Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Value of Connections: Network Effects on Stock Market Participation

We introduce an equilibrium model of the stock market participation rate with a social network. We study how information sharing through a network affects the decision to enter the stock market and how social connectivity interacts with individual income and financial literacy to create heterogeneity in stock market participation levels. We analyze how the equilibrium participation level depends on the intensity of social interactions, and provide an algorithm for finding the equilibrium stock market participation level. We test the predictions from the model using Facebook county-level connectivity data. We find the model with social networks outperforms standard models without networks in predicting heterogeneity of equilibrium stock market participation over the income distribution, explaining non-participation among wealthy agents.
Team Decision Making in Operations Management

The existing behavioral OM literature has primarily studied individual decision makers. However, the behavioral economics literature suggests that, compared to individuals, teams may make better decisions. Specifically, the Eureka theory suggests that teams outperform individuals when the problem is Eureka-like, i.e., has a key insight that can be persuasively communicated to others. To study the behavior of teams making operational decisions, we examine two canonical settings: standalone Newsvendor inventory decisions (tactical decision-making) and Newsvendor under information sharing (strategic decision-making). We find that teams perform no better than individuals when making standalone Newsvendor decisions. Using chat analysis and preference integration analysis, we find that the key insight to the problem - the classical Newsvendor logic - is neither prevalent nor particularly persuasive in team discussions. In the information sharing setting, we find that team retailers are more likely to lie and inflate when sharing information compared to individual retailers; the argument to be untrustworthy is prevalent and persuasive within team chats. By contrast, team suppliers do not perform differently from individual suppliers in a systematic way; although the argument to be untrusting is prevalent, it is not uniquely persuasive. Our paper provides useful managerial insights into the situations under which companies can benefit from implementing team decision-making: It benefits the company if the decision is Eureka-like. Many operational decisions are plausibly Eureka-like; however, careful behavioral study is needed to help determine whether they are.
How growth conditions affect the capacity of Quercus ilex leaves to emit monoterpenes

This article was printed in an uncorrected form in error and a corrected version is now available Summary • The effects of climate conditions on foliar monoterpene emissions from Quercus ilex saplings were studied in new leaves grown at two temperature regimes combined with two light regimes and by acclimatizing them to new regimes once leaves were mature. • Both high light and warmth strongly promoted the foliar emission capacity, ES (i.e. the steady-state emission rate measured at standard conditions), of developing and mature leaves, but did not significantly change the emission composition. The ES values of leaves adapted to warm and high-light conditions were one order of magnitude higher than that of leaves adapted to cool and shaded conditions. • The acclimatizations of ES in mature leaves to new regimes proceeded over a few days to a few weeks and were often paralleled by changes in photosynthesis. Under unchanged regimes, the ES of mature leaves remained stable in high-light adapted leaves and decreased somewhat in shade adapted leaves. • The findings suggest that the spatial variation in foliar ES within a tree canopy results from the direct influence of the leaf microclimate rather than from leaf structural properties, and that in the course of the year, the ES of leaves will repeatedly be upregulated and downregulated according to the prevailing temperature and light conditions, which may be accompanied by a slight attenuation of ES related to leaf age.
Cereals Contribution to the Total Dietary Intake of Heavy Metals in Madrid, Spain

Abstract The present work is a part of FAO European Co-operative Research Network on Trace Elements reporting the results of heavy metals (lead, cadmium, molybdenum and nickel) and nutrients with potential toxicity (selenium, copper, zinc and manganese) in products from the cereals group, being a part of a total diet from Madrid. The average diet in grams per person and day was calculated based on the National Food and Nutrition Survey (ENNA-3) in a sample of 21155 households. Each family was interviewed during 7 days, through 1 year to avoid seasonal bias. Foods providing 95% of total energy intake were prepared. Foods from the cereals group were purchased in 1997 to reflect those available to the consumer and delivered to the Central Laboratory of the Agricultural and Research Centre of Finland where the concentrations of nutrients and contaminants were determined. Pasta showed the highest levels for cadmium (50.4±0.4 μg/kg dry wt.), molybdenum (308±6 μg), nickel (383±5 μg), selenium (110±3 μg), and copper (3.81±0.09 mg); whole bread, the highest of lead (59.2±8.0 μg), zinc (18.4±0.1 mg) and manganese (17.1±0.3 mg). The total dietary intake was estimated for each element and compared with relevant international standards such as the Provisional Tolerable Weekly Intake (PTWI) (FAO/WHO, 1984; WHO, 1993) and Reference doses RfD. The dietary intake of all elements from the cereal group contributes less than 15% of the maximum permissible international intake standards.
Whether to Hire A(nother) Superstar

