment when value-relevant earnings news is released. JEL Classification Codes: G10, G12, G14
Community Coalition Efforts to Prevent Adolescent Substance Use: A Systematic Review

A systematic review explored the creation and maintenance of community coalitions as effective for alcohol and other drug (AOD) prevention in adolescence. Community coalitions influence the implementation of effective and sustainable community-based prevention via infrastructure supporting development, delivery, and assessment of human service issues. For this review, 1,435 articles were identified, most including insufficient detail on the purposes and activities of coalitions or focus on adolescents. Of the 16 studies included, few discussed comprehensive frameworks describing coalition formation and maintenance or measureable influences on adolescent AOD prevention outcomes. Therefore, we propose four organizing principles for building sustainable community coalitions for adolescent AOD prevention.
In Vitro and In Vivo IFN-γ and IL-10 Measurement in Experimental Brucella abortus Biotype 1 Infection in Sprague-Dawley Rats.

The immune response to Brucella abortus mainly depends on antigen-specific T cell activation, CD4+ and CD8+ T cells, and Brucella-specific humoral response. Protective immune response against Brucella infection has not been performed in the Sprague-Dawley (SD) rat model. We measured bacterial kinetics in addition to in vivo and in vitro interferon gamma (IFN-γ) and interleukin-10 (IL-10) production against crude Brucella protein in the SD rats at different days of postinfection with B. abortus biotype 1 by indirect enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Forty SD rats were inoculated intraperitoneally with 0.1 mL sterile injectable pyrogen-free solution containing 1 × 1010 colony-forming units/mL of B. abortus biotype 1 obtained from cattle in Korea. Four rats were used as uninfected control. Serum IFN-γ level at 3 and 7 days postinfection were significantly higher (p > 0.001) compared with the IL-10 level. On the contrary, serum IL-10 levels were observed significantly higher at 21 and 28 days postinfection compared with the serum IFN-γ levels (p < 0.001). The production of IFN-γ by spleen cells was significantly higher at 7 and 14 days postinfection compared with IL-10 (p < 0.001). On the contrary, IL-10 productions were found to be significantly higher at 21, 28, 35, and 42 days postinfection compared with IFN-γ (p < 0.001). The presence of B. abortus in blood was marked till 5 weeks of infection, throughout the experiment in case of spleen, and no bacteria were isolated from the kidney and liver at 6 weeks postinfection. The in vivo and in vitro IFN-γ and IL-10 measurement in our study reported that B. abortus infection in rats primarily educe T helper (Th)1-dominant immune response in acute infection accompanied by Th2-dominant immune response in chronic infection.
Autophagy inhibition and microRNA-199a-5p upregulation in paclitaxel-resistant A549/T lung cancer cells

Multidrug resistance (MDR) is one of the major reasons for the clinical failure of cancer chemotherapy. Autophagy activation serves a crucial role in MDR. However, the specific molecular mechanism linking autophagy with MDR remains unknown. The results of the present study demonstrated that autophagy was inhibited and microRNA (miR)-199a-5p levels were upregulated in MDR model lung cancer cells (A549/T and H1299/T) compared with those in the parental cell lines. Paclitaxel (PTX) treatment increased the expression levels of miR-199a-5p in parental lung cancer cells compared with those in PTX-untreated cells, and these expression levels were negatively correlated with PTX sensitivity of the cells. miR-199a-5p knockdown in A549/T cells induced autophagy and resensitized cells to multiple chemotherapeutic drugs including PTX, taxotere, topotecan, SN38, oxaliplatin and vinorelbine. By contrast, miR-199a-5p overexpression in A549 cells suppressed autophagy and desensitized cells to these chemotherapeutic drugs. Mechanistically, the results of the present study demonstrated that miR-199a-5p blocked autophagy by activating the PI3K/Akt/mTOR signaling pathway and inhibiting the protein expression of autophagy-related 5. Furthermore, p62 protein was identified as a direct target of miR-199a-5p; miR-199a-5p bound to p62 mRNA to decrease its mRNA and protein expression levels. In conclusion, the results of the present study suggested that miR-199a-5p may contribute to MDR development in lung cancer cells by inhibiting autophagy and targeting p62. The regulatory effect of miR-199a-5p on autophagy may provide novel insights for future multidrug-resistant lung cancer chemotherapy.
Expanding the Reach of Research: Quantitative Evaluation of a Web-Based Approach for Remote Recruitment of People Who Hear Voices

