Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Determining the Marginal Willingness to Pay for the Cervical Cancer Screening Program in Croatia: A Best-Worst Scaling Approach1

Croatia is faced with a low response to cancer-screening programs, especially the national cervical cancer screening program, which ultimately resulted in its suspension. If judged solely on the basis of revealed preferences, such a poor response would imply that the population assigns a low social value to preventive screening programs. However, the question arises as to whether revealed preferences (the population’s response), in the case of the absence of response to a preventive program, provide insight into its value (utility). Therefore, the objective of this paper is to determine the value that respondents assign to different attributes of cervical screening and, in a broader sense, to decide whether the best-worst scaling (BWS) approach is appropriate for determining the marginal willingness to pay (MWTP) for public health programs. The MWTP for certain attributes of cervical cancer screening is derived from the results of a BWS study conducted in Primorje-Gorski Kotar County, Croatia. The cost function was estimated by regressing the conditional logit coeffi cients (level of utility) of three levels of the cost attribute on its corresponding values, that is, the hypothetical price. Because the sum of the MWTP corresponds with the market price of a gynecological examination in private practice, we conclude that the results obtained by the BWS confirm the revealed preferences (the market value of the service).
Inequality in Latin America: the role of the nature of trade and partners

Abstract This paper investigates the relationship between trade openness and income inequality in 11 Latin American countries over the period 1989–2015. The authors use a panel dynamic approach to take into account the high persistence of income inequality. The analysis classifies trade flows, exports and imports according to trading partner’s income level. Then, the authors split trade flows according to different stages of production. The results show that overall trade flows do not statistically affect income inequality in Latin America. However, trade has divergent effects depending on the trade partners: trade with similar- and lower-income countries exacerbates inequality, while trade with higherincome countries reduces income dispersion. The results also emphasise the role of the export channel (in particular in primary commodities) in explaining income inequality in Latin American countries and imports of consumption goods seem to matter more than imports of intermediate and capital goods.
Heritage language maintenance and loss in an Iranian community in Canada: successes and challenges

Research shows that many immigrant children in Canada face challenges in maintaining their heritage languages, i.e., languages other than English and French or Indigenous languages. Public schools might not recognize or promote the use of heritage languages, many schools do not provide heritage language instruction, and in some instances, students and their parents are actively discouraged from using their heritage language at home. Heritage languages, however, should be maintained to help immigrant students succeed socially and academically and maintain stronger familial bonds. Language maintenance can also lead to multilingualism in a society, facilitating socioeconomic and international relations in the globalized world. In light of these challenges and the importance of maintaining heritage languages, this qualitative case study, informed by the work of critical theorists in the field of additional language education, was undertaken to investigate language maintenance in a heritage language school in a major city in Canada. Issues under investigation included (1) students’, parents’, and teachers’ perspectives on language maintenance, (2) the availability of language maintenance resources at home, school, and in the first language (L1) community, (3) successes and challenges of the students in maintaining their heritage language at home, school, and in the L1 community, and (4) the parents’ and teachers’ effort in facilitating heritage language learning opportunities for children. Data were collected through in-depth, semi-structured interviews, field-observations, descriptive and reflective field notes, and participants’ journal writing. The emerging themes included (1) the importance of language maintenance, (2) language maintenance strategies, and (3) language maintenance challenges. This study sought to raise awareness of language maintenance issues faced by immigrants, in this instance a particular Iranian immigrant population in Canada, within the LANGUAGE MAINTENANCE IN AN IRANIAN COMMUNITY iii contexts of home, school, and L1 community. In documenting students’ successes and challenges in maintaining their heritage language, heritage language teachers’ experiences as non-mainstream educators, and parents’ efforts to provide heritage language learning opportunities for their children, the research aimed to challenge immigrant students’ education with regard to issues of equity. Results are intended to inform immigrant families and communities, and programming and policy to facilitate language maintenance opportunities for children in Canada and other immigrant-receiving contexts. LANGUAGE MAINTENANCE IN AN IRANIAN COMMUNITY iv
Electoral Cycles in Government Policy Making: Strategic Timing of Austerity Reform Measures in Western Europe

Abstract This article investigates whether governing parties strategically time austerity policies to help them win re-election. It contributes to existing research by focusing directly on government policy output, analyzing over 1,200 welfare and taxation austerity measures in thirteen Western European countries over twenty years. In line with previous research, the authors find that governments become less likely to introduce austerity measures as elections approach. The study introduces original hypotheses about which governments have the ability and opportunity to strategically time policy decisions. The authors suggest that minimal winning cabinets with leadership change (new prime ministers) face less complex bargaining environments and can credibly shift responsibility for austerity measures to the preceding government. The empirical analyses show that these governments are most likely to strategically time austerity policies.
Absorptive capacity, marketing capabilities, and innovation commercialisation in Nigeria

