Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Legal Change in the Face of Risk Averse Subjects: A Generalization of the Theory

This study investigates the optimal nature of lawmaking under uncertainty. I focus on a case in which a harmful activity will be subjected to some regulatory measures (a standard, exposure to liability, or a corrective tax). The benefits and costs of precaution are ex ante uncertain, and this places a risk burden on both injurers and victims. The optimal policy should, at the same time, strike a balance between benefits and costs of the measures, and attenuate the ex ante risk. Whether measures should be made stronger or softer depends on the size and the sign of the shocks affecting the parties (positive or negative) and their disposition towards risk. With corrective taxes, it also depends on the elasticity of precautions with respect to the tax rate.
The Informational Role of Options Prices in China

The introduction of European style equity options in 2015 in China signaled a landmark moment in the development of its financial markets. We examine intraday implied volatility patterns and estimate the contribution of the Shanghai Stock Exchange (SSE) 50 ETF options to price discovery using the information leadership share (ILS) methodology. Notable differences are found in implied volatilities of puts and calls, consistent with the theory of event trading, while implied volatility patterns for each moneyness group contradict the crash-a-phobia phenomenon documented in previous studies. Furthermore, we find the options market dominates the price discovery process, with an average ILS of 67%. The price leadership evolves over time as investors use options to circumvent trading restrictions placed on the stock market.
Linking Perceived Organizational Formal Control to Deviant Workplace Behaviour: The Moderating Role of Honesty-Humility Personality Trait

A review of empirical studies related to organizational and personality- related factors and the likelihood of employees engaging in deviant behaviour at work indicates that less attention has been paid to study the effects of organisational formal control on workplace deviance. Drawing upon the organisational control theory, this study examined Honesty-Humility as a boundary condition between organizational formal control and deviant workplace behaviour. Participants in the study consisted of 202 public sector employees from three Federal Polytechnics in north-western Nigeria. As expected, results showed that organizational formal control had a significant negative relationship with workplace deviance. Most notably, we found that the effect of organizational formal control on workplace deviance was moderated by Honesty-Humility. The practical implication of this study is that organizations should conduct personality inventory tests prior to recruitment and selection, as the outcomes of the test could help managers select employees whose values are in line with organisational norms.
Missing Twins: Fetal Origins, Institutions, and Twin-Singleton Mortality Convergence

An important number of twins are missing because of their substantially greater mortality risk in early ages relative to singletons. This paper has a twofold goal. First, it investigates whether, as children age, the twin-singleton inequality in mortality rates vanishes, and if yes, when. Second, it analyzes how the timing of mortality convergence is affected by the quality of political institutions. We use a sample of more than 3 million births from numerous countries in sub-Saharan Africa. Twins represent 3.2% of the sample, and children are followed up to the age of 25. We find that mortality is substantially higher for twins, but the difference persists only to around the age of 5. Importantly, the timing of mortality convergence is shortened by better quality political institutions. The findings yield two major conclusions. First, biology-induced disadvantages can be partially remedied through appropriate policy interventions. Second, the fetal origins hypothesis, which holds that the risk of adult morbidity and mortality is positively affected by intrauterine growth retardation, is not universally valid. In particular, better institutions are likely to offset the short-and long-term consequences of poor intrauterine conditions, attenuating the “missing twins” problem.
Your Loss Is My Gain: A Recruitment Experiment with Framed Incentives

Empirically, labor contracts that financially penalize failure induce higher effort provision than economically identical contracts presented as paying a bonus for success, an effect attributed to loss aversion. This is puzzling, as penalties are infrequently used in practice. The most obvious explanation is selection: loss averse agents are unwilling to accept such contracts. I formalize this intuition, then run an experiment to test it. Surprisingly, I find that workers were 25 percent more likely to accept penalty contracts, with no evidence of adverse or advantageous selection. Consistent with the existing literature, penalty contracts also increased performance on the job by 0.2 standard deviations. I outline extensions to the basic theory that are consistent with the main results, but argue that more research is needed on the long-term effects of penalty contracts if we want to understand why firms seem unwilling to use them.
"Taking Diversity into Account": Real Effects of Accounting Measurement on Asset Allocation

As soon as 2009, the IASB -- following a request made by the G20 -- begins to work on a new accounting standard meant to replace IAS 39: IFRS 9. Among other things, IFRS 9 puts forward a new way of classifying financial instruments that rests on a two-step procedure: a business model assessment and a contractual cash flow characteristics test. We develop a theoretical model that assesses the relevance of this procedure, specifically that of the business model assessment. We show that a mixed accounting regime where financial institutions whose time horizon is short resort to fair value accounting while those whose time horizon is longer resort to historical cost accounting provides a better asset allocation than a pure accounting regime where all FIs resort to the same accounting rule. In other words, business models are worth being taken into consideration when deciding whether an asset should be evaluated at its fair value or at its historical cost, which is in line with the framework presented in IFRS 9.
Is observed variability in the long-term results of the Continuous Plankton Recorder survey a response to climate change?

