Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Risk-return convergence in international public property markets

The main contribution of this study is to assess the risk-return convergence, as well as its relationship with the realised correlation, relative to the global public real estate, of 12 international developed public property markets during 1990–2011. Based on the Euclidean distance method we find that average risk-return distance of the sample markets thus computed has increased over time, implying a mean-variance divergence, albeit statistically insignificant. Most of the markets are more ‘divergent’, as well as being more volatile during the Asian financial crisis and Global financial crisis periods. There is some evidence that risk-return convergence is positively linked to increasing correlation with the global developed public real estate over the full study period. Finally, exchange rate variable has relatively little effect on the variation of the three distance measures. We conclude that the risk and return characteristics of the developed public property markets have not become less different from each other over time, implying that the idiosyncratic ‘real estate factor’ and ‘country factor’ of individual markets might have become more important in affecting the market integration over time. This analysis and evidence contributes to our understanding of the dynamics of international developed public property market integration in global investing.
THE CHANGING SKILL COMPOSITION OF EMPLOYMENT IN QUEENSLAND

While high employment growth is a desirable outcome it is also important to understand the composition of employment growth. In particular, recent developments in economic growth theory, particularly the theories relating to regional growth, have emphasised the skill base of regional economies and how this may influence economic performance. For much of the last decade, Queensland has consistently had higher employment growth than the rest of Australia. However, some authors have suggested that this employment growth is problematic, being in industries requiring low-skilled workers. In this paper, the compositional change in occupations that has occurred in the Queensland labour market over the period 1990-2001 is outlined. While there is evidence that Queensland has a lower skilled workforce than the rest of Australia, it does not appear that the differences in skill level have widened over this period. In contrast, an analysis of the sub-period, 1997-2001 provides some evidence of divergence in the skill base of the respective labour markets.
VWAP Cost Excluding Own Trades

VWAP (Volume-Weighted Average Price) Cost is a widely used measure for execution quality. However, many have criticized the VWAP Cost measure. One of the most frequent criticisms is that VWAP Cost includes the trader or institutional investor's own trades in the benchmark price. This article clarifies related issues by deriving a simple mathematical relation between VWAP Cost including versus excluding own trades. This result enables computation of VWAP Cost excluding own trades without having to explicitly identify the trader's own trades in intraday market data. This is useful in practice because it is extremely difficult, if not impossible, to identify a particular trader's trades in intraday market data (e.g., the NYSE TAQ).
‘Work-Welfare'and the Regulation of the Poor: The Pessimism of Post-Structuralism

Through a concern with disciplinary power, post-structuralists have recently turned their attention to the discursive force of welfare in constituting the poor as docile and subservient populations. Far from representing a new and fruitful mode of radical analysis, it is argued that the idealism of the post-structuralist position produces a rigid determinism. Using the recent example of ‘work-welfare’ in Britain, the pessimism of this position is rejected by pointing to the continuing importance of resistance and opposition, while considering their wider significance for the analysis of welfare provision.
BRIDGING COMMUNAL DIVIDES: SEPARATION, PATRONAGE, INTEGRATION

We analyze conflicts between communities. A community-specific public good, to which members make voluntary contributions, defines communities. Some, but not all, members of one community may contribute towards another community’s public good. Such ‘bridging’ contributions will not occur when communities have relatively equal wealth endowments. ‘Separation’ of communities in this sense provides incentives to individuals to support confiscation of the other community’s wealth, thus generating communal conflicts. Individuals’ incentives to support inter-community conflicts can be moderated by the presence of a public good common to both communities. Such moderation however occurs only when communities are separated at the level of public goods constitutive of a community’s self-identity. Thus the presence of meta-communal public goods and relative wealth equality across communities are both necessary to mitigate communal conflict.
Transient Appearance of “No‐Reflow” Phenomenon in Mongolian Gerbils

We investigated the existence of the “no-reflow” phenomenon in focal cerebral ischemia. Regional cerebral blood flow was studied in Mongolian gerbils perfused with a carbon-black particle suspension after cerebral ischemia prior to decapitation and compared with 14C-antipyrine autoradiographic images. The correlation between the occurrence of the “no-reflow” phenomenon and systemic arterial blood pressure change was also examined. We found that the phenomenon was transient in character and that its manifestation was related to the transient fall in arterial blood pressure observed immediately after dip release and with stagnation of venous blood flow. The phenomenon disappeared in animals in which the arterial blood pressure was artificially increased after clip release.
Financial Competence and Expectations Formation: Evidence from Australia

