Extending the determinants of currency substitution in Nigeria: Any role for financial innovation?

Existing literature suggests that macroeconomic and institutional factors are the drivers of currency substitution. The persistent and significant incidence of currency substitution during the period of mixed performance of macroeconomic variables suggests the existence of a knowledge gap on the drivers of currency substitution during the era of rapid technological innovation. To contribute to this literature, we augmented the traditional money demand model of the determinants of currency substitution to introduce financial innovation. We use Nigerian data from 2005Q1 to 2019Q4 and Pesaran et al. (2001, https://doi.org/10.1002/jae.616 ) autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) bound test approach to cointegration to estimate the models. The results confirm the presence of short-run and long-run relationships between financial technology and currency substitution in Nigeria. In effect, the deployment of financial technology in developing payment system infrastructure creates additional incentives for economic agents to hold foreign currency deposit. Economic managers must, therefore, mainstream credible monetary and fiscal policies to moderate the effect of financial innovation on currency substitution.     

Effects of time processing orientation, agreement preferences and attitude towards foreign businessmen on negotiation adaptation

An experiment was conducted among Singaporean executives to determine how they adapt to a foreign partner depending on the partner's time processing orientation and agreement preferences, and their attitude towards businessmen from the country the foreign partner was from. Results showed that Singaporean executives tended to have monochronic time processing and preferred written to oral agreements. Further, when a foreign partner exhibited a monochronic processing orientation, these executives had greater liking for and were more willing to accept this trait than when he had a polychronic processing orientation. Liking for the foreign partner was also enhanced. In terms of agreement preferences, the executives showed greater liking for and willingness to accept the trait when the foreign partner had a written than an oral preference. Finally, willingness to accept the foreign partner as a business partner was enhanced once they knew where the foreign partner came from, regardless of their attitude towards businessmen from that country. Implications are discussed and directions for future research furnished.     

The reversal of large stock price declines: The case of large firms

This paper examines the long-run reversal pattern for a sample of large U.S. firms that experienced significant stock price declines of more than 20 percent during a specific month. The results from the analysis are largely consistent with the overreaction hypothesis and significantly greater in magnitude than those reported by previous studies. Six and 12 months after their initial price decline, the stocks of large firms earn approximately 4 and 12 percent in excess of what was expected, respectively. However, the magnitude and trend of that reversal differs substantially across industries. Technology stocks experience the largest and strongest reversal pattern followed by manufacturing stocks, while service industry stocks exhibit a clear downward drift that lasts up to three years and can be described as investorunderreaction to the large price drop.     

Societal preferences for fertility treatment in Australia: a stated preference discrete choice experiment

Objective: To investigate preferences for fertility treatment from the Australian general population with the aims of calculating the willingness to pay in tax contribution for attributes (characteristics) that make up treatment and for an “ideal” fertility treatment program. We also assessed whether willingness-to-pay varies by the relationship status or sexual orientation of the patient.

Methods: A stated preference discrete choice experiment was administered to a panel of 801 individuals representative of the Australian general population. Seven attributes of fertility treatment under three broad categories were included: outcome, process, and cost. Attributes were identified through published literature, focus group discussions, expert knowledge, and a pilot study. A Bayesian fractional experimental design was used, and data analysis was performed using a generalized multinomial logit model. Further analyses included interaction terms and latent class modeling.

Results: Six of the seven attributes influenced the choice of a treatment program. Under process attributes, individuals preferred: continuity of care of clinic staff, where patients are seen by the same doctor but different nurses at each visit; “alternative” treatments being offered to all patients; and onsite clinic counseling and peer-support groups. Personalization and tailoring of the treatment journey were not important. Among outcome attributes, the improved success rate of having a baby per cycle and significant side-effects were considered important. Cost of treatment also influenced the choice of treatment program. Individual preferences for fertility treatment were not associated with patients’ relationship status or sexual orientation. Latent class modeling revealed sub-groups with distinct fertility treatment preferences.

Conclusion: This study provides important insights into the attributes that influence the preferences of fertility treatment in Australia. It also estimates socially-inclusive willingness-to-pay values in tax contributions for an “ideal” package of treatment. The results can inform economic evaluations of fertility treatment programs.     

Water and vertical territory: the volatile and hidden historical geographies of Derbyshire’s lead mining soughs, 1650s–1830s

ABSTRACT

This paper is concerned with the complex subterranean politics of lead mining in the Derbyshire Peak District. We focus specifically on the implications of lead mining ‘soughs’ – underground channels driven to drain water out of mines to allow for mineral extraction. Built during the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, soughs were substantial, capital and labour intensive projects which served a key function in the refashioning of subterranean and surface hydrological landscapes. They were ‘driven’ at a time when water was both a major hindrance to mining endeavour and the primary energy source for industrial expansion, such that historical disputes surrounding sough drainage were common. Here, we draw on unpublished historical legal records to explore the ways in which vertical conceptualisations of space were central to the legal discourse over soughs and extend the so called ‘vertical turn’ in geography to include subterranean proto-historical landscapes. Drawing on a high profile conflict between English entrepreneur Richard Arkwright and Conservative politician Francis Hurt, we go some way to addressing recent claims for more ethnographic detail in studies of verticality by considering the people who legally and physically negotiated sough development below as well as above ground. We also illustrate the range of temporalities which framed sough developments and highlight the cross-generational nature of the legal disputes over soughs and the productive landscapes they drained.     

Labor Reform in Mexico,Analysis of Principal Changes and Method of Recruitment

Actually, the country＇s development aims to achieve higher levels of productivity, so it had to adapt to international standards. This has served to ease the hiring of both operational and managerial controls, giving emphasis on training and allowing the pairing boss-worker to take the productivity like benchmark. The labor reform allows companies to make changes with their workers; such changes must be reflected in lower costs for businesses, by labor input and increased competitiveness, however, two years ago this guideline was implanted and society asks if the results are congruent, because Mexican society is undergoing economics problems issue as well as a deficit in generating jobs. Therefore, analyzing whether modifications made to the federal labor law （FLL） are designed to optimize safety of workers and enterprises in which they work is the subject of this research. The corresponding analysis was performed using the deductive method.     

A polymorphism associated with entrepreneurship: evidence from dopamine receptor candidate genes

The tendency to be an entrepreneur may be influenced by genetic variation. Sensation seeking is more common among entrepreneurs than among the general population. Twin studies show that the tendency to be an entrepreneur is heritable and that common genes influence both sensation seeking and entrepreneurial tendency (Nicolaou et al. Manag Sci 54:167–179, 2008a; Strateg Entrep J 2:7–21, 2008b). Since dopamine receptor genes have been associated with novelty seeking/sensation seeking (Benjamin et al. Nat Genet 12:81–84, 1996; Ebstein et al. Nat Genet 12:78–80, 1996; Noblett and Coccaro Curr Psychiatry Rep 7:73–80, 2005), and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) has been reported to occur at greater rates among entrepreneurs, we examined the association between five dopamine receptor genes and four ADHD-associated genes, with the tendency to be an entrepreneur in a sample of 1,335 individuals from the UK. We found a single nucleotide polymorphism (rs1486011) of the DRD3 gene on chromosome 3 to be significantly associated with the tendency to be an entrepreneur. This result is the first evidence of the association of a specific gene with entrepreneurship. Further studies are needed to replicate this association.