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate how specialised capabilities including absorptive capacity and marketing capabilities influence innovation commercialisation in manufacturing and service firms in Nigeria. The authors hypothesise that absorptive capacity measures including openness and formal training for innovation, and marketing capabilities encompassing new product marketing and marketing innovation are positively associated with innovation performance. Design/methodology/approach The authors examine commercialisation of innovation within the profiting from innovation (PFI) and dynamic capabilities (DC) framework and use data from the 2012 Nigeria Innovation Survey to test the hypothesis by means of a Heckman sample selection model. Findings The authors find that absorptive capacity measures comprising openness and formal training are positively associated with innovation performance. The authors also find that marketing capabilities as indicated by new product marketing and marketing innovation are positively associated with innovation performance. Research limitations/implications The authors acknowledge that firms undergo continuous changes and that there may be the presence of unobserved or unmeasured heterogeneity. Taking into cognisance that Nigeria is a federal state, cultural diversity and economic factors are likely to differ widely between geographical regions. Also, while the proposed conceptual framework offers a deeper understanding of innovation performance, examining how integrating activities of the R&D department, human resource department and marketing department affect innovation commercialisation is likely to provide more meaningful insights. Practical implications The role that inter-organisational learning and intra-organisational learning play in driving innovation performance provide managers with a basis for incorporating absorptive capacity building programs that boost employees’ ability to recognise and apply valuable external knowledge to commercial ends. Similarly, firms may benefit from offering marketing capabilities development programs. Furthermore, innovation policies in Nigeria are generally designed to focus on fostering innovation activities aimed at developing innovative output. Accordingly, government support explicitly targeting new product marketing and marketing innovation is likely to play a vital role in the successful commercialisation of innovation in Nigeria. Originality/value This study fuses the PFI and DC framework to examine why innovating firms may not necessarily succeed. This area of study has received scant attention in sub-Saharan Africa given that extant literature focusses on value creation as opposed to value capture.
A Decade of Collaboration Among International Representatives of the International Cluttering Association

This article presents a collaborative initiative of members of the Committee of the International Representatives of the International Cluttering Association (ICA) upon celebrating the 10th anniversary of the ICA. Such collaborative efforts are designed to improve communication skills, enlighten lives of people with cluttering, and serve as models for speech therapists and other health care professionals in countries around the globe. This initiative began with a seminar at the Inaugural Joint World Congress in Japan in 2018 and continues with an article for this special issue on cluttering based on the contents of the papers presented at the Congress. Sixteen researchers and speech therapists from 15 countries in Africa, Asia, Europe (East and West), America (North and South), and the Middle East have explored the following themes related to cluttering: cluttering awareness, research, professional preparation, intervention, and self-help groups. This article adds to the body of international literature on cluttering and illustrates that, for the past 10 years, hypothesis-testing research in cluttering continues to be conducted across language barriers and national boundaries, and interventions that are implemented in some locales are being tested and taught in other parts of the world; furthermore, new cluttering treatments are being disseminated for professional preparation and clinical practices. This article demonstrates how global engagement of the ICA's international representatives has led to the exchange of ideas about awareness of cluttering and professional preparation and the best strategies for the treatment of this communication disorder in countries around the world.
Analysis of Vulnerability to Poverty and Income Shocks of Households in Rural Nigeria

The study looked at the poverty profile of households in rural Nigeria and also their vulnerability to poverty and factors determining vulnerability to poverty. The study used the post harvest and post planting cross section data from the National Living Standard Survey (NLSS) for year 2012. A multi-Stage sampling technique was adopted to select a total of 1020 households for the study. Three stage feasible generalized least square (3FGLS) estimation procedure was used to analyze the vulnerability to poverty and to model the effect of household socio-economic status on expected future consumption and variation in future consumption while Tobit model was used to examine the determinants of vulnerability to poverty and VEP. The result revealed that 58 percent of the rural household in the study area are poor, and the intensity of poverty was 30.1 percent, which was high for the study area was high. Severity of poverty was recorded as 18.4 percent, an indication for income inequality among the poor. The result further revealed that age squared (P = 0.01), sex (P = 0.10), covariate shocks (P = 0.10) and farm size (P = 0.05) were positively significant in ex ante mean consumption while age (P = 0.01), married respondents (P = 0.10), and years of schooling (P = 0.05) were negatively significant in ex ante mean consumption. The shocks variables experienced by households in the study area were natural/agricultural; economic; political/social/legal; and demographic/life-cycle shocks that inflict welfare loss. The findings suggest that poverty and vulnerability to poverty are independent concepts. It is recommended that policies concerning poverty reduction should consider households that are currently nonpoor but are vulnerable to poverty along with poor households. Rural households should also be encouraged to engage in more off-farm activities and value addition of their produces.
Leisure clubs as preventive and health promoting arenas