We study the financial competence of Australian retirement savers using self-assessed and quantified measures. Responses to financial literacy questions show large variation and compare poorly with some international surveys. Basic and sophisticated financial literacy vary significantly with most demographics, self-assessed financial competence, income, superannuation accumulation and net worth. General numeracy scores are largely constant across gender, age, higher education and income. Financial competence also significantly affects expectations of stock market performance. Using a discrete choice model, we show that individuals with a higher understanding of risk, diversification and financial assets are more likely to assign a probability to future financial crises rather than expressing uncertainty.
Induction and growth of hairy roots for the production of medicinal compounds

The development of genetically transformed plant tissue cultures and mainly of roots transformed by Agrobacterium rhizogenes (hairy roots), is a key step in the use of in vitro cultures for the production of secondary metabolites. Hairy roots are able to grow fast without phytohormones, and to produce the metabolites of the mother plant. The conditions of transformation (nature and age of the explants, bacterial strain, bacterial density, and the protocol of infection) deeply influence the frequency of the transformation events as well as the growth and productivity of the hairy roots. Then optimization of the culture parameters (medium constituents, elicitation by biotic or abiotic stress) may enhance the capability of the hairy roots to grow fast and to produce valuable compounds.and Newman, 2005). Huperzine A and galantamine (galanthamine) acting as acetylcholinesterase inhibitors have been approved for the treatment of Alzheimer's disease and other neurodegenerative pathologies (Raves et al., 1997; Scott and Goa, 2000). The obtention of medicinal compounds from extraction of wild or cultivated plants can be limited by various problems: plants difficult to cultivate, risk of extinction for over exploited plants, and geopolitical problems, among other causes (Verpoorte et al., 2002). To try to overcome these problems, many attempts were made during the last decades to evaluate the possibility of producing medicinal compounds by in vitro plant cell and organ cultures (Berlin, 1986; Alfermann and Petersen 1995). However, in most
Groundnut consumption frequency in Ghana

Groundnut (peanut) is an important food and oil crop in Ghana, but little is known about the factors influencing consumption. The study surveyed market participants; investigated the frequency and forms of groundnut consumed; and evaluated the factors influencing consumers’ decisions to eat groundnuts in Ghana. About 80% of respondents consume groundnut and/or its products at least once a week and 32.0% consume it three times a week. Logistic models showed that age, education and the form in which groundnuts are consumed influence the frequency of groundnut consumption. Total revenue and the form in which groundnut is eaten influence farmers consumption decision whereas groundnut consumption by poultry farmers is influenced by knowledge of the health effects of groundnuts on birds and the form in which groundnut is eaten by the poultry producers. Processors’ frequency of consumption is influenced by the form in which groundnut is consumed and their knowledge of reasons for sorting. The results are important for market segmentation for demand projection along the marketing chain.
Does High School Employment Affect High School Academic Performance?

This paper analyzes how school year employment affected high school academic performance among a sample of young people surveyed between 1979 and 1983. Regular employment at modest weekly hours was associated with higher grades within each grade level, but between-grade transitions into and out of employment were accompanied by very slight performance declines and gains, respectively. While the average effect of school year employment was quite small, extensive school year employment had a large, statistically significant negative impact on the academic performance of racial minorities. Summer employment did not affect grades, suggesting that school year employment affected grades by “crowding out” study time.
Risk Aversion, Collective Bargaining, and Wages in Germany

We develop an open-shop model of trade union membership in which workers differ in their risk attitudes, and derive conditions under which the bargained wage will fall and union membership will increase with a general rise in risk aversion. Using data from the German Socio-Economic Panel we define broad bargaining units and show that wages decline as average risk aversion of union members in these units rises, controlling for individual effects of risk aversion. Given a negative relationship between wages and employment, this suggests that secular changes in risk attitudes, because of an aging workforce or greater female labour force participation, can help to explain variations in the employment performance of unionized economies.
Social Capital and Aboriginal Communities: A critical assessment Synthesis and assessment of the body of knowledge on social capital with emphasis on Aboriginal communities

