Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Entrepreneurship and state economic growth

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to test whether entrepreneurship is a significant factor in explaining economic growth at the state level. Design/methodology/approach - This paper, unlike previous work, uses the Kauffman Index of Entrepreneurial Activity (KIEA) as the measure of entrepreneurial activity. Based on standard growth regressions using real per capita gross state product, real per capita personal income and employment growth, we test for the independent role that entrepreneurial activity may have on state economic growth. Findings - We find that an increase in the level of entrepreneurial activity is robustly associated with an increase in economic growth. Such findings reinforce calls for policy changes at the state level that promote more productive entrepreneurship. Research limitations/implications - These conclusions are tentative. The findings are based on the growth of the 50 states over a relatively short period. A longer data set would be preferable, if data were available. Moreover, the author has not attempted to distinguish between different categories of entrepreneurship, for example productive and unproductive entrepreneurship. Practical implications - Such findings reinforce calls for policy changes at the state level that promote more productive entrepreneurship. This would include, among others, changes such as reducing or eliminating state income taxes and setting strict limits on the government's use of eminent domain and environmental property takings. Originality/value - The study uses the Kauffman Index of Entrepreneurial Activity (KIEA), arguably a superior measure of state-level entrepreneurial activity, to explain state economic growth. The topic is timely and the results have important policy implications.
Price Impact and Asset Pricing

Using intradaily order flows processed via the Lee and Ready (1991) algorithm for NYSE/AMEX-listed stocks over the past 27 years, I estimate a set of price-impact parameters. The results provide strong evidence that price impact is priced in the cross-section of stock returns, even after controlling for risk factors, firm characteristics, and other low-frequency-based illiquidity proxies prevalent in the literature. While the Amihud (2002) measure is the best proxy of its kind, no low-frequency-based proxies can parallel the price-impact parameters. This suggests that price impact as a measure of illiquidity can be estimated more precisely by intradaily order flows, because it incorporates incremental information that comes out of high-frequency data. Therefore, price impact does a better job in capturing the return premium for illiquidity.
Law Enforcement, Malfeasance, and Compensation of Enforcers

THE new economic approach to political behavior seeks to develop a positive theory of legislation, in contrast to the normative approach of welfare economics. The new approach asks why certain industries and not others become regulated or have tariffs imposed on imports or why income transfers take the form and direction they do, in contrast to asking which industries should be regulated or have tariffs imposed, or what transfers should be made.
Comparison of WAIS-III Short Forms for Measuring Index and Full-Scale Scores

This investigation assessed the ability of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale—Third Edition (WAIS-III) short forms to estimate both index and IQ scores in a large, mixed clinical sample (N = 809). More specifically, a commonly used modification of Ward’s seven-subtest short form (SF7-A), a recently proposed index-based SF7-C and eight-subtest short form (SF8) were evaluated. All three SFs proved adequate for estimating verbal comprehension, perceptual organization, and full-scale intelligence within considerably less time relative to an SF11 that provides full measurement of WAIS index scores. The SF7-A provided the best combination overall in terms of psychometric performance and estimated time savings. However, SF8 best represents all four factors and allows measurement of processing speed. The SF7-C was most hampered by inclusion of the Block Design subtest in the current assessment, but may prove advantageous in future extensions to the WAIS-IV.
Inferring the age of a fixed beneficial allele

Estimating the age and strength of beneficial alleles is central to understanding how adaptation proceeds in response to changing environmental conditions. Several haplotype‐based estimators exist for inferring the age of segregating beneficial mutations. Here, we develop an approximate Bayesian‐based approach that rather estimates these parameters for fixed beneficial mutations in single populations. We integrate a range of existing diversity, site frequency spectrum, haplotype‐ and linkage disequilibrium‐based summary statistics. We show that for strong selective sweeps on de novo mutations the method can estimate allele age and selection strength even in nonequilibrium demographic scenarios. We extend our approach to models of selection on standing variation, and co‐infer the frequency at which selection began to act upon the mutation. Finally, we apply our method to estimate the age and selection strength of a previously identified mutation underpinning cryptic colour adaptation in a wild deer mouse population, and compare our findings with previously published estimates as well as with geological data pertaining to the presumed shift in selective pressure.
Building strategy of talent retention on basis of achievement goal theory of motivation - theoretical assumptions

