Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
World Human Development: 1870–2007

How has wellbeing evolved over time and across regions? How does the West compare to the Rest? What explains their differences? These questions are addressed using a historical index of human development. A sustained improvement in world wellbeing has taken place since 1870. The absolute gap between OECD and the Rest widened over time, but an incomplete catching up — largely explained by education — occurred between 1913 and 1970. As the health transition was achieved in the Rest, the contribution of life expectancy to human development improvement declined and the Rest fell behind in terms of longevity. Meanwhile, in the OECD, as longevity increased, healthy years expanded. A large variance in human development is noticeable in the Rest since 1970, with East Asia, Latin America, and North Africa catching up to the OECD, and Central and Eastern Europe and Sub‐Saharan Africa falling behind.
Distribution of Labour Productivity in Japan Over the Period 1996 - 2006

The distribution of labour productivity is investigated by analyzing the longitudinal micro-level data set which contains detailed financial condition of large numbers of Japanese companies over the period 1996 - 2006. The generalized beta function of the second kind is applied to explain the distribution. We calculate marginal labour productivity by using the fitting parameters, and show that the economy in the labour market is not in equilibrium. By comparing parameters characterizing high productivity range and low productivity range, we show that inequality of low productivity range is larger than that of high productivity range. In addition, it is shown that the change of inequality in low productivity has strong correlation with GDP.
Dissecting Market Expectations in the Cross-Section of Book-to-Market Ratios

This paper successfully replicates all the main results in Kelly and Pruitt (2013) for the return on the market - and provides some evidence of market premium predictability - based on their original empirical choices in the 1930-2010 sample (and, to some extent, based on other empirical choices). However, the evidence of market premium predictability, in particular, essentially disappears by making any one of the following changes: (i) Updating the sample to June 1926 - December 2019; (ii) not taking logs of the book-to-markets used as regressors; (iii) not dividing book-to-markets by their time-series standard deviations; or (iv) not taking one extra book-to-market lag (for monthly forecasts). In summary, I find no evidence that the procedure generates a valid forecasting model of market premiums with persistently positive out-of-sample R2, especially since the Oil Shock (or early 2000) in the full sample. <br>
'The Best Price You'll Ever Get': The 2005 Employee Discount Pricing Promotions in the U.S. Automobile Industry

During the summer of 2005, the three domestic U.S. automobile manufacturers offered a customer promotion that allowed customers to buy new cars using discount programs formerly offered only to employees. The initial months of the promotion were record sales months for each of the three firms, suggesting that customers thought that the prices offered during the promotion were particularly attractive. In reality, however, many customers paid higher prices under the employee discount pricing promotion. We propose that the promotion changed customers' beliefs about current versus future prices, convincing them to purchase during the promotion rather than delay in anticipation of future discounts. We investigate several alternative explanations for the simultaneous increase in prices and sales, including advertising, decreased financing costs, industry trends, disutility of bargaining, consumer differences, and changes in trade-in values. None of these explanations fully explains the concomitant increase in prices and sales.
Airline Baggage as a Pathway for Alien Insect Species Invading the United States

Invasions by non-indigenous species are a problem of increasing magnitude and threaten the stability of the world's ecosystems and economies. Despite the enormity of this problem, relatively little is known about the importance of various invasion pathways. Using historical records of interceptions of alien insects in air passenger baggage by USDA inspectors, we characterize baggage as an invasion pathway. The most commonly infested commodity intercepted by inspectors was fruit (mainly tropical fruits), and the most commonly intercepted insects were Homoptera and Diptera. Numbers of interceptions from passengers originating in various countries were positively related to the volume of air traffic from that country and negatively associated with the gross national product of the country. In a more detailed case history, we used port inspection data to characterize baggage as a pathway for entry of the Mediterranean fruit fly, Ceratitis capitata (Wiedemann). Our analysis indicated that contrary to an earlier report, this insect has arrived at a sustained level in Los Angeles (and elsewhere); and these regulatory incidents can be used to explain the repeated detection of the species in California in years following eradication campaigns.
A Survey of Link Recommendation for Social Networks

Link recommendation has attracted significant attention from both industry practitioners and academic researchers. In industry, link recommendation has become a standard and most important feature in online social networks, prominent examples of which include “People You May Know” on LinkedIn and “You May Know” on Google+. In academia, link recommendation has been and remains a highly active research area. This article surveys state-of-the-art link recommendation methods, which can be broadly categorized into learning-based methods and proximity-based methods. We further identify social and economic theories, such as social interaction theory, that underlie these methods and explain from a theoretical perspective why a link recommendation method works. Finally, we propose to extend link recommendation research in several directions that include utility-based link recommendation, diversity of link recommendation, link recommendation from incomplete data, and experimental study of link recommendation.
The effect of bank bailouts in the EU 1

The financial crisis renewed the debate on the bailout of financial institutions, questioning the effectiveness of such an intervention in restoring normal economic conditions. This paper analyzes the effect of State aids to distressed banks on the real economy, using a panel approach that covers all countries in the EU throughout the financial crisis. Results show that State aids were able to enhance economic conditions by restoring trust in financial markets. State aids boosted the ongoing substitution between securities and bank lending as the main financing channel of non-financial firms.
What is the Shareholder Wealth Impact of Target CEO Retention in Private Equity Deals?