In the more than 50 years that the Continuous Plankton Recorder (CPR) survey has operated on a regular monthly basis in the north-east Atlantic and North Sea, large changes have been witnessed in the planktonic ecosystem. These changes have taken the form of long-term trends in abundance for certain species or stepwise changes for others, and in many cases are correlated with a mode of climatic variability in the North Atlantic, either: (1) the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO), a basin-scale atmospheric alteration of the pressure field between the Azores high pressure cell and the Icelandic Low; or (2) the Gulf Stream Index (GSI), which measures the latitudinal position of the north wall of the Gulf Stream. Recent work has shown that the changes in the GSI are coupled with the NAO and Pacific Southern Oscillation with a 2 year lag. The plankton variability is also possibly linked to changes observed in the distribution and flux of water masses in the surface, intermediate and deep waters of the North Atlantic. For example, in the last two decades, the extent and location of the formation of North Atlantic Deep Water, Labrador Sea Intermediate Water and Norwegian Sea intermediate and upper-layer water has altered considerably. This paper discusses the extent to which observed changes in plankton abundance and distribution may be linked to this basin-scale variability in hydrodynamics. The results are also placed within the context of global climate warming and the possible effects of the observed melting of Arctic permafrost and sea ice on the subpolar North Atlantic.
Exploited by Complexity

Due to their complex features, structured financial products can hurt the average investor. Are certain investors particularly vulnerable? Using account-level transaction data of retail structured funds, we show that the rich (sophisticated) benefit from complexity at the expense of the poor (naive). The poor-to-rich wealth transfer that results from trading structured funds is substantially greater than from trading simple, non-structured funds. In an event study, we further confirm that part of this wealth transfer can be directly attributed to investors’ differing responses to complexity. In particular, when a market crash triggers funds into a restructuring process and their prices are expected to shrink by half on a given day, the poor and naive subset of investors fail to respond effectively.
The Effect of Board Structure and Ownership Structure on Risk Disclosure Quality

This paper examines how board structure (i.e., board size, board independence, and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) duality) and ownership structure (i.e., ownership concentration) influence risk disclosure quality (RDQ) of FTSE 100 non-financial firms. RDQ is captured by integrating five dimensions including Quantity, Depth_Quantitative, Depth_Qualitative, Future and Coverage of risk information. We find that firms with more independent directors on the board and those with less insider ownership are likely to provide considerably higher quality risk information than other firms. The strength of firms governance (based on board efficiency) is an important factor to consider so as to observe corporate governance factors’ effects. Specifically, we find that our previous results are predominantly driven by strongly rather than weakly governed firms. Our results also suggest that both board structure and ownership structure have similar (different) effects on risk disclosure quality to those observed on the quantitative and qualitative (quantitative, future and coverage) dimensions. The results can help regulators optimize risk report systems and encourage firms to provide high quality risk information so that investors can make better decisions.
The Limits of P-Hacking: A Thought Experiment

Suppose that asset pricing factors are just p-hacked noise. How much p-hacking is required to produce the 300 factors documented by academics? I show that, if 10,000 academics generate 1 factor every minute, it takes 15 million years of p-hacking. This absurd conclusion comes from applying the p-hacking theory to published data. To fit the fat right tail of published t-stats, the p-hacking theory requires that the probability of publishing t-stats < 6.0 is infinitesimal. Thus it takes a ridiculous amount of p-hacking to publish a single t-stat. These results show that p-hacking alone cannot explain the factor zoo.
Actualizing Information Technology Affordance for Organizational Innovation: The Role of Organizational Courage

