Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Factors Affecting Intention To Repurchase for E-Commerce in Thailand

This study aims to study the factors that affect an individual’s intention to repurchase from ecommerce system in Thailand by integrating two models — Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) and an Expectation Confirmation Model (ECM) into one research model. Four hundred online questionnaires were collected from Thais who have had at least two experiences of purchasing goods or services through an e-commerce system in Thailand. The results indicate that (1) perceived ease of use has a direct impact on trust and perceived usefulness, (2) confirmation has a direct impact on perceived usefulness and satisfaction, (3) trust has a direct impact on perceived usefulness and online repurchase intention, (4) perceived usefulness has a direct impact on satisfaction and online repurchase intention, (5) satisfaction has a direct impact on online repurchase intention. It is evident that satisfaction is the most influential factor affecting an online repurchase intention while confirmation is the strongest factor affecting satisfaction. The evidence from this study suggests that satisfaction (R2 = 0.761) is the main factor that generates intention to repurchase form an e-commerce system, hence entrepreneurs should take satisfaction as one of their highest considerations.
Lying for Efficiency or Fairness?

The lies of individuals holding positions of influence in society can result in significant consequences for the distribution of resources. A relationship between lying behavior and social preferences has often been proposed in explaining patterns of lying aversion. However, studies have seldom directly examined the relationship between different types of social preferences and the corresponding lying behaviors. We assess individuals’ preferences over social allocations along with their lying tendencies in the analogous scenarios, using a novel multinomial version of a ‘mind cheating game’, which allows different degrees of lying and is independent of social image and reputation concerns. Our study allows us to observe how preferences over fairness and efficiency are associated with the willingness to lie for one’s self and others. Selfish and spiteful lies are prevalent among those with strong spiteful preferences in the allocation task, while those subjects with efficiency-oriented preferences tend to tell efficient lies on behalf of others. However, among those with a strong preference for fairness in allocations with own-payoff consequence, lying on behalf of fairness concerns is less apparent. Altogether, the empirical patterns suggest that individuals with a strong preference for efficiency in such scenarios are more likely to lie for fairness concerns, while those with a strong fairness preference may be more likely to lie out of self-interest.
Can Financial Intermediary Development Improve Financial Literacy? Evidence from China

The lack of financial knowledge and its serious consequences has brought about extensive discussion among academics since the 2008 financial crisis. This study investigates the importance of financial intermediation in financial literacy. Using Consumer Finance and Investment Education Survey data in 24 cities from 2010 to 2012 in China, we find that financial intermediary development helps to improve financial literacy. This positive impact is magnified in central and western China, and to females and to less-educated consumers. The results hold after controlling the problem of endogeneity by constructing regulation of bank cross-city branching as an instrumental variable. We further run a number of estimations to discover the influence mechanism. Our results show that the influence upon individuals occurs not after but before they make financial decisions, and that the precondition is when their current expenditure exceeds current revenues, which requires inter-temporary cash-flow adjustments. That is to say, only when individuals have formed an effective demand for financial knowledge, will financial intermediary development improve their financial literacy. The study sheds some light on the improvement of consumer financial literacy and financial inclusion.
Boards’ Gender Diversity and Information Asymmetry in Stock Market of Pakistan

Prior evidence suggests that the presence of women on director boards increases the quantity and quality of public disclosure by firms. To explore this on Pakistan, we examined gender diversity in the corporate board and its relationship with information asymmetry in the stock market of Pakistan. We model information asymmetry as a function of gender diversity proxies and control variables using data for the period 2010–2019, collected from financial reports and investing.com. Thirty companies were selected from major sectors – Chemical, Commercial Bank, Cement, Fertilizer, Textile, Oil and Gas, Power Generation and Distribution, and Technology and Communication. The panel GMM approach was used for estimation. The result indicates that gender diversity on board of corporate has an insignificant relationship with the level of information asymmetry in the stock market of Pakistan whereas in control variables, institution ownership, size, and volatility have a significant relationship with information asymmetry. The findings can help shareholders, investors, and other firms’ stakeholders to who may perceive that female presence on boards can lead to their interests being better safeguarded. It can also help policymakers in reducing information asymmetry in the stock market by improving corporate governance in Pakistan.
Do auditors consider alleged bribery when accepting clients? Evidence from Chinese non-state-owned enterprises

