Agent-Based Facilitation of Water Allocation: Case Study in the Drome River Valley

The purpose of the 1992 French Water Act is to encourage negotiation and dialogue among local stakeholders within a framework which is very similar to a patrimonial approach. Potential use of models in such post-normal approaches is analyzed. Two kinds of models are compared: one is agent-based, the other follows a more classical approach. They are compared according to their contributions as negotiation support tools. This comparison is based on a specific collective decision process dealing with water allocation at the sub-basin scale, in which authors are involved. Both are used to support collective decision processes through simulation of resource use dynamics. Agent-Based Models entail the broadening of spatial information of actors in the process, revealing inter-connected topics not taken into consideration earlier. This makes it possible to remain relevant, despite the sometimes rapidly evolving stakes. The central point of this paper is the implementation, within a practical application, of theories advocating the use of ABM as a collective decision support system. This application promotes a better understanding of the kind of support ABM provides and the way it does so. This is brought about more by re-framing the discussion and modifying the representation of the system on the part of the stakeholders than by providing specific agreements.     

Cross-linguistic validation of a unidimensional scale for cosmopolitanism

Consumers' positive dispositions relating to foreign countries, cultures, and products are an important yet under-researched topic, compared against the volume of research on consumers' negative dispositions towards the same. Cosmopolitanism, conceptualized as a general dispositional orientation reflecting an affinity for cultural diversity and the proclivity to master it, garners increasing attention as a variable for international market segmentation. Empirical studies on cosmopolitanism are scarce, principally due to the absence of scale demonstrating sufficient cross-cultural validity across languages. This research reports on such a validation, across four countries and five languages. Psychometric evaluations entailed a number of techniques, including multigroup confirmatory factor analysis. The results largely confirm the cross-lingual applicability of the cosmopolitanism scale.     

Healthcare burden and reimbursement of hospitalization during chemotherapy for adults with Ph-negative relapsed or refractory B-cell precursor acute lymphoblastic leukemia in France: a retrospective chart review

Objective: Philadelphia chromosome negative [Ph(?)] relapsed or refractory (R/R) B-precursor acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) is an extremely rare condition requiring intensive treatment. This retrospective chart review aimed to quantify hospitalizations and reimbursement in this patient population in France.

Methods: Patients aged ≥18 years and with at least one hospitalization for Ph(?) R/R B-precursor ALL were included in the study. They were relapsed with first remission lasting <12 months, relapsed after first salvage therapy, relapsed any time after hematopoietic stem cell transplant (HSCT), or were refractory to initial or salvage therapy. Data were collected from the index date (first diagnosis of R/R ALL) until death or loss to follow-up. The chemotherapy period was defined as the first chemotherapy date after the index date to the earliest of death, loss to follow-up, last chemotherapy dose plus 30 days, or initiation of HSCT. The primary outcome was the percentage of time hospitalized during the chemotherapy period.

Results: Thirty-three patients were included, with a mean age of 49 years. The mean proportion of time spent in the hospital during the chemotherapy period was 46% (95% CI =34–57%). Patients had a mean of 2.2 (SD =1.5) inpatient hospitalizations and the mean length of stay per hospitalization was 16.8 (SD =14.8) days. During the chemotherapy period, the mean amount reimbursed per hospitalization was €31 067 (SD = €4850) and the total hospitalization reimbursement per patient was €68 344. From the index date to death, excluding HSCT, the total reimbursement per patient was €108 873.

Limitations: The sample size was small, although this was expected given the rarity of the patient population.

Conclusions: Adults with Ph(?) R/R B-precursor ALL had repeated and prolonged hospitalizations during salvage chemotherapy. Approximately half the follow-up period was spent in the hospital, and this time was associated with high economic burden in France.     

Flight‐to‐safety and the credit crunch: a new history of the banking crises in France during the Great Depression†

Despite France's importance in the interwar world economy, the scale of the French banking crises of 1930–1 and their consequences have never been fully assessed quantitatively. The lack of banking regulation severely limited the availability of balance sheet data. Using a new dataset of individual balance sheets from more than 300 banks, this article shows that the crises were much more severe than previously thought, although they did not affect the main commercial banks. By reconstructing financial flows, this study shows that the fall in bank credit was mostly driven by a flight‐to‐safety by deposits, from banks to savings institutions and the central bank. The decrease in bank deposits due to bank runs was offset by an increase in deposits with savings institutions, with the central bank, and in cash hoarding, whereas the decrease in bank credit was not offset by an increase in loans from non‐bank financial institutions. In line with the gold standard mentality, cash deposited with savings institutions and the central bank was used to decrease marketable public debt and increase gold reserves, rather than pursuing countercyclical policies. Despite massive capital inflows and rising aggregate money supply, France suffered from a severe, persistent credit crunch.     