Empirical results show that the introduction of a superstar — an opponent with relatively high ability — into a contest may have opposite effects: sometimes it increases other participants' performance while other times decreases it. We present a cohesive model capturing both effects and characterize the conditions under which the entry of a superstar, and more generally a high-ability participant, encourages/discourages other participants and increases/decreases their performance. In addition, we find that if the incremental difference in prize values grows sufficiently fast in prize ranking, we cannot keep recruiting high-ability participants without suffering from the discouraging effect.
Jump-Only Momentum and Reversal in Currency Markets

This paper investigates the momentum and reversal signals in exchange rate jumps in currency markets. Following exchange rate jumps, currencies from emerging markets appreciate, but currencies from developed economies depreciate. Stepwise multiple testing confirms non-jump exchange rate changes signal neither momentum nor reversal. I construct strategies based on exchange rate jumps only, which perform better than pure momentum or reversal strategies with Sharpe ratios exceeding one. Returns of such strategies are robust out-of-sample and after transaction costs. A panel regression of aggregated jump sizes on macroeconomic factors suggests that exchange rate jumps in emerging markets are related to the country's GDP, while those in developed countries are explained by trade with the US.
The effects of Splanchnotrophus willemi infecting Ancula gibbosa (Gastropoda: Opisthobranchia: Nudibranchia)

The parasitic copepod, Splanchnotrophus willemi, is recorded infecting the nudibranch Ancula gibbosa for the first time in the UK. Seven out of twenty Ancula gibbosa sampled from Mumbles, Swansea, UK, were found to be infected with S. willemi. Light microscopy was used to investigate the effects of S. willemi on its host. In six hosts the internal damage caused was minimal. However, in one host the damage was extensive resulting in the disintegration of the digestive and reproductive viscera. One other A. gibbosa not parasitized, exhibited similar damage and it was postulated that this animal may have survived infection. In all cases of infection there was never more than one male or one female S. willemi present.
Expressing Disagreement in Stock Bubbles: Understanding Impacts of Social Dispersion

Investor disagreement affects security prices and trading volumes. Thus, understanding how disagreement evolves among investors is an important issue in finance. In this paper, as a direct proxy for the public observable investor disagreement, we define social dispersion as the extent of opinion dispersion in an Internet stock forum. Using this proxy, we further study how investor disagreement is evolved through learning, and how the learning might affect stock prices. We conduct an empirical study using Chinese stock data around the 2015 bubble. Our analysis reveals that social dispersion can coordinate investor beliefs and thus reduce overpricing and speculative trading. Second, social dispersion reflects the company’s fundamentals and helps to improve information quality. Third, our study illustrates that the existence of opinion leaders discourages social dispersion. In particular, the state-owned media plays a key role as an opinion leader in reducing the social dispersion that may affect stock bubbles.
Influência do fotoperíodo na reprodução e longevidade de Orius insidiosus (Say) (Heteroptera: Anthocoridae)

Orius insidiosus (Say) is an important predator of thrips and photoperiod can affect the reproduction of this insect. The objective of this work was to verify the occurrence of reproductive diapause in O. insidiosus in laboratory conditions. The experiments were carried out in environmental chambers, at photoperiods of 9L:15D, 10L:14D, 11L:13D, 12L:12D, 13L:11D and 14L:10D, temperature of 25±1oC and RH of 70±10%. Fecundity and sex ratio were not affected by the different photoperiods; an average number of 162.0, 189.8, 175.8, 195.2, 132.2 and 125.1 eggs/female, respectively, were found on these photoperiods. However, the photoperiods affected longevity of the predator. Longevity varied from 77.1 days, at photoperiod 10L:14D, to 40.1 days at photoperiod 9L:15D. O. insidiosus did not enter reproductive diapause in the conditions carried out in this experiment. This information is important to understand the factors that are involved on performance and use of O. insidiosus on biological control of thrips on protected cultivation.
Overconfidence in a Career-Concerns Setting

We study the effects of overconfidence in a two-period investment-decision agency setting. Under common priors, agent risk aversion implies inefficiently low first-period investment. In our model, principal and agent disagree about the profitability of the investment decision conditional on a given public signal. An overconfident agent believes that the principal will update her beliefs upwards more often than not. As a consequence, the agent overestimates the benefits of learning from first-period investment. This implies that agent overconfidence mitigates the agency problems arising from the agent's career concerns, even though an overconfident agent bears more project and reputational risk in equilibrium.
Do Contagion Effects Exist in Capital Flow Volatility?

