Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The 'Make and/or Buy' Decisions of Corporate Political Lobbying: Integrating the Economic Efficiency and Legitimacy Perspectives

This paper examines political lobbying and investigates firms’ decisions regarding whether to employ internal functionalities (i.e., to “make” or insource), to contract with external professionals (i.e., to “buy” or outsource), or to do both (i.e., to “make and buy” or plural source). I first develop an integrated framework based on the twin perspectives of economic efficiency and legitimacy. When the political audience faces little uncertainty about lobbying content, firms make sourcing decisions to maximize economic efficiency in producing such content in line with transaction cost economics and the capabilities view. However, when the political audience faces substantial uncertainty about lobbying content, it relies on the perceived legitimacy of the lobbying entity to draw inferences about the quality of the such content; therefore, the legitimacy of a potential lobbying entity matters to firms making sourcing decisions related to lobbying. Then, I connect firms’ sourcing decisions with several concrete characteristics of lobbying entities that can affect political audiences’ judgment regarding their legitimacy. Finally, I examine the tension that develops when legitimacy and economic efficiency considerations call for different forms of sourcing, and I examine how complementarities in plural sourcing help resolve this tension in certain situations.
New taxa of Myrsinaceae from Thailand

Revision of the Myrsinaceae in Thailand has resulted in the recognition of 7 genera, including 102 species. Of these, 12 species and 2 varieties of Ardisia are described as new: A. atrovirens, A. confusa, A. ficiifolia, A. fletcherii, A. gracillima, A. ionantha, A. maehongsonia, A. palustris, A. paralleloneura, A. tetramera, A. tristis, A. uniflora, A. impressa var. grandidens, A. rigida var. laev'is, and 2 species of Maesa: M. argyrophylla, M. glomerata. Descriptions, illustrations and distributional data are given.
Do Small Shareholders Count?

We hypothesize that age similarity among small shareholders acts as an implicit coordinating device for their actions, and thus may represent an indirect source of corporate governance in firms with dispersed ownership. We test this hypothesis on a sample of Swedish firms during the 1995-2000 period. Consistent with our hypothesis, we find that compared to shareholders of differing ages, same-age non-controlling shareholders sell more aggressively following negative firm news; firms with more age-similar small shareholders are more profitable and command higher valuation; and an increase (decline) in a firm’s small shareholder age-similarity brings a significantly large increase (decline) in its stock price. The latter effects are more pronounced in the absence of a controlling shareholder.
Financial Integration and Firm Performance: Evidence from Foreign Bank Entry in Emerging Markets

While the positive growth effects of financial integration are extensively documented, little is known of its impact on small and young firms. This paper aims to fill this void relying on a panel of 60,000 firm-year observations on listed and unlisted companies in Eastern European economies to assess the differential impact of foreign bank lending on firm growth and financing. Foreign lending stimulates growth in firm sales, assets, and use of financial debt even though the effect is dampened for small firms. More strikingly, young firms benefit most from foreign bank presence, while businesses connected to domestic banks or to the government suffer. Overall, our findings suggest that foreign banks can help to mitigate connected-lending problems and to improve capital allocation.
The microbial flora of herring fillets after storage in carbon dioxide, nitrogen or air at 2°C

Herring fillets from the Baltic Sea were stored in glass vessels in air, nitrogen or carbon dioxide (CO2) at 2 degrees C and the microbial development was studied. The microbiological shelf-life of the herring (the time to reach 10(7) organisms/g) was prolonged by a factor of 3.5 in CO2 as compared to air. The corresponding factor in nitrogen was 1.5. The microflora of fresh and spoiled herring was classified. The initial microflora was dominated by coryneforms, Flavobacterium spp. , Moraxella-like organisms and Pseudomonas spp. The spoilage-flora in air (after 9 d) was dominated by Pseudomonas spp. and Moraxella-like organisms, and in nitrogen (14 d) Enterobacteriaceae, Vibrionaceae and Lactobacillus spp. were dominant. Homofermentative Lactobacillus spp. were the only organisms isolated from fillets stored in CO2 (28 d). It was concluded that storing fresh fish in pure CO2 at low refrigeration temperatures is a method with industrial potential. The method (1) improves the microbiological stability and (2) reduces the microbiological health hazards of the fish.
Cross-Subsidization in SRI Fund Families

We investigate the existence of strategic cross-fund subsidization in SRI fund families. For a sample of SRI fund families domiciled in the U.S., we find evidence of cross-fund subsidization on performance where winning funds are subsidized by peer losing funds. However, there is no evidence of cross-fund subsidization between high-fee and low-fee funds, and between young and mature funds of the same family. Cross-fund subsidization is attenuated by manager ownership in subsidizing funds, and is more likely to occur between sibling funds with ethical screening than with environmental, social, and combined environmental-social-governance (ESG) screening.
A serological survey for antibodies against herpes simplex virus with special reference to comparatively heat-labile complement-fixing antibodies.

