Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Financial Sector Readiness to Support Economic Actives under COVID-19: The Case of African Continent

The magnitude of COVID-19 is yet to be estimated and felt by countries. The pandemic has posed a major disruption to economic activity across the world. Using the model by Battese, G.E. , Coelli, T.J. (1995) the translog production frontier was adopted to estimate technical efficiency of the financial sector of the continent. The 24 countries selected were based on the availability of data to cover our variables of interest. The findings were that generally the financial sector in the continent have performed above average (72%) over the period of study. Also lower middle income countries are relatively going to have more problems with pandemic. However, the probability of the continent not plunging into economic depression with the support of the financial sector is 0.42 which is not encouraging. It is recommended that policies to address interest rate margin, liquidity and market concentration should be managed properly to improve technical efficiency of the financial sectors of the continent. This will ensure that relief packages and grants are managed properly.
Aren't Labor Markets Important for Monetary Policy?

I study the role of labor markets in the transmission of persistent monetary policy shocks. Using a New Keynesian model with labor market frictions I find that labor market conditions can affect the outcomes of persistent monetary policy shocks suggesting a trade-off between inflation and output growth: restricted labor market access leads to higher inflation response with smaller effects on output. I further show that empirical evidence from a model with time-varying parameters and stochastic volatility estimated on U.S. data is consistent with the predictions of the New Keynesian model.
Exploring the Cyclical Predictability of Sector-Specific Premia

This dissertation simplifies and substantially improves equity premium and sector return forecasts by combining two prediction models that perform well during different regime states as in Tsiakas et al. (2020) through Dynamic Model Averaging (DMA) of Raftery et al. (2010). This approach allows for statistically significant and economically valuable equity premium forecasts during both recessions and expansions, without needing to predict the regime state explicitly. Extending this approach to sector returns, the adaptability of DMA to sector-specific dynamics allows for return forecasts that outperform all considered alternatives and provide significant economic value in a modified Risk-to-Reward Timing strategy based on Kirby and Ostdiek (2012) over an equally weighted benchmark portfolio spanning all sectors.
Nonprofit Organizational Effectiveness: The Effects of Financial and Social Performance on Its Scale and Scope of Operations, and Social Impact

In the face of increased accountability pressures, nonprofits are searching for ways to demonstrate their effectiveness. In the Absence of meaningful tools to evaluate effectiveness, financial ratios are largely used to approximate it. There is an extensive body of literature on the determinants of nonprofit effectiveness. However, it largely remained exploratory in nature. This is a novel attempt to propose a theoretical framework linking performance to effectiveness, but also applying this to a larger sample by means of a survey. For this, we employed Iwu et. al. (2015) configuration for the identification of major financial and non-financial performance indicators of NPOs and used in the Program Logic Model (W.K. Kellogg Foundation, 2004) to assess its impact. We hypothesize that this financial and non-financial performance and activities produced positive output in terms of increased participation that in turn, leads to positive outcomes on the participants live and at last these outcomes leads to positive impact towards the society by reducing the problems this NPO are set to tackle. For the empirical side, we collected data from 200 participants belonging to 14 NROs operating in Pakistan, by means of a close-ended questionnaire. Data were analyzed using confirmatory factor analysis and structured equation modeling. The results were according to the theory and showed a positive and significant effect of financial and non-financial performance on output, then to the outcome and finally to impact. These findings can be used by the growing number of not-for-profits throughout the world to measure and report performance.
Firm Trustworthiness and Bank Loan Pricing

Using a novel dataset of firm-level perceived trustworthiness from the news media and social media, we find that lending banks charge significantly higher loan spread on firms with lower trustworthiness. Loans to these firms also tend to have shorter loan maturities, more financial covenants, and higher likelihoods of requiring collateral. We further use the Regulation SHO Pilot program as an exogenous variation and find that the effects of trustworthiness are reduced when pilot firms are better disciplined by short sellers. That is, banks have relied less on soft information like trustworthiness when the overall information and governance environments regarding the borrowing firms are improved. Last, firm trustworthiness effects are stronger for firms with high corruption culture, weak corporate governance, and higher information asymmetry. Collectively, our results suggest that perceived firm trustworthiness from the stakeholders conveys valuable credit quality information to bank loan lenders.
A Comparative Study of Various Sorting Algorithms

