bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Does Nature Always Matter? Following Dirt through History
Authors: Stroud Ellen 
Published: November 2003

AbstractDespite several decades of impressive scholarship in environmental history, the field remains largely marginal to the discipline as a whole. Environmental stories are still more likely to turn up in introductions, sidebars, and footnotes to political, social, and economic histories than they are to be incorporated into those narratives in a transformative way, though we as environmental historians know that potential is there. As we struggle to identify what precisely it is that we want other historians to do with our work, we run up against questions of definition and mission: What is environmental history? What do we do that is unique? What do we want other historians to learn from what we do? Some scholars in our field have suggested that we can answer these questions by framing “environment” as a category of analysis parallel to race, class, and gender, arguing that careful attention to the environment offers as rich a way of uncovering power relationships in societies as attention to these other categories does. While it is true that power can be read in the environment, and is frequently expressed through it, I argue that “environment” as both concept and fact is so fundamentally different from class, race, and gender that the analogy does not work, and distracts us from another, more fruitful strategy for articulating the broader relevance of our scholarship: demonstrating the significance of material nature for histories beyond the environmental realm. If other historians would join us in our attention to the physical, biological, and ecological nature of dirt, water, air, trees, and animals (including humans), they would find themselves led to new questions and new answers about the past.
The Ultimate “Other”: Post‐Colonialism and Alexander von Humboldt's Ecological Relationship with Nature
Authors: Sachs Aaron 
Published: November 2003

AbstractThis article is a meditation on the overlaps between environmentalism, post‐colonial theory, and the practice of history. It takes as a case study the writings of the explorer‐scientist‐abolitionist Alexander von Humboldt (1769–1859), the founder of a humane, socially conscious ecology. The post‐colonial critique has provided a necessary corrective to the global environmental movement, by focusing it on enduring colonialist power dynamics, but at the same time it has crippled the field of environmental history, by dooming us to a model of the past in which all Euro‐American elites, devoid of personal agency, are always already in an exploitative relationship with the people and natural resources of the developing world. A close reading of Humboldt's work, however, suggests that it could provide the basis for a healthy post‐colonial environmentalism, if only post‐colonial critics were willing to see beyond Humboldt's complicity in colonial structures. In particular, this article attempts to rehabilitate Humboldt's reputation in the face of Mary Louise Pratt's canonical post‐colonial study, Imperial Eyes: Travel Writing and Transculturation. Humboldt's efforts to inspire communion with Nature while simultaneously recognizing Nature's “otherness” can be seen as radical both in his day and in ours. In addition his analysis of the link between the exploitation of natural resources and the exploitation of certain social groups anticipates the global environmental justice movement.
Equity Volatility and Corporate Bond Yields
Authors: Campbell John Y. , Taksler Glen B. 
Published: November 2003

AbstractThis paper explores the effect of equity volatility on corporate bond yields. Panel data for the late 1990s show that idiosyncratic firm‐level volatility can explain as much cross‐sectional variation in yields as can credit ratings. This finding, together with the upward trend in idiosyncratic equity volatility documented by Campbell, Lettau, Malkiel, and Xu (2001), helps to explain recent increases in corporate bond yields.
Institutional Investors and Executive Compensation
Authors: Hartzell Jay C. , Starks Laura T. 
Published: November 2003

AbstractWe find that institutional ownership concentration is positively related to the pay‐for‐performance sensitivity of executive compensation and negatively related to the level of compensation, even after controlling for firm size, industry, investment opportunities, and performance. These results suggest that the institutions serve a monitoring role in mitigating the agency problem between shareholders and managers. Additionally, we find that clientele effects exist among institutions for firms with certain compensation structures, suggesting that institutions also influence compensation structures through their preferences.
Intraday Price Formation in U.S. Equity Index Markets
Authors: Hasbrouck Joel 
Published: November 2003