The demonstration by Andrewes and Carmichael (1930) that a majority of human population possessed antibodies against herpes virus opened a way to a number of follow-up investigations, and the total body of data accumulated has supported the essence of the postulate of Burnet and Williams (1939) that the primary infections, either apparent or inapparent, might occur mostly in childhood and result in a commensal host-parasite relation lasting for the rest of life with or without occasional manifestations such as recurrent herpes. The earlier workers, employing neutralization test (Weyer, 1932; Burnet and Lush, 1939; Scott et al., 1952; Buddingh et al., 1953; Tateno et al., 1958), complement fixation test (Hayward, 1950: Holzel et al., 1953; Yamaguchi, 1959a) or both (Dascomb et al., 1955; Yamaguchi, 1955b; Schmidt and Lennette, 1961), found antibodies among 60 to 100 per cent of the adult populations examined. It was also a common observation that newborn babies less than four months old showed the same positive ratio as adults but after this period a
Talent Management and Workers’ Commitment to Oil & Gas Firms in Nigeria

This investigates the relationship between talent management and workers’ commitment to oil and gas firms in Nigeria using a cross-sectional survey. Ten oil and gas servicing firms were surveyed using simple random sampling. A population of 125 managers and supervisors were surveyed from ten oil and gas firms in Rivers state while a sample of 95 was ascertained from the population using Krejcie and Morgan sample size determination table. Reliability of the instrument was determined using Cronbach Alpha. Face and content validity was employed. 95 copies of the questionnaire were administered to managers and supervisors but 74 copies were correctly filled and returned. Pearson Product Moment Correlation Coefficient (rs) was used to analyze the hypotheses with the aid of statistical package for social sciences (SPSS 20.0) while respondents’ characteristics were analyzed using frequency distribution. The study found that talent management has a positive significant relationship with workers commitment. It concluded that talent management measured in terms of talent attraction, talent development and talent retention promotes workers commitment in oil and gas firms in Nigeria. This study recommends that managers of oil and gas firms should endeavor to employ all compensation plans necessary to retain talents in the industry as this will enhance their commitment towards achieving organizational goals.
La photorespiration se déroulant dans un air sans CO2 a-t-elle une fonction?

Long-term effects of a low O2 and CO2, atmosphere on photosynthesis were studied on Sinapis alba L. It was shown that this could induce strong and durable changes on the subsequent photosynthesis measured at different CO2 and O2 concentrations. Two mains effects were observed: (1) an inhibition of net assimilation measured at 21% or 0.1% O2; (2) a qualitative change of the Warburg effect. After the treatment, high CO2 concentrations did not reverse the inhibitory effect of O2 on photosynthesis.The effect of the low O2 and CO2 atmosphere, characterized by the inhibition of net assimilation, was analyzed by varying the following factors during plants treatment: light intensity, temperature, and CO2 and O2 concentrations. The inhibition was higher under high light intensity, increased with temperature, and was apparent within the following limits of CO2 and O2 concentration, respectively, 0 to 0.018% CO2 and 0.1 to 4% O2.The results are discussed to determine if they showed that an inhibition of photorespira.
Measuring Systemic Risk in the U.S. Banking System

This paper develops a novel measure of systemic risk that combines mapping technology and regression methods. Self-organizing maps (SOM) and lasso logistic regressions are employed to estimate default probabilities for individual U.S. commercial banks from 2001 to 2017. Subsequently, these probabilities are aggregated into a size-weighted measure of systemic risk dubbed SYSTEM. Empirical results show that, due primarily to large banks, volatility in systemic risk increased in 2005 followed by a very large spike from late 2006 to 2008 related to the financial crisis. Comparative tests to the popular systemic risk measure SRISK reveal that SYSTEM: (1) provided earlier warning signals of the impending 2008−2009 crisis; and (2) indicated relatively lower systemic risk after 2012. Further tests show that SYSTEM and SRISK are useful in predicting industry-wide nonperforming loans and numbers of bank failures. We conclude that micro- and macro-prudential measures of bank condition are useful in assessing and predicting systemic risk.
Progress in Tobacco Control in Singapore: Lessons and Challenges in the Implementation of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control

Singapore has implemented tobacco control policies since the 1970s, more than three decades before it became party to the World Health Organization (WHO) Framework Convention on Tobacco Control — the first evidence-based global health treaty in 2005. The country's stringent policies have resulted in a 13 per cent adult smoking prevalence rate, one of the lowest in the world. This article reviews how a mix of demand- and supply-reduction measures with extensive regulation and stringent enforcement has contributed to Singapore's reputation as the ‘most hostile environment’ for tobacco companies. Its tobacco control policies can offer lessons for more effective tobacco control among its neighbouring countries.
Good Days, Bad Days: Stock Market Fluctuation and Taxi Tipping Decisions