This study examines the relationship between firm-level alleged bribery and audit-related decisions for Chinese non-state-owned enterprises (NSOE). Using a sample of listed NSOEs in 2010–2016, we find that alleged bribery is negatively correlated with the probability of being accepted by top-tier auditors and is positively correlated with audit fees. These findings suggest that top-tier auditors are more reluctant to accept corrupt firms and also charge higher audit fees. Also, we find that the negative correlation between alleged bribery and the probability of being accepted by top-tier auditors is strengthened after an anti-corruption campaign launched by the Chinese government in 2013 and/or after the crackdown of provincial-level officials, and is more pronounced in less developed regions. Finally, we find that alleged bribery is positively associated with the level of earnings management, implying that alleged bribery likely increases irregularities in financial statements.
Estimating Markov Transition Probabilities Between Health States Using U.S. Longitudinal Survey Data

We use data from two representative U.S. household surveys, the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS) and the Health and Retirement Study (Rand-HRS) to estimate Markov transition probability matrices between health states over the lifecycle from age 20–95. We use non-parametric and parametric methods and control for individual characteristics such as age, gender, race, education, income as well as cohort effects. We align two year transition probabilities from HRS with one year transition probabilities in MEPS using a stochastic root method. We find that the non-parametric counting method and the regression specifications based on ordered logit models produce similar results over the lifecycle. However, the counting method overestimates the probabilities of transitioning into bad health states. In addition, we find that young women have worse health prospects than their male counterparts but once individuals get older, being female is associated with transitioning into better health states with higher probabilities than men. We do not find significant differences of the conditional health transition probabilities between African Americans and the rest of the population. We also find that the lifecycle patterns are stable over time. Finally, we discuss issues with controlling for time effects, sample attrition, and other modeling issues that can arise with categorical outcome variables.
Interacting Anomalies

An extensive literature studies interactions of stock market anomalies using double-sorted portfolios. But given hundreds of known candidate anomalies, examining selected interactions is subject to a data mining critique. In this paper, we conduct a comprehensive analysis of all possible double-sorted portfolios constructed from 102 underlying anomalies. We find hundreds of statistically significant anomaly interactions, even after accounting for multiple hypothesis testing. An out-of-sample trading strategy that invests in the top backward-looking double-sort strategy generates equal-weighted (value-weighted) monthly average returns of 4% (2.7%) at an annualized Sharpe ratio of 2 (1.38), on par with state-of-the-art anomaly-based machine learning strategies.
Measuring Efficiency in the Banking Market. An Empirical Investigation of the Last Decade Performance

The purpose of this paper is to suggest some managerial and policy recommendations deriving from the observation of the determinants of the best efficiency levels achieved by the Euro Area banking groups. Referring to the period 2009–2018 a stochastic frontier model, based on the proxy coming from the inter-mediation approach, is employed to quantify the efficiency levels of the banking groups for each single year. Then, with a cluster analysis, we identify the most relevant efficiency determinants of the best practice banking groups. From the analysis, it is clear that the main determinants of the high level of efficiency are linked to a particular business model devoted to the traditional lending activity and to specific managerial choices, such as the achievement of a medium size together with a rational valuation of the number of firms belonging to the same banking group and to suitable cost rationalization policies and liquidity reserves optimization policies. These research findings have great micro and macro implications. Indeed, from our analysis some important reflections emerge regarding managerial and strategic choices and their impact on the results in terms of efficiency of each banking group, as well as some key factors that Regulators might take into account too. In the light of the structural changes that are transforming the physiognomy of the banking system, it is important to analyze the dynamics of efficiency. Few studies focused on such a particular topic after the 2008 Global Financial Crisis. In particular, the period involved is characterized by a strong turbulence within the financial markets and by many economic difficulties. Therefore, it can be considered a period able to represent well the complexity of the banking and financial markets in the last decade.
The End of an Era: Who Pays the Price when the Livestock Futures Pits Close?

This paper evaluates how the closure of the futures pits impacted the execution costs of orders from a specific group of market participants, the customers, in the livestock futures market. Our results indicate that customers, who were users of the live cattle and lean hog pits prior to their closure, experience an increase in the execution cost of their orders. This applies to both the overall execution costs of their orders and the execution costs of their electronic orders. routed to the electronic limit order book. We show that this was due to the loss of the pit, which was providing a cost-efficient execution for customers’ large orders. However, in the case of feeder cattle futures, we do not find any significant change in the corresponding customer execution costs and we attribute this finding to the small number of dealers in the feeder cattle pit, which potentially prohibited cost-efficient execution in the feeder cattle pit, even before it officially closed.
Investment Syndication Networks and International Differences in Legal Enforcement and Culture