The key area of management of the organization are people, which determine the strategic company goals. The implementation of talent management is a way to build a competitive advantage in the market. Unfortunately, many reports indicate that employees perceived constant talents shortage and talented workers are becoming more and more mobile. For this reason, it is necessary to draw attention to the process of retention talents. Developing talent retention strategies must take to the consideration internal needs and expectations of talents. The purpose of the following article is to identify the motivating factors that contribute to retain talented employees while taking into consideration the conclusion resulting from achievement goal theory. Talented workers have higher internal motivation and they are characterized by high mastery orientation (and low or high performance orientation). Considering this assumption, the organization should use a different motivational tools for this group of workers. The most important will be development opportunities, type of executed tasks and corporate culture.
Determinants Of Profitability And Willingness To Pay For Metropolitan Waste-Use In Urban Agriculture Of The Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, Nigeria

The study attempts to analyse the profitability of urban agriculture using metropolitan organic waste in Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory of Nigeria. The results show that the enterprise is profitable, and that output price is the most important determinant of maximum variable profit. Other price factors, specifically planting materials, labour, and metropolitan waste (organic manure) were not significant. Further analysis shows that level of education, age of farmers, per capita farm income, and household size are important determinants of choice of urban agriculture for food security and improvement of environmental quality. The chances of farmers willing to pay for urban agriculture will increase when their level of education and per capita income increase, while the chances of not willing to pay for such venture will increase when their ages and household size increase. The creation of more market outlets for urban produced foods is recommended, among others. Agro-Science Vol. 7 (1) 2008: pp. 41-46
Investigation of power loss and voltage stability limits for large wind farm connections to a subtransmission network

Today wind farms are growing both in size and in number. Being connected at higher voltage levels, their impacts are becoming more widespread. High demand for reactive power is known as one major characteristic of large wind farms that causes voltage problems to power networks. The larger the wind farm, the more severe this effect could be. If the network is not able to meet the wind farm reactive power requirement, the integration of the wind farm power into the system would be limited. The reactive power shortage due to the operation of the wind farm may lead to an increase in the network overall losses and have adverse effects on its voltage stability. This study explores the possibility of integrating the full power of two large wind farms into a subtransmission network, as well as their impacts on the network losses and voltage stability. It also considers these impacts when the network loading is increased. The study is carried out using computer analyses performed on a custom-designed yet realistic radial power system.
Between Global and Local: Eight European Works Councils in Retrospect and Prospect

This article reports on case studies of eight Swedish-based European Works Councils (EWCs) with a particular focus on impacts and outcomes. Three issues are explored: (1) the benefits of EWCs from both employee and management perspectives; (2) whether the EWCs have evolved as genuine forums for information, consultation and negotiation; and (3) the effects of EWCs on industrial relations systems - specifically whether their evolution signals a unified, convergent mode of industrial relations engagement at the European level. The authors conclude that there are few prospects for convergence or transnational bargaining, and that distinct national practices will persist, not only because of opposition from employers but also, and perhaps surprisingly, because of opposition from union quarters in Scandinavia.
Tetramethylpyrazine reduces inflammation in liver fibrosis and inhibits inflammatory cytokine expression in hepatic stellate cells by modulating NLRP3 inflammasome pathway

Hepatic fibrosis is concomitant with liver inflammation, which has been highlighted as significant treatment of chronic liver disease. We previously demonstrated that tetramethylpyrazine (TMP), the effective component of Ligusticum chuanxiong Hort, can inhibit the activation of HSCs and consequential anti‐hepatic fibrosis. In this study, our work demonstrated that TMP improved liver histological architecture, decreased hepatic enzyme levels and attenuated collagen deposition in the rat fibrotic liver. In addition, TMP significantly protected the liver from CCl4‐caused injury and fibrogenesis by suppressing inflammation with reducing levels of inflammatory cytokines, including tumor necrosis factor‐α (TNF‐α), NLRP3, nuclear factor‐kappa B (NF‐κB) and interleukin‐1β (IL‐1β). Experiments in vitro showed that TMP inhibited inflammatory cytokine expression in HSCs associated with disrupting platelet‐derived growth factor‐b receptor (PDGF‐βR)/NLRP3/caspase1 pathway. These data collectively indicate that TMP can attenuate liver inflammation in liver fibrosis and possibly by targeting HSCs via PDGF‐βR/NLRP3/caspase1 pathway. It provides novel mechanistic insights into TMP as a potential therapeutic remedy for hepatic fibrosis. © 2015 IUBMB Life, 67(4):312–321, 2015
China's New Rural Income Support Policy: Impacts on Grain Production and Rural Income Inequality

