Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Investment Performance of Component Stocks from the Respect Sustainability Index at the Warsaw Stock Exchange

In this paper, we analyze the profitability of investments in stocks from the RESPECT sustainability index at the Warsaw Stock Exchange (WSE) since its launch in year 2009 until the year 2018. We calculate raw returns for individual component stocks, estimate their beta coefficients as well as assess their performance on the risk-adjusted basis using such measures as the modified Sharpe ratio (MSR) and the Certainty Equivalent (CEQ) returns. Our results indicate that the profitability of investing in the socially responsible investments (SRI) stocks from the RESPECT index is on average higher than the corresponding returns of the benchmark broad market index WIG, although the differences are rather marginal. Nevertheless, we can conclude that the financial market in Poland did not penalize the investors for allocating their funds in the SRI companies, which is the finding consistent with previous studies using the data from other countries (see e.g. Orlitzky et al. (2003)). We also investigated the indexing effect i.e. we investigate if including or removing stocks into RESPECT index results in higher return (in the day of announcement, day of actual change of components of the index, or in longer horizon). However we found very little evidence of indexing effect existence in the analysed data sample. Overall, our results provide new empirical evidence for the SRI stocks from the market in Poland and show the importance of SRI stocks in investors’ portfolios, which includes also the risk-adjusted performance perspective.
The Fama French Model or the Capital Asset Pricing Model: International Evidence

This research paper attempts to evaluate the benefits of using the Fama and French Model by comparing them with those resulting from the use of the Capital Asset Pricing Model. Local, International, and European Monetary Union functional forms were considered, in an attempt to raise the following questions: Does the calculation method to determine size and financial distress premium have any significance for the financial analyst? Do the foreign risk premiums of the Fama and French Model have any importance for the financial analyst? Firstly, models based on European Monetary Union factors produce the worst results, independently of any Capital Asset Pricing Model or Fama and French Model consideration. Secondly, independently of the model, the expected return of big and low book-to-market stocks is more reliable. This is particularly observable for big firms, as it does not occur for low book-to-market firms using Fama and French Models. Finally, the Fama and French Model is notoriously preferable in comparison with the Capital Asset Pricing Model for small and high-book to market firms: in this case, the introduction of international factors increases the reliability of expected returns.
Regional variation in trophic ecology of adult female Australian sea lions inferred from stable isotopes in whiskers

Abstract Context. The primary selective forces responsible for shaping life-history traits come from the physical and biological environment in which a species resides. Consequently, the limits of a species range may provide a useful measure of adaptive potential to environmental change. The proximity of foraging grounds to terrestrial nursing habitat constrains central-place foragers such as otariid seals in selecting breeding locations. The Australian sea lion (Neophoca cinerea) is an endangered otariid endemic to Australia, whose northern-range extent occurs at a temperate–tropical transition zone on the western coast of Western Australia (WA). Aims. Currently, there is a complete absence of data on the foraging ecology of Australian sea lions in WA. We sought to address this critical knowledge gap and provide data on the foraging ecology of adult female Australian sea lions at three isolated breeding colonies in western WA. Methods. We used stable-isotope ratios of carbon (δ13C) and nitrogen (δ15N) in the whiskers of pups as proxies to characterise feeding behaviour of 10–28% of all adult female Australian sea lions at each colony. We then compared these geographic data to (1) conspecifics at similar latitude in South Australia (SA) and (2) isotopic data collated from other studies on seabirds that inhabit the region, to place foraging behaviour of adult female Australian sea lions into context. Key results. At the southernmost colonies in WA, individual animals were members of one of two distinct isotopic clusters that could be described by differences in δ15N and δ13C values. Individuals at the northernmost colony displayed δ15N values similar to those of seabirds in the same region. Across the study, isotope ratios of adult female Australian sea lions in western WA were between 3‰ and 5‰ lower than those observed at a colony at similar latitude in SA. Conclusions. Gross differences in the physical oceanography between WA and SA may in part explain the differences in isotope ratios of individuals between the regions, with lower δ15N and δ13C values in WA probably reflecting the relatively depauperate conditions of the Leeuwin Current. Implications. Potential regional differences in trophic structure should be considered when developing appropriate management plans for Australian sea lions and regional variation in the diet of Australian sea lion warrants further investigation.
The Political Economy of Financial Regulation: Evidence from U.S. State Usury Laws in the 18th and 19th Century

We study the political economy of financial regulation by examining the determinants and effects of U.S. state usury laws during the 18th and 19th centuries. We argue that regulation is the outcome of private interests using the coercive power of the state to extract rents from other groups. We find that strictness of usury coexists with other exclusionary policies such as suffrage laws and lack of general incorporation or free banking laws, which also respond less to competitive pressures for repeal. Furthermore, the same determinants of financial regulation that favor one group and limit access to others, are associated with lower future economic growth rates, highlighting the endogeneity of financial development and growth.
Proximate composition of albacore tuna, Thunnus alalunga, from the temperate South Pacific and Tasman Sea