Being part of an investment syndicate offers various network benefits, but also exposes risks that someone in the network acts in a manner that violates securities laws. These risks differ depending on the ways in which securities laws are enforced. Public enforcement, with strong investigative powers and strong group sanctions, discourages the formation of syndication networks. Private enforcement, with strong disclosure and liability standards, encourages the formation of syndication networks. We present evidence strongly consistent with the negative impact of public enforcement on network density, and partial support for the positive impact of private enforcement depending on cultural conditions.
Steel Partners Activism Efforts at United Industrial, Ronson, and BKF Capital: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

We examine Steel Partner’s investments and shareholder activism at three firms, United Industrial Corp (the Good), Ronson Corp (the Bad), and BKF Capital (the Ugly). The cases suggest the following points. For managers and boards wishing to maintain their independence the lesson is to dig in and refuse to negotiate, preferably while maintaining a big ownership stake. However, forcing the activist to go hostile might not be a great idea as it might lead to a lawsuit or an insatiable wolf-pack type campaign. For the activists, patience can be a virtue. However, do not let the desire for “success” come at the expense of profitability. Success was achieved at BKF and was probably a quixotic venture at Ronson. In both cases, Steel Partners lost a great deal of money and experienced opportunity costs. In contrast, Steel involvement at UIC can be seen as a model of successful activism, both in terms of achieving goals and making a substantial profit.
Dewatering of drinking water treatment sludge by vacuum electro-osmosis

ABSTRACT The objective of this research was to evaluate the dewatering of drinking water treatment sludge (DWTS) by vacuum electro-osmosis dewatering (VEOD) technology. DWTS has a high moisture content, with the water existing as free water, pore water, surface adhesion water and internal combined water. Vacuum filtration of 0.05 MPa can quickly dewater sludge and has low energy consumption, but can only remove free water and some pore water. The moisture content of the DWTS was reduced to below 79% by vacuum filtration technique alone. At this moisture content, all free water had been expelled by vacuum filtration. Electro-osmosis optimized for the experimental conditions (0.05 MPa, 2.5 V/cm) began after vacuum filtration ceased, and drew pore water and surface adhesion water to the cathode, where it was expelled through vacuum filtration. The VEOD process removed all free water. In addition, pore water and surface adhesion water were reduced by 60.2% and 15.9%, respectively.
Do Financial Resources Determine Cost Behavior?

According to previous research, firms prefer to temporarily maintain unutilized resources when business activity decreases, thereby reducing future ‘congestion costs’ that occur when revenue growth resumes. We argue that such optimizing behavior – referred to in the literature as sticky costs – is conditional on financial resources that support the increase in risk that results from maintaining additional costs. Using data from US manufacturing firms between 1984 and 2018, we find overwhelming support for the hypothesis. Across a range of tests, the most financially constrained firms have the least sticky costs. Firms that lack financial resources such as debt capacity and cash holdings essentially do not exhibit sticky cost behavior. Large firms with significant financial slack, in contrast, display cost stickiness that exceed the baselines results by a factor of three. While the latter finding is suggestive of poor cost discipline, our findings show that these firms are in fact associated with superior cost efficiency. Our results are consistent with the view that excessive adjustment to cost structure is an important component of financial distress.
Financial Constraints and Exporting & Innovative Firms

This paper studies exporting and innovative firms investment sensitivity to days receivable outstanding, days payable outstanding, and cash flow which are found to be financial factors determining financing constraints. We also advance and test the idea that export intensity and innovation intensity are driving channels of exporting and innovative firms investment potential sensitivity or non-sensitivity to financing constraints. Using Provence-Alpes Côte d'Azur firms level panel data collected between 2005-2014, we find that exporting firms investment is significantly and positively sensitive to cash flow and days receivable outstanding, while that of innovative firms is only significantly sensitive to cash flow. Although jointly export and innovation performances vanish firms investment sensitivity to financing constraints. Moreover, exporting firms export intensity is significantly and positively sensitive to days receivable outstanding while innovative firms innovation intensity is not significantly sensitive to financing constraints. Then, export intensity appears to be a driving channel for exporting firms investment sensitivity to days receivable outstanding while innovation intensity is not a driving channel for innovative firms investment sensitivity to cash flow.
The Credit Composition of Global Liquidity

We conceptualize global liquidity as global monetary policy and credit components by means of a large-scale dynamic factor model. Going beyond previous work, we de- compose aggregate credit components into credit supply and demand ﬂows directed at businesses, households and governments. We show that this decomposition enhances the understanding of global liquidity considerably. In particular, we ﬁnd that our global credit estimates explain substantial variance shares of a large panel of international ﬁnancial ag- gregates. Moreover, we extensively document that the prevalence of sectoral credit shocks varies across the ﬁnancial cycle, characterized by ﬁnancial sector risk and risk aversion. For instance, whereas household credit supply is high during ﬁnancial cycle upswings, government credit supply increases in response to adverse shocks to the ﬁnancial cycle. Moreover, the government sector demands credit in times of bust-episodes, whereas pri- vate entities demand credit in times of booms. To rationalize our ﬁndings, we suggest for instance that, whereas global government sector credit supply is best understood as a safe-haven lending factor from an investors perspective, lenders supply businesses and households with credit to maximize proﬁts along the ﬁnancial cycle.
Audit Committee Financial Expertise, Litigation Risk, and Auditor-Provided Tax Services