VI CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION . 1 1.1 BACKGROUND . 1 1.2 DEFINITION AND CLARIFICATION OF IMPORTANT CONCEPTS . 3 1.3 PURPOSE STATEMENT . 3 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW . 4 2.1 YOUTH POLICY AND LEISURE CLUBS IN EUROPE . 5 2.1.1 Concepts of “youth” and “youth policy” . 5 2.1.2 Enabling features . 5 2.1.3 Structure for delivery . 6 2.1. 4 Domains of youth policy . 7 2.1. 5 Cross-cutting issues . 7 2.1. 6 Foundation challenges . 8 2.1. 7 Monitoring and evaluation . 9 2.2 CHARACTERISTICS OF ADOLESCENTS ATTENDING LEISURE CLUBS IN NORWAY . 9 CHAPTER 3: THEORY . 11 3.1 THE SOCIAL ECOLOGICAL MODEL OF HEALTH . 12 CHAPTER 4: OBJECTIVE AND RESEARCH QUESTIONS . 13 CHAPTER 5: DATA AND METHODS . 13 5.1 RESEARCH DESIGN . 14 5.2 DATA COLLECTION METHOD AND PARTICIPANTS . 14 5.3 STUDY SAMPLE . 15 5.4 VARIABLES . 16 5.4. 1 Dependent variable . 16 5.4. 2 Independent variables . 16 5.5 DATA MANAGEMENT METHODS . 20 5.6 DATA ANALYSIS METHODS . 21 5.7 QUALITY ASSURANCE . 21 5.7. 1 Reliability . 21 5.7. 2 Validity . 22 5.7. 3 Representativeness . 22 5.7. 4 Missing cases . 23 5.7. 5 Outliers . 24 5.7. 6 Lack of participants . 24 5.8 ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS . 25 CHAPTER 6: RESULTS . 26 6.1 UNIVARIATE ANALYSES . 26 6.1.1 Missing cases . 29 6.1.2 Normality . 30
Integrating performance measurement, system dynamics, and problem-solving methods

Purpose Transport logistics systems in companies with additional public service roles are complex and could benefit from new approaches to performance management. Existing approaches tend to be fragmented; thus, the purpose of this paper is to integrate balanced performance measures, a dynamics model, and the problem-solving method into a new model. Design/methodology/approach An integrated framework is developed by reviewing literature and synthesising attributes of performance measurement systems, system dynamics and problem-solving methods. The framework is then applied to a multiple-role company’s sea transportation system. The study uses statistical methods to identify performance indicators, management interviews with document study to develop a dynamics model, and simulation methods to formulate an improvement plan. Findings The performance measurement design stage allowed for the identification of balanced, aligned performance indicators, while the system dynamics model illuminated the impact of the system components’ interrelationships on performance output. The problem-solving method allowed for analysis of system performance, identification of constraints and formulation of a performance improvement plan. Practical implications This framework can help transport logistics system stakeholders in multiple-role companies avoid silo thinking, misaligned performance objectives, local optima and short-term solutions. Originality/value This study contributes to the existing body of research by introducing a novel framework integrating performance measurement, system dynamics and the problem-solving method. It also addresses a theoretical gap by showing how interconnecting components of sea transportation systems affect transport logistics performance.
A comparison based on statistical methods of balance sheet valuations of listed shares in bull and bear markets

В статті представлено моделі балансової оцінки акцій, що нотуються на фондових біржах, на основі вартості, що походить з активного ринку, та вартості, встановленої на підставі фінансовоекономічних моделей. Ціллю статті є представлення результатів емпіричних досліджень, які на підставі статистичних методів порівнюють оцінку акцій за реальною вартістю з вартістю акцій, встановленою на підставі фінансово-економічних методів за два періоди. Перший період це цикл стабільного зросту цін на акції, який охоплює 1998-2007 роки. Другий період це цикл падіння цін на акції, який пов’язаний з глобальною фінансовою кризою і охоплює період в 14 років (1998-2011). Ключові слова: фінансові інструменти, вартість, модель балансової оцінки, оцінка, фінансовоекономічні моделі.
Can Basic Maternal Literacy Skills Improve Infant Health Outcomes? Evidence from the Education Act in Nepal

