Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
More than the Quantity: The Value of Editorial Reviews for a UGC Platform

We investigate an editorial review program where a review platform supplements the user reviews with editorial ones written by professional writers. Specifically, we examine whether and how editorial reviews influence subsequent user reviews (reviews written by non-editor reviewers). The empirical evidence from a quasi-experiment on a leading review platform in Asia based on several econometric and natural language processing techniques shows an overall positive effect of editorial reviews on subsequent user reviews from the platform’s perspective. For restaurants that receive editorial reviews, reviewers not only post more frequently, but also write longer and more neutral feedback. Further analysis of the mechanism reveals that the subsequent reviews of the restaurants that receive editorial reviews become more similar to their editorial reviews regarding the topics, sentiment, and readability, indicating a herding effect as the main driver of the change in the subsequent reviews. The findings suggest that review platforms could use an editorial review program to not only boost the review quantity, but also manage the content’s quality. By supplementing high-quality editorial reviews with user reviews, the platform can improve the overall content quality of user reviews through a herding effect.
Switching Perspective: Corporate Distress, Asset and Financial Risk, and the Cross-Section of Bond Returns

We offer evidence suggesting a significantly negative relation between firm-level distress risk and the cross-section of corporate bond returns, analogous to the often negative relation between distress risk and stock returns found in prior studies ("distress anomaly"). Our evidence casts doubts on theories arguing that the distress anomaly arises due to shareholders shifting financial risk onto debtholders in distress. In accordance, proxy variables suggested by such theories do not condition the distress risk-bond return relation. More promising, however, are theories suggesting that the anomaly arises due to distressed firms having a low levered asset risk due to them owning valuable disinvestment options, with some of the proxy variables suggested by these theories conditioning the former relation.
When do informed traders provide liquidity?

With the demise of traditional market makers and proliferation of trade execution algorithms that mix market and limit orders, it is no longer clear who provides liquidity in limit order book markets and what determines their liquidity provision decisions. To examine these issues, we develop and validate two empirical measures of informed traders’ order choice. We find that informed traders tend to provide liquidity with limit orders during periods of high uncertainty about the fundamental value (high volatility, wide spreads). At such times, mispricing persists for longer so the informed trade more patiently to obtain better execution prices. Price discovery is slower when informed traders use limit orders and consequently their order choice acts as an uncertainty multiplier.
Longevity Risk Management in Singapore’s National Pension System

Although annuities are a theoretically appealing way to manage longevity risk, in the real world relatively few consumers purchase them at retirement. To counteract the possibility of retirees outliving their assets, Singapore’s Central Provident Fund, a national defined contribution pension scheme, has recently mandated annuitization of workers’ retirement assets. More significantly, the government has entered the insurance market as a public-sector provider for such annuities. This paper evaluates the money’s worth of life annuities and discusses the impact of the government mandate and its role as an annuity provider on the insurance market.
Connecting the Dots: The Accruals Quality Premium vs. The Value Premium

Two separate strands in the existing literature document that (1) the value premium may be the reward for risk generated by disagreement between investors with heterogeneous beliefs about future stock payoffs (Doukas et. al. 2002, 2004), and that (2) poor quality of accounting information is an important determinant of such disagreement (Lobo et. al. 2006). We investigate the connection between the accrual quality and the growth/value characteristics at firm level and whether there is any connection between the value premium and the accrual quality premium. This study provides evidence that value stocks are more likely to have high accrual quality, while growth stocks are more likely to have poor quality accruals. While the two premia are strongly connected during down markets, accrual quality does not seem to be the source that generates the higher dispersion of beliefs that value firms are documented to have. On the contrary, our results imply that value firms mitigate the quality of their information environment by providing better quality accounting information relative to growth firms.
Decomposing the earnings-to-price ratio and the cross-section of international equity-index returns

ABSTRACT We examine whether components of the earnings-to-price (EP) ratio can be used to extract incremental information to better estimate future returns in the cross-section of country-industry indexes. We demonstrate that the EP components, such as lagged EP, changes in earnings, short-term momentum and long-term reversal in prices increase the accuracy of return forecasts. The EP decomposition matters in developed markets but is pointless in emerging countries. The results are robust to modifications in the methodology, sub-period analyses, the use of an alternative sample and remain unchanged after controlling for net share issuance, size, and fixed country and time effects.
Using Conjoint Analysis to Estimate Farmers' Preferences for Cattle Traits in West Africa