Using taxicab tipping records in New York City (NYC), we develop a novel measure of real-time utility and quantitatively assess the impact of wealth change on the well-being of individuals based on the core tenet of prospect theory. The baseline estimate suggests that a one-standard-deviation increase in the stock market index is associated with a 0.3% increase in the daily average tipping ratio, which translates to an elasticity estimate of 0.3. The impact is short-lived and in line with the wealth effect interpretation. Consistent with loss aversion, we find that the impact is primarily driven by wealth loss rather than gain. We exploit Global Positioning System and timestamp information and design two difference-in-differences tests to establish causal inference. Exploitation of the characteristics of individual stocks suggests that the effect of wealth change on real-time utility is more pronounced in the stocks of firms with large market capitalization. Finally, our aggregate estimate suggests that annual tip revenue in the NYC taxi industry is associated with stock market fluctuations, ranging from −$17.5 million to $12.9 million. This paper was accepted by Tyler Shumway, finance.
Water requirements and body water distribution in Awassi sheep and Aardi goats during winter and summer seasons

SUMMARY Water requirements, total body water (TBW) and water distribution were evaluated in Awassi sheep and Aardi goats of Saudi Arabia. Ten non-pregnant and non-lactating females from each species were individually housed in shaded pens during winter and summer seasons. Each experimental period lasted for 2 weeks; the first week was an adaptation period, followed by an evaluation period of 1 week. Feed and water intake together with body weight were recorded daily. Five animals from each group were used for determination of body water, extracellular fluid (ECF) and plasma volume (PV) using dilution techniques. Urea and sodium thiocyanate were used for the estimation of body water and ECF, respectively, and Evans blue for PV determination. Intracellular fluid (ICF) and blood volume (BV) were calculated. Feed intake was not affected by either season or species. During the winter season, Aardi goats had lower water intake in comparison with Awassi sheep, but water intake increased in all animals during summer. TBW increased during summer in all animals, but with higher values in the Aardi goats. During summer, ECF tended to increase in Aardi goats. PV, expressed as a proportion of body weight, was not affected by season, but it was maintained at higher levels in the Aardi goats irrespective of season. It could be concluded that Aardi goats used water more economically when the ambient temperature was lower but, during the summer when ambient temperatures were higher, they increased their water intake and BW content to a greater extent and stored more water in the ECF compartment compared to Awassi sheep.
Impacts of Economic Events on Performance of Mutual Funds: Evidence from India

Recent years have witnessed phenomenal growth in both the number and size of diversified equity mutual funds in India. But performance of mutual fund in India has been volatile because of several macro-economic factors. In the top-down approach to evaluate the investment in stock markets, economic risk tops the list and its importance cannot be understated. Principally performance of equity diversified mutual fund depends upon the stock market performance. The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of economic events on the risk-adjusted returns/performance of mutual funds in India using event study methodology. For the calculation of impact, Researcher has selected two mutual fund schemes (ICICI Prudential Balanced fund - Direct Plan - Growth &amp; ICICI Prudential Dynamic-Direct Plan- Growth). This methodology addresses the problems of multiple event days and calendar clustering. The economic event considered for the research are recent global or cross border event (BREXIT- Britain Exit from the European Union) and Domestic event (GST- Goods and Services Tax). For the event study the event window of 11 days (i.e. 5 business days before and 5 business days after the event day including event day) will consider for abnormal return and estimation window of 11 days consider for normal return. The time gap for Normal and Abnormal return is 180 days. The event date of BREXIT has taken 24th June 2016 (National declaration of the European Union referendum result) and for GST has taken 03rd August 2016 (GST Amendment Bill passed in Rajya Sabha). In the proposed research Endeavour, researcher’s shall made an attempt to identify that holder of equity mutual funds may earn abnormal return in response to above mentioned events and in the given period of time.
Matched Trade at the Firm Level and the Micro Origins of International Business-Cycle Comovement

This paper uses firm x national market export and import data for all Swedish private sector firms for 1997-2014 to examine the firm-level contribution of trade and foreign ownership to the correlation between Swedish value added growth and partner country GDP growth. Export and import links increase the firm-level correlation but net out for firms that both export to and import from the same market, evidence that this type of ``natural hedging'' can help reduce a firm's exposure to foreign economic shocks. We proceed to aggregate the firm-level results to the whole economy and find that severing firm-level ties with a foreign market is predicted to lower the correlation between Swedish value added growth and foreign GDP growth from 0.72 to 0.64 on average. Gabaix's ``granularity'' of trade is central to this result: if all firms are given equal weight overall correlations are essentially unaffected by severing firm level ties. While natural hedging is quantitatively important at the firm level, it has little effect on overall comovements.
Do the Q-Factors Proxy for Surprises in Economic State Variables?