This paper analyses the impact of agricultural tax abolition and direct income payments to grain farmers on grain production and rural inequality in China. To separate the impact of the income support measures from recent price trends for grains and inputs, and to account for differences in household responses, we use a village-level general equilibrium model that we calibrate for two villages with different degrees of market access in Jiangxi province. The results show that the income support policy does not reach its goal of promoting grain production. The increased incomes allow farm households to buy more inputs for livestock production and involve other activities that are more profitable than grain farming. Selling of rice outside the villages declines more than rice production, because households in the villages consume more rice when incomes rise. We further find that the income support measures tend to reduce income within a village, but that tax abolition tends to widen income inequality between villages. Copyright The official journal of The Institute of World Economics and Politics, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) 2006.
Investigating the Knowledge interface between Stakeholder Engagement and Plan-Making

The ‘ideal deliberative procedure’ provides structure to the process of stakeholder deliberation, yet creates a tension with the formal processes of strategic plan-making. This paper examines process design by drawing upon communicative planning theory, and the rational comprehensive model and deliberative democracy literature. In the context of metropolitan strategic spatial plan-making, the aim of this paper is to examine how the knowledge interface between the process of stakeholder engagement and the process of plan-making enables or inhibits implementation of the plan. A retrospective study examining the development of two metropolitan strategic spatial plans: Greater Perth's the Network City plan and Greater Vancouver's the Livable Region Strategic Plan is provided. It is revealed that the engagement of the planners, the public and the politicians occurs within formal stakeholder engagement ‘events’ positioned at different stages of the plan-making process. This paper reveals that the deliberation among the professional planners and the politicians at the process design stage steers the plan-making process in a manner that retains its legitimacy and creates a more implementable plan.
Effectiveness of an abstinence-only intervention sited in neighborhood community centers

Choices Enhanced is a community-based demonstration and evaluation project targeting inner-city youth, ages nine to 15 at pretest, in Syracuse, New York. The project's evaluation design is a randomized field trial, and the intervention uses an education and youth development curriculum designed to deter unmarried teen pregnancy. Findings reported here are from early in the third year of the project. The intervention was designed to provide each treated subject 24 hours of intervention contact. The project's central goal is to delay the onset of sexual intercourse among unmarried-youth subjects. This was to be achieved through: (1) strengthening commitments to the values of abstinence and the importance of marriage; (2) informing youth more fully with respect to the risks and consequences of youth sexual intercourse outside marriage; (3) strengthening the ability to resist social pressures to have intercourse; and (4) encouraging restraint with regard to future behavior. Hypotheses tested specifically address the goals listed above, using linear and logistic regression methods. The magnitude of estimated treatment effects was modest, and change was sometimes not in the expected direction. At a 0.05 significance level, none of the estimated intervention effects were found to be statistically significant.
Stewardship vs. Stagnation: An Empirical Comparison of Small Family and Non-Family Businesses

Two major perspectives can be construed in the literature concerning the nature of family owned businesses (FOBs). The first implies that these enterprises have unique charac- teristics of stewardship. FOB owners are said to care deeply about the long-term prospects of the business, in large part because their family's fortune, reputation and future are at stake. Their stewardship is said to be manifested by unusual devotion to the continuity of the company, by more assiduous nurturing of a community of employees, and by seeking out closer connections with customers to sustain the business. The second perspective is less flattering. It proposes that FOBs are unusually subject to stagnation: they are said to face unique resource restrictions, embrace conservative strategies, eschew growth, and be doomed to short lives. This paper develops and examines the merits of the two perspectives, neither of which has been systematically articulated or researched. It does so in an empirical study of only small firms that are owned and managed by their founder. Within this sample, it compares firms that are FOBs, that is, family owned and managed, with non-FOBs, that is, owned and managed by a founder with no other relative involved in the business. The findings show significant support for all three aspects of the stew- ardship perspective of FOBs, and no support for any elements of the stagnation perspective.
Monetary policy transparency: transparent about what?