This paper estimates the preferences of farmers for cattle traits in southern Burkina Faso using Conjoint analysis, a survey-based system for measuring preferences for multiple-attribute goods. Here the technique is used in the context of a West African country where literacy is low, where cattle perform multiple functions, where low-input management is the norm, and where cattle are exposed to a number of tropical diseases and other environmental stresses. The results reflect the production practices of the region, suggesting that important traits in developing breed improvement programs should include disease resistance, fitness for traction and reproductive performance. Beef and milk production are less important traits. The study shows the potential usefulness of conjoint analysis for quantifying preferences in less developed countries for livestock and for the wide variety of other multiple-attribute goods. Distinguishing differences in preferences between groups of respondents in connection with specific locations and production systems can be used to promote conservation-through-use of breeds at risk of extinction.
The Effects of Financial Risks on the Relationship Between Earnings and Stock Returns

This study was conducted to investigate the effects of financial risks on the relationship between earnings per share and stock returns. The statistical population of the study consisted of the companies accepted by Tehran Stock Exchange. According to the conditions for sampling, 65 companies were selected during a period of six years from 2008 to 2013 (i.e., 390 fiscal years), and four hypotheses were set forth to achieve the purposes of the study. The first hypothesis tried to assess the relationship between earnings per share and stock returns. The second, third, and fourth hypotheses investigated the significance of the effects of three financial risks, namely liquidity, credit, and solvency risks on the relationship between earnings per share and stock returns. The hypotheses of the study were tested using linear and multiple regressions. The findings of the study indicated that there was a positive and significant relationship between earnings per share and stock returns. In addition, the results proved that the credit and solvency risks had negative and significant effects on the relationship between earnings per share and stock returns, but the effect of liquidity risk on this relationship was not significant.
Reducing Grouse Collision Mortality by Marking Fences (Oklahoma)

A number of grouse species collide frequently with power y~Vlines, overhead cables, and fences. Because grouse fly fast these collisions are often immediately fatal, but likely a considerable number of birds either succumb later to injuries or become incapacitated and more vulnerable to predation. A multiyear radio-tracking study of the lesser prairie-chicken (Tympanuchuspallidicinctus) in Oklahoma found that collisions, primarily with stock fences, were the leading cause of mortality (WoUe et al. 2007). Several other species of grouse, including the greater sage-grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus) in North America and black grouse (Tetrao tetrix) and western capercaillie {Tetrao urogallus) in Europe, also suffer high mortality rates because offence collisions (e.g., Catt et al. 1994). In an effort to reduce this unnatural mortality, we explored various ways of marking fences to improve their visibility. Ideal marking material would be easily affixed, inexpensive, durable, and safe for livestock, and would add little or no weight or wind resistance to fences.
Same or Different? An Aesthetic Design Question

Should brands selling status goods design high‐end and low‐end products to look the same or different? In this paper, we study how brands make this aesthetic design differentiation decision. We first empirically analyze the impact of a brand’s aesthetic design differentiation on consumers’ preferences for the brand’s products using seven years of data of a status good (i.e., cars). We find that consumers prefer high‐end products of a brand to look more differentiated but prefer low‐end products of the brand to look less differentiated, which seems to present brands a product design dilemma, that is, neither design unification nor diversification within a brand can enhance the appeal of the brand’s high‐end and low‐end products at the same time. Based on this finding, we set up a game‐theoretic model to analyze brands’ equilibrium design strategies. Interestingly, we find that the opposing preferences for design differentiation can lead brands to choose asymmetric design strategies, that is, one brand unifies design while another brand diversifies design, which can be a win–win outcome. We also give conditions where both brands unify design or both brands diversify design while the latter can be a prisoner’s dilemma. Furthermore, vertical differentiation (e.g., in brand strength) between brands affects the profitability of design diversification or unification. In addition, we show that the aesthetic design decision has important implications on how brands should set prices and functionalities of products and how much brands should invest in brand‐building activities (e.g., advertising).
Influência da condutividade elétrica, concentração iônica e vazão de soluções nutritivas na produção de alface hidropônica

Objetivou-se, neste trabalho, estudar os efeitos de diferentes solucoes nutritivas aplicadas em duas vazoes na producao hidroponica da alface (Lactuca sativa), cultivada pelo sistema NFT (Nutritive Film Technique). O experimento foi conduzido em casa de vegetacao, na unidade de pesquisa em agricultura irrigada da Universidade Estadual de Maringa. Os tratamentos constaram de tres solucoes nutritivas com concentracoes diferentes (S1=0,8 dS/m, S2=1,2 dS/m e S3=2,5 dS/m), combinadas com duas vazoes de aplicacao (V1=0,8 L.min-1 e V2=1,2 L.min-1 ) nos canais de cultivo em esquema fatorial 3 x 2. Para avaliar o efeito dos tratamentos no desenvolvimento da cultura os dados foram submetidos a analise de variância (teste F), e os resultados avaliados atraves de teste de media de Tukey (5%). A analise dos resultados permitiu concluir que os fatores solucao e vazao nao apresentaram interacao significativa e que os maiores valores avaliados de biomassa fresca e diâmetro do caule foram obtidos no tratamento solucao 2 (CE= 1,2 dS/m).
Ethanol withdrawal induces hyperalgesia mediated by PKCε