Abstract The proximate composition was determined of the white muscle of albacore tuna, Thunnus alalunga, caught by surface trolling along the Subtropical Convergence Zone east of the South Island of New Zealand ("Area 1"), and to the north and west of the North Island ("Area 2"). Fish from Area 1 were 70 ± 10 cm (mean ± s.d.) in fork length, and higher in oil content (4.6 ± 2.9%), than Area 2 fish which measured 55 ± 10 cm and contained 2.8 ±1.7% oil. The ash content of the white muscle of all fish sampled was 1.2 ± 0.1%, and the soluble carbohydrate content 0.36 ± 0.04%. Crude protein contents were calculated at c. 25%. Statistical relationships between moisture and oil contents of both white and red muscle were determined; they can be used to predict oil content from a known moisture content. Oil content was positively correlated with fork length, and negatively correlated with the sea surface temperature at time of capture. Oil levels in the fillet were highest in the muscle layer immediately below th.
Developing Sustainability Indicators for Woody Biomass Harvesting in the United States

Bioenergy production has increased significantly in the last decade, and recent legislative efforts such as the discussion draft for the American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009 and the Energy Independence and Security Act (EISA) of 2007 are expected to encourage even more growth. The growing demand for bioenergy will necessitate production of large quantities of woody biomass and plant residues if it is to be met. However, concerns are being raised as to how increased pressures will affect the sustainability of woody biomass. In order to avoid potential pitfalls and ensure the sustainability of wood-based bioenergy systems, a set of sustainability indicators needs to be developed. Some of these indicators can be based on standards similar to those developed for sustainable forest management, energy balances, greenhouse gas emission reductions, and existing codes and guidelines for biomass harvesting. This article discusses a potential set of sustainability indicators encompassing ecological, economic, and social principles for harvesting woody biomass for bioenergy. The extent to which existing standards and certification systems reflect these indicators is elaborated upon. Methods for making these standards operational are also suggested.
A Note on Interpreting the Beta-Convergence Effect

This note elaborates on a potential misinterpretation of the convergence speeds that are associated with the beta-convergence effect. Practitioners and certain researchers often commit the common error of using the results from the logarithmic measure of the income gap to interpret the speed of convergence for the income gap in terms of levels. This mistake causes overstatements of the speed of convergence. These overstatements are more pronounced for developing countries than for developed countries. This note also implies that speeds of beta-convergence greater than the conventionally accepted rate of 2-3% are not implausible.
Hurting Others vs. Hurting Myself, a Dilemma for our Autonomous Vehicle

Autonomous Vehicles (AVs) will soon be a reality on our roads. Up to now, their standard behaviour is predetermined since it is the result of programmed algorithms. Under risky traffic situations, however, they will face dilemmas such as, deciding between affecting the passenger or affecting others. Thus, in this experiment, we investigate how people solve a reframed version of the well-known Trolley-problem (Foot, 1967) under two conditions: when subjects actually drive a vehicle simulator, versus when they solve the same dilemma by programming a hypothetical AV. In both settings the participants’ decisions have real monetary consequences, which affect others and themselves. Our Probit models indicate that subjects who program an AV and who are more cautious in terms of speed are less (more) likely to sacrifice a pedestrian (themselves) compared to those who actually drive and prefer a higher driving speed. Moreover, we find that the subjects’ choices are associated with risk aversion but not with moral beliefs or loss aversion. Implications of the driving vs programming discrepancies for the design of AVs algorithms are discussed.
Market Price of Longevity Risk for a Multi-Cohort Mortality Model with Application to Longevity Bond Option Pricing

The pricing of longevity-linked securities depends not only on the stochastic uncertainty of the underlying risk factors, but also the attitude of investors towards those factors. In this research, we investigate how to estimate the market risk premium of longevity risk using investable retirement indexes, incorporating uncertain real interest rates using an affine dynamic Nelson-Siegel model. A multi-cohort aggregate, or systematic, continuous time affine mortality model is used where each risk factor is assigned a market price of mortality risk. To calibrate the market price of longevity risk, a common practice is to make use of market prices, such as longevity-linked securities and longevity indices. We use the BlackRock CoRI Retirement Indexes, which provides a daily level of estimated cost of lifetime retirement income for 20 cohorts in the U.S. Although investment in the index directly is not possible, individuals can invest in funds that track the index. For these 20 cohorts, we assume risk premiums for the common factors are the same across cohorts, but the risk premium of the factors for a specific cohort is allowed to take different values for different cohorts. The market prices of longevity risk are then calibrated by matching the risk-neutral model prices with BlackRock CoRI index values. Closed-form expressions and prices for European options on longevity zero-coupon bonds are derived using the model and compared to prices for standard options on zero coupon bonds. The impact of uncertain mortality on long term option prices is quantified and discussed.
Rhizobacteria-mediated Induction of Systemic Resistance (ISR) in Tomato against Meloidogyne javanica

