Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Firm Leverage Policy Decisions: Does Consumer Behaviour Explain Sectoral-Level Corporate Debt Policy in the U.S?

This paper investigates the impact of consumer sentiment on firms’ debt policy decisions and identifies the channels through which consumer sentiment impacts the corporate debt policy of U.S. firms at the sectoral level. Using the panel frameworks, the overall findings suggest a clear link between consumer sentiment which reflects personal financial conditions, business conditions and buying conditions for major ticket items and the choice of debt financing after controlling for firms specific factors and macroeconomic factors. The results also show that the effects of consumer sentiment on firms leverage policy are primary conditioning factors, due to the interaction between optimism about economic outlook reflected in consumer sentiment index and firm profitability. Given no direct link between consumer sentiment and firm leverage policy, we also search for a link via the consumption channel. I find that consumer sentiment positively affects personal consumption expenditures, confirming a link between consumer sentiment and corporate debt policy. Further the results from quantile regressions highlight how the leverage distribution is differentially affected by changes in both consumer sentiment and other control variables. In particular, firms in lower leverage quantiles appear to increase leverage as consumer optimism increases, to reap tax shield benefits. Further, the findings are robust to different time horizons for the pre- and post-crisis periods and consistent across alternative measures of sentiment and debt policy.
The Role of the Book-to-Price Effect in Predicting Stock Returns: International Evidence

Recent literature show that leverage has a negative effect on stock returns, which is contradicting with influential finance theories and models. Based on the time-period 1966-2015, the five-factor model and an international dataset, this thesis sets the focus on the question what kind of effect leverage has on stock returns when the B/P factor is decomposed into two components: an operating business risk component, defined as the enterprise B/P and reflecting asset risk, and a financing risk component defined as ND/P and reflecting risk caused by leverage. Investigation was done by performing 15 regressions based on the Fama-Macbeth (1973) procedure, with some of these 15 models also taking into account the twofold leverage effect. Although standard finance theories state that operating risk should be rewarded by higher stock returns, the results in this thesis indicate that the operating business risk component, enterprise B/P, has a statistically significant negative effect on stock returns. However, the operating covariance risk premium, another (additional) measurement of operating risk, seems to have a statistically significant positive relationship with stock returns. This not only raises the question whether the enterprise B/P is an inaccurate measurement of operating risk due to probably failing to proxy for only operating risk, but this also creates a new puzzle to examine. The results of this thesis also show that the financing risk component has a statistically significant negative effect on stock returns, confirming the findings of recent literature. Moreover, when financial leverage gets to only purely account for only interest expenses of debt, the relationship between leverage and stock returns does not alter. Finally, this thesis shed light on the effectiveness of these factor models by using the GRS-test. It came to light that none of the factor models passes the GRS-test due to the fact that, for each factor model, all pricing errors are jointly statistically significant different from zero, implying that these 15 factor models are not as effective as wanted.
Testing and Explaining Economic Resilience with an Application to Italian Regions

This paper proposes a formal testing procedure for distinguishing between engineering and ecological resilience, by fully exploiting the properties of the non-linear smooth-transition autoregressive (STAR) model. A two-steps’ empirical strategy is adopted for measuring, comparing and explaining the ecological resilience of regional economies to aggregate business cycle’s variations in a multi-regime environment. The relevance of evolutionary patterns for analysing regional resilience is deeply discussed. The empirical investigation is conducted for the Italian case, by looking at the dynamic of regional employment growth over the period 1992-2012. Differences in regional resilience among Italian regions are explained by the concentration of manufacturing activities, highly productive regional exports, financial constraints, human and social capital. Some concluding suggestions introduce possible future areas of research in line with the more recent literature on this topic.
How Good Is the Samaritan, and Why? An Experimental Investigation of the Extent and Nature of Religious Prosociality Using Economic Games

What is the extent and nature of religious prosociality? If religious prosociality exists, is it parochial and extended selectively to co-religionists, or is it generalized regardless of the recipient? Further, is it driven by preferences to help others or by expectations of reciprocity? We examined how much of a $0.30 bonus Mechanical Turk workers would share with the other player whose religion was prominently displayed during two online resource allocation games. In one game (but not the other), the recipient could choose to reciprocate. Results from both games showed that the more central religion was in participants’ lives, the more of the bonus they shared, regardless of whether they were giving to atheists or Christians. Furthermore, this effect was most clearly related to self-reported frequency of “thinking about religious ideas�? , rather than belief in God or religious practice/experience. Our findings provide evidence of generalized religious prosociality and illuminate its basis.
Quantifying the Maximum Worth of Portfolio Management in a Multi-Period Setting