Symptoms of ethanol withdrawal include heightened responses to sensory stimuli, as well as tremors and convulsions. We tested the hypothesis that repeated episodes of ethanol intake and withdrawal exacerbate the symptoms of alcohol‐induced peripheral neuropathy. In contrast to the hyperalgesia produced when an alcohol (6.5%)‐containing diet was fed continuously to male rats which took 4 weeks to develop ( Dina et al., 2000 ), feeding alcohol (6.5%) in repeated cycles of 4 days of alcohol followed by 3 days without alcohol resulted in a withdrawal‐induced hyperalgesia that began at the end of one weekly cycle and reached a maximum during the fourth cycle. For ethanol withdrawal to produce hyperalgesia, ethanol consumption needed to be terminated for a period of 2 days. Paradoxically, as the amount of alcohol consumed decreased, the hyperalgesia induced by withdrawal developed more rapidly, being maximal between 1.4 and 1.6% ethanol. These results suggest that continued exposure to ethanol also has a neuroprotective effect. Withdrawal‐induced hyperalgesia, similar to the hyperalgesia induced by continuous, chronic alcohol intake, was inhibited reversibly by intrathecal administration of an antisense oligodeoxynucleotide to protein kinase C (PKC)ε.
The effects of familiarity on competitive interactions between threespined sticklebacks

In this study, pairs of juvenile sticklebacks either familiar with each other or pairs unfamiliar with each other met to share a food source. The study showed that sticklebacks were less aggressive towards a partner when sharing a common food source with a familiar conspecific, compared to when sharing a food source with an unfamiliar conspecific. The results showed that the aggressive behaviour was built up and broken down gradually depending on how long the two competitors had been together or apart. A decrease in aggressiveness was found after the sticklebacks had been together two weeks, with a further decrease after four weeks together. Conversely there was an increase in aggressiveness after the sticklebacks had been parted for two weeks or four weeks. The chance of food being equally distributed between the competing pairs increased with time spent together and decreased with time parted. The observed decrease or increase in the amount of aggression is discussed as a build-up or a breakdown of rank knowledge or of a co-operative partnership.
Using nonlinear mixed effects models to estimate size-age relationships for black bears

Sizeage relationships for three physical characteristics, body length, zygomatic width, and pad width, weremodeled for black bears (Ursus americanus) captured in northeastern Minnesota, U.S.A. Because the curves representingsizeage relationships were nonlinear, and because some of the data consist of repeated, longitudinal observations for multiplebears, nonlinear mixed effects model analyses were required. The results are presented as parameter estimates with standarderrors and estimated population curves with 95% confidence intervals. Variance estimates obtained using mixed-effects modelsare compared with erroneous estimates obtained using ordinary least-squares techniques. Comparisons are made between maleand female Minnesota bears with respect to parameter estimates and estimated population curves. In addition, the results forMinnesota bears are compared with results from similar studies on bears in other regions.
Electoral inequity

Ideally, a representative democracy awards a genuine vote to each adult. We study this issue in competitive democracies with an election model combining district apportionment and proportional representation. Four classic seat allocation rules, including d’Hondt, are reframed as Dutch auctions, allowing important properties to be easily derived. The pros and cons of these methods are stated in terms of economic inequality; Sainte Laguë’s is shown to best carry the genuine vote ideal, both for elections and for apportionment. We next expound the interplay between these two components in generating an inequitable treatment of voters and develop the scale-free index of inequity best fitted to their concern. We apply it to 40 countries for the apportionment of electoral districts. Lastly, we compute the same inequity index for recent parliamentary elections in 80 countries, finding that the majority system mistreats electors, thus putting a ‘price’ on government stability.
Ecology and thermal tolerance of the marine tardigrade Halobiotus crispae (Eutardigrada: Isohypsibiidae)

