Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Debt Capacity, Cash Holdings, and Financial Constraints

This research seeks to clarify the relationship among cash holdings, debt capacity, and financial constraints. Compared with other firms, financially constrained firms show relatively smaller decreases in debt capacity when they hold more cash. Cash holdings also help financially constrained firms receive more bank loans, across different types of debts. Heterogeneous beliefs in loan contracts help explain this relationship. Whereas some predictions indicate that cash can act as a financing source, substituting for debt capacity, this study reveals that cash holdings also can complement debt capacity when a firm is financially constrained.
Mandatory Advance Notice of Layoff: Evidence and Efficiency Considerations

We investigate a prevalent, but understudied, employment protection policy: mandatory advance notice (MN), requiring employers to notify employees of forthcoming layoffs. MN increases future production, as notified workers search on the job, but reduces current production as they supply less effort. Our theoretical model captures this trade-off and predicts that MN improves production efficiency by increasing information sharing, whereas large production losses can be avoided by worker-firm agreements on side-payments – severance pay – in lieu of MN. We provide evidence of such severance increases in response to an extension of MN using novel Swedish administrative data. We then estimate the production gain of MN: extending the MN period leads to shorter non-employment duration and higher reemployment wages, plausibly driven by on-the-job search. Using variation in notice duration across firms, we estimate the productivity loss of notice. The estimates of benefits and costs suggest that MN has a positive net impact on production, offering an empirically-grounded efficiency argument for mandating notice.
Do Financial Advisors Exploit Responsible Investment Preferences?

An unprecedented number of investors are giving their financial advisors a mandate for socially responsible investing (SRI). Yet, the impact of SRI mandates on consumers is unclear. In a pre-registered lab-in-the-field experiment with 345 professional advisors, we find that advisors charge a premium to SRI clients that cannot be justified by higher effort, skill, or costs. This suggests that advisors exploit the SRI preferences of their clients (who accept these higher fees). In an independent survey, financial regulators predict higher SRI fees but do not predict exploitation. Regulators confirm that our findings are externally valid and require attention from policymakers.
Do Retail Investors Value Environmental Impact? A Lab-in-the-Field Experiment with Crowdfunders

Are investors willing to give up a higher return if the investment generates positive environmental impact? We investigate this question with a decision experiment among crowdfunders, where they choose between a higher return or environmental impact. Overall, 65% of investors choose environmental impact at the expense of a higher return for sufficiently large impact, 14% choose impact independent of the magnitude of impact, while 21% choose the higher return independent of impact. Combining the experimental data with historical investments, we find that investors allocate a larger share of funds to green projects if they value environmental impact more, and if they expect green projects to be more profitable. These findings suggest that investors have a preference for positive environmental impact, and satisfy it by investing in green projects. We further show that the preference for environmental impact is distinct from a preference for positive social impact. Finally, we introduce new survey measures of impact for future use, which are experimentally validated and predict field behavior.
Currency Network Risk

This paper identifies new currency risk stemming from a network of idiosyncratic option-based currency volatilities and shows how such network risk is priced in the cross-section of currency returns. A portfolio that buys net-receivers and sells net-transmitters of short-term linkages between currency volatilities generates a significant Sharpe ratio. The network strategy formed on causal connections is uncorrelated with popular benchmarks and generates a significant alpha, while network returns formed on aggregate connections, which are driven by a strong correlation component, are partially subsumed by standard factors. Long-term linkages are priced less, indicating a downward-sloping term structure of network risk.
A lender in need is a lender indeed: Role of fintech lending after natural disasters

Using earthquakes as exogenous demand shocks to the credit market, we explore whether fintech lending can complement traditional banks in face of surged credit demand under a continuous difference-in-differences framework. We find that fintech loans increases significantly after earthquakes, especially in the more severely affected regions. However, the acceptance ratio and the loan rate keep stable pre and post earthquakes, so as the borrower characteristics. Notably, the increase in fintech lending is lower in places where traditional banking networks are more intensive and concentrated, and where there is a larger share of local banks. Therefore, fintech lending is especially helpful in increases people’s access to credit in areas where traditional banks are pulling back. Last, we find positive effects of fintech credit in job retention and creation after disasters.
Divisia Monetary Aggregates for Russia: Money Demand, GDP Nowcasting, and the Price Puzzle