In this paper we present an approach to quantify the maximum worth of active portfolio management in a multi-period setting. This methodology estimates a hindsight upper bound on active management fees. The methodology is demonstrated in an empirical study for the Energy industry. In this study the BHCM derivative instrument considerably outperforms all other investment opportunities considered, net of management fees. The dominance of the BHCM derivative, net of management fees, is potentially sufficient to offset other investment and trading expenses. This suggests that the BHCM derivative could in fact be the optimal choice for the investor, rather than standard active or passive funds.
Work in Deregulated Labour Markets: A Research Agenda for Precariousness

This Working Paper tackles two questions: what counts as work within a deregulated labour market; and what are the implications for the study of precariousness? The paper addresses the traditional dichotomy between paid and unpaid work which obscures how unpaid activities often undercut paid employment. In this light, it suggests a new way of understanding precariousness which can help trade unions to understand it and tackle its increasingly prevalence.
Optimal Insurance for Prudent Risk Averters and Risk Lovers

This paper examines the structure of optimal insurance contracts for a broad class of insureds that includes both risk averters and risk lovers and by assuming that the insureds are prudent. We specify the difference in optimal contract form between risk averters and risk lovers. Treating these decision-makers as a unique group, we show that the optimal insurance form is dual limited stop-loss insurance with an upper limit, which implies that including risk lovers in the group of decision-makers changes the contract in the small loss part. We also consider the situation of contracts with a concave payoff, where the optimal contract form becomes limited change-loss insurance or limited dual change-loss insurance depending on the coefficient of variation of the retained loss. Finally, we derive the form of optimal contracts in the presence of a background risk.
Evidence on the Relationship between Recruiting and the Starting Wage

Using data from the Employment Opportunity Pilot Project, we examine the relationship between the starting wage paid to the worker filling a vacancy, the number of applications attracted by the vacancy, the number of candidates interviewed for the vacancy, and the duration of the vacancy. We find that the wage is positively related to the duration of a vacancy and negatively related to the number of applications and interviews per week. We show that these surprising findings are consistent with a view of the labor market in which firms post wages and workers direct their search based on these wages if workers and jobs are heterogeneous and the interaction between the worker's type and the job's type in production satisfies some rather natural assumptions.
Why Member Firms Hold More Cash When They Have Access to the Business Group’s Finance Company? Empirical Evidence of Tunneling from China

In China, firms within a business group may be able to access funds provided by a parent-owned finance company within the business group. We provide direct evidence of ‘tunneling’: where the parent of the business group requires member firms to increase their cash holdings through deposits in the group’s finance company and invest the collected deposits in the interbank market or other financial institutions, instead of lending to business group members. The parent of the business group reaps most, if not all, the profits from the finance company, at the expense of member firms’ increased holding in cash. We use the Shenzhen 2007 Anti-tunneling Guidance as the exogenous shock to identify the main results. Our results cannot be explained by the alternative hypotheses that member firms hold more cash holdings as a result of reduced bank monitoring or the parent’s incentive to reallocate capital more efficiently.
Corporate Governance Myths: Comments on Armstrong, Guay, and Weber

This paper argues that academics, politicians, and the media have six commonly held but misguided beliefs about corporate governance. While Armstrong, Guay, and Weber (2010) discuss some of these misconceptions, a wider recognition that these beliefs are actually “myths” is important. They include: (1) a common definition of “corporate governance” exists; (2) a useful distinction is “internal” versus “external” governance mechanisms; (3) outside directors perform two separable roles: to advise and monitor managers; (4) research has identified “good” and “bad” governance practices; (5) a “good” governance index can be constructed; and (6) corporate governance “best practices” can be deduced from peer data.
Variability in roost size in an Amazona parrot: implications for roost monitoring

Abstract Roost counts may be a useful method for assessing and monitoring parrot populations as long as counting regimes can detect real differences in abundance above the noise of daily variability in roost size. We studied a roost of up to 85 Red-tailed Amazons (Amazona brasiliensis) for 28 consecutive mornings and evenings from 12 July to 7 August 2001, and recorded bird behavior and associated weather data. The roost declined significantly over the survey period as the breeding season drew nearer. There was no significant difference between evening and morning roost counts, but we suggest that as long as misty mornings are avoided, morning roost counts were more effective as birds left more quickly and predictably. It took longer for birds to arrive on evenings when the roost was large, but birds left quicker in the morning when there were large numbers in the roost. Weather influenced both roost size and timing of arrival, with larger than expected numbers in the roost, and birds arriving later in the afternoons of sunny, warm days. We tested the reliability of four roost counting regimes: counts from five consecutive nights, five counts, one every fourth night, five nights picked at random, and 10 randomly picked nights. Counts from every fourth day performed significantly worse than all the other regimes in estimating the mean numbers in the roost. The 10-d random sampling regime performed significantly better than the 5-d regime in detecting very large roosts which occurred occasionally through the month.
Substock variation in reproductive traits in North Sea cod (Gadus morhua)