HOW DO RATING AGENCIES’ DECISIONS IMPACT STOCK MARKETS? A META‐ANALYSIS

The purpose of this study is to examine how credit rating agencies’ decisions impact the stock market using a systematic and quantitative review of existing empirical studies. Specifically, we employ a meta‐regression analysis (MRA) to investigate the extent and nature of the effect of rating agencies’ decisions on the stock market. We survey 62 studies published between 1978 and 2015. Our first finding is that the cumulative average abnormal returns calculated from this empirical literature are affected by publication bias. After controlling for publication bias, the main findings of our meta‐analysis indicate that negative rating decisions cause statistically significant negative abnormal returns. This evidence suggests an informational effect. Our results also indicate that positive rating decisions do not have a significant effect. Finally, the MRA results reveal the importance of several factors related to primary study design, as well as to the nature of the data.     

Transatlantic innovation infrastructure networks: public-private, EU–US R&D partnerships

Collaborative, team-based research is now the most significant mode of activity in the global scientific community. Anecdotal and statistical evidence shows moreover that collaboration in scientific research is increasingly global in nature. That is, the groups of researchers who are involved in scientific progress often span one or more nations in origin, location and/or sponsorship. Another significant trend in recent cases of scientific collaboration is the increase in cross-sectoral cooperation, where researchers in a group are employed by government, private industry, and/or academic and other non-profit institutions.
In this paper, we review the scale, scope and intensity of cross-national, cross-sectoral research collaboration through the analysis of historical data on co-authorship of scientific publications. The first part of the paper reviews existing literature on the analysis of co-authorship data, and discusses the limitations of this form of analysis and typical strategies to mitigate those limitations. The second part of the paper describes a preliminary study of cross-national, cross-sectoral scientific collaborations covering the years 1988 through 1997, where we examined the scale (volume of co-authored papers), intensity (co-authored papers versus other kinds of co-authorship), and scope (patterns in co-authorship) for cross-national, cross-sectoral collaborations. The conclusion of the paper discusses significant trends and patterns derived from this study, and their implications for further research into these types of collaborations.     

Impact of culture on marketing strategy: Introduction to the special issue

This special issue of the Journal of Business Research features eleven articles selected from the papers presented during the fourth meeting of the Royal Bank International Research Seminar which took place in Montreal at the John Molson School of Business, Concordia University, September 23 and 24, 2007. They cover topics related to culture and marketing communications, consumer socialization, materialism, identity and religiosity, service quality, language effects, consumer revenge behavior and government actions.     

Subsampling the distribution of diverging statistics with applications to finance

In this paper we propose a subsampling estimator for the distribution of statistics diverging at either known or unknown rates when the underlying time series is strictly stationary and strong mixing. Based on our results we provide a detailed discussion of how to estimate extreme order statistics with dependent data and present two applications to assessing financial market risk. Our method performs well in estimating Value at Risk and provides a superior alternative to Hill's estimator in operationalizing Safety First portfolio selection.     

A note on tariffs,quotas and the Metzler Paradox: An alternative approach

Conclusions Under the given assumptions, the introduction of an import quota always results in a price increase of the scarce factor. This conclusion confirms that of Falvey [1975] that the Metzler Paradox cannot occur with import quotas. Moreover, we have shown this to be true regardless of the new terms of trade. The introduction of an import quota will, in general, lead to a lower welfare level. This holds for non-prohibitive protection in those situations in which the terms of trade either remain unchanged or worsen. If the terms of trade improve, a higher welfare level can be attained depending on the degree of the improvement and on the size of the quota. The development of the terms of trade can be used as an indication of the price increase of the scarce factor. The more favourable the new terms of trade for the trade restricting country, the greater the advantage accruing to the scarce factor. The effectiveness of the protective measures for distributional purposes coincides thus with the development of the terms of trade.     

Risk and the cross section of stock returns

This paper mathematically transforms unobservable rational expectation equilibrium model parameters (information precision and supply uncertainty) into a single variable that is correlated with expected returns and that can be estimated with recently observed data. Our variable can be used to explain the cross section of returns in theoretical, numerical, and empirical analyses. Using Center for Research in Security Prices data, we show that a −1σ$-1\sigma$ to +1σ$+1\sigma$ change in our variable is associated with a 0.31% difference in average returns the following month (equaling 3.78% per annum). The results are statistically significant at the 1% level. Our results remain economically and statistically significant after controlling for stocks' market capitalizations, book-to-market ratios, liquidities, and the probabilities of information-based trading.