The two rhizobacteria Pseudomonas aeruginosa strain IE-6S + and P. fluorescens strain CHA0 used as bare root-dip treatment or as soil drench substantially reduced Meloidogyne javanica juvenile penetration into tomato roots under glasshouse conditions. To better understand the basis of antagonism, the mode of action of the bacterial antagonists was investigated. The ability of bacterial inoculants to stimulate induced systemic resistance against the nematode was demonstrated in split-root-trials, where the root system of a single tomato plant was spatially divided into two separate parts. Application of IE-6S + to one half of the split-root system caused a significant (42%) systemic reduction in nematode penetration in the other half of the split-root system. CHA0 applied in the same manner reduced nematode infection similarly, by 29% over the controls. The population sizes of the strains IE-6S + and CHA0 were compared in order to determine if low degree of ISR by CHA0 could be attributed to a reduction in root population size. Populations of the strain CHA0 in the rhizosphere was higher during early growth stages of tomato while IE-6S + colonized relatively heavily during the later growth stages. Only strain IE-6S + was reisolated from the inner root tissues. Neither of the bacterium was isolated from the rhizosphere and inner root tissues of tomato from the non-bacterized halves. Bacteria with systemic nature (IE-6S + ) induce systemic resistance in plant to a relatively higher degree against root-knot nematode compared to the rhizosphere colonizer (CHAO).
Size-based dominance hierarchies in the New Zealand freshwater crayfish (koura) Paranephrops zealandicus

The dominance hierarchies of freshwater crayfish have been extensively researched internationally and are associated with the division of limited resources, such as food, shelter and space. However, dominance hierarchies in the endemic, New Zealand freshwater crayfish (koura) Paranephrops zealandicus (White) have not been determined empirically. This paper has two aims: (1) to determine whether there is a size-based dominance hierarchy amongst koura competing for spatial refugia, and (2) determine whether agonistic interactions decrease as the size disparity between competing individuals increases. To address these aims we paired wild koura in aquaria with a single shelter and measured the number of approaches, attacks, retreats and escapes made by each individual. In 26 of 31 trials (84%), the larger individual was dominant, indicating that a size-based dominance hierarchy does exist within koura. Aggressive behaviour in paired individuals decreased as the size disparity increased.
Optimizing Soybean Plant Population for a Short‐Season Production System in the Southern USA

Soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merr. ] production systems that utilize short-season cultivars for double cropping and late sowing often have insufficient time to establish a complete canopy prior to reproductive development. Our objectives were to evaluate plant population as a tool to manage crop growth, maximum biomass (BM), the time required for canopy closure, and yield. Field tests were sown on 8 July 1997 and 26 June 1998 at Keiser, AR (35 degrees 67' N, 90 degrees 83' W) in 0.19-, 0.57-, and 0.95-m rows with maturity group IV soybean cultivars Asgrow 4922 (A4922) and Manokin. Yield from irrigated and nonirrigated treatments increased as population density increased from 7 to 134 plants m-2, except when lodging occurred. Populations recommended for early-season sowing (25-35 plants m-2) resulted in many plots not achieving 90% light interception (LI), especially in 1998 when weather was hotter and drier than in 1997. The time required after emergence to begin linear crop growth (t(b)) was dependent on LI, and as density increased, t(b) decreased. The values of t(b) varied from 16 to 27 d in 1997 and 22 to 37 d in 1998, with up to 12 d difference in achieving >90% LI. In this short-season production system, yield, crop growth rate between R1 and R5, BM, and t(b) were dependent upon the early establishment of a high LI. Losses attributable to excessive delays in canopy establishment and slow crop growth could be minimized by using high populations in narrow rows. Our research indicates that higher populations than are traditionally recommended provide a way to optimize grain yields in time-constrained systems.
On the Importance of Default Breach Remedies

Theory predicts that default breach remedies are immaterial whenever contracting costs are negligible. Some experimental studies, however, suggest that in practice default rules do matter, as they may affect parties' preferences over contract terms. This paper presents results from an experiment designed to address the importance of default breach remedies for actual contract outcomes. We find that default rules do have an influence. The reason for this is not that contract proposals and/or responses are biased towards the default, but rather that parties often disagree over what the best contract is and therefore end up with the default.
Monetary Policy in a Non-Representative Agent Economy: A Survey