The paper aims to assess what influences volatility of capital flows to emerging countries and whether or not there is a spillover or contagion effect in the volatility. The empirical results suggest strong and significant contagion effects from global and regional volatilities on the volatility of capital flows in different types to individual economies. The evidence of contagion from global and regional volatilities implies that there is a strong need for global and regional policy cooperation to contain the spillover or contagion effects. However, other policy variables have a differential and time-varying effect on volatility of different types of capital inflow, presenting policy dilemma and challenge to producing coordinated efforts by global and regional policy makers.
Combating the COVID-19 Pandemic: The Role of the SARS Imprint

We provide evidence of delayed attention and inaction in response to COVID-19 in countries that did not experience SARS in 2003. Using cross-country data, we find that individuals in countries that had SARS infections in 2003 searched more intensively for COVID-19-related information on Google in late January 2020, the time of the first known outbreak in Wuhan, China. Early attention to the novel virus, as measured by Google searches, is associated with deeper stock market drops in countries with SARS experience. In contrast, people in countries without SARS experience started to pay more attention much later, in March. Moreover, governments in these countries responded significantly more slowly in implementing social distancing policies to combat domestic COVID-19 outbreaks than governments in countries with SARS experience. Moreover, such early responses of individuals and governments in countries with SARS experience are prevalent within continent, even in non-Asian countries. Furthermore, people in countries with SARS experience are more compliant with social distancing rules. These timely attention and proactive responses of individuals and governments are more pronounced in countries that reported deaths caused by SARS, which left deeper imprints. Our findings suggest that the imprint of similar viruses’ experience is a fundamental mechanism underlying timely responses to COVID-19. This paper was accepted by Haoxiang Zhu, finance.
Human Health Risks of Selenium-Contaminated Fish: A Case Study for Risk Assessment of Essential Elements

ABSTRACT A screening level human health risk assessment (HHRA) was applied to evaluate the human health implications of consuming selenium found in fish tissues collected downstream of coal mines in southeastern British Columbia, Canada. The study evaluated the potential for adverse human health effects associated with selenium, and considered known and potential benefits of selenium and fish ingestion. The results indicated that risks of selenosis due to consumption of selenium-contaminated fish in the region are negligible. Conclusions were strengthened by consideration of the potential benefits of selenium to human health, including: selenium essentiality for maintenance of good health; potential cancer prevention properties due to its role as an antioxidant; potential benefits for cardiovascular health; and other positive health benefits. The findings indicated that some aspects of the traditional framework for HHRA (e.g., application of safety factors to “err on the side of safety”) are inappropriate for the assessment of selenium-contaminated fish. Due to both deficiency and toxicity in the selenium dose-response relationship, application of compounding conservatism in risk assessment may lead to recommended intakes of fish that are contrary to the public health interest. The need for balancing risk types, for incorporating positive responses in risk assessments, and the linkage to the precautionary principle, are discussed.
A Model for Strategic Choice of Location

We develop an approach for companies to make strategic choices of location based on the interdependency of location factors with different stages of the value creation process. We argue that the relevance of location factors varies with changing needs of R&D, procurement, production, sales & distribution and risk management. Our model, in which we consider companies as interdependent value creation processes rather than as entities, provides a framework to managers to help them make appropriate and strategic choices of location. We draw on economic research on location factors in general and particularly those that impact R&D, the literature on the significance of industry clusters, and the OLI paradigm. From a theoretical perspective, our approach overcomes the lack of communication about strategic location choice between the fields of international economics, economic geography and international business.
Toxic effects of cadmium (Cd++) on metabolism of sunflower (Helianthus annuus L.) seedlings

Abstract Effects of cadmium chloride (CdCl2H2O) on the content of chlorophyll (a + b), chlorophyll a/b ratio, proline, protein and abscisic acid in sunflower (Helianthus annuus L.) seedlings has been investigated. One-week-old seedlings were grown at cadmium concentration of 0.05, 0.07 and 0.09 mM for ten days in Hoagland's solution. Elevated cadmium levels increased the abscisic acid contents in roots, shoots and leaves of seedlings. An increase of proline in the leaves of seedlings exposed to cadmium occurred, as well as a decrease of chlorophyll (a + b) and total protein (p<0.05 or p<0.01) contents. Thus cadmium levels at certain critical points negatively affect seedling growth.
Stock Market Cross-Sectional Skewness and Business Cycle Fluctuations

Using U.S. data from 1926 to 2015, I show that financial skewnessâ€�? a measure comparing cross-sectional upside and downside risks of the distribution of stock market returns of financial firmsâ€�? is a powerful predictor of business cycle fluctuations. I then show that shocks to financial skewness are important drivers of business cycles, identifying these shocks using both vector autoregressions and a dynamic stochastic general equilibrium model. Financial skewness appears to reflect the exposure of financial firms to the economic performance of their borrowers.
Virtual Consumption

