Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Does Corporate Governance Causally Impact Firm Returns? The Case of India

This paper discusses stakeholder wealth maximization as the ultimate objective of Corporate Governance. This study investigates the role of CG in minimizing the total risk on the firm and maximizing the wealth. At the end, paper intends to examine possibility of CG as a sorting variable for style investing that can provide abnormal returns in the long run. The main goal is to prove the significance of CG in managing abnormal returns, systematic risk and idiosyncratic risk. Main attention was paid to ordinary least squares regression, correlation studies and creation of financial value chain. This study tries to find an answer to the question, does CG holds the ability to determine the market valuation of the firm? The major findings of the paper finds possibility of high CGPI firms finds higher firm specific risk. Despite that investors seek higher excess returns to compensate the total risk. In lower CGPI firms, study finds lower COV, but a higher FGV, that leads to higher market valuation. The financial value chain hypothesizes CG response to critical variables in CAPM creates impact on COV and FGV, that forms the basis of FSR that eventually generates MVA. There exist a value premium that is accumulating over time and grows beyond growth premium to conclude value portfolio has potential wealth generation ability.
Structural cell wall proteins from five pollen species and their relationship with boron

Boro (B) e um micronutriente essencial para a sobrevivencia das plantas vasculares. O efeito mais drastico derivado da sua deficiencia e a alteracao na biogenese da parede celular durante a germinacao de polen. Investigamos polen de especies de plantas que requerem B para germinar (Zea may L. e Nicotiana tabacum L.), e de outras que podem germinar na sua ausencia (Pinus sp, Lilum longiflorum, Impatiens sp.). Em ambos os grupos, a adicao de B no meio de germinacao aumentou o comprimento do tubo polinico depois da germinacao. Glicoproteinas ricas em hidroxiprolina (HRGPs) sao as mais abundantes proteinas estruturais da parede celular de dicotiledoneas e do tecido sexual de monocotiledoneas. Aqui, mostrou-se que polen de milho acumulou uma significativa quantidade de hidroxiprolina (Hyp), estando 63% desse aminoacidos localizados na parede do tubo polinico. Polen de milho germinado na presenca de B acumulou Hyp soluvel (48%) e nao soluvel (16%) na parede do tubo polinico, em contraste ao polen germinado na ausencia de B. Adicionalmente, B parece modificar a quantidade de HRGPs que se ligam a parede celular. Imunolocalizacao de HRGPs mostrou que essas glicoproteinas estavam preferencialmente localizadas na parede do tubo polinico de polen de milho, mas nao no polen. B, portanto, pode afetar no arranjo de HRGPs na parede de tubos polinicos crescidos in vitro.
The Effects of Migration on the Security Risk

Migration represents a phenomenon existing along the evolution of human society, but now there is an acceleration in its dynamic, which causes significant changes in the human community. From a historical point of view, non-democratic, totalitarian governments have forced emigration as a way of managing the problems caused by political dissidents and "enemies of the state. " The difference between the migrant and the refugee is due to the exercise of his will. In the first case, that person chooses unconditionally to leave the State of origin and settle in another State. In the second case, the person is forced to leave the country of origin because of the existing situation that threatens his life.
Splitting and Shuffling: Institutional Trading Motives and Order Submissions Across Brokers

This paper studies order submission strategies by institutional investors when trading on private information. By merging institutional daily transactions with original/confidential 13F filings, I separate informed trades from uninformed ones. Informed large orders tend to be split across more brokers and over more days. While same brokers tend to work uninformed large orders over multiple days, the brokers who facilitated early parts of broken-up informed orders rarely receive the remaining parts of the same orders on later days. Institutional investors also provide camouflage for their informed orders by mixing an informed order with other uninformed orders simultaneously sent to the same broker. As a result, a higher degree of shuffling a portfolio of orders is associated with a larger share of informed trading volume. The splitting and shuffling strategies designed to conceal informed trades from brokers and other market participants tend to lower institutional trading costs, especially on informed orders.
The Price and Adverse Effects of Consumer Protection for the Protected. A Panel Study on Consumers' Right to Early Repayment of Mortgage Loans in the EU-Member States

Increasing consumer protection shifts contractual risks from consumers to suppliers. This raises marginal costs and equilibrium prices. Increasing consumer protection is therefore not without cost. In a cross-country study on European mortgage markets we tested the hypothesis that (all other important determinants of mortgage interest rates controlled for) making consumer protection legislation more stringent leads to higher consumer mortgage interest rates if debtors are permitted to repay their loans at any time without paying damages to the bank. Using monthly panel data collected for twenty-three EU Member States in the period from 2006 to 2016 we find that Member States with high consumer protection levels have higher mortgage interest rates than countries with low protection levels. We subsequently question the assumption that a high level of protection is justified. First, consumer protection leads to cross subsidization of high risk consumers by low risk consumers for instance from people who are not on the job market to those who are and who are therefore more likely to sell their properties and repay the loans prematurely. Second, consumer protection allows debtors to repay their loans if interest rates fall, take out a new loan at a lower interest rate and thus make a windfall profit, without making any losses if interest rates remain constant or rise. This benefits only risk-loving debtors and harms risk averse debtors and is not in line with a reasonable concept of consumer protection. We show this in a formal model that helps us to discuss under what conditions a policy on premature repayments can lead to an increase in consumer welfare.
Social Networks and Crime Decisions: The Role of Social Structure in Facilitating Delinquent Behavior