The social capital paper consists of four sections. Synthesis and Assessment of the Body of Knowledge on Social Capital with Emphasis on Aboriginal Communities provides a general background and overview of the concept of social capital, discussing its intellectual history and examining the areas of study where the notion of social capital has been applied to. It reviews in-depth the use of the concept of social capital for the study of Aboriginal communities. The Measurement of Social Capital and its Impacts with Emphasis on Aboriginal Communities examines the literature related to the measurement of the concept of social capital and synthesizes research that has sought to assess the impact of social capital on various societal outcomes. Influencing Social Capital: A Review of the Literature with Emphasis on Aboriginal Communities reviews both research and policy initiatives that sought to impact social capital of communities and understand the potential mechanisms at play. It presents some case descriptions and addresses the evidence related to influencing social capital and potential interventions to that effect. Aboriginal Social Capital: A Review of the Literature pulls together the main conclusions from the previous documents and provides guidance in relation to the potential of social capital as a notion for research and practice among Aboriginal communities.
Initial Adoption Versus Institutionalization of E-Procurement in Construction Firms: An Empirical Investigation in Vietnam

This study explores the factors that impact the initial adoption and institutionalization of e-procurement in construction firms in developing countries. It proposes a research model based on an interaction perspective that is a combination of the technology-organization-environment (TOE) framework and the theory of reasoned action (TRA). Data collected from 112 construction businesses in Hanoi, Vietnam in 2012 were analyzed using partial least square-structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). The findings show that the government plays an extremely important role in decision-making of both initial adoption and institutionalization of e-procurement in individual construction enterprises. Furthermore, the determinants of initial adoption of e-procurement are very different from those of institutionalization of the technology. The experience of the initial adoption of e-procurement is found not to have any significant effect on the decision of subsequent implementation of the technology. Theoretical implications, practical implications, and limitations of the research are discussed and suggestions for future research are made.
Interventional management of stroke.

See related article, pages 1770–1773 . Intravenous thrombolysis has become generally accepted and is currently the only FDA approved medical therapy for treatment of patients with acute ischemic stroke. Its use is associated with improved outcomes of patients who can be treated within 3 hours of stroke onset.1 A higher concentration of thrombolytic agents delivered directly into the thrombus has led to the promotion of intra-arterial thrombolysis, although the possible clinical benefits may be counterbalanced by delays to initiating treatment.2,3 With the evolving concept of interventional management of stroke, several options of multimodal reperfusion therapy are being evaluated. Options include emergency angioplasty and stenting as well as mechanical disruption or extraction of the thrombus.4–6 …
Abolition of Raw Milk Quota in the European Union: A CGE Analysis at the Member Country Level

This paper discusses a generic approach to implementing production quotas in an applied general equilibrium framework. The quota rent is interpreted as additional primary factor payments. We analyse the abolition of the raw milk quota and the elimination of export subsidies for dairy products in the European Union at a member country level. The raw milk output increases in Denmark, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Spain, while it declines in Germany, Greece, Portugal and Sweden. The EU-wide effect for raw milk production is an output increase of 3% and a price decline of 22%. To assess the robustness of the critical assumption about the raw milk quota rent we apply Arndt and Pearson's Systematic Sensitivity Analysis.
Fiscal Capacity, Tax Effort, and Optimal Equalization Grants

In this paper, the authors address the question of how the tax burden in a federation should be distributed across the different jurisdictions so that the social cost of providing government services is minimized. Using optimal tax theory, they derive formulas for the optimal equalization grants that equalize the social marginal cost of raising revenue across all provinces. The authors show how the optimal equalization grants are related to a measure of tax effort based on the marginal cost of public funds and a measure of fiscal capacity that takes into account the elasticity of the tax base and its substitutability with other tax bases.
Fair Valuation of a Guaranteed Life Insurance Participating Contract Embedding a Surrender Option

In this article we deal with the problem of pricing a guaranteed life insurance participating policy, sold in the Italian market, which embeds a surrender option. This feature is an American-style put option that enables the policyholder to sell back the contract to the insurer at the cash surrender value. Employing a recursive binomial formula patterned after the Cox, Ross, and Rubinstein (1979) discrete option pricing model we compute, first of all, the total price of the contract, which also includes a compensation for the participation feature ("participation option," henceforth). Then this price is split into the value of three components: the "basic contract", the "participation option", and the "surrender option". The numerical implementation of the model allows us to catch some comparative statics properties and to tackle the problem of suitably fixing the contractual parameters in order to obtain the premium computed by insurance companies according to standard actuarial practice. Copyright The Journal of Risk and Insurance.
A bivariate probit approach to the determination of employment: a study of teen employment differentials in Los Angeles County