There is a widespread belief among observers that a lower premium is paid when the target CEO is retained by the acquirer in a private equity deal because the CEO’s potential conflicts of interest leads her to negotiate less aggressively on behalf of the target shareholders. Our empirical evidence is not consistent with this belief. We find that, when a private equity acquirer retains the target CEO, target shareholders receive an acquisition premium that is larger by as much as 18% of pre-acquisition firm value when accounting for the endogeneity of the retention decision. Our evidence is consistent with what we call the “valuable CEO hypothesis. ” With this hypothesis, retention of the CEO can be valuable to private equity acquirers because, unlike public operating companies with managers in place, these acquirers have to find a CEO to run the post-acquisition company and the incumbent CEO may be the best choice to do so because she has valuable firm-specific human capital. When a private equity acquirer finds a target with a CEO who can manage the post-acquisition company better than other potential CEOs, we expect target shareholders to receive a larger premium because the post-acquisition value of the target is higher.
Internet Appendix for: Target Firm Advertising and Firm Value

Full Paper is available at: <a href="https://www.ssrn. com/abstract=2526509">https://www.ssrn. com/abstract=2526509</a><br><br>In this Internet Appendix, we perform further tests in order (i) to assess the robustness of the main findings, (ii) to evaluate whether the magnitude of our results changes in different settings, and (iii) to provide further insight on our main empirical constructs.
Nocardia coeliaca, Nocardia autotrophica, and the Nocardin Strain

Gray and Thornton's strain (ATCC 17041) of Mycobacterium coeliacum, here designated as the type strain of this species (which was later transferred to the genus Nocardia as Nocardia coeliaca), is a strain of M. rhodochrous (tentative generic assignment). The strain producing the antibiotic nocardin and similar strains, however, have been mistakenly labeled N. coeliaca. This report presents some of the characteristics of 27 of these mislabeled strains and demonstrates their close relationship to the type strain of N. autotrophica (Takamiya and Tubaki) Hirsch. The nocardin-producing strain and others like it are, therefore, assigned to N. autotrophica.
Use of space by sympatric European hares (Lepus europaeus) and European rabbits (Oryctolagus cuniculus) in Australia

Summary Use of space by sympatric European hares (Lepus europaeus) and European rabbits (Oryctolagus cuniculus) was investigated in a coarse-grained environment in the Mediterranean climatic zone of Australia by telemetric methods. There was a high degree of overlap between rabbits and hares during the day, when both species made use of native vegetation as cover. At night, hares travelled further than rabbits. Well after both species had become active, the hares still spent time in crop and pasture areas utilised by rabbits, although partial avoidance was detected in the periods around dawn and dusk. Rabbit home ranges were c.10 ha, but at 149 ha mean hare home range area matched the maximum predicted for a herbivorous species of its size. Home ranges of rabbits, and overlap between male rabbits, decreased as succulent green feed became available. Home ranges of hares remained large, and overlap between male hares remained high, irrespective of the availability of green feed.
Angiotensin-Converting Enzyme Converts Amyloid β-Protein 1–42 (Aβ1–42) to Aβ1–40, and Its Inhibition Enhances Brain Aβ Deposition

The abnormal deposition of the amyloid β-protein (Aβ) in the brain appears crucial to the pathogenesis of Alzheimer's disease (AD). Recent studies have suggested that highly amyloidogenic Aβ1–42 is a cause of neuronal damage leading to AD pathogenesis and that monomeric Aβ1–40 has less neurotoxicity than Aβ1–42. We found that mouse and human brain homogenates exhibit an enzyme activity converting Aβ1–42 to Aβ1–40 and that the major part of this converting activity is mediated by the angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE). Purified human ACE converts Aβ1–42 to Aβ1–40 as well as decreases Aβ1–42/Aβ1–40 ratio and degrades Aβ1–42 and Aβ1–40. Importantly, the treatment of Tg2576 mice with an ACE inhibitor, captopril, promotes predominant Aβ1–42 deposition in the brain, suggesting that ACE regulates Aβ1–42/Aβ1–40 ratio in vivo by converting secreted Aβ1–42 to Aβ1–40 and degrading Aβs. The upregulation of ACE activity can be a novel therapeutic strategy for AD.
The Relationship of Evergreenness, Crown Architecture, and Leaf Size