In the present invention, a pair of valves and an electric switch are controlled by the same bi-metallic strip, with the result that the operation of the switch and the operation of the valves are inter-related. The device basically comprises a coiled bi-metal strip fixed at one end and whose other end is coupled to a flat plate. The plate rests on a member containing the valve orifices, which are covered or uncovered by the plate as it moves horizontally in one direction or another as the bi-metal coil rotates in a clockwise or counterclockwise direction in response to changes in ambient temperature conditions. Mounted on the bi-metal strip is a mercury switch whose angular position is made adjustable so that it can be made to operate at specified temperatures.
Dendrocalamus strictus ((Roxb.) Nees): A Suitable Host for the Maintenance and Propagation of AM Fungi under Temperate Conditions

Dendrocalamus strictus ((Roxb.) Nees) was tested as a perennial host plant for propagation of an arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungal consortium, initially isolated from rhizosphere of tea plants growing in the colder regions. The host performance in terms of colonization and spore production was compared with two annual hosts. The mycorrhizal dependency and growth enhancement potential were analyzed to test the suitability of D. strictus as a host plant. After 90 days of growth, 77.2% roots of D. strictus were found to be colonized by AM fungi with a spore count of 7 per g soil. AM fungal colonization and spore density values were lower in case of the host plants tested. Growth of D. strictus plants was found to be enhanced, in terms of all studied parameters; significant increases were recorded in shoot length as well as fresh and dry weight of shoots, a part of commercial importance. Similarly, P content, protein concentration, chlorophyll a and chlorophyll b contents were found to increase significantly. These data suggest that D. strictus can be used for the multiplication of AM fungi, isolated originally from the rhizosphere of tea; simultaneously, higher shoot biomass can provide additional economic benefit, using this environment friendly technology.
Bots Against Bots: The Use of Political Bots As an Evolutionarily Stable Strategy

This paper analyzes the use of political bots in terms of evolutionary game theory. We study a population where there are two kinds of politicians. The first kind corresponds to politicians that employ bot accounts, whereas the second corresponds to politicians that prefer a more personal interaction (i.e. without relying on bots). We show that using bots is an evolutionarily stable strategy. The predicted outcome of this game implies that we can expect a world of increasing noise, with growing armies of bots at the disposal of politicians and eruptions of fake news disseminated by bots.
Cytogenetic studies in wheat XIX. Chromosome location and linkage studies of a gene for leaf rust resistance in the Australian cultivar ‘Harrier’

Monosomic analysis indicated that a seedling leaf rust resistance gene present in the Australian wheat cultivar ‘Harrier’(tentatively designated LrH) is located on chromosome 2A. LrH segregated independently of the stripe rust resistance gene Yr1 located in the long arm of that chromosome, but failed to recombine with Lr17 located in the short arm. LrH was therefore designated Lr17b and the allele formerly known as Lr17 was redesignated as Lr17a. The genes Lr17b and Lr37 showed close repulsion linkage. Tests of allelism indicated that Lr1 7b is also present in the English wheats ‘Dwarf A’(‘Hobbit Sib’), ‘Maris Fundin’ and ‘Norman’. Virulence for Lr17b occurs in Australia, and pathogenicity studies have also demonstrated virulence in many western European isolates of the leaf rust pathogen. Despite this, it is possible that the gene may be of value in some regions if used in combination with other leaf rust resistance genes.
Mean Reversion in Investment Decisions: The Case of Hollywood

One explanation for the comparatively lower quality of movie sequels is selection bias, known in personnel economics as the Peter principle (Lazear, 2004). Only abnormally successful movies are selected for a sequel. Another explanation is a deterministic depreciation in quality due to the decline in the novelty of the sequel’s characters and storyline. Both explanations predict that, relative to the original, the sequel’s performance will revert towards the mean. We develop a structural model to decompose the two explanations, and estimate its parameters using detailed data on 306 franchise films and 2,823 non-franchise films between 1995 and 2014. Parameter estimates provide evidence of selection bias for action, adventure, and horror movies, and evidence of a deterministic decline in quality for comedies.
Effects of On‐Demand Product Adjustments on Firm's Pricing and Product Strategies