In this paper, we investigate whether q-factors, ME, I/A, and ROE correlates the surprises in economic state variables that describe the changes in investment opportunities within the Intertemporal CAPM framework. The paper shows that ME, I/A, and ROE significantly correlate with the surprises in economic state variables. In particular, we find that ME correlates with the surprises in default spread, term spread, and treasury-bill yield; while I/A is related to the surprises in aggregate dividend yield. The profitability factor ROE correlates with surprises in term spread and default spread. These findings suggest that the q-factors are related to the surprises in economic state variables. We also show that for each portfolio formation, loadings on surprises in economic state variables resemble the loadings or a mirror image of loading on q-factors. These findings suggest that the q-factors may act as a proxy for the surprises in economic state variables that describe the changes in the investment opportunity set. The paper adds more insights to the ongoing debate on the theoretical justification of q-factors ME, I/A, and ROE.
Vocational Training Duration and University Graduates’ Job Performance in Cross River State, Nigeria

This study focused specifically on determining the extent to which duration of vocational training influence university graduates job performance in baking and computer business enterprises respectively. In achieving this, two research questions were raised and two research hypotheses were formulated to guide the study. The study adopted a descriptive survey design. The population of this study include a total of 123 baking business and 208 computer business centres in the Area. Out of this population, a proportionate stratified sampling technique was used to select 10% resulting in the selection of 12 baking and 21 computer business centres. A simple random sampling technique was adopted to select 36 and 63 graduates from baking and computer business enterprises respectively, resulting in a sample of 99 respondents. A rating scale was used as the instrument for data collection. The instrument was administered by the researchers. The data obtained, were analysed using descriptive statistics, while the hypotheses were tested at . 05 level of significance using one-way analysis of variance (One-Way ANOVA). The results of the analysis revealed that duration of vocational training influenced university graduates job performance in baking and computer business enterprises respectively. Discussions, conclusion and recommendation were all made based on the findings of the study.
NBER WORKING PAPER SERIES THE EFFECT OF THE RISK CORRIDORS PROGRAM ON MARKETPLACE PREMIUMS AND PARTICIPATION

We thank Roger Feldman, Kosali Simon, and audiences at Indiana University, University of Minnesota, Vanderbilt University, the Junior Health Economics Summit, and the Penn HIX conference for comments and suggestions from seminar audiences. We are grateful to the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation for collecting the HIX data and making them available, and to Kathy Hempstead for assistance with the data. The views expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Bureau of Economic Research. ̨
Competition, Cost Structure, and Labor Leverage: Evidence from the U.S. Airline Industry

I study the effect of increasing competition on financial performance through labor leverage. To capture competition, I exploit variation in product market contestability in the U.S. airline industry. First, I find that increasing competitive pressure leads to increasing labor leverage, proxied by labor share. This explains the decrease in operating profitability through labor rigidities. Second, by exploiting variation in human capital specificity, I show that contestability of product markets induces labor market contestability. Whereas affected firms might experience more stress through higher wages or loss of skilled human capital, more mobile employee groups benefit from competitions through higher labor shares.
On the origin of shared beliefs ( and corporate culture )

This article shows how corporate culture, in the sense of shared beliefs and values, originates (often unintentionally) through screening, self-sorting, and manager-directed joint learning. It shows that such culture will be stronger among more important employees and in older and more successful firms where employees make important decisions and the manager has strong beliefs. It further shows how a manager’s beliefs influence culture, how culture persists despite turnover, and why the suggested link between culture and performance may be a case of inverse causality. It finally shows that, from an outsider’s perspective, organizations may tend to overinvest in corporate culture.
Nonperforming Loans in BRICS Nations: Determinants and Macroeconomic Impact

The issue of Nonperforming loan is considered as a serious threat towards the banking soundness of a country. Nonperforming loans are those loans which cease to generate principle and interest and create a negative impact on the performance of banks. There are host of factors which effect nonperforming loans which include both banking and macroeconomic variables. This study tries to study the impact of macroeconomic determinants on the Nonperforming loans of BRICS countries covering the period from 2000-2016. BRICS bloc is considered for study as various previous studies shows that trading blocs also get affected by inter countries nonperforming loans issues. This study uses dynamic panel data approach for analysis using Fully Modified Ordinary least square model along with Co integration analysis and for robustness checks this model incorporates fixed and random ordinary least square method. The outcome of this paper shows that unemployment has a positive relation with nonperforming loans whereas growth and financial soundness of a country has a negative relation with nonperforming loans. Savings by household also has an inverse relation with nonperforming loans like inflation rate which shows a negative relation with default loans.