The North Sea stock of Atlantic cod (Gadus morhua) is comprised of a number of subcomponents that differ both genetically and phenotypically. A potential cause for such spatial variability is adaptive divergence, which may be linked to differences in thermal environment and (or) historical fishing pressure. Here we present evidence that spatial variation in maturity–size relationships in the wild has a significant intrinsic component. Using a common-environment experiment on wild-caught juveniles raised through to maturity, we demonstrate that cod from the southern North Sea (SNS) mature at larger sizes than those from the northwestern North Sea (NWNS) despite broadly similar growth rates. Consistent with these experimental results, year-class-specific maturity ogives for recent maturing year classes (1999–2001) suggested that the length at which 50% of females reached maturity was 11 cm greater for SNS than for NWNS cod. Under a common environment, smaller female size at maturity partly reflected higher .
A New Species of Monellia Oestlund, with a Synopsis of the Aphids Attacking Hickory and Walnut in Canada

The walnut and hickory aphids comprise the genera Chromnaphis Walker, Monellia Oestlund and a somewhat aberrant species of Myzocallis Passerini. Chromaphis contains a single species that occurs widely on walnut in Europe and North America. Monellia is larger, is restricted to North-America, and has been recorded from both walnut and hickory. Four species of Monellia occur in Canada, one of which is herein described as new.
Effect of Incorporation of Chicken Fat and Skin on the Quality of Chicken Sausages

In order to produce a new dimension towards the development of comminuted meat product, chicken fat and skin (CFS) were used with chicken meat and incorporated at 15, 20 and 25 percent levels to chicken sausage. To substantiate the product qualities obtained after such incorporations, different quality parameters like physico-chemical properties, proximate composition, thiobarbiturate acid (TBA) value, microbial profile and organoleptic qualities from those sausage after cooking were evaluated. It was found that with the increase in amount of added CFS, emulsion stability (ES), emulsifying capacity (EC) of sausage emulsion decreased significantly (P<0.05) whereas the extract release volume (ERV), cooking losses increased significantly (P<0.05) with increase in CFS level. There were no significant differences in terms of microbial profile and there was a significant (P<0.05) difference in some organoleptic qualities like juiciness and overall acceptability. However, from the point of view of overall acceptability of sausage having 20% added skin and fat scored better and incorporation upto 20% is advocated to make maximum profit from such sausages in commercial practices.
Evaluation of flooding tolerance in cuttings of Populus clones used for forestation at the Paraná River Delta, Argentina

We analysed the responses to flooding of 14 poplar clones used for forestation at the Paraná River Delta, Argentina. Some are commercial clones planted in the area, and others belong to a poplar breeding program from the National Institute of Agricultural Technology (INTA) in Argentina. Potted plants of 60 cm high growing in a greenhouse were watered (control) or submerged in water 10 cm above soil level (flooding treatment) for 35 d. Flooding reduced growth in height and diameter (combined as the volume index), total leaf area, photosynthesis (measured as electron transport rate) and stomatal conductance. In flooded plants, the number and area of newly formed leaves were also reduced. In some clones, flooding accelerated the senescence of basal leaves and induced the development of adventitious roots. A hierarchical cluster analysis was performed to classify the responses of the clones to flooding. Evaluating flooding tolerance as less reduction in growth and retention of a higher leaf area under flooding conditions, three groups with different degrees of flooding tolerance were identified: clone Alton was the most tolerant; clones A129-60, A106-60, SIA 22-85, Catfish 2 and 150-82 showed intermediate tolerance; and the remainder of the clones had low flooding tolerance. This information will be useful to recommend clones to be planted in flood-prone areas, and to select parents to be used in breeding programs.
Muscle degeneration associated with cotton shrimp disease of Penaeus indicus

Microsporidian disease of prawns has generally been recognized by the progressive white opacity associated with the musculature. Such microsporidian-infected prawns are known as ‘cotton shrimp’, ‘milky white’ or ‘chalky white’ prawns. Microsporidians have been reported from prawns of several genera, notably Penaeus, Pandalus and Crangon ( Sprague & Couch 1971; Newman, Johnson & Pauley 1976). These diseases are highly pathogenic and cause epizootics in feral crustacean populations ( Iverson & Manning 1959; Overstreet 1973; Lightner, Fontaine & Hanks 1975; Sindermann 1990).
Distribution Patterns of Birds and Insect Prey in a Tropical Riparian Forest