In many markets, consumers have time‐varying needs for product or service quality. Recent technology advances equip firms with the on‐demand product‐adjustment capability (OPAC), which allows them to efficiently process customers' requests for short‐term (e.g., daily or hourly) changes of service quality to meet their time‐varying demands. This paper examines how OPAC affects a firm's optimal pricing and product‐line decisions in a market with consumers having time‐varying product needs and different average need levels. OPAC gives the firm a new way to price discriminate consumers—having a targeted consumer use a low‐end product in her low‐need state and upgrade to a high‐end product in her high‐need state; this contrasts the traditional use of a product line to segment consumers based on their expected valuations, that is, average need levels, whereby each consumer uses only one product and cannot flexibly adjust the product quality over time. We show that OPAC does not always improve the firm's profit: it does so only when consumers' valuations vary significantly over time or when each segment of consumers with different probabilities of having a high valuation is not too small. Moreover, although OPAC enables the firm to provide additional options to serve more consumer segments, it may actually induce the firm to optimally serve fewer consumer segments. One may intuit that OPAC would induce the firm to reduce the low‐end product's quality to elicit more upgrades; our analysis shows that, interestingly, OPAC can lead to an increase in quality for both high‐end and low‐end products.
Changes in photosynthetic and transpiration rates of cotton leaves infested with the cotton aphid, Aphis gossypii: Unrestricted infestation

Summary The influence of aphid, Aphis gossypii, feeding on photosynthesis and transpiration in cotton plants was investigated under greenhouse conditions. Four population densities of 0, 5, 10, and 25 aphids were used to infest individual cotton leaves. Gas exchange rates were determined for single attached cotton leaves after 9, 18, and 27 days of aphid infestation. Aphid feeding changed photosynthetic rates and transpiration rates. These changes were proportional to the number of aphids and the length of infestation period. Photosynthetic rates were significantly reduced in infested leaves with 25 aphids over 18 days, whereas significant reduction in photosynthetic rates was recorded within 27 days in infested leaves with 5, 10, and 25 aphids in comparison to their respective control. Initial population of 10 aphids increased significantly the transpiration rate of infested leaves over 9 and 27 days. Leaves of plants with 25 aphids had significantly greater transpiration rate than the control at all times.
The Rise of the Transpiration Stream: An Historical and Critical Discussion

I. "LI e phenomena de l'ascension de la seve est rest jusqu' a nos ours sans aucune explication plausible," wrote Dutrochet in 1837. Knight had said the same thing in i8oi. During the intervening century there have been a considerable number of explanations, plausible enough to satisfy their authors, and a very few which have commanded a wide but temporary adherence. Every theory proposed has been overthrown by direct experiment, or shown to be in conflict with generally accepted principles of physics. The work of Dixon and Joly and of Askenasy during the past decade has extended the knowledge already possessed in physics as to the cohesive power of water, and by the application of this knowledge these authors have developed a theory which has since almost monopolized the field. Believing that the true solution was to be found in this direction, I set up an apparatus intended to illustrate its application more strikingly than had been done before. This artificial tree had so much in its behavior in common with real trees that when all was done I was likewise unable to explain it. Thirty-one pieces of glass tubing, each 3mm in diameter and
Provenance tests as indicators of growth response to climate change in 10 north temperate tree species

Thirteen series of multilocation provenance test plantations, representing 10 tree species common to eastern North America, were analyzed to determine the effect of variation in average annual minimum temperature on height growth of trees from known seed source locations. Regressions were developed to predict provenance height, based on the temperature differentials between seed source locations and provenance locations. Regression equations for 12 of the 13 provenance test series were sigificant (p < 0.01) and accounted for an average of 29% of the height variation among provenances. For 8 of the 10 species examined, an increase in average annual minimum temperature is projected to result in a decline in tree height growth, relative to an adapted source.
Smokeless tobacco extract impairs iron homeostasis in rats and human hepatoma, HepG2 cells

Tobacco exposure may alter homeostasis of iron (Fe), one of the most abundant and essential transition metals in the body. In this study, the effect of aqueous extract of smokeless tobacco was evaluated on Fe homeostasis in rats and human hepatoma, HepG2 cells. Our findings suggested that tobacco consumption even at low doses impairs Fe homeostasis leading to Fe deficiency anemia. Significant alterations were noted with respect to hematological parameters and expression patterns of selected intestinal Fe-transporters, Fe-binding proteins, and Fe-regulatory hormone, hepcidin. Impairment in the hepatic and renal antioxidant defense system was also observed in the treated rats. Histopathological studies revealed cirrhosis of liver and goblet cell hyperplasia of small intestine. Further, analysis of hepcidin promoter and its expression along with ferritin (expression and ELISA) in HepG2 cells demonstrated an enhanced expression of both the genes resulting in sequestration of Fe in treated cells, thus indicating systemic Fe deficiency.
Foreign Aid Shocks as a Cause of Violent Armed Conflict