The lack of developed financial markets and well-functioning transmission channels assigns monetary aggregates in emerging economies the potential role of nominal anchor, intermediate target, or informational variable for monetary policy. The effectiveness of this approach relies crucially on the correct measurement of money, which is not fulfilled by the conventional index based on the simple sum of financial assets. This paper calculates alternative Divisia monetary aggregates for Russia over the period 1998-2019, which account for the level of liquidity of a given monetary asset by assigning weights according to the usefulness of that asset for transaction services. Divisia is found to follow a growth pattern markedly different from the simple sum, whereby deviations between the two series are even more pronounced when foreign-currency accounts are included. We conduct three empirical exercises to demonstrate the advantages of Divisia over the simple sum. Divisia confirms the stability of the money demand function and reflects portfolio shifts in response to changes in the opportunity cost of money. Divisia-based GDP nowcasting performs better in times of financial turmoil than the simple sum. Lastly, Divisia mitigates the price puzzle phenomenon relative to the conventional measure. We conclude that Divisia monetary aggregates would improve the effectiveness of monetary policy in Russia.
MyPortfolio: The IKEA Effect in Financial Investment Decisions

Creating an own financial portfolio has never been easier than today. While the recent literature shows that people overvalue self-built consumer goods ("IKEA effect") we ask the following question: How do investors value and trade a self-built financial portfolio compared to one they did not self-build? Our pre-registered experimental design allows us to rule out any confounding customization, actual ownership, or learning effects. We find that self-building a portfolio significantly increases attachment towards it. However, neither valuation of the portfolio nor trading decisions are affected. Thus, our precise estimates suggest that there is no economically relevant "IKEA effect" in financial investment decisions. These results indicate that common portfolio self-building opportunities per se do not directly distort financial markets.
Wealth and Insurance Choices: Evidence from US Households

Theoretically, wealthier people should buy less insurance, and should self-insure through saving instead, as insurance entails monitoring costs. Here, we use administrative data for 63,000 individuals and, contrary to theory, find that the wealthier have better life and property insurance coverage. Wealth-related differences in background risk, legal risk, liquidity constraints, financial literacy, and pricing explain only a small fraction of the positive wealth-insurance correlation. This puzzling correlation persists in individual fixed-effects models estimated using 2,500,000 person-month observations. The fact that the less wealthy have less coverage, though intuitively they benefit more from insurance, might increase financial health disparities among households. Institutional subscribers to the NBER working paper series, and residents of developing countries may download this paper without additional charge at www.nber. org.
Misvaluation and the Corporate Propensity to Hold Cash

Abstract This study adopts a new perspective, misvaluation, to explain corporate propensity to hold cash. We find a strong cross-sectional relationship between misvaluation and the propensity to hold cash, which can be attributed to firms' investment, cash dividends, and equity raising activities. We further show that the equity issuance channel is driven by both firm-initiated issuance activities and the exercise of employee stock options. The results are robust after controlling for endogeneity issues. Several additional robustness tests reject alternative explanations, such as precautionary motives, agency conflicts, near-term cash needs, and tax motives.
Learning from Leaders or Followers in Temporary Teams: The Varying Effects of Partner Exposure by Team Member Role

In many workplaces, temporary teams convene to coordinate complex work, despite team members having not worked together before. Most related research has found consistent performance benefits when members of temporary teams work together multiple times (team familiarity). Recent work in this area broke new conceptual ground by instead exploring the learning and performance benefits that team members gain by being exposed to many new partners (partner exposure). In contrast to that new work that examined partner exposure between team members who are peers, in this paper we extend this research by developing and testing theory about the performance effects of partner exposure for team members whose roles are differentiated by authority and skill. We use visit-level data from a hospital ED and leverage the ad hoc assignment of attendings, nurses, and residents to teams and the round-robin assignment of patients to these teams as our identification strategy. We find a negative performance effect of both nurses’ and resident trainees’ partner exposure to more attendings, and of attendings’ and nurses’ exposure to more residents. In contrast, both attendings and residents experience a positive impact on performance from working with more nurses. The respective effects of residents working with more attendings and with more nurses is attenuated on patient cases with more structured workflows. Our results suggest that interactions with team members in support roles is an important but often unrecognized part of disciplinary training and team learning.
Effect of different plant growth regulators and methods of application on growth of coriander (Coriandrum sativum L.)

The experiment was carried out during rabi season of academic year 2018-2019 at Instructional Farm, Department of Vegetable Science, Dr. Panjabrao Deshmukh Krishi Vidyapeeth, Akola to study the effect of different plant growth regulators and methods of application on growth of coriander (Coriandrum sativum L.). The experiment conducted in factorial randomized block design with three replication and eighteen treatment combinations. There were two factors, main factor being methods of application of PGRs viz. seed soaked, foliar spray and seed soaked + foliar spray and sub factor was six concentrations of PGRs viz. GA3 (50, 75 and 100 ppm) and CCC (200, 250 and 300 ppm) growth parameters like plant height and number of branches per plant were influenced by M3 (seed soaked + foliar spray). The treatment combination M3P3 (GA3 @ 100 ppm as seed soaked + foliar spray) and M3P6 (CCC @ 300 ppm as seed soaked + foliar spray) recorded significantly maximum result in respect of plant height and number of branches per plant, respectively. Maximum plant height (75.11 cm) was recorded in M3P3 and maximum number of branches (9.61) were recorded in M3P6 treatment combination.
Norms on complex matrices induced by complete homogeneous symmetric polynomials