Abstract Tardigrades form an important component of meiofaunal communities across the globe. However, our knowledge on tardigrade ecology is very limited. Here, we report the results of 21 field samplings of the marine tardigrade Halobiotus crispae collected over a period of 74 months at the locality of Vellerup Vig, Denmark, with the aim of providing novel insights into its ecology. Uniquely, H. crispae is characterized by the presence of seasonal cyclic changes in the phenotype of the animal, i.e. cyclomorphosis. Our sampling data include (i) total number of animals extracted, (ii) dominant cyclomorphic stage found, and (iii) important environmental parameters such as temperature, salinity and pH. Our accumulated data constitute a tentative model for the annual fluctuations in animal density, which reveals an annual peak in abundance during the months of February and March. In contrast, tardigrade density appears to decrease in response to increasing temperatures during late spring/early summer. The thermal tolerance of H. crispae was therefore investigated experimentally for the pseudosimplex 2 stage, active stage and pseudosimplex 1 stage, revealing LTmin values of 24.6°C, 14.2°C and 24.7°C, LT50 values of 30.6°C, 29.6°C and 30.8°C, and LTmax values of 35°C, 35.8°C and 35°C, respectively. In general, our thermal tolerance data reveal that (i) the entry into the pseudosimplex 1 stage represents an adaptive strategy that enables the survival of the Vellerup Vig population during periods of heat stress, and (ii) temperature is an important factor in limiting the geographic distribution of H. crispae.
The Performance of Monetary and Fiscal Rules in an Open Economy with Imperfect Capital Mobility

This paper studies monetary and fiscal policy rules, and investigates the characteristics of optimal policies. The central focus of the paper is on the comparison of two types of fiscal rules: a balanced budget and a target for the primary surplus. Balanced budget rules (or, more generally, numeric ceilings to the overall budget deficit) are criticized because they may dictate higher taxes in periods of weak economic activity. The primary surplus rule, in contrast, has a less pro-cyclical nature, given that it does not require higher fiscal austerity in periods when the cost of servicing public debt is higher. In a nutshell, it allows a higher degree of tax smoothing. It is not clear, however, if (inevitable) fiscal adjustments should be postponed. These issues are investigated in the context of a dynamic stochastic general equilibrium model that describes an open economy, with capital accumulation, and where nominal rigidities are present. The model shows that previous findings drawn from open economy models - in particular with respect to the characteristics of optimal monetary policy - do not hold once the implications of certain fiscal regimes are taken into account, and once different scenarios concerning the degree of capital mobility are considered. The model is calibrated and simulated for the case of Brazil, a country that since 1999 has targets for inflation and for the primary surplus. The main finding is that a fiscal regime characterized by a target for the primary surplus delivers superior economic performance, a property captured by the shape of the efficient policy frontier.
Do Takeover Threats Suppress Corporate Willingness to Invest? Evidence from State Antitakeover Legislations

We use a revealed-preference approach to assess the impact of the exogenous relief in takeover threats, proxied by the staggered passages of state antitakeover laws, on corporate willingness to invest. By estimating an augmented investment Euler equation, we find that firms, particularly those are small, belonging in competitive industries, and bearing severe agency problems, apply lower discount rates to their investments after the legislations. The results hold up to addressing several legal and institutional aspects of the legislations. Using high-order moment estimators, we find that the investment-q sensitivities of affected firms, especially of those experiencing sharper discount rate declines, increase after the passage of the laws. Our results suggest that takeover pressure suppresses corporate desire to invest.
Robust Portfolio Choice with Derivatives Trading Under Stochastic Volatility

The problem of optimal portfolio choice is solved, in closed form, for an ambiguity averse investor who has access to stock and derivatives markets. The investor can have different levels of uncertainty about models for stock return and its stochastic volatility. Although both types of ambiguity considerably impact the optimal portfolio, we show that stock return ambiguity is more significant for stock allocation whereas volatility uncertainty has larger influence on derivatives trading. As expected, investors with no access to derivatives would not have additional losses from ignoring volatility uncertainty. Access to derivatives market substantially improves portfolio performance and increases welfare loss from neglecting either type of ambiguity. Interestingly, the loss from ignoring ambiguity could be as much as the loss from not trading the derivatives.
Reproductive potential and cycles in female Crotalus atrox from Northwestern Texas.

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Cyclical Consumption and Expected Returns: New Evidence - How Long Does it Take to Form the Habit in Habit Model?

Atanasov, Møller, and Priestley (2019) find that cyclical consumption at 5-7 year frequency can predict (excess) returns at market level and they argue that low-frequency fluctuations in consumption capture slow-moving counter-cyclical variations in expected returns. Based on cross-sectional evidence, I find that their results are mainly driven by the large-capitalization stocks and cannot be extended to other sorted portfolios. Meanwhile, all firms' returns can be predicted by cyclical consumption at 1-2 year frequency and it suggests cyclical consumption may capture the risk premia at shorter business cycle frequency. I also find cyclical consumption growth is persistent and the persistence increases with time horizon and the future dividend-price ratio can be predicted by cyclical consumption. To rationalize the stylized facts, I modify the Campbell-Cochrane habit model by allowing persistent consumption growth and finite-horizon habit formation. The modified model can reproduce the inverse relation between cyclical consumption and future expected stock returns, consistent with empirical findings.