The Sarbanes-Oxley Act greatly expanded audit committees’ oversight responsibilities by requiring that they preapprove all non-prohibited non-audit services (NAS). Using data from 2003 to 2011, we find that tax NAS are significantly lower when accounting financial experts (ACT-FEs) serve on the audit committee, suggesting that ACT-FEs consider auditor independence risk, perceived and/or real, more than other members, including supervisory experts, to the point of not accepting any tax NAS, not even compliance. However, in firms with higher ex-ante litigation risk, ACT-FEs approve relatively more tax NAS than other members, suggesting that they accept the costs of a perceived lack of auditor independence from tax NAS in return for the potential benefits of increased financial reporting quality arising from tax NAS. Our analysis by sub-period (2003 to 2006 versus 2007 to 2011) shows that this result is significant only in the second period. ACT-FEs’ differential evaluation of the trade-off between the benefits and costs of joint audit and tax NAS provision between the two periods suggests the need for additional research in later post SOX years.
Merger Rhetoric and the Credibility of Managerial Synergy Forecasts

Managers frequently project high synergistic gains when announcing M&As. This paper analyzes when promised synergies are value-relevant. Using text analytical methods, we only find a positive relationship between synergy projections and announcement returns when promised numerical projections are credible, e.g., when accompanied by thorough verbal explanations and low impression management. Further, credibility increases when concrete instead of embellishing language is used. Hence, the more precise the information that firms disclose, the more it fosters trust in the underlying logic of the deal. Generally, investors seem to see through vacuous statements and value substance over form and verboseness of M&A announcements.
The Effects of Stereotypes on Empathy and Aggression in Social Interactions

Attitudes are often based onto our beliefs. If our education and our cultural context is seeing some behaviors or sexual orientation as dangerous, then aggressiveness and lack of empathy will take over. Our preconceptions strongly influence how we interpret the reality. As some authors show, out cognitive mechanism are efficient and adaptive, but sometimes error can occur. This paper aims to evaluate the level of aggression and empathy towards people in the LGBTQ community. Stereotypes are summed up in light of the fact that one expects that the stereotype is valid for every distinctive individual in the classification. Generalizations lead to social categorization, which is one reason for bias mentalities and may emerge for various reasons. The research proofs that the level of aggression increases and the level of empathy decreases when the subjects face images with people from the LGBTQ community.
Does the Government Spending Multiplier Depend on the Business Cycle?

We investigate government spending multipliers using a two-regime model and impulse response functions with fully endogenous regimes. While short-run multipliers vary depending on business cycle fluctuations, we find little evidence that medium or long-run multipliers vary between expansions and recessions. The reason for state-dependence found in the literature is the constant-regime assumption used to create impulse response functions. Importantly, a fiscal policy shock has little effect on the duration of a recession. However, we find that recession multipliers for government investment, non-defense and state and local spending are higher than their government consumption, defense and federal spending counterparts.
STUDIES OF MILK COMPOSITION AND ITS RELATIONSHIP TO SOME PROCESSING CRITERIA III: SEASONAL VARIATION IN HEAT STABILITY OF MILK

Seasonal variation in heat stability of milks from creamery and liquid supplies, from spring and autumn calving herds, was determined over a 12-month period. Heat coagulation time (HCT) was measured in a thermostatically controlled oil bath at 130? C. Mean values of HCT at the pH of creamery milk on reception were higher during the period April October (78 min) than earlier and later periods (33 min). The pH of maximum heat stability occasionally coincided with the original pH of milk, but generally the stability at original pH was about 15 min less than the maximum. Heat stability of the autumn herd samples was similar to the spring milk in many respects, showing a seasonal rather than a lactation trend. There was a marked decrease of 20-30 min in the minimum HCT recorded during the November-March period for all the milks. Statistical analysis of the results indicate a significant correlation between heat stability and urea level, soluble calcium and casein number for some milks. The most significant correlation existed between maximum heat stability and urea level (r = +0.93) for liquid milk. Maximum heat stability was also correlated with soluble calcium (r = ? 0.74) and casein number (r = ? 0.69).