We introduce a remarkable new family of norms on the space of n×n$n \times n$ complex matrices. These norms arise from the combinatorial properties of symmetric functions, and their construction and validation involve probability theory, partition combinatorics, and trace polynomials in non‐commuting variables. Our norms enjoy many desirable analytic and algebraic properties, such as an elegant determinantal interpretation and the ability to distinguish certain graphs that other matrix norms cannot. Furthermore, they give rise to new dimension‐independent tracial inequalities. Their potential merits further investigation.
One-Sided Matching Markets with Endowments: Equilibria and Algorithms

The Arrow-Debreu extension of the classic Hylland-Zeckhauser scheme for a one-sided matching market -- called ADHZ in this paper -- has natural applications but has instances which do not admit equilibria. By introducing approximation, we define the $\epsilon$-approximate ADHZ model, and we give the following results. * Existence of equilibrium under linear utility functions. We prove that the equilibrium satisfies Pareto optimality, approximate envy-freeness, and approximate weak core stability. * A combinatorial polynomial-time algorithm for an $\epsilon$-approximate ADHZ equilibrium for the case of dichotomous, and more generally bi-valued, utilities. * An instance of ADHZ, with dichotomous utilities and a strongly connected demand graph, which does not admit an equilibrium. Since computing an equilibrium for HZ is likely to be highly intractable and because of the difficulty of extending HZ to more general utility functions, Hosseini and Vazirani proposed (a rich collection of) Nash-bargaining-based matching market models. For the dichotomous-utilities case of their model linear Arrow-Debreu Nash bargaining one-sided matching market (1LAD), we give a combinatorial, strongly polynomial-time algorithm and show that it admits a rational convex program.
DuReader_robust: A Chinese Dataset Towards Evaluating Robustness and Generalization of Machine Reading Comprehension in Real-World Applications

Machine reading comprehension (MRC) is a crucial task in natural language processing and has achieved remarkable advancements. However, most of the neural MRC models are still far from robust and fail to generalize well in real-world applications. In order to comprehensively verify the robustness and generalization of MRC models, we introduce a real-world Chinese dataset – DuReader_robust . It is designed to evaluate the MRC models from three aspects: over-sensitivity, over-stability and generalization. Comparing to previous work, the instances in DuReader_robust are natural texts, rather than the altered unnatural texts. It presents the challenges when applying MRC models to real-world applications. The experimental results show that MRC models do not perform well on the challenge test set. Moreover, we analyze the behavior of existing models on the challenge test set, which may provide suggestions for future model development. The dataset and codes are publicly available at https://github.com/baidu/DuReader.
Prenatal Selection: Scarring Effects of Pandemic Influenza

This study uses the 1918–1920 influenza pandemic in Japan with newly digitized and complete census records on births, infant deaths, and sex ratios during childhood to analyze mortality selection in utero and its persistency in the gender imbalance. I find that fetal exposure to pandemic influenza during the first trimester of the pregnancy period decreases the proportion of males at birth during this period. The mechanism suggests that the decline in male births owing to pandemic influenza has not led to the positive selection into births, but it has been associated with the deterioration of fetal and infant health. This result supports a wide range of previous literature on the long-run adverse effects of pandemic influenza, and it is consistent with a recent argument that the postnatal selection mechanism owing to the socioeconomic status of parents is negligible (Almond 2006; Beach et al. 2018). Analyses using population censuses provide evidence suggesting that postnatal influenza exposure has long-term impacts on the sex ratio of children aged 5–12, thereby implying potential disturbance effects on the future marriage and labor markets.
Contrasting Effects of Graphene Oxide and Poly(ethylenimine) on the Polymorphism in Poly(vinylidene fluoride)

The nature of interaction between a heteronucleating agent (graphene oxide, GO) and a strongly polar macromolecule (poly(ethylenimine), PEI) with poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF) influencing the crystalline structure and morphology has been systematically investigated in this work. PEI interacts with PVDF via ion-dipole interaction, which helps in lowering the free energy barrier for nucleation thereby promoting faster crystallization. In contrast, besides interacting with PVDF, GO also promotes heteronucleation in PVDF. We observed that both GO and PEI have very different effects on the overall crystalline morphology of PVDF. For instance, the neat PVDF showed a mixture of both α and β phases when cooled from the melt. However, incorporation of 0.1 wt % GO resulted in phase transformation from the stable α-phase to polar β-polymorph in PVDF. In contrast, PEI, which also resulted in faster crystallization in PVDF predominantly, resulted in the stable α- phase. Various techniques like Fourier transform inf.
Need Not Be Accurate , Justified , or Believed by their