The National Education System Plan, implemented in 1971, reshaped the education system of Nepal and increased access to education among females. I use this dramatic change in Nepal’s education system as a quasi-natural experiment to identify the effect of maternal literacy skills and highest level of schooling on infant and child mortality outcomes. The results suggest that the reform improved educational attainment among females of school-going age during the time of the reform but had no effect on males’ educational attainment. Using within-cohort and across-district variations in educational outcomes due to the reform, I find that one more year of maternal schooling reduces the under-5 mortality rate by 4.5 percentage points.
The Effect of Systematic Default Risk on Credit Risk Premiums

This study examines whether systematic default risks affect a cross section of credit risk premiums. Using a structural framework, I derive a theoretical cross-sectional relationship, develop a testable hypothesis, and provide a method to estimate the systematic default risk. The empirical results of US corporate credit default swap data are consistent with my hypothesis. The findings show that, while credit market factors have positive effects on a cross section of credit risk premiums, stock market factors have a negative impact. Regression analyses reveal that the market’s average default probability and the value factor have a significant effect on the credit risk premium. In addition, credit market factors are more influential than equity market factors as systematic default risk factors. The results suggest that systematic and idiosyncratic default risks are priced differently in a cross section of credit risk premiums.
Brexit identities and British public opinion on China

Many studies have explored the importance of public opinion in British foreign policy decision-making, especially when it comes to the UK's relations with the United States and the European Union. Despite its importance, there is a dearth of research on public opinion about British foreign policy towards other major players in the international system, such as emerging powers like China. We have addressed this knowledge gap by conducting a public opinion survey in the UK after the Brexit referendum. Our research findings indicate that the British public at large finds China's rise disconcerting, but is also pragmatic in its understanding of how the ensuing bilateral relations should be managed. More importantly, our results show that views on China are clearly split between the two opposing Brexit identities. Those who subscribe strongly to the Leave identity, measured by their aversion to the EU and antipathy towards immigration, are also more likely to hold negative perceptions of Chinese global leadership and be more suspicious of China as a military threat. In contrast, those who espouse a Remain identity—that is, believe that Britain would be better served within the EU and with more immigrants—are more likely to prefer closer engagement with China and to have a more positive outlook overall on China's place within the global community.
Thirlwall's Law at 40

This year marks the 40th anniversary of the publication of Anthony P. Thirlwall’s classic paper titled ‘The balance-of-payments constraint as an explanation of international growth rate differences’ (Thirlwall 1979). This article introduced and provided empirical evidence in favor of the proposition that the long-run rate of growth of an economy compatible with balance-of-payments equilibrium can be approximated by the simple rule of the ratio of the growth of exports to the income elasticity of demand for imports. This simple proposition known as Thirlwall’s law is the dynamic analogue of the static Harrod trade multiplier result. In his book International Economics (1933), Roy Harrod had shown that the level of income equaled the level of exports divided by the propensity to import, based on the same assumptions as those of Thirlwall, that is, exports are the only component of autonomous demand, trade is balanced, and the real exchange rate (or terms of trade) does not change (Thirlwall 1997; 2018; McCombie and Thirlwall 1994). It is also similar to the model discussed by Raúl Prebisch in his American Economic Review paper (Prebisch 1959). These ideas were further developed by Nicholas Kaldor, who developed a demand-driven theory of cumulative causation, based on the supermultiplier (Kaldor 1970). Thirlwall’s contribution follows in the Keynesian and Structuralist tradition of these authors. Thirlwall’s law focuses on aggregate demand as the key constraint to economic growth. According to Thirlwall’s law, countries face an external constraint when
What are tourists willing to pay for securing the survival of a flagship species? The case of protection of the Ethiopian wolf

Ecotourism can be an important tool for protecting biodiversity in developing countries. Tourists have preferences for viewing charismatic species and for their conservation, but our understanding of these preferences remains limited. Using choice experiment surveys, we investigate tourists’ preferences and willingness to pay (WTP) for the protection of the Ethiopian wolf (Canis simensis) in Ethiopia’s Bale Mountains National Park. Results from a random parameter logit model show that tourists were willing to pay up to US$5.82/day/trip for increasing the wolf population from 200 to a more viable number of 250 but very little for a more substantial increase. Tourists also valued increases in the size of the protected area (PA) and access to the wolf habitat. The WTP is found to be dependent on tourists’ prior experience to Ethiopian PAs and whether they had viewed other unique species in the park. The findings suggest opportunities for ecotourism to support the Ethiopian wolf, which is in a critical state, and that the primary motivation for tourists’ support might be due to the wolf’s existence value.