Researchers and practitioners have long believed that information technology (IT) is a key tool for fostering innovation. However, there is a certain inconsistency in the literature, which makes it challenging for researchers to figure out exactly how and why IT plays such a pivotal, strategic organizational role. The motivation for this research is the multiple contradictory results reported by studies investigating the influence of information technology (IT) on organizational innovation. This study utilizes a fit-based perspective in an attempt to disentangle these contradictions. Using Venkatraman’s (1989) seminal paper on fit, we conceive of two critical fit-based concepts: harmonious IT affordance in an organization (HITA) and a subsequent fit between HITA and organizational courage. HITA reflects a covariance fit (coalignment) between the three major IT affordances in an organization — collaborative affordance, organizational memory affordance, and process management affordance. Organizational courage reflects the boldness (risk-taking ability) of the organization. Finally, HITA and organizational courage represent a matching fit (reflected as actualized HITA) that influences two kinds of innovation: exploratory and exploitative. Two studies, conducted in the US and Chinese contexts, provide support for this theory. The main contribution of the paper is in showing that IT can lead to innovation if a) organizational IT affordances harmoniously co-align (as HITA); b) and, organizational courage acts as a powerful contingency that actualizes HITA, and this actualized HITA influences innovation.
Coevolution of Policy Sectors: A Comparative Analysis of Health Care and Public Health

This paper analyzes the institutional coevolution of policy sectors – in other words, the mutual influence and adaptation of the institutional connection between related policy areas. The article proposes a two-dimensional analytical space ranging from separation to unity on one axis and from superiority/subaltern to equality on the other. The paper argues that the overall governance framework behind the coevolving sectors affects the institutional relationship between the sectors. In its empirical part, the paper focuses on the health care and public health sectors. Based on a comparative historical examination of three countries with different health care systems – Australia, Germany, and the United States – the paper shows that health care and public health coevolve differently depending on the type of national health care system. Further research can transfer the concepts introduced in this article to the analysis of other policy challenges, such as immigration or environmental protection.
Generic Reassignment of an Ichthyosaur from the Queen Elizabeth Islands, Northwest Territories, Canada

ABSTRACT An ichthyosaur from the Oxfordian—Kimmeridgian of Melville Island, Northwest Territories, Canada, is redescribed. This specimen was previously referred to as Ophthalmosaurus chrisorum Russell, 1993, but exhibits several features incompatible with this generic assignment. Here, I refer this specimen to a new genus, Arthropterygius, characterized by a basioccipital with an extremely reduced extracondylar area, a foramen for the internal carotid artery located on the posterior surface of the basisphenoid, a humerus with a well-developed distal facet for the articulation of a preaxial accessory element, and a radius and ulna with highly angular proximal surfaces for articulation with the humerus. Arthropterygius can be referred to the Ophthalmosauria based on the presence of a preaxial element anterior to the radius and ulna. This referral is supported by a phylogenetic analysis, in which a sister-group relationship between Arthropterygius and the South American genus Caypullisaurus is recovered. This specimen represents the most complete ichthyosaur from the Canadian Arctic, and has important implications for marine reptile diversity at high latitudes during the Jurassic.
A method for assessing the root-colonizing capacity of bacteria on maize.

A closed test tube assay was developed for measuring the root colonization capacity of bacteria in raw soil–sand. Bacteria were coated onto seeds at inoculum levels of 103 – 109 colony-forming units (cfu) per seed, and root-colonizing bacterial strains successfully grew along the emerging radicle. Quantification of specific bacterial populations on roots was highly reproducible between experiments with the assay. Of 54 strains tested, 24 colonized roots at populations of 104 to 106 cfu/g root. All root-colonizing strains were Gram negative. Two fluorescent pseudomonad strains that failed to colonize maize roots in raw soil did colonize in autoclaved soil. Captan seed treatment and temperature of incubation (14 and 24 °C) had no substantial effect on subsequent root colonization. Root population densities determined in the sand–soil assay were comparable with those determined with plants grown in soils under greenhouse conditions.
Threat of Entry and the Use of Discretion in Banks' Financial Reporting

This paper studies managers' use of accounting discretion to deter entry. Using state-level changes in branching regulation under the Interstate Banking and Branching Efficiency Act, I find geographically-constrained community banks increased their loan loss provisions to appear less profitable when faced with the threat of entry by competitors. Additional tests rule out alternative explanations that firm economics or regulators drove the increase. I complement my analyses with survey-based evidence. Findings from the survey confirm that banks prefer to locate in markets where incumbents have high profitability and low credit losses, and that banks use competitors' financial statements to analyze competition.
Semi-Nonparametric Estimation of Random Coefficient Logit Model for Aggregate Demand

In this paper, we propose a two-step semi-nonparametric estimator for the widely used random coefficient logit demand model. In the first step, exploiting the structure of logit choice probabilities, we transform the full demand system into a partial linear model and estimate the fixed (non-random) coefficients using standard linear sieve generalized method of moment (GMM). In the second step, we construct a sieve minimum distance (MD) estimator to uncover the distribution of random coefficients nonparametrically. We establish the asymptotic properties of the estimator and show the semi-nonparametric identification of the model in a large market environment. Monte Carlo simulations and empirical illustrations support the theoretical results and demonstrate the usefulness of our estimator in practice.
Relational Contracts with Multitask Jobs

