Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Responses of Stream Periphyton and Benthic Insects to Increases in Dissolved Inorganic Phosphorus in a Mesocosm

Responses of stream periphytic algae and benthic insects to increases in dissolved inorganic phosphorus (P) were assessed in a streamside mesocosm. Controls and treatments were colonized continuously in summer by biota from the stream. P was maintained in the treatments at 10 μg∙L−1, times the concentration in the controls. In the treatments the biomass of chlorophyll a reached 3.5 times that of the controls, accompanied by an increase in Cyanophyta relative to diatoms. No difference was detectable in the numbers of insects drifting from controls and treatments. Numbers of individuals emerging (> 40 species) from the treatments over 7 wk were 2.2 times those from the controls. In both controls and treatments, 77% or more of emerging insects were Chironomidae. After week 7 the density of benthic insects in the treatments, determined without size selection, was 1.75 times that of the controls; size distributions in treatments and controls were similar. Addition of P, therefore, increased the food of insects.
Determinants of the Successful Provision of Threshold Public Goods with Refund and Threshold Uncertainty

We simplify a threshold public goods game to a 2x2-game in order to generate an estimate for the probability of successful provision (success rate). This estimate relies on the calculation of "belief bounds", i.e., points of indifference between two focal contribution strategies. Our analysis reveals the effect (or lack thereof) of core game elements on the success rate. The success rate increases with the step return (i.e., the benefit-cost ratio) and decreases with the number of players, but is unaffected by the players' endowment. Our model also demonstrates that the refund rate, referring to the percentage of contribution costs that is returned if the provision fails, has a positive effect on success rates. As an application, we estimate success rates for a randomly distributed threshold value. We examine uniform and logistic probability distributions and show that increasing threshold uncertainty is not necessarily detrimental to public good provision if the benefit-cost ratio is high.
A Model of Industry Tournament Incentives

This paper builds on Rosen (1981) and Hvide (2002) to provide a simple framework that elucidates the nature of incentives in the tournaments among top executives in both the external managerial labor market for the top executive positions in other companies and within the executives’ own firm for the top internal position. In doing so, the model provides a formal foundation for the empirical evidence in Kale Reis, and Venkataswaran (2009), Kini and Williams (2012), and Coles, Li, and Wang (2018, 2017) and is suggestive of the nature of tournament incentives among mutual fund managers (Brown, Harlow, and Starks, 1996).
Governing Adaptation and Coordination: A Generalization of Multi-agent Delegation

This paper investigates the optimal delegation mechanism in a two-division organization. The uninformed principal wants decisions to be both adapted to local conditions and coordinated with each other, while the privately informed agents only care about adaptation. We explicitly characterize the essentially unique optimal delegation mechanism with a weak continuity restriction in this framework. An agent’s decision in the optimal mechanism falls into three cases: i) full adaptation; ii) state-dependent unilateral coordination; and iii) state-independent joint coordination. This special structure makes the optimal mechanism group strategyproof, and allows us to conduct multiple comparative static analyses with respect to delegated discretion.
Latitudinal limits of coral reef growth

In the Abrolhos Islands, site of a high-latitude coral reef, the net rate of community calcification is high but growth of frame-building corals is reduced. Our studles suggest that the latitudinal limits of coral reef development are often set by competition of macroalgae with corals, and that macroalgae are favoured at these latitudes by high nutrient concentrations, moderate water temperatures (for macroalgae) and possibly by reduced grazing pressure, while coral growth is reduced by temperatures which, for reef corals, are low.
Utility Based Model Selection and Model Averaging

This paper presents a novel approach to model selection and model averaging based on economic theory. We study model prediction in the form of a distributional opinion about a random variable X. We show how to test this prediction against alternative views. Different model opinions can be traded on a hypothetical market that trades their differences. Using a utility maximization technique, we describe such a market for any general random variable X and any utility function U. We specify the optimal behavior of agents and the total market that aggregates all available opinions and show that a correct distributional opinion realizes profit in expectation against any other opinion, giving a novel technique for model selection. Analytical solutions are available for random variables from the exponential family. We determine the distribution corresponding to the aggregated view of all available opinions, giving a novel technique for model averaging.
Practicability of A West African Monetary Zone: A Conceptual Exploit