Most trees in northern-temperate or boreal forests are either needle-leaved and evergreen or broad-leaved and deciduous. Needle-leaved deciduous trees or broad-leaved evergreens exist but are much less common. It is suggested that evergreenness and needle leaves go together because small, needle-shaped leaves can readily be displayed in a pattern that disperses the incoming light over a larger number of leaves, which increases total photosynthesis by reducing the energy wastage that occurs when light energy falls on leaves that are already light-saturated. This strategy is most effective for trees that retain their leaves for several years and develop a deep canopy with many layers of leaves, in which light passing through the first few layers is captured by leaves deeper in the canopy. Since low temperatures reduce photosynthesis more in light-saturated leaves than in unsaturated leaves, mechanisms that minimize saturation are especially important for trees that may carry out substantial photosynthesis at low temperatures. For deciduous trees, however, broad leaves displayed more or less perpendicular to the sun are more advantageous, since they intercept more light with fewer layers of leaves, reducing the biomass of leaves that needs to be produced each year.
Anomaly Time

We examine when anomaly returns occur in order to understand if they exist. If anomalies are spurious, then anomaly returns should not depend on their proximity to the dates on which key anomaly information is released. Yet, they do. Using a powerful database containing the precise release date of relevant accounting information, we find returns to a large set of anomalies are concentrated in the first 30 trading days after information announcements. Moreover, this effect is getting stronger: in recent years, anomaly returns are concentrated in the first five days. Our results show anomalies are real but rapidly arbitraged away.
Empirical Evidence of Comovements between China and Global Stock Markets

This paper investigates the dynamic correlations between Chinese stock return and global markets at both market and sectoral levels. Statistics suggest that stock-return correlations across markets are time-varying and display structural breaks. The evidence indicates that the stock returns of financial sector exhibit the highest correlation across countries among 10 sectors. Low correlations present in Health Cares, Telecommunications, and Utilities sectors. The correlations tied closely with geographic location – the correlation with Hong Kong is highest followed by South Koran, Japan, Europe and US markets. The time-series stock-return correlations are positively correlated with the conditional variance and variance premiums.
Biological control of southern corn leaf blight by Trichoderma atroviride SG3403

Trichoderma atroviride SG3403 showed high biocontrol activity against southern corn leaf blight (SCLB; pathogen: Cochliobolus heterostrophus). T. atroviride SG3403 could cause death of C. heterostrophus race O hypha on plates. Spraying T. atroviride SG3403 conidia suspension over maize seedling leaves protected the corn from SCLB infection. Biocontrol effect lasted for 30 days in the field. Trichoderma strain was able to induce resistance response in corn leaves against pathogen infection. In corn leaves treated with T. atroviride SG3403, the enzyme activities of phenylalanine ammonia lyase (PAL) and superoxide dismutase (SOD) reached the highest at 24 h, enzyme activity of catalase (CAT) reached the highest at 36 h after inoculation of pathogen C. heterostrophus race O. RNA expression levels of Pal, Sod and Cat (which synthesis enzyme PAL, SOD and CAT) were also upregulated and corresponded to the enzyme activity at the same time point. Enzyme activities and corresponding genes expression induced by Trichoderma SG3403 was more obvious than that induced by pathogen only, which implies that T. atroviride SG3403 induced corn defense gene expression against pathogen infection. Thus, induced resistance mechanism was possibly involved in the biocontrol of SCLB by T. atroviride SG3403.
The Corporate Governance – Performance Puzzle: New Insights

This paper provides new insights on governance – performance relationship using recent data (2007 to 2015) on anti-takeover provisions’ incidence in sample firms. We present “nG (new Governance) Index”, an unequal weighted measure of corporate governance that captures the heterogeneity of its individual anti-takeover components, as an alternative to equal weighted G-Index, E-Index and Gov-Score proposed in the related literature. Our findings show that all provisions do not equally influence firms’ corporate governance quality and therefore, our proposed nG-Index traces governance – performance relationship more persistently than an equal-weighted measure. Further analysis reveals that an nG-Index based zero-investment hedge, going long on poor governance portfolio and shorting the good governance one, would have generated an abnormal return of over 1.33% per month or about 16% per year. This hedge is completely opposite to the long good governance – short poor governance strategy suggested in prior literature. We posit that such hedge reversal is an indication that, in recent years, investors underreact to good governance signals and/or seek compensation for high riskiness associated with poorly governed firms.
Labor and Finance: The Effect of Bank Relationships

We investigate whether and how firms’ number of bank relationships affects labor market outcomes. We base our analysis on more than 5 million observations on matched credit and labor data from Brazilian firms during 2005-2014. We find that firms with more bank relationships employ significantly more workers and pay significantly higher wages. Moreover, increases (decreases) in the number of bank relationships result in positive (negative) effects on employment and wages. These results are robust for strictly exogenous changes in the number of bank relationships due to nationwide bank M&A activity, when using instrumental variable regressions, and are independent of firm size. The effects are due (but not limited) to higher credit availability, lower cost of credit and higher heterogeneity in firms’ bank relationships. Importantly, the firm-level results consistently translate into positive macroeconomic effects at the municipality and state levels. The evidence is novel and suggests positive effects of multiple bank relationships on labor market outcomes in an emerging economy.
Does a Good Central Bank Governor Make a Difference?