This paper analyzes a multitask Principal-Agent model in which the performance measures of some tasks are subjective and relational contract is needed for incentive provision. We find that rewarding the Agent based on a subjective measure that aggregates performance on multiple tasks can help ease the tension between motivating the Agent by offering a bonus and the Principal's temptation to renege on bonus payment, which helps reduce the threshold discount factor for relational contract to be self-enforcing. Consequently, when some dimensions of performance can not be objectively determined, it may be optimal not to use explicit contracts for incentive provision even if other dimensions of performance can be objectively measured and there is no cost of writing explicit contracts. We therefore offer a novel explanation to "excessively incomplete contracts" observed in practice.
Capital Structure on Valuation

Although there is a strong consensus that the weights in the cost of capital calculation must be market value weights, in a business valuation, appraisers do not use an unique approach to estimate the capital structure that will prevail in the future. In fact, both practitioners and academics have different takes on this matter. The methodologies proposed are the use of book values, a target capital structure which presumably would be the optimal and the use of the industry average capital structure, assuming that it also would be the optimal. All of these approaches have controversial issues and yield some mathematical inconsistencies. In this paper we disentangle some of these issues and propose a different approach which solves the mathematical inconsistencies and it is also suggested for closely-held companies, since it bypasses the absence of market values.
Effects of Stream Cleaning on Juvenile Coho Salmon and Dolly Varden in Southeast Alaska

Abstract This paper describes the effects of selective removal of woody debris on populations of juvenile coho salmon Oncorhynchus kisutch and Dolly Varden Salvelinus malma in two small streams on Prince of Wales Island, Alaska, during the summers of 1979–1981. These streams contained debris left when surrounding forests were clear-cut in the late 1960s. Debris smaller than 60 mm in diameter and larger debris not embedded in the stream channel were manually removed from half of the study reach on each stream in 1979 by state-of-the-art techniques. Immigration and emigration of fish from the study sections and intrastream movements were very limited after an initial period of population adjustment in the spring regardless of treatment. Population densities and production of both species were typically higher in sections where debris accumulations had not been removed. Production of age-0 + and age-1 + coho salmon and age-1 + and age-2 + Dolly Varden during the June-September period ranged from 0.70 to 2.22.
Get the Balance Right: Growth, Profitability, and Safety in the Insurance Industry

We analyze the interdependencies of the three main strategic goals of many companies: growth, profitability, and safety. Extant literature suggests that the relationships among these goals are reciprocal. Therefore, we develop a simultaneous equation model to empirically test three pairs of hypotheses simultaneously and over time considering a sample of 1,988 European insurance companies over eleven years. Our results suggest that moderate firm growth has a positive im-pact on profitability; however, extremely high growth reduces profitability. Moderate firm growth also tends to reduce risk. In addition, we find evidence that insurers with relatively low profitability are risk-seeking, a result in line with prospect theory. The analysis over time shows that insurers which initially prioritize profitability over growth are more likely to reach a state of “profitable growth” than vice versa. Our results emphasize the existing results on underwriting discipline and show that all three dimensions must be considered simultaneously and in a multi-period context to fully evaluate firm performance.
News and Markets in the Time of COVID-19

I examine how financial markets interact with news about the COVID-19 pandemic. A twelve topic model optimizes the trade-off between number of topics and topic coherence. Using this model, I show that before mid-March 2020 markets react more to the same quantum of news when volatility is higher – a phenomenon I call hypersensitivity. Formal tests identify a structural break in mid-March, post which markets are no longer hypersensitive. In the hypersensitive stage, markets are overly volatile and overreact to news. Despite hypersensitivity, lagged prices better forecast future COVID-19 case counts than do lagged news.
The possible association between expression of p53 and development in depressed type colorectal carcinoma.

p53 in these tumors. Also we examined the expression of p53 in early and advanced carcinomas of large bowel. Although 6 lesions of the 12 minute adenocarcinomas showed positive reaction for p53, the positive-stained carcinoma cells could be recognized only in a part of the lesion. On the other hand, in early (except minute carcinoma) and/or advanced carcinomas lesions 100% of adenocarcinoma cells showed positive for p53. These findings suggest that the expression of p53 in the coloretal neoplasia have a relationship to both the morphological atypia of these lesion and the development of large bowel carcinoma.