It is well-known that central bank policies affect not only macroeconomic aggregates, but also their distribution across economic agents. Similarly, a number of papers demonstrated that heterogeneity of agents may matter for the transmission of monetary policy on macro variables. Despite this, the mainstream monetary economics literature has so far been dominated by dynamic stochastic general equilibrium (DSGE) models with representative agents. This article aims to tilt this imbalance towards heterogeneous agents setups by surveying the main positive and normative findings of this line of the literature, and suggesting areas in which these models could be implemented. In particular, we review studies that analyze the heterogeneity of households’ income, households’ preferences, consumers’ age, expectations, and firms’ productivity and financial position. We highlight the results on issues that, by construction, cannot be investigated in a representative agent framework and discuss important papers modifying the findings from the representative agent literature.
Vegetative compatibility groups of Verticillium dahliae from ornamental woody plants.

Vegetative compatibility groups (VCGs) of 42 strains of Verticillium dahliae obtained primarily from ornamental woody plants were assessed through complementation tests of nitrate-nonutilizing (nit) mutants. Of these isolates, 30 were assigned to VCG1, two to VCG2, and four toVCG4. The VCGs of six strains were not determined because they either did not produce mutants or produced mutants that did not complement any of the test strains. The assignment of most of the woody-plant isolates from Illinois to VCG1 was in sharp contrast to the diverse range of host plants from which the strains were isolated. Data could indicate that an important inoculum source of the pathogen in urban areas is from established populations in nurseries that get distributed along with transplanting trees [. ]
Effect of water surface condition on survival, growth and swim bladder inflation of yellowfin tuna, Thunnus albacares (Temminck and Schlegel), larvae

Early-stage mortality due to surface water tensionrelated death and due to sinking to the tank bottom was investigated for yellowfin tuna, Thunnus albacares (YFT), larvae. Different aeration rates and rearing water surface conditions were examined to evaluate the effect on larval survival, swim bladder inflation and growth. The percentage survival of yolk sac larvae was significantly higher when the rearing water surface was covered with fish oil at aeration rates of 0 and 50 mL min 1 . The highest mortality occurred at the highest aeration rate of 250 mL min 1 regardless of surface water condition. A second experiment was conducted twice under different water surface conditions: the water surface was covered by fish oil (FO), skimmed of fish oil (SS), and was not treated (NC). The percentage survival was not significantly different between treatments after 7 days of feeding. In contrast to the survival, the proportion of larvae with inflated swim bladders was significantly higher for the NC and SS groups than that of the FO group. Results of these experiments indicate that the addition of oil to the rearing water surface without its removal interferes with the initial swim bladder inflation in YFT larvae. These results also indicate that YFT larvae need to obtain (gulp) air at the water surface for initial swim bladder inflation, and success of initial swim bladder inflation may be crucial for their survival.
Cost of floating exchange rates: Synthetic control estimation

This paper uses event study analysis and synthetic control estimation analysis to explore how the trend of the risk premium changes when a country breaks its exchange rate peg. We perform abnormal return and cumulative abnormal return estimations on daily fluctuations of country spread index, and synthetic control estimations on monthly observations with macroeconomic predictors. The overall results provide evidence that switching exchange rate regimes from fixed to floating incurs a statistically significant short-term increase in the average risk premium for 3-7 months.
Gender and Sibling Dynamics in the Intergenerational Transmission of Entrepreneurship

This project uses gender and sibling dynamics to explore the intergenerational transmission of entrepreneurship. I find that the transmission of self-employment from fathers to daughters is significantly reduced when there are sons in the family. I interpret this as evidence that the intergenerational transmission of entrepreneurship is driven, at least in part, by costly investments by parents, which can be crowded out by or redirected toward brothers. I investigate specific types of parental investments—transfers of money, businesses, and human capital—that potentially underlie this transmission and conclude that sons reduce human-capital acquisition by daughters. If all daughters of self-employed men experienced the “sisters-only” level of transmission, the overall gender gap in self-employment would be reduced by roughly 15%. This paper was accepted by Toby Stuart, entrepreneurship and innovation.
Parental Socialization Effort and the Intergenerational Transmission of Risk Preferences

We study the transmission of risk attitudes in a unique survey of mothers and children in which both participated in an incentivized risk preference elicitation task. We document that risk preferences are correlated between mothers and children when the children are just 7 to 8 years old. This correlation is only present for daughters. We show that a measure of parental involvement is a strong moderator of the association between mothers’ and daughters’ risk tolerance. These findings support a role for socialization in the intergenerational transmission of preferences that predict economic behaviour.