This paper is aimed at comparing the time complexity of six sorting algorithms: bubble sort, insertion sort, selection sort, counting sort, radix sort and bucket sort. Based on the logic implemented to sort the set of values, algorithms are categorized into comparison and noncomparison sorting algorithms. The choice of sorting algorithm to be implemented depends on the range and distribution of values to be sorted. The scenario in which each of the algorithms generates good performance and is preferred to be implemented is discussed and the control flow structure of each of the sorting algorithms is illustrated.
Payment Methods and the Disposition Effect: Evidences from Indonesian Mutual Fund Trading

The entire research on alternative payment methods focuses on buyers of goods and services, however there are no similar studies on financial investors. Using a unique dataset, we explore the effects of different transaction mechanisms amongst mutual fund traders in the emerging economy of Indonesia. Our results show that, as with common buyers, alternative payment methods influence traders too. In particular, we find that certain types of payment mechanism reduce people’s Disposition Effect: the bias to realize gains more readily than the losses. Additionally, we also find that different investing methods affect the reluctance to realize losses while alternative divesting systems influence the propensity to lock in winners.
Development of Low Glycemic Index (GI) Foods by Incorporating Pulse Ingredients into Cereal-Based Products: Use of In Vitro Screening and In Vivo Methodologies

Pulse ingredients (pea and lentil flour, pea protein, and pea fiber) were incorporated into 94 different food products. Products included pastas, breads, crackers, extruded snacks, cookies, cereal bars, and muffins. Products were screened for estimated glycemic index using an in vitro method. Based on the screening results, five products (pasta, bread, cracker, granola bar, and cookie) were selected for in vivo glycemic index (GI) testing. For each control (containing 100% wheat flour), a pulse variant (containing up to 50% pulse ingredients) was developed. Ten healthy subjects consumed each test meal in addition to three control white bread meals on separate days during the in vivo GI testing. GI values of the control and pulse variant meals were 61.3 ± 5.1 versus 54.6 ± 7.6 (pasta), 61.4 ± 5.6 versus 53.4 ± 4.7 (focaccia bread), 46.0 ± 4.2 versus 41.5 ± 3.1 (cracker), 35.4 ± 3.6 versus 34.8 ± 5.0 (granola bar), and 41.6 ± 3.8 versus 37.6 ± 3.0 (cookie). The difference did not reach statistical significa.
Insolvency Problems in the European Union: Bankruptcy Law Orientation and Market Valuation

The reaction of stock prices to bankruptcy filing announcements has been very frequently analysed in the financial literature. In the current work we adopt a different approach to that of the traditional event study, trying to determine if the reaction of the markets is conditioned by the orientation of the bankruptcy legislation that regulates cases of corporate insolvency. With this aim in mind, we undertake an analysis on a sample of firms in financial distress in France, Germany, Spain and the UK between 1990 and 2002. Our results lead us to conclude that the valuation of the firms' securities is indeed conditioned by the type of bankruptcy law. In addition, we find that firms under creditor-oriented systems (Germany before the 1994 reform and the UK) present more negative returns due to the transference of wealth from the shareholders to the bondholders of the firms.
Market Freeze and Bank Capital Structure Heterogeneity

We develop a theory wherein a priori identical banks may trade loans in a search market with reusable information. The equilibrium is unique, but its nature depends on the probability of a future market state. When the probability of a boom is high, all banks hold no equity and do no screening. When this probability is low, all banks choose a high level of equity and screen loans. For intermediate probability values, the equilibrium is heterogeneous, with some banks posting equity and screening and others avoiding equity and screening. This endogenously arising heterogeneity generates interbank trading. The credit market is partially frozen in a recession: only high-capital banks have continued funding access. Low-capital banks obtain funding by selling legacy loans to banks with “financial muscle,” so market funding is reallocated from low-capital to high-capital banks. This paper was accepted by Bruno Biais, finance.
Earnings Fluctuation on Share Price Volatility

Stock price volatility is the platform for the investment decision of investors. The common phenomena, day by day environment becomes more competitive. Success of the investors depends on the information availability of the market. It is essential to identify the how share price volatility based on the earnings fluctuations since it is main determinant, although there several environmental factors influence to share price. The sample of the study composed of 30 listed companies including Beverage Food and Tobacco, Manufacturing, Diversified Holdings from data 2011 to 2015. The results revealed the share price more volatility based on the Price Earnings Ratio and Earnings per Share of the company, it significant at 1% level.
What Drives the Commodity Price Beta of Oil Industry Stocks?