We argue that the main results of scientific papers may appropriately be published even if they are false, unjustified, and not believed to be true or justified by their author. To defend this claim we draw upon the literature studying the norms of assertion, and consider how they would apply if one attempted to hold claims made in scientific papers to their strictures, as assertions and discovery claims in scientific papers seem naturally analogous. We first use a case study of William H. Bragg’s early 20th century work in physics to demonstrate that successful science has in fact violated these norms. We then argue that features of the social epistemic arrangement of science which are necessary for its long run success require that we do not hold claims of scientific results to their standards. We end by making a suggestion about the norms that it would be appropriate to hold scientific claims to, along with an explanation of why the social epistemology of science—considered as an instance of collective inquiry—would require such apparently lax norms for claims to be put forward.
Effect of addition of N-acetylcystiene and Avena sativa Aqueous extract to Tris extender on cooled and post-cryopreservative semen characteristics and some biomarkers of Holstein bulls

Objective:To evaluate effect of tris-extender supplemented with various concentrations of NAC and aqueous extract of (Avena Sativa) seeds (AEASS) on bull semen characteristics and some biomarkers. Methods: Pooled bull semen were extended with tris-citrate-fructose egg yolk diluter to achieve 60 million motile spermatozoa ,Pooled semen was equally divided into nine treatments in the experiment as following : Tris extender only as Control group (C) ,T1 contain 2mM NAC,T2 contain 4mM NAC, T3 contain 1% AESASS, T4 contain 1.5% AEASS , T5 contain 2mM NAC and 1% AEASS ,T6 contain 2Mm NAC and 1.5% AEASS , T7 contain 4Mm NAC and 1% AEASS, T8 contain 4Mm NAC and 1.5% AEASS , . Extended semen were subjected to semen freezing protocol . Semen assessment including , abnormality% , Malondaildehyde (MDA) and (AST & ALT) concentration were carried out for both chilled and frozen semen. Results: Results showed that All treatments showed numerically increasing in sperm total abnormalities after all the periods of PC compared with the control treatment ,Furthersome the treatment T8 exhibited numerically lesser Malondaildehyde (MDA) and (AST & ALT) concentrations ,Conclusions: It is concluded that addition of NAC and AEASS to Tris extender had an important role in enhancing some of PC semen characteristics of Holstein bulls.
RFamide peptides, the novel regulators of mammalian HPG axis: A review

The RFamide-related peptides (RFRPs) are the group of neuropeptides synthesized predominantly from the hypothalamus that negatively affects the hypothalamo-hypophyseal-gonadal (hypothalamic–pituitary–gonadal [HPG]) axis. These peptides are first identified in quail brains and emerged as the mammalian orthologs of avian gonadotropin inhibitory hormones. The RFRP-3 neurons in the hypothalamus are present in several mammalian species. The action of RFRP-3 is mediated through a G-protein-coupled receptor called OT7T022. The predominant role of RFRP-3 is the inhibition of HPG axis with several other effects such as the regulation of metabolic activity, stress regulation, controlling of non-sexual motivated behavior, and sexual photoperiodicity in concert with other neuropeptides such as kisspeptin, neuropeptide-Y (NPY), pro-opiomelanocortin, orexin, and melanin. RFamide peptides synthesized in the granulosa cells, interstitial cells, and seminiferous tubule regulate steroidogenesis and gametogenesis in the gonads. The present review is intended to provide the recent findings that explore the role of RFRP-3 in regulating HPG axis and its potential applications in the synchronization of reproduction and its therapeutic interventions to prevent stress-induced amenorrhea.
The Borexino Collaboration

The Borexino detector measures solar neutrino fluxes via neutrino-electron elastic scattering. Observed spectra are determined by the solar-νe survival probability Pee(E), and the chiral couplings of the neutrino and electron. Some theories of physics beyond the Standard Model postulate the existence of Non-Standard Interactions (NSI’s) which modify the chiral couplings and Pee(E). In this paper, we search for such NSI’s, in particular, flavor-diagonal neutral current interactions that modify the νee and ντe couplings using Borexino Phase II data. Standard Solar Model predictions of the solar neutrino fluxes for both highand low-metallicity assumptions are considered. No indication of new physics is found at the level of sensitivity of the detector and constraints on the parameters of the NSI’s are placed. In addition, with the same dataset the value of sin θW is obtained with a precision comparable to that achieved in reactor antineutrino experiments.