AbstractThe market for U.S. equity indexes presently comprises floor‐traded index futures contracts, exchange‐traded funds (ETFs), electronically traded, small‐denomination futures contracts (E‐minis), and sector ETFs that decompose the S&P 500 index into component industry portfolios. This paper empirically investigates price discovery in this environment. For the S&P 500 and Nasdaq‐100 indexes, most of the price discovery occurs in the E‐mini market. For the S&P 400 MidCap index, price discovery is shared between the regular futures contract and the ETF. The S&P 500 ETF contributes markedly to price discovery in the sector ETFs, but there are only minor effects in the reverse direction.
Financial Development, Property Rights, and Growth
Authors: Claessens Stijn , Laeven Luc 
Published: November 2003

AbstractIn countries with more secure property rights, firms might allocate resources better and consequentially grow faster as the returns on different types of assets are more protected against competitors' actions. Using data on sectoral value added for a large number of countries, we find evidence consistent with better property rights leading to higher growth through improved asset allocation. Quantitatively, the growth effect is as large as that of improved access to financing due to greater financial development. Our results are robust using various samples and specifications, including controlling for growth opportunities.
The Behavior of Bid‐Ask Spreads and Volume in Options Markets during the Competition for Listings in 1999
Authors: De Fontnouvelle Patrick , Fishe Raymond P. H. , Harris Jeffrey H. 
Published: November 2003

AbstractIn August 1999, U.S. exchanges began to compete directly for order flow in many options that had been exclusively listed on another exchange, shifting 37% of option volume to multiple‐listing status by the end of September. Effective and quoted bid–ask spreads decrease significantly after multiple listings with spreads generally maintaining their initial lower levels 1 year later. These results hold for both time series and pooled regressions and are robust. We reject that economies of scale in market making cause the decrease in spreads and support the view that interexchange competition reduces option transaction costs.
Model Misspecification and Underdiversification
Authors: Uppal Raman , Wang Tan 
Published: November 2003

AbstractIn this paper, we study intertemporal portfolio choice when an investor accounts explicitly for model misspecification. We develop a framework that allows for ambiguity about not just the joint distribution of returns for all stocks in the portfolio, but also for different levels of ambiguity for the marginal distribution of returns for any subset of these stocks. We find that when the overall ambiguity about the joint distribution of returns is high, then small differences in ambiguity for the marginal return distribution will result in a portfolio that is significantly underdiversified relative to the standard mean‐variance portfolio.
Momentum Investing and Business Cycle Risk: Evidence from Pole to Pole
Authors: Griffin John M. , Ji Xiuqing , Martin J. Spencer 
Published: November 2003

AbstractWe examine whether macroeconomic risk can explain momentum profits internationally. Neither an unconditional model based on the Chen, Roll, and Ross (1986) factors nor a conditional forecasting model based on lagged instruments provides any evidence that macroeconomic risk variables can explain momentum. In addition, momentum profits around the world are economically large and statistically reliable in both good and bad economic states. Further, these momentum profits reverse over 1‐ to 5‐year horizons, an action inconsistent with existing risk‐based explanations of momentum.
Equilibrium “Anomalies”
Authors: Ferguson Michael F. , Shockley Richard L. 
Published: November 2003

AbstractMany empirical “anomalies” are actually consistent with the single beta capital asset pricing model if the empiricist utilizes an equity‐only proxy for the true market portfolio. Equity betas estimated against this particular inefficient proxy will be understated, with the error increasing with the firm's leverage. Thus, firm‐specific variables that correlate with leverage (such as book‐to‐market and size) will appear to explain returns after controlling for proxy beta simply because they capture the missing beta risk. Loadings on portfolios formed on relative leverage and relative distress completely subsume the powers of the Fama and French (1993) returns to small minus big market capitalization (SMB) portfolios and returns to high minus low book‐to‐market (HML) portfolios factors in explaining cross‐sectional returns.
Capital Structure and Financial Risk: Evidence from Foreign Debt Use in East Asia
Authors: Allayannis George , Brown Gregory W. , Klapper Leora F. 
Published: November 2003