This paper puts the issue of monetary policy transparency into a broad economic perspective. In so doing, it narrows the focus from that which frequently appears in this literature. The analysis is predicated on the assertion that the sole economic argument for transparency is policy effectiveness-transparency is desirable if it enhances the effectiveness of policy and is not, if it does not. In cases where transparency neither enhances nor impairs the effectiveness of policy, the case for transparency can be argued on non-economic grounds. This analysis has implications for several policy/transparency issues. Important among these is the assumption in this literature that inflation and output must be viewed by policymakers as substitutes. I suggest that policymakers might generate a better inflation/output outcome if they thought of inflation and output objectives as complements rather than substitutes.
Frontline Problem Solvers: The Structuring of Frontline Service Work

The purpose of this article is to contribute to the understanding of the role of frontline employees in organizing public service delivery. Combining inspiration from organizational institutionalism and social theory of practice, this study offers an integrative understanding of frontline agency in organizational dynamics during the institutionalization of a public sector reform. Findings are presented from an ethnographic field study of frontline employees' strategies of adopting new structures of service work during the institutionalization of a public reform. The study illustrates how frontline actions provide the basis for both stability and change in the structures through which frontline work is organized. The agency exerted by frontline employees in institutionalization of reforms may have both equilibrating effects as well as deepen the gaps between the public sector and the public served.
Through the Fear: A Study of Xenophobia in South Africa's Refugee System

In light of the May 2008 xenophobic attacks in Gauteng and Western Cape Provinces, this paper explains the process of refugee law in South Africa as stated in theory and as implemented in practice. Research was compiled through visits to refugee camps, townships, South African Parliament, regional prisons, judicial inspectorates, universities, and community events in and near Cape Town during June 2008. The South African Refugees Act guarantees protection to refugees and asylum seekers in conformity with international treaties and the South African Constitution. However, these rights are seldom realized due to a delay processing of asylum applications by the Department of Home Affairs, corruption in immigration enforcement, and a lack of education in civil society as to the difference between refugees and voluntary migrants. Refugees are left vulnerable to the violence of those South African citizens that believe all immigrants are illegally present to take advantage of employment and social opportunities. In an attempt to eliminate the fearfulness towards foreigners and bring the plight of refugees further to the forefront of international dialogue, general recommendations are made to the South African Government, its departments, and the citizens of South Africa.
Recurrent Pancreatitis in a Preschool Child

Anomalous pancreatobiliary union in association with choledochal cyst can cause recurrent pancreatitis. Anomalous pancreatobiliary union is a rare condition that can cause a diagnostic challenge and some types can cause recurrent acute pancreatitis. Here we describe a case of re-current pancreatitis with choledochal cyst and choledocholithiasis referred to our hospital for endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography which lead to the incidental finding of anomalous pancreatobiliary union type IA and choledocholithiasis.
NATIONAL ACCOUNTS AS AN INSTRUMENT FOR CO‐ORDINATING ECONOMIC STATISTICS1

The national accounts can serve three functions as an instrument for the co-ordination of economic statistics: (i) They can sene for the establishment of standards for the definition and classification of economic statistics. (ii) They can provide the base for technical co-ordination in the production of statistics and for the systematization o f the contents of records. (iii) They can be used for the indirect estimation of certain magnitudes which cannot be observed directly, or for quality control through alternative calculations. The article describes the major outlines of a system o f national accounting adapted to the co-ordination of economic statistics. This system constitutes an extension of the traditional system with transactions in financial assets and liabilities, input-output (inter-industry) relations, and balance sheets. The exposition makes use of an accounting design established for an arbitrary sector, the same accounts being used for all the sectors in contrast with the customary q m t r i c a l treatment. Table 1 gives the scheme (a) o f current caccourrts, (b) of capital accounts, and (c) of balance sheet accounts. The accounting design can be associated with various groupings o f economic subjects into sectors. The article proposes that the fundamental system of nutionul accounting destined for statistid co-ordination should utilize a division of the economy into institutional sectors according to centers of decision-making. Furthermore, a division into functional sectors is essential for certain accounts, in particular the production account, the inventory account, and the real capital account. Znternational standards must be used for the classification of sectors, goods, etc. Standardized classifications for services and transfers me also necessary. The article indicates, finally, that such a system of national accounting used in connection with an integrated electronic data processing system would permit bringing to bear a general "file" system o f economic statistics.
Is Education Prejudiced by Country-Risk?

We consider country-risk as a determinant of education growth in a panel of countries. Applying cross-country dynamic panel data estimations, we show that among the different levels of education, the secondary is the most affected, followed by the tertiary. When different single measures of risk are considered one by one, the tertiary education is affected by more types of risk than any other level of education. This contributes to the literature on the educational production function, as it adds a robust determinant of that function and indicates that politicians should endeavour to decrease country-risk to enhance education.