Spatial subsidies of energy and nutrients can influence the distribution of consumers in riparian habitats. This study compared the abundance and composition of bird assemblages and the availability of volant insect prey within the riparian zone (≤ 30 m from the stream) and further inland (100–250 m away) within a secondary forest in monsoonal Hong Kong. Replicated point‐counts of birds and insect light trapping were conducted in each zone during the wet and dry season of 2006–2007. The biomass of adult aquatic insects in the riparian zone was nine to 12 times higher than inland during both seasons, however, total insect biomass (aquatic plus terrestrial insects) in the riparian zone was only 49 percent (wet season) and 18 percent (dry season) greater. More birds (both numbers of individuals and species) were recorded in the riparian zone, and this difference was particularly conspicuous during the wet season. Most of the wet‐season difference was due to the greater number of insectivorous birds in the riparian zone (123% greater than inland), and may have reflected the relative availability of adult aquatic insects. These findings confirm the importance of riparian zones as feeding habitats for forest birds, and have implications for conservation planning and setting the boundaries of protected areas.
Influence of Vesicular Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi and Applied Phosphorus on Root Colonization in Wheat and Plant Nutrient Dynamics in a Phosphorus-Deficient Acid Alfisol of Western Himalayas

Vesicular arbuscular mycorrhizal (VAM) fungi symbiosis confers benefits directly to the host plant's growth and yield through acquisition of phosphorus and other macro- and micronutrients, especially from phosphorus (P)–deficient acidic soils. The inoculation of three VAM cultures [viz., local culture (Glomus mosseae), VAM culture from Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI), New Delhi (Glomus mosseae), and a culture from the Centre for Mycorrhizal Research, Energy Research Institute (TERI), New Delhi (Glomus intraradices)] along with P fertilization in wheat in a P-deficient acidic alfisol improved the root colonization by 16–24% while grain and straw yields increased by 12.6–15.7% and 13.4–15.4%, respectively, over the control. Uptake of nitrogen (N), P, potassium (K), iron (Fe), manganese (Mn), zinc (Zn), and copper (Cu) was also improved with VAM inoculation over control, but the magnitude of uptake was significantly greater only in the cases of P, Fe, Zn, and Cu. Inoculation of wheat with three VAM cultures in combination with increasing inorganic P application from 50% to 75% of the recommended P2O5 dose to wheat through the targeted yield concept following the soil-test crop response (STCR) precision model resulted in consistent and significant improvement in grain and straw yield, macronutrient (NPK) uptake, and micronutrient (Fe, Mn, Zn, Cu) uptake in wheat though root colonization did not improve at P2O5 doses beyond 50% of the recommended dose. The VAM cultures alone or in combination with increasing P levels from 50% to 75% P2O5 dose resulted in reduction of diethylenetriaminepentaacetic acid (DTPA)–extractable micronutrient (Fe, Mn, Zn, Cu) contents in P-deficient acidic soil over the control and initial fertility status, although micronutrient contents were relatively greater in VAM-supplied plots alone or in combination with 50% to 75% P2O5 dose over sole application of 100% P2O5 dose, thereby indicating the positive role of VAM in nutrient mobilization and nutrient dynamics in the soil–plant system. There was significant improvement in available N and P status in soil with VAM inoculation coupled with increasing P levels upto 75% P2O5 dose, although the greatest P buildup was obtained with sole application of 100% P2O5 dose. The TERI VAM culture (Glomus intraradices) showed its superiority over the other two cultures (Glomus mosseae) in terms of crop yield and nutrient uptake in wheat though the differences were nonsignificant among the VAM cultures alone or at each P level. Overall, it was inferred that use of VA-mycorrhizal fungi is beneficial under low soil P or in low input (nutrient)–intensive agroecosystems.
Skipping-type migration in a small Arctic wader, the Temminck ' s stint Calidris temminckii

By using morphometric data and geolocator tracking we investigated fuel loads and spatio-temporal patterns of migration and non-breeding in Temminck ’ s stints Calidris temminckii . Body masses in stints captured at autumn stopover sites from Scandinavia to northern Africa were generally not much higher than during breeding and did not vary geographically. Th us, we expected migrating stints to make several stopovers and either circumventing the Sahara desert with low fuel loads or fuelling at north African stopover sites before desert crossing. Geolocation revealed that birds (n 6) departed their Norwegian breeding site in the last part of July and all but one migrated south-west over continental western Europe. A single bird headed south-east to the Balkan Peninsula where the geolocator died. As predicted, southbound migration proceeded in a typical skipping manner with 1 – 4 relatively short stopovers (median 4 d) during 10 – 27 d of migration before reaching north-west Africa. Here birds spent 11 – 20 d before crossing the Sahara. Th e non-breeding sites were located at or near the Niger River in Mali and were occupied continuously for more than 215 d with no indications of itinerancy. Spring migration commenced in late April/early May when birds crossed the desert and used stopover sites in the western Mediterranean basin in a similar manner as during autumn. Th e lowest body masses were recorded in spring at islands in the central Mediterranean basin, indicating that crossing the Sahara and Mediterranean barriers is exhausting to these birds. Hence, the skipping-type pattern of migration revealed by geolocators is likely to be natural in this species and not an eff ect of instrumentation.