What are the necessary and sufficient conditions for meeting the convergence criteria and thereafter, for the formation of the West African Monetary Zone (WAMZ), a counterpart of the European Monetary Union (EMU)? Against this background, the paper examines the practicability of achieving or otherwise the West African Monetary Zone which aims at the rapid integration of the six West African economies of The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria and Sierra Leone. The paper employs the content analysis approach for this examination and discovered that drawing its experience from EMU, WAMZ has not been able to realize the objective of fostering rapid integration of the six economies of West African countries into a monetary union because of weak macroeconomic policy coordination within the ECOWAS sub-region, trade barriers, unstable exchange rate, and money and capital flow contracts limited formal intra-regional trade. In this regard, the paper argues that unless the fundamentals and the convergence of core macroeconomic instruments of fiscal, monetary and exchange rate policies are attained, improved upon and ensured by the integrating sub-countries, the achievement of a common monetary and economic union for the West African States may be elusive. This paper recommends the strengthening the fiscal, monetary and exchange rate policies performances by all the integrating WAMZ countries, and enforcement of the various regional agreements such as the ECOWAS trade liberalization scheme.
Corporate Governance and Firm Performance

We create a broad measure of corporate governance, Gov-Score, based on a new dataset provided by Institutional Shareholder Services. Gov-Score is a composite measure of 51 factors encompassing eight corporate governance categories: audit, board of directors, charter/bylaws, director education, executive and director compensation, ownership, progressive practices, and state of incorporation. We relate Gov-Score to operating performance, valuation, and shareholder payout for 2,327 firms, and we find that better-governed firms are relatively more profitable, more valuable, and pay out more cash to their shareholders. We examine which of the eight categories underlying Gov-Score are most highly associated with firm performance. We show that good governance, as measured using executive and director compensation, is most highly associated with good performance. In contrast, we show that good governance as measured using charter/bylaws is most highly associated with bad performance. We examine which of the 51 factors underlying Gov-Score are most highly associated with firm performance. Some factors representing good governance that are associated with good performance have seldom been examined before (e.g., governance committee meets annually, independence of nominating committee). In contrast, some factors representing good governance that are associated with bad performance have often been examined before (e.g., consulting fees less than audit fees paid to auditors, absence of a staggered board, absence of a poison pill). Gompers, Ishii and Metrick (2003) created G-Index, an oft-used summary measure of corporate governance. G-Index is based on 24 governance factors provided by Investor Responsibility Research Center. These factors are concentrated mostly in one ISS category, charter/bylaws, which we show is less highly associated with good performance than are any of the other seven categories we examine. We document that Gov-Score is better linked to firm performance than is G-Index.
Narrative Economics

This address considers the epidemiology of narratives relevant to economic fluctuations. The human brain has always been highly tuned towards narratives, whether factual or not, to justify ongoing actions, even such basic actions as spending and investing. Stories motivate and connect activities to deeply felt values and needs. Narratives “go viral” and spread far, even worldwide, with economic impact. The 1920-21 Depression, the Great Depression of the 1930s, the so-called “Great Recession” of 2007-9 and the contentious political-economic situation of today, are considered as the results of the popular narratives of their respective times. Though these narratives are deeply human phenomena that are difficult to study in a scientific manner, quantitative analysis may help us gain a better understanding of these epidemics in the future.
Money

This paper advances three fundamental propositions regarding money: (1) As R. W. Clower (1965) famously put it, money buys goods and goods buy money, but goods do not buy goods. (2) Money is always debt; it cannot be a commodity from the first proposition because, if it were, that would mean that a particular good is buying goods. (3) Default on debt is possible. These three propositions are used to build a theory of money that is linked to common themes in the heterodox literature on money. The approach taken here is integrated with Hyman Minsky’s (1986) work (which relies heavily on the work of his dissertation adviser, Joseph Schumpeter [1934]); the endogenous money approach of Basil Moore; the French-Italian circuit approach; Paul Davidson’s (1978) interpretation of John Maynard Keynes, which relies on uncertainty; Wynne Godley’s approach, which relies on accounting identities; the “K” distribution theory of Keynes, Michal Kalecki, Nicholas Kaldor, and Kenneth Boulding; the sociological approach of Ingham; and the chartalist, or state money, approach (A. M. Innes, G. F. Knapp, and Charles Goodhart). Hence, this paper takes a somewhat different route to develop the more typical heterodox conclusions about money.
Lender Forbearance