AbstractUsing a data set of East Asian nonfinancial companies, we examine a firm's choice between local, foreign, and synthetic local currency (hedged foreign currency) debt. We find evidence of unique as well as common factors that determine each debt type's use, indicating the importance of examining debt at a disaggregated level. We exploit the Asian financial crisis as a natural experiment to investigate the role of debt type in firm performance. Surprisingly, we find that the use of synthetic local currency debt is associated with the biggest drop in market value, possibly due to currency derivative market illiquidity during the crisis.
Shareholder Taxes in Acquisition Premiums: The Effect of Capital Gains Taxation
Authors: Ayers Benjamin C. , Lefanowicz Craig E. , Robinson John R. 
Published: November 2003

AbstractWe exploit cross‐temporal differences in capital gains tax rates to test whether shareholder‐level capital gains taxes are associated with higher acquisition premiums for taxable acquisitions. We model acquisition premiums as a function of proxies for the capital gains taxes of target shareholders, taxability of the acquisition, and tax status of the price‐setting shareholder as represented by the level of target institutional ownership. Consistent with a lock‐in effect for acquisition premiums, results suggest a unique positive association between shareholder capital gains taxes for individual investors and acquisition premiums for taxable acquisitions, which is mitigated by target institutional ownership.
Long-term effects of widowhood after terminal cancer: a Swedish nationwide follow-up
Authors: Valdimarsdóttir Unnur , Helgason Ásgeir R. , Fürst Carl-Johan , Adolfsson Jan , Steineck Gunnar 
Published: November 2003

Aims: The authors investigated whether becoming a widow after the death of a husband from cancer results in long-term psychological or physical morbidity. Method: In April and May 1999, an attempt was made to contact all of the 506 women who were living with men dying of prostate cancer in 1996 or of urinary bladder cancer in 1995 or 1996, as well as 287 population controls. Results: Completed questionnaires were received from 379 of the widows and 220 of the controls. Widowhood was associated with a low or moderate subjective quality of life (relative risk [RR]=1.4, 95% confidence interval 1.2—1.7), low or moderate psychological well-being (RR=1.8, 1.4—2.3), anxiety (RR=1.9, 1.3—2.7), depression (RR=2.2, 1.6—2.9), sleep disturbances (RR=1.9, 1.5—2.4), diabetes (RR=3.5, 1.2—7.9), and economic dissatisfaction (RR=1.6, 1.3—2.0). Conclusion: An excess risk of psychological morbidity, diabetes mellitus and dissatisfaction with the economic situation was found in the widowed population.
Requirement of Phosphatidylglycerol for Maintenance of Photosynthetic Machinery
Authors: Sakurai Isamu , Hagio Miki , Gombos Zoltan , Tyystjärvi Taina , Paakkarinen Virpi , Aro Eva-Mari , Wada Hajime 
Published: November 2003

Abstract
Phosphatidylglycerol (PG) is a ubiquitous component of thylakoid membranes. Experiments with the pgsA mutant of the cyanobacterium Synechocystis sp. PCC6803 defective in biosynthesis of PG have demonstrated an indispensable role of PG in photosynthesis. In the present study, we have investigated the light susceptibility of the pgsA mutant with regard to the maintenance of the photosynthetic machinery. Growth of the mutant cells without PG increased the light susceptibility of the cells and resulted in severe photoinhibition of photosynthesis upon a high-light treatment, whereas the growth in the presence of PG was protected against photoinhibition. Photoinhibition induced by PG deprivation was mainly caused by an impairment of the restoration process. The primary target of the light-induced damage in thylakoid membranes, the D1 protein of photosystem (PS) II was, however, synthesized and degraded with similar rates irrespective of whether the mutant cells were incubated with PG or not. Intriguingly, it was found that instead of the synthesis of the D1 protein, the dimerization of the PSII core monomers was impaired in the PG-deprived mutant cells. Addition of PG to photoinhibited cells restored the dimerization capacity of PSII core monomers. These results suggest that PG plays an important role in the maintenance of the photosynthetic machinery through the dimerization and reactivation of the PSII core complex.
The Positive Economics of Labor Market Rigidities and Investor Protection
Authors: Fehn Rainer , Meier Carsten‐Patrick 
Published: November 2003