The president Mario Draghi ended his mandate as European Central Bank governor the last October 31. They have not been easy years for him, in the midst of the 2008 and the European public debt crisis while, in more recent time the Brexit situation, the new wave of anti-euro governments, the American duties war and the German slowdown. Different are the Draghi's speeches and interventions through which somehow he "saved" the Eurozone, from the famous "Whatever it takes" and "The Euro is irreversible" to the European unconventional measure Quantitative Easing (QE). I'll examine the sign, let's say, of the "Draghi's effect" thus, what would have happened if Draghi had not been the ECB president? Using the GDP percentage growth as a proxy of the Draghi's impact, I found that the "Draghi's effect" is positive, in general and mostly for the countries most affected by the Great Recession (Italy, Spain, Portugal and Greece). As conclusion without (Super) Draghi and his measures, the Euro Area members would have been in a worst situation in terms of GDP growth.
An Out-of-School Practical Exercise: An examination of different DNA methylation conditions using a restriction assay

Our out-of-school practical exercise was designed to bring upper secondary school students in contact with one of the most exciting and expanding topics in biology today: epigenetics. In school, students only study the basics in genetics and the respective investigation techniques as provided by the syllabus. For a practical exercise in epigenetics, however, they need additional knowledge. Hence, they are introduced to the subject of epigenetics and its molecular mechanisms. Students are asked to examine the different DNA methylation conditions of lambda DNA using both a restriction assay and gel electrophoresis in an out-of-school laboratory. DNA methylation is one of the major epigenetic mechanisms which have significant effects on gene expression; studies on monozygotic twins have shown that it is influenced by the environment. This exercise enables students to correctly identify the different methylation conditions of distributed lambda DNA samples. In doing so, they receive a first introduction to one epigenetic mechanism. The necessity for students to experience science in out-of-school settings has been shown by several scholars. The practical exercise we are proposing in this article was elaborated for such learning opportunities for upper secondary students to gain insight into contemporary science issues.
Were There Regime Switches in China's Monetary Policy?

This paper develops and estimates the quantity based Markov-switching(MS) monetary policy rule for China. The MS regression results show that China's monetary policy rule does exist regime changes, and the best fit is with a version that allows time variation both in disturbance variance and intercept. The volatility and steady state of M2 growth rate under the volatile regime are much larger than that in the moderate regime. I then build an MS-DSGE model allowing for regime switching in monetary shock's variance and steady-state of M2 growth rate. Based on the Bayesian estimation of MS-DSGE model, I find that monetary shock becomes the main driver of the variations in GDP growth rate and inflation rate under the volatile regime,and monetary policy regime shift between moderate regime and volatile regime can lead to the time-varying volatilities of inflation and output in China's bussiness cycle.
Estimating Multinomial Choice Models with Unobserved Choice Sets

Abstract This paper proposes a new approach to estimating multinomial choice models when each consumer’s actual choice set is unobservable but could be bounded by two known sets, i.e., the largest and smallest possible choice sets. The bounds on choice set, combined with a monotonicity property derived from utility maximization, imply a system of inequality restrictions on observed choice probabilities that could be used to identify and estimate the model. A key insight is that the identification of random utility model can be achieved without exact information on consumers’ choice sets, which generalizes the identification result of the standard multinomial choice model. The effectiveness of the proposed approach is demonstrated via a range of Monte Carlo experiments as well as an empirical application to consumer demand for potato chips using household scanner data.
Risk Contagion of Bank-firm Credit Network: Evidence from China

In order to explore the effect of China’s listed companies’ credit on banking system risks, this research employs the network topology method to build a bank–firm credit network of loans between banks and those listed companies and examines the dynamic topology of these network risks to the banking system. The results show that the credit network has a hierarchical core–margin structure, whereby Bank of China and China Merchants Bank are respectively key pivots for state-owned banks and stock-holding banks to control the contagion in the network. The decentralized structure of banks’ credit network effectively reduces risk to the banking system. Moreover, the average path length, network connectivity ratio, betweenness centrality, and degree of correlation in the credit network distinctly affect the banking system’s risk, thus making these characteristics suitable targets for the regulation and monitoring of such risk.