Millions of people are spending time and money on virtual goods: clothes for their characters in online hangouts, weapons for their fighters in massively-multiplayer games, and presents for their friends in social networking platforms. In this dissertation, I locate virtual goods as the latest step in an overall digitalisation of consumption, and examine the reasons behind this �? virtual consumption�? through data gathered from some of its primary arenas. The dissertation is positioned in the sociology of consumption and also addresses recent streams of scholarship on ICT and society. In popular discourse, spending real money on virtual goods is frequently attributed to Internet addiction and manipulation by marketers. The results of this dissertation suggest that the fundamental drivers of virtual consumption are rather found in individuals’ social and hedonic motivations. In online spaces, virtual goods function as markers of status, elements of identity and means towards ends in the same way as material consumer goods do in similarly contrived physical spaces. The impact of virtual goods is not limited to virtual communities, however, because pre-existing social relations are also increasingly acted out in online spaces. Survey data is used to argue that spending on virtual goods is linked to participants’ economic and socio-demographic backgrounds. The resulting digitalisation of consumption can potentially have significant implications for the global economy and the ecological sustainability of consumer culture.
Capital Controls, Macroprudential Measures and Monetary Policy Interactions in an Emerging Economy

A DSGE model is developed to study the interaction between capital controls, macroprudential measures and monetary policy in an emerging economy. The main results are as follows. First, capital controls and macroprudential policies are able to mitigate the adverse effects of an increase in the foreign interest rate. Second the desirability of these measures is shock dependent. Third, capital controls and monetary policy are complementary and the degree of such a complementarity depends on the inflation response to economic shocks.
The Adoption of the Integrated Reporting Framework: A Perspective of Supervisory Board Members on the Drivers and Benefits

Integrated Reporting has gained increasing interest from scholars and business executives over the past decade. Prior research points at external market conditions, internal organizational conditions and expected organization-level benefits as three categories of factors that influence the motivation of companies to adopt Integrated Reporting. While prior research largely addresses these categories separately and has produced little empirical evidence so far, we investigate the influence of these three categories of factors and observed organization-level benefits on the motivation to adopt Integrated Reporting, using unique survey data from 62 currently active and candidate supervisory board members of Dutch companies. We find that the respondents who have experienced the impact of Integrated Reporting claim to observe benefits of IR in their work practice. Furthermore, we find that external market conditions and observed benefits of Integrated Reporting contribute to the respondents’ motivation to favor the adoption of Integrated Reporting. Our study does not confirm the expected influence of internal organizational conditions (company size, profitability, growth opportunities, reporting practices and supervisory board characteristics) on the motivation to adopt Integrated Reporting. Our study contributes to the body of knowledge of Integrated Reporting as empirical evidence on motives and impacts of Integrated Reporting is hardly available. Our study can be used by both practitioners and academics to substantiate assumptions and expectations on the impacts of adopting Integrated Reporting.
On Graduation from Default, Inflation and Banking Crisis: Elusive or Illusion?

This paper uses a data set of over two hundred years of sovereign debt, banking and inflation crises to explore the question of how long it takes a country to "graduate" from the typical pattern of serial crisis that most emerging markets experience. We find that for default and inflation crises, twenty years is a significant market, but the distribution of recidivism has extremely fat tails. In the case of banking crises, it is unclear whether countries ever graduate. We also examine the more recent phenomenon of IMF programs, which sometimes result in "near misses" but sometimes end in default even after a program is instituted. The paper raises the important theoretical question of why countries experience serial default, and how they might graduate.
Application of the accelerated test Rancimat to evaluate oxidative stability of dried microencapsulated oils

The objective of this work was to apply the oxidative test Rancimat to dried microencapsulated oils (DMO), with special emphasis on assessing the efficacy of natural antioxidants. DMO were prepared by freeze-drying emulsions containing sodium caseinate, lactose and fish or sunflower oils, with and without added the antioxidant mixture ALT (ascorbic acid, lecithin and tocopherol). Under the Rancimat working conditions selected for testing DMO (5 g sample, 100oC and 20 L air/h), excellent repeatability was obtained. The antioxidant effect of ALT was much higher in bulk fish oil than in its counterpart DMO, either in Rancimat or at 30oC in the dark. Further experiments using Rancimat showed that the moderate increase in stability of DMO added ALT was only attributable to tocopherol while the synergistic actions of lecithin and ascorbic acid were not observed, their action probably depending on their location and orientation in these complex lipid systems. This test enabled to compare monophasic (bulk oils and DMO-extracted oils) and heterophasic lipidic systems (DMO and DMO devoid of the accessible, free oil fraction), thus offering a rapid means to examine the influence of oil distribution and partitioning of antioxidants on oxidative stability.