This paper presents a positive model which derives the preferences of entrepreneurs, workers, and investors concerning investor and employment protection. It shows that institutional setups on capital and labor markets might be intertwined by politicoeconomic forces. Multiple politicoeconomic equilibria arise from our model. Some countries especially in continental Europe exhibit a corporatist politicoeconomic equilibrium with a substantial protection of insiders on both, capital and labor markets. The more important money is in political decision‐making, the more divided the workforce is, and the more globalized capital markets are, the more likely is a capitalist politicoeconomic equilibrium with little employment and substantial investor protection. Our prediction of a negative crosscountry relationship between different measures of labor market rigidities and of competition on capital markets receives considerable empirical support, thus being potentially important for the current debate concerning structural reforms of labor markets and of corporate governance systems.We thank two anonymous referees as well as participants of the Colloquium on Financial Markets at the Kiel Institute of World Economics, of the Workshop of the Arbeitskreis Deutscher Binnenmarkt der List‐Gesellschaft on Capital Markets, of the Economics Workshop at the University of Würzburg, and especially Norbert Berthold, Martin Hellwig, Michael Neumann, Oliver Stettes, and Eric Thode for helpful comments. The usual disclaimer of course applies.
Quality Control in Economics
Authors: Laband David N. , Tollison Robert D. , Karahan Gokhan 
Published: November 2003

This paper analyzes the editorial screening process in economics, employing data from the American Economic Review, Journal of Political Economy, and Quarterly Journal of Economics. We examine three issues: the decline of critical commentary in economics, the increased referencing behavior of authors, and the decline in the citation of economic research. We find that there is empirical evidence in favor of the idea that these trends are mostly due to more ex ante investment by authors in their papers and less need for ex post quality control.We appreciate helpful comments received from William Shughart, John Sophocleus, and the editors of Kyklos. The usual caveat applies.
Regional Cluster Policies: Learning by Comparing?
Authors: Hospers Gert–Jan , Beugelsdijk Sjoerd 
Published: November 2003

This paper deals with an intriguing paradox that can be observed in today’s regional economic policy making: whereas unique local factors are increasingly seen as the determinants of regional economic success, simultaneously more and more governments try to copy policy experiences that proved to be successful in a particular region. A good example here is the use of ‘best practices’ in the field of regional cluster policy. Cluster programs are becoming like ‘mantras’ for policy makers who want to stimulate regional economic development. Given this paradox, in the present paper we address the question what lessons can be drawn from comparing success stories of regional clustering. To answer this question, we combine insights from regional economics and comparative public policy. To start, we discuss the literature that has led to the popularity of the cluster concept as a learning device among policy makers. After that, we identify the preconditions (‘contingencies’) that affect whether these cluster policy initiatives can be transferred from one place to another. We find that some of the contingent influences, especially those related to the degree of uniqueness of an area’s economic structure and culture, hamper the possibility of ‘learning by comparing’ in regional cluster policy. It may even be argued that exactly those regional specificities explain the success of cluster–based policy efforts. Thus, we have to draw the rather pessimistic conclusion that the possibilities of lesson–drawing in regional cluster policy are limited. In our view, at best ‘best practices’ should be seen as inspiration sources rather than as recipes for successful regional economic development.A preliminary version of this paper was presented at the CURE 3–Conference on Outstanding Regions in Leeuwarden, The Netherlands, November 22–24, 2000. We would like to thank Arnoud Lagendijk, an anonymous referee and the editors for valuable comments.
The Game Take–or–Play: A Paradox of Rationality in Simultaneous Move Games
Authors: Colombo Ferdinando 
Published: November 2003

We show that paradoxical conclusions similar to those emerging from reasonings of backward induction can arise also in simultaneous move games with incomplete information.In a static setting, these paradoxes are particularly puzzling, because the usual attempts to avoid the backward induction solution do not work.In a dynamic setting, there is a way out of the paradoxes, which hinges on a (possibly endogenous) uncertainty over the past behaviour of the players and does not call for a long time–horizon.
The Relationship Between Valuation and Ownership of Listed Firms in China
Authors: Hovey Martin , Li Larry , Naughton Tony 
Published: November 2003