We test theoretical drivers of the oil price beta of oil industry stocks. The strongest statistical and economic support comes for market conditions - type variables as the prime drivers: namely, oil price, bond rate, volatility of oil returns and cost of carry. Though statistically significant, exogenous firm characteristics and oil firms’ financing decisions have less compelling economic significance. There is weaker support for the prediction that financial risk management reduces the exposure of oil stocks to crude oil price variation. Finally, extended modelling shows that mean reversion in oil prices also helps explain cross-sectional variation in the oil beta.
Are Managers Susceptible to the Ostrich Effect?

Using data from an information provider in the cannabis industry, we observe that managers of retail dispensaries appear to suffer from the “ostrich effect”—the selective acquisition of news based on an expectation of the likely hedonic response (e.g., avoiding bad news to avoid psychological discomfort). Managers are more likely to acquire store and product performance information as its expected valence (i.e., its “goodness” versus “badness”) increases and revisit this information more as its actual valence increases. These relations are attenuated when managers can more easily attribute the performance to external factors, suggesting managers intuitively acquire good news they can take credit for and avoid bad news they must internalize. Managers’ information acquisition decisions also appear to have real effects—future product stock-outs are greater when managers avoid the information. Our results suggest that hedonic effects of information influence key information acquisition choices of managers.
On the Negatives of Negative Interest Rates and the Positives of Exemption Thresholds

Major central banks remunerate reserves at negative interest rates and it is increasingly likely that they will keep rates negative for many more years. To study the long run implications of negative rates, we construct a dynamic general equilibrium model with commercial banks funding investment projects and a central bank issuing reserves. Negative rates distort investment decisions resulting in lower output and welfare. These findings sharply contrast the short-run expansionary effects ascribed to negative rate policies by most of the existing literature. Negative rates also reduce commercial bank profitability. Exempting a fraction of reserves from negative rates can resolve profitability concerns without affecting the central bank's ability to control the money market rate. However, exemption thresholds do no mitigate the investment distortions created by negative rates.
State Aid and Competition in the European Banking Markets

I investigate whether bank bailouts since the outbreak of the financial crisis affected competition in the European banking markets. Using a unique dataset on large bank rescues I compare the development of market power of rescued and non-rescued banks between 2000 and 2018. I find that bank bailout coincides with a substantial drop of six percentage points in the Lerner index. Effects are heterogeneous and driven by bank rescues directly after the outbreak of the financial crisis in 2008 and not by bank rescues triggered during the European sovereign debt crisis starting in 2010. My findings cast positive light on European competition policy as banks do not appear to have capitalized on rescue money in terms of market power. Protecting competition in European banking markets remains a topical policy issue in light of rising levels of market power and potential public interventions in the course of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
Banks, Political Capital, and Growth

We show that politically connected banks influence economic activity. We exploit shocks to individual banks’ political capital following close US congressional elections. We find that regional output growth increases when banks active in the region experience an average positive shock to their political capital. The effect is economically large, but temporary, and is due to lower restructuring in the economy rather than increased productivity. We show that eased lending conditions (especially for riskier firms) can account for the growth effect. Our analysis is a first attempt to directly link the politics and finance literature with the finance and growth literature.
Influence of surface texture shape, geometry and orientation on hydrodynamic lubrication performance of plane‐to‐plane slider surfaces

This paper investigates the effect of surface texturing on the tribological performance of hydrodynamic slider surfaces. The geometric parameters of the texture considered were the texture shape, bottom profile, orientation and depth. A theoretical model based on the steady‐state Reynolds equation was solved numerically by finite difference method to analyse the effect of surface texturing. The optimum geometry of each texture shape was determined, for which, the film thickness was maximised and the friction coefficient was minimised. Among all the shapes, the square with a single wedge bottom profile outperformed. The performance of the triangle, the chevron and the ellipse was highly influenced by their orientation with respect to the sliding direction. Texture density was found to be more dominant in impacting the tribological performance than the texture aspect ratio. The results obtained were further discussed with respect to the studies available in literature to emphasise the significance of the findings. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Summative Evaluation of Community Extension Project: A Phenomenological Inquiry

This evaluative study was conducted to determine whether to terminate or not a project. Social Work Program had embarked a community extension called Bansayalangsa Kalambuansa Katawhan (BANGKKA). Beneficiaries were trained on leadership, organizational and project management, values education that included environmental sanitation. Twenty-one (21) participants responded for the Focus Group Discussion (FGD) and in-depth interviews. Findings revealed positive feedback on beneficiaries increased income, empowered leadership, increased environmental awareness and skills enhancement. The finding signifies the importance of community extension services afforded by academe which contribute for the welfare of the entire nation.
Assessing the Profitability of Cotton Production in Ogun State, Nigeria