Abstract We use a threshold-based design to study ex post discretion in lenders’ contractual enforcement of covenant violations. At preset thresholds, lenders enforce contractual breaches only infrequently, but this enforcement is associated with material consequences (e.g., fees and renegotiations). Enforcement varies significantly over time and peaks when credit conditions are tightest, indicating that enforcement is procyclical. Costly coordination reduces enforcement: Syndicates with ex ante restrictive voting requirements enforce at lower rates. Consistent with theories of lender competition and implicit contracting, enforcement rates are lower for borrowers with access to alternative sources of financing and well-reputed lead arrangers.
Flows and Performance with Optimal Money Management Contracts

Previous literature documents a convex flow-performance relationship in equity mutual funds. I show this pattern is consistent with a dynamic contracting model with learning about the fund manager's skill. The model provides novel empirical predictions. First, flows become more sensitive to current performance after a history of good past performance. Second, the history-dependence of the flow-performance relationship is weaker for managers with longer tenure. The model also explains common compensation practices in the industry, such as convex pay-for-performance schemes and deferred compensation. Methodologically, I provide a duality-based strategy to overcome the technical challenges of continuous-time contracting models with state variables.
Covered Interest Parity in Cross-Currency Swap Bases and Demand for US Treasuries

This paper studies the dynamic relationship between demand for the US Treasury yields and cross-currency swap (CCS) bases since the 2008 global financial crisis. Using a three-factor non-Gaussian-term structure model for the US Treasuries, an estimated short-rate premium in the yield curve tends to move in tandem with and lead the euro and Japanese yen CCS bases against the US dollar. The dynamics between the premium and CCS bases are found to be co-integrated, suggesting a long-run equilibrium between them. Empirically, the premium is found to be positively related to demand for Treasuries. This is consistent with recent studies in which factors including the strength of the US dollar, the demand for dollar funding and banks’ balance-sheet structures play important roles in determining the CCS bases. These factors increase demand for US Treasuries (high-quality US dollar assets) by investors searching for safe dollar assets and banks with higher leverages due to increased demand for dollar funding. The findings in this paper contribute to explaining the widespread failure of covered interest parity in foreign exchange swap markets.
A Cross-sectional Theory of Price of Risk (and Risk) Proxies

This paper theoretically reconciliates the several types of value premiums observed in cross-section with the use of aggregate scaled-price ratios - including "value spreads" - as price of risk proxies in time series. Prices in scaled-price ratios reflect risk premiums (and the price of risk), while the scaling variables control for expected cash flows. They differ from risk proxies (without a price component) that only predict returns in cross-section. The ratios between each proxy's risk premium in cross section and the proxy's standard deviation in time series rank the proxies based on their theoretical correlations with the price of risk.
Does Task Environment Moderate Organizational Performance? Evidence From the Nigerian Manufacturing Industry

This study empirically evaluates the moderating effect of task environment on the organizational performance of manufacturing firms in Nigeria. The study ascertains the extent of relationship between the bargaining power of suppliers and firm productivity and as well accesses the extent to which bargaining power of competitors affect firms competitive advantage. A descriptive survey design method was adopted and a self-administered closed-end questionnaire was used to sift data from respondents who were management and non management staff of ten selected manufacturing organizations in southeastern Nigeria. A sample size of 499 respondents was drawn from the population. The finding revealed that there is a significant positive relationship between bargaining power of suppliers and firms’ productivity. The study also found that bargaining power of competitor has a significant positive effect on manufacturing firms’ competitive advantage. In lieu of these findings, the study recommendations that manufacturing firms should be committed to maintaining a cordial relationship with their suppliers and avoid possible conflict in both short and long-run. Further, manufacturing firms are also advised to be more strategic in managing their competitors. This can be achieved through the advancement of blue ocean strategy.
Slovenia as a Tourism Destination: Differences in Image Evaluations Perceived by Tourism Representatives from Closer and More Distant Markets

The paper explores the complex nature of the destination image concept and investigates the image of Slovenia as a tourism destination perceived by the tourism representatives. Specifically it investigates the differences in proposed components of Slovenia’s image perceptions between respondents from closer and more distant markets. Although the overall Slovenia’s image does not differentiate between investigated groups of respondents, significant differences appear in perceptual/cognitive and affective image attributes. Drawn from the results the author suggested some practical implications for Slovenia’s destination marketing strategies on foreign markets. The author argues, that destination managers and marketers should consider the important role of the destination image, but that at the same time also bear in mind the destination identity, as the concept created by the brand owner. Consequently, destination marketing strategies should aim to achieve an image transfer that is based on a destination’s identity.
Web-Based Student Evaluations of Professors: The Relations between Perceived Quality, Easiness, and Sexiness