This paper investigates the relationship between firm performance and corporate governance in China. Firm performance is measured by Tobin's Q, while corporate governance is determined based on ownership structure and concentration. Prior research, in both China and elsewhere, indicates that ownership structure and concentration have a significant impact on firm performance. The paper builds on previous studies by investigating the complex structure of different share classes that are typical of Chinese listed firms.The paper reports the results of an empirical study of a sample of firms listed on the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock markets over the period 1997–1999. The sample of firms selected represents a cross‐section of industries, share classification, ownership type and ownership concentration. The paper reports a series of regressions that account for different specifications of firm valuation and ownership characteristics. The results indicate that ownership concentration has little explanatory power but ownership structure does matter. Legal person's shareholdings are positively related to firm valuation. The findings of the study are discussed in the context of the current enterprise reform process in China.
Measurement of Inflammatory Biomarkers in Synovial Tissue Extracts by Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay
Authors: Rosengren Sanna , Firestein Gary S. , Boyle David L. 
Published: November 2003

ABSTRACTWe developed methods for measuring inflammatory biomarkers (cytokines, chemokines, and metalloproteinases) in synovial biopsy specimens from patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and osteoarthritis (OA). Soluble extracts of synovial fragments were prepared with mild detergent and analyzed by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) for interleukin 1β (IL-1β), IL-6, IL-8, tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α), and matrix metalloproteinase 3. The optimal detergent was 0.1% Igepal CA-630, which interfered minimally with ELISA detection but extracted 80% of IL-6 from synovial tissue. Upon spiking, 81 to 107% of added biomarkers could be recovered. To determine within-tissue variability, multiple biopsy specimens from each RA synovial extract were analyzed individually. A resulting coefficient of variation of 35 to 62% indicated that six biopsy specimens per synovial extract would result in a sampling error of ≤25%. Preliminary power analysis suggested that 8 to 15 patients per group would suffice to observe a threefold difference before and after treatment in a serial biopsy clinical study. The previously described significant differences in IL-1β, IL-6, IL-8, and TNF-α levels between RA and OA could be detected, thereby validating the use of synovial extracts for biomarker analysis in arthritis. These methods allow monitoring of biomarker protein levels in synovial tissue and could potentially be applied to early-phase clinical trials to provide a preliminary estimate of drug efficacy.
Inflammatory Responses of Bovine Polymorphonuclear Neutrophils Induced by Staphylococcal Enterotoxin C via Stimulation of Mononuclear Cells
Authors: Kuroishi Toshinobu , Komine Ken-ichi , Asai Ken-ichi , Kobayashi Jin , Watanabe Kouichi , Yamaguchi Takahiro , Kamata Shin-ichi , Kumagai Katsuo 
Published: November 2003

ABSTRACTTo elucidate the pathological roles of staphylococcal enterotoxin C (SEC) in bovine staphylococcal mastitis, a histopathological analysis of SEC-inoculated mammary glands was performed. SEC-inoculated mammary glands exhibited interstitial inflammation, and the leukocytes that migrated into the gland were predominantly polymorphonuclear neutrophils (PMN). In the gland cistern tissues dissected from SEC-inoculated mammary glands, epithelial cellular degeneration was observed. We also investigated the physiological effects of SEC on PMN in vitro. PMN migration was induced by culture supernatant of SEC-stimulated peripheral blood mononuclear cells (S-PBMC sup) but not by that of nonstimulated PBMC (N-PBMC sup). The concentration of interleukin-8 was significantly (P< 0.05) higher in S-PBMC sup than N-PBMC sup, and a significantly (P< 0.05) higher mRNA expression of growth-regulated oncogenes was detected in SEC-stimulated PBMC than in nonstimulated PBMC. Milk PMN collected from SEC-inoculated mammary glands produced more than 2 times the amount of superoxide at 1 day postinoculation (dpi) than at 0 dpi in the presence of phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate (PMA). PMN cultured with S-PBMC sup for 24 h also produced significantly (P< 0.05) larger amounts of superoxide than those cultured with N-PBMC sup in the presence of PMA. Moreover, S-PBMC sup induced the long-time survival of PMN. These results indicate that SEC induces the activation of PMN via the stimulation of mononuclear cells.