Declining cotton production in Nigeria is challenged by climatic suitability and price volatility despite its importance as a cash crop and domestic use. This study assesses the challenges in the cotton industry through understanding the production process and the possible profitability. Using a qualitative approach though organizing key interviews for stakeholders in cotton production, this study finds that cotton is highly profitable, however faces challenges of board regulations which limits farmers participation due to poor information of real time prices on cotton. The study recommends the need to address various challenges in cotton production to pique more interest especially among the youths.
The Hidden Benefits of Corporate Social Responsibility

Environmental activities, for instance actions against climate change, are an important part of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). This paper studies how a employer's environmental CSR activities affect the pro-environmental behavior of its employees. To do so, we conducted a large-scale field experiment on a crowd-working platform in which the employer's environmental CSR level varied exogenously. We find that employer CSR positively influenced workers' pro-environmental behavior outside the job. Workers who received information that their employer engaged in environmental CSR were more likely to contribute, and contributed higher amounts, to an environmental charity in a private donation decision. Our findings indicate that the impact of CSR may be farther reaching than directly observable by firm activities alone. By using CSR, employers have the potential to influence the behavior of their employees in non-work domains. Our findings have important implications for managers of organizations engaging (or planning to engage) in environmental CSR.
Testing Methods to Enhance Longevity Awareness

Many people have only a vague notion of the concept of life expectancy and the longevity risk they face at older ages, which in turn implies that they are likely to undersave for retirement. This paper employs an online experiment to investigate alternative ways to describe both life expectancy and longevity risk, with the goal of assessing whether these can raise peoples’ awareness of possible retirement shortfalls. We also evaluate whether providing this information promotes interest in saving activity and demand for longevity insurance products. We find that providing longevity risk information impacts respondents’ subjective survival probabilities, while simply describing average life expectancy does not. Yet providing life expectancy or longevity information significantly affects financial decisions, mostly regarding annuitization. Interestingly, we also find that merely prompting people to think about financial decisions changes their perceptions regarding subjective survival probabilities.
Can Bankruptcy Codes Create Value? Evidence from Creditors’ Recoveries in France, Germany, and the United Kingdom

This paper provides evidence on the value creation of bankruptcy procedures that belong to different legal systems (French civil law, German civil law, and British common law). Using a sample of 900 hand-collected corporate bankruptcy files, we find that France and Germany show quite similar overall recovery rates that are greater than in the United Kingdom. However, when controlling for the quality of assets and for the structure of claims, we observe that recovery rates are not significantly different between France and the United Kingdom, while they remain greater in Germany. We show that there are significant differences in terms of recoveries between procedures within countries. Finally, we observe that the recovery rates of the different classes of claimants also significantly differ across countries and procedures. These results show that bankruptcy codes are not equivalent in the way they manage and realize the debtor’s assets and protect the various claimants.
Effects of Public Expenditures on Agriculture at Sub-national Levels on Households’ Welfare and Economic Resilience in Nigeria

Agricultural development has long been considered an important driver of overall economic development in developing countries such as Nigeria. Whether increasing public expenditures on agriculture (PEA) can directly improve broad dimensions of household well-being has continued to be debated. In addition, there has been growing interest in the economic flexibility of households to switch between non-farm and farming activities. Such flexibility can potentially enhance the resilience of households to shocks like the COVID-19 pandemic in today’s rapidly changing socioeconomic environments. Direct evidence of the impact of PEA on broad development outcomes is also important in informing regional initiatives aiming to use PEA as an instrument for overall food security enhancement and poverty reduction in Africa. Using state- and local government area (LGA)-level PEA figures and household data in Nigeria, this study aims to provide initial evidence at the household level in Nigeria. <br><br>The findings suggest that greater PEA shares have positive effects on various development outcomes at the household level, including consumption, poverty reduction, non-farm capital investments, and household dietary diversity. The findings also suggest that greater PEA shares are likely to help farm households enhance their economic flexibility. These findings are consistent with the hypotheses of positive linkages between PEA and agricultural outcomes, and linkages between agricultural and non-agricultural outcomes, often advocated in the literature. PEA should be increased by increasing its share of total public expenditures through conscious efforts to reallocate existing resources, rather than trying to increase it by increasing the overall size of public expenditures. Furthermore, it remains important to identify the appropriate sources (for example, spending by LGA or state) and types of PEA (for example, recurrent or capital spending) for particular development outcomes.