College students publicly rate their professors' teaching at RateMyProfessors.com, a web page where students anonymously judge their professors on Quality, Easiness, and Sexiness. Using the data from this web site, we examine the relations between Quality, Easiness, and Sexiness for 3,190 professors at 25 universities. For faculty with at least 10 student posts, the correlation between Quality and Easiness is 0.61, and the correlation between Quality and Sexiness is 0.30. Using simple linear regression, we find that about half of the variation in Quality is a function of Easiness and Sexiness. Accordingly, these results suggest that about half of the variation in student opinion survey scores used by universities for promotion, tenure, and teaching award decisions may be due to the easiness of the course and the sexiness of the professor. When grouped into sexy and non-sexy professors, the data reveal that students give sexy-rated professors higher Quality and Easiness scores. Based on these findings, universities need to rethink the use of student opinion surveys as a valid measure of teaching effectiveness. High student opinion survey scores might well be viewed with suspicion rather than reverence, since they might indicate a lack of rigor, little student learning, and grade inflation.
Population Numbers of Fur Seals at Prince Edward Island, Southern Ocean

During the period 17–22 December 2001, the onshore distribution and the abundance of Antarctic fur seals Arctocephalus gazella and Subantarctic fur seals A. tropicalis were determined for Prince Edward Island. Two breeding colonies of Antarctic fur seals were located on the south-east coast of the island; the first a mixed (with Subantarctic fur seals) breeding colony with an estimated 24 pups on a vegetated promontory on the northern section of Boggel Beach, and the second, a presumably pure Antarctic fur seal breeding colony with an estimated 380 pups, at Penguin Beach. At a mean intrinsic rate of natural increase of 16.2% per year, Antarctic fur seals appear to be in the rapid recolonization phase of population growth. Breeding colonies of Subantarctic fur seals, largely found on the entire east coast, produced an estimated 15 000 pups, and the population had maintained a mean intrinsic rate of natural increase of some 9.5% per year since 1987/88.
High heritable variation of a male secondary sexual character revealed by extra‐pair fertilization in the barn swallow

Abstract Females may accrue indirect benefits in terms of sexual attractiveness or ‘good genes’ for their offspring by preferring males with heritable ornamental traits. Since existing heritability estimates may be affected by environmental and maternal effects, there is a need for unbiased estimates. Extra‐pair fertilization was used in barn swallows, Hirundo rustica, to study heritability while controlling for such confounding effects. Heritability of tail length, a male ornament, and other morphological characters were estimated by comparing resemblance between sons and their biological father to that between extra‐pair sons and their foster father. The slopes of linear regressions of extra‐pair sons on their foster father did not differ from 0. However, slopes of regressions of biological sons on their parents were significantly greater than 0 for tail and wing length (both parental sexes), and bill and tarsus length (mothers only). Extra‐pair sons had longer tails than their foster father, but did not differ in this respect from within‐pair sons, suggesting that females benefit in terms of sexual attractiveness of their sons, via extra‐pair fertilization. Tail length is a reliable signal of male quality in the barn swallow. Hence, heritable variation in ornaments allows females to adap‐tively select for exaggeration of these traits.
Estimating the value of preserving the Manchurian black bear using the contingent valuation method

Abstract Although non-consumptive wildlife use is increasingly in demand, its preservation value is not estimated with sufficient accuracy. This study estimates the value of the endangered Manchurian black bear associated with preservation programmes (hereafter, “preservation value”) using a dichotomous choice contingent valuation method in a real-world setting. Since using a hypothetical setting in the contingent valuation method tends to overestimate willingness to pay (WTP), a specially designed field experimental survey was used to incorporate a real-world setting and thereby reduce hypothetical bias, ultimately increasing the accuracy of the estimated WTP. The survey results show that when the responses from the hypothetical setting and real-world setting are compared, the estimated WTP based on the hypothetical setting is higher than that based on the real-world setting. Thus, the real-world setting appears to be effective in terms of reducing hypothetical bias. The preservation value indicated in the real-world setting is estimated at US $4.99 per household for visitors to Chirisan National Park in South Korea, and the annual aggregate preservation value is estimated at US $3.66 million when considering total visitor households. The WTP results show that visitors to Chirisan National Park strongly support preservation programmes for this endangered wildlife species.