In this study we resolve part of the confusion over how foreign aid affects armed conflict. We argue that aid shocks – severe decreases in aid revenues – inadvertently shift the domestic balance of power and potentially induce violence. During aid shocks, potential rebels gain bargaining strength vis-à-vis the government. To appease the rebels, the government must promise future resource transfers, but the government has no incentive to continue its promised transfers if the aid shock proves to be temporary. With the government unable to credibly commit to future resource transfers, violence breaks out. Using AidData’s comprehensive dataset of bilateral and multilateral aid from 1981-2005, we evaluate the effects of foreign aid on violent armed conflict. In addition to rare-event logit analysis, we employ matching methods to account for the possibility that aid donors anticipate conflict. The results show that negative aid shocks significantly increase the probability of armed conflict onset.
Cooperative Monetary and Fiscal Policies in the Euro-Area

This paper discusses the interaction of fiscal and monetary policy in the euro area. Given the existence of a monetary union, but absence of a federal fiscal union, many observers suggest a fiscal union as the next step of euro area constitutional reform. Though further fiscal capacity has a chance to be built in the near future, a more coherent fiscal union of federal type does not appear politically feasible in the short run. Given the claims of maintaining sovereign fiscal authorities by the member countries of the euro area, we suggest to move forward with cooperative monetary and fiscal institutions and policies that allow for decentralized fiscal decisions, while taking federal stabilization policies into account. This approach will increase the probability of survival of the euro area compared with the current fiscal arrangements and non-cooperative solutions. Using a dynamic macro model, actual solution paths are contrasted with counterfactual paths which our cooperative model would suggest.
It's a Small World: The Importance of Social Connections with Auditors to Mutual Fund Managers' Portfolio Decisions.

We examine the impact of social ties between mutual fund managers and auditors of public firms on mutual fund stockholdings. We find that mutual funds whose managers are socially connected with firm auditors hold more shares of these firms. In cross-sectional results consistent with expectations, we find that the effect of social connections on mutual fund stockholdings is more pronounced: when the social connections are stronger; for small audit firms; and for public firms with greater business opacity, stock price synchronicity, and systematic risk. We further document that mutual funds with socially connected auditors engage more in informed trading and generate superior portfolio returns. In compensation, connected auditors benefit from more audit business as well as higher audit and non-audit fees from both mutual funds and public firms. Our evidence implies information transfer from auditors to mutual fund managers through their social connections, which improves mutual fund portfolio decisions.
Extent and Determinants of Corporate Voluntary Reporting: An Empirical Investigation of Listed Non-Financial Companies in Bangladesh

The aim of this study is to determine the extent and trend of voluntary reporting practices on the internet by the listed non financial companies in Bangladesh. It also identifies the factors that influenced the voluntary reporting on the internet. The final sample consists of 141 non financial companies listed in the Dhaka Stock Exchange, Bangladesh. This study used self constructed checklists of 128 items divided into nine groups. Current study observed that the mean of the total voluntary disclosure score for the sample is about 29.50% with highest disclosure in the telecommunication sector which is 55.47% where as tannery sector discloses the lowest; only 22.40%. The result of the regression analysis found that the total voluntary disclosure has significant positive association with firm size, audit firm's international link, multinational parent, independent director in the board and dual leadership structure whereas significant negative association with the firms profitability and firm leverage. However, board size, ownership structure, company's liquidity and company age have non-significant association with voluntary reporting on the internet. The value of adjusted R square indicates that 46.5% of the changes of total voluntary disclosure are explained by the changes in its examined determinants.
Institutions and Urban Concentration: The Role of State Capacity

Previous research has argued that non-democratic institutions tend to facilitate high levels of urban concentration due to government policies that favor primate cities. However, the mechanisms by which governments favor their large cities are still unclear, and whether favoritism predominately takes the form of lower extraction rates or more public goods. Differences in mechanism are important because disparities in public goods have different consequences for country-level growth than differences in extraction rates. We present a simple model where non-democratic governments are incentivized by rents to provide public goods. In this model, government favoritism to a specific region will take the form of superior public goods, when government coercive capacity is generally low and lower extraction rates when coercive capacity is high. Consequently, the model predicts that cities which are small/less productive will be favored in low capacity countries, but these results will be attenuated as capacity increases. Results from a panel data analysis of urban concentration for most of the large cities in the world for the period 1955-2010 are consistent with the model’s predictions. A calibrated version of our model implies that the effect of favoritism on urban concentration is negative for most countries of the world due to most countries having low capacity, resulting in favoritism towards small cities. Our results imply that under non-democratic governments, primate capital cities tend to grow faster than other large cities due to an increase in the provision of public goods. Using city level estimates of developed land per capita as a measure of public goods, we find evidence consistent with this public goods channel.