Background Similar to other populations with highly stigmatized medical or psychiatric conditions, people who hear voices (ie, experience auditory verbal hallucinations [AVH]) are often difficult to identify and reach for research. Technology-assisted remote research strategies reduce barriers to research recruitment; however, few studies have reported on the efficiency and effectiveness of these approaches. Objective This study introduces and evaluates the efficacy of technology-assisted remote research designed for people who experience AVH. Methods Our group developed an integrated, automated and human complementary web-based recruitment and enrollment apparatus that incorporated Google Ads, web-based screening, identification verification, hybrid automation, and interaction with live staff. We examined the efficacy of that apparatus by examining the number of web-based advertisement impressions (ie, number of times the web-based advertisement was viewed); clicks on that advertisement; engagement with web-based research materials; and the extent to which it succeeded in representing a broad sample of individuals with AVH, assessed through the self-reported AVH symptom severity and demographic representativeness (relative to the US population) of the sample recruited. Results Over an 18-month period, our Google Ads advertisement was viewed 872,496 times and clicked on 11,183 times. A total amount of US $4429.25 was spent on Google Ads, resulting in 772 individuals who experience AVH providing consent to participate in an entirely remote research study (US $0.40 per click on the advertisement and US $5.73 per consented participant) after verifying their phone number, passing a competency screening questionnaire, and providing consent. These participants reported high levels of AVH frequency (666/756, 88.1% daily or more), distress (689/755, 91.3%), and functional interference (697/755, 92.4%). They also represented a broad sample of diversity that mirrored the US population demographics. Approximately one-third (264/756, 34.9%) of the participants had never received treatment for their AVH and, therefore, were unlikely to be identified via traditional clinic-based research recruitment strategies. Conclusions Web-based procedures allow for time saving, cost-efficient, and representative recruitment of individuals with AVH and can serve as a model for future studies focusing on hard-to-reach populations.
Damage to the blood-brain barrier and activation of neuroinflammation by focal cerebral ischemia under hyperglycemic condition

Hyperglycemia aggravates brain damage caused by cerebral ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) and increases the permeability of the blood-brain barrier (BBB). However, there are relatively few studies on morphological changes of the BBB. The present study aimed to investigate the effect of hyperglycemia on BBB morphological changes following cerebral I/R injury. Streptozotocin-induced hyperglycemic and citrate-buffered saline-injected normoglycemic rats were subjected to 30 min middle cerebral artery occlusion. Neurological deficits were evaluated. Brain infarct volume was assessed by 2,3,5-triphenyltetrazolium chloride staining and BBB integrity was evaluated by Evans blue and IgG extravasation following 24 h reperfusion. Changes in tight junctions (TJ) and basement membrane (BM) proteins (claudin, occludin and zonula occludens-1) were examined using immunohistochemistry and western blotting. Astrocytes, microglial cells and neutrophils were labeled with specific antibodies for immunohistochemistry after 1, 3 and 7 days of reperfusion. Hyperglycemia increased extravasations of Evan's blue and IgG and aggravated damage to TJ and BM proteins following I/R injury. Furthermore, hyperglycemia suppressed astrocyte activation and damaged astrocytic endfeet surrounding cerebral blood vessels following I/R. Hyperglycemia inhibited microglia activation and proliferation and increased neutrophil infiltration in the brain. It was concluded that hyperglycemia-induced BBB leakage following I/R might be caused by damage to TJ and BM proteins and astrocytic endfeet. Furthermore, suppression of microglial cells and increased neutrophil infiltration to the brain may contribute to the detrimental effects of pre-ischemic hyperglycemia on the outcome of cerebral ischemic stroke.