Following a bivariate probit approach and using the 1990 Public Use Microdata Samples (PUMS) for Los Angeles County, this study shows that the employment of teenage workers depends on both the worker's participation decision as well as the employer's hiring decision. Omission of the role of participation decision from the estimation of employment probability yields misleading evidence of hiring discrimination against Blacks. This evidence, however, disappears when the participation and hiring equations are estimated jointly in a bivariate framework. The study finds no evidence of discrimination against females and Latinos. In addition, the study shows that family, household and neighbourhood characteristics play significant roles in the determination of teen employment.
In the Beginning, There Was Social Policy: Developments in Social Policy in the European Union from 1972 through 2008

This paper argues that the evolution of social policy â€“ vulgo: labor market mandates â€“ in the European Union seems to follow a set path. Intervals of activism have been followed by challenges and checks to its development, but Treaty innovations (inter al.) have provided the impetus for further activism. The classic and first case in point was the Single European Act (1976), which presaged a new bout of legislation by widening the reach of qualified majority voting. The next was Maastricht, or the Treaty on European Union (1991) and the Agreement on Social Policy, which for the first time established a firm basis for social policy. An intermediate but instructive step was passage of the Treaty of Amsterdam (1997) which formally incorporated the latter into the main body of the treaty rather than leaving it as a Protocol appended to the treaty, The most recent instance is the Treaty Establishing a Constitution for Europe, which was to morph into the Reform (or Lisbon) Treaty of December 2007. This agreement portends more fundamental reforms for two reasons. First, it implies new legislation in the area of labor relations (issues such as pay determination, the rights to strike/lockout, and the right of association) previously expressly excluded from social policy. Second, it will test some member states applying European law, which means that theoretical opt outs may be just that. And, if history is any guide, there will be subsequent consolidation to bring the labor standards set under legislation into line with European Court of Justice decisions and a further ratcheting-up of standards.
ABANDONMENT VALUE AND CAPITAL BUDGETING

IN THE APPRAISAL of investment proposals, insufficient attention in the literature is paid to the possibility of future abandonment. Customarily, projects are analyzed as though the firm were committed to the project over its entire estimated life. However, many projects have significant abandonment value over their economic lives; and this factor must be considered in the capital-budgeting process if capital is to be allocated optimally. This paper will examine the importance of abandonment value to capital budgeting, analyze how it can affect a project's expected return and risk, and propose a framework for taking account of this seldom-considered dimension. In this regard, a simulation method is developed for incorporating the effects of abandonment into the information provided for the investment decision.
The Quality of Management Forecasts of Capital Expenditures and Store Openings in MD&A

We study the quality of retailers’ forecasts of planned capital expenditure and store openings provided in Management’s Discussion and Analysis (MD&A). These are important examples of forward-looking information included in MD&A. To examine the quality of these forecasts, we evaluate whether they possess five desirable attributes of management forecasts, namely, unbiasedness, efficiency, high explanatory power, incremental informativeness, and sufficient-statistic efficiency (meaning that the forecasts incorporate all available information). We find no evidence of bias in the forecasts. We find that the forecasts have high explanatory power and substantial incremental informativeness relative to historical information. In our in-sample tests, we find evidence of inefficiency and sufficient-statistic inefficiency, but our out-of-sample tests find no significant evidence of either, which suggests that it is difficult to improve on these management forecasts. Overall, the evidence indicates that the forecasts are of high quality. These findings contribute to our understanding of the general quality of MD&A information and our results help explain findings that MD&A disclosures are associated with future accounting results and reduced cost of capital.
Efficient sample selection in data stream regression employing evolving generalized fuzzy models

In this paper, we propose two criteria for efficient sample selection in case of data stream regression problems. The selection becomes apparent whenever the target values, which guide the update of the regressors as well as the implicit model structures, are costly to measure. Reducing the samples used for model updates as much as possible while keeping the predictive accuracy of the models on a high level is thus a central challenge, especially in non-stationary environments where (permanent) system changes or expansion can be expected. Our selection criteria rely on two aspects: 1. ) the extrapolation degree of the model combined with its non-linearity degree, 2. ) the uncertainty in model outputs which can be measured in terms of confidence intervals reflected by so-called adaptive error bars, which are updated over time synchronously to the model. The selection criteria are developed in combination with evolving generalized Takagi-Sugeno (TS) fuzzy models (containing rules in arbitrarily rotated position), which could be shown to outperform conventional evolving TS models (containing axis-parallel rules) and other stream regression techniques in previous publications. The results based on two high-dimensional real-world streaming problems show that a decrease of the number of model updates by about 80-85% (as only 15-20% of samples are selected) can still achieve similar accumulated model errors over time to the case when performing a full update on all samples. This may yield a significant reduction of computational demands and of costs whenever targets are costly to measure.