How Genes Modulate Patterns of Aging-Related Changes on the Way to 100: Biodemographic Models and Methods in Genetic Analyses of Longitudinal Data

In this article we clarify mechanisms of genetic regulation of human aging and longevity traits. The objective of this article is to address the issues in previous research of not reaching a genome-wide level of statistical significance and lack of replication in the studies of independent populations. We performed GWAS of human life span using different subsets of data from the original Framingham Heart Study cohort corresponding to different quality control procedures, and we used one subset of selected genetic variants for further analyses. We used a simulation study to show that this approach to combining data improves the quality of GWAS with FHS longitudinal data to compare average age trajectories of physiological variables in carriers and noncarriers of selected genetic variants. We used a stochastic process model of human mortality and aging to investigate genetic influence on hidden biomarkers of aging and on dynamic interaction between aging and longevity. We investigated properties of genes related to selected variants and their roles in signaling and metabolic pathways and showed that the use of different quality control procedures results in different sets of genetic variants associated with life span. We selected 24 genetic variants negatively associated with life span and showed that the joint analyses of genetic data at the time of biospecimen collection and follow-up data substantially improved significance of associations of 24 selected SNPs with life span. We also showed that aging-related changes in physiological variables and in hidden biomarkers of aging differ for the groups of carriers and noncarriers of selected variants. The results of these analyses demonstrated benefits of using biodemographic models and methods in genetic association studies of these traits. Our findings showed that the absence of a large number of genetic variants with deleterious effects may make substantial contribution to exceptional longevity. These effects are dynamically mediated by a number of physiological variables and hidden biomarkers of aging. The results of these research demonstrated benefits of using integrative statistical models of mortality risks in genetic studies of human aging and longevity.     

Environmentally sustainable or economically sustainable? The effect of Chinese manufacturing firms' corporate sustainable strategy on their green performances

Environmentally and economically sustainable strategies are predicted to influence the public perception of a firm's green performance in terms of environmental protection as well as corporate social responsibility as a whole. We empirically tested this prediction with the data from 214 Chinese manufacturing firms. Our empirical findings showed that firms' environmentally sustainable strategies are more important compared with the economic ones in shaping firms' green performances. Moreover, we also found a significant moderating effect of employees' education on the relationship between the two sustainable strategies and firms' green performances. We explain the findings and conclude with a discussion of the implications of our findings for academic researchers and practitioners.     

Modeling Russia’s exchange rate in the long-run

This paper investigates long-run behavior of Russian real effective exchange rate. Due to high dependence on natural resources’ exports and, at the same time, absence of stable domestic policy, unexpected and/or excessive changes in the real exchange rate might negatively affect the Russian economy, causing large welfare costs. Since the determinants as well the causal links to different fundamental determinants are not straightforward, we employ the Johansen cointegration framework in order to determine factors that drive real exchanges rate in the long run. Compared to previous research on the Russian exchange rate, we expand the period of observations and construct potential determinants in a not traditional way, but as differences between domestic and foreign variables. This proceeding might also be relevant for researches, dedicated to another countries’ exchange rates.     

Technology adoption in markets with network effects: Theory and experimental evidence

We examine a technology-adoption game with network effects in which coordination on either technology A or technology B constitutes a Nash equilibrium. Coordination on technology B is assumed to be payoff dominant. We define a technology’s critical mass as the minimal share of users, which is necessary to make the choice of this technology the best response for any remaining user. We show that the technology with the lower critical mass implies risk dominance and selection by the maximin criterion. We present experimental evidence that both payoff dominance and risk dominance explain participants’ choices in the technology-adoption game. The relative riskiness of a technology can be proxied using either technologies’ critical masses or stand-alone values absent any network effects.     

International spillovers in global asset markets

The paper empirically estimates the financial transmission within and across bond and equity markets in the four largest global financial markets – the United States, the Euro area, Japan, and the United Kingdom. We argue that international bond and equity markets are highly interconnected both within and across asset classes in a globalized world, where the complex transmission process across various financial assets is not restricted to just the domestic market. This paper employs identification through generalized forecast error variance decompositions to estimate spillovers across four systemic markets in a Vector Autoregression (VAR) framework. We find that asset prices react most strongly to international shocks within the same asset class, but that there are also substantial international spillovers across asset classes. Rolling estimations analysis provides evidence that global asset markets have become more integrated and that the bilateral relationships change over time. Our results are robust to specifications that take into account the monetary policy stance and include foreign exchange markets.     

Preferred human resource development activities and their functions: differences in perspective between managers and employees

This exploratory study uses the learning‐network theory as a framework to investigate how managers and employees differ in their preference for the human resource development (HRD) activities of employees and in the functions they attribute to HRD. The research design was quantitative and cross‐sectional. Data collection took place in six countries in Europe, Asia and North America. A new instrument was used, which views work improvement (WI), career development (CD) and personal development (PD) as three main functions of HRD that can serve managers and employees. Results show that managers and employees prefer different HRD activities for employees to undertake; respectively, formal courses and programs over job experiences, and vice versa. The two groups also differ in the scores they give to WI and PD as relevant functions that employee participation in HRD can provide. It is concluded, therefore, that differences between managers and employees in their views of the relevance of HRD activities should be taken into account in theory and practice when organizing employees’ HRD activities.     

Consumers' perceptions of functional foods: trust and food‐neophobia in a cross‐cultural context

Consumers' perceptions of functional foods are complicated by perceived risks and complexity that appear from growing and sometimes confusing information flow. Social trust can serve as a mean for the reduction of risk and complexity. It is thus vital to understand the sources of distrust and food‐neophobia as well as coping mechanisms used by consumers to ensure food provision and safety. We discuss the results of a qualitative inquiry in the form of focus groups into consumers' perceptions of functional foods in Russia and Germany. Altogether eight focus group interviews were carried out in different parts of Russia and Germany in December–January 2012–2013. A total of 59 people participated in the discussions. Different perspectives provided by the discussions in the two countries indicate different levels of trust. Deeper culturally embedded and wider‐spread distrust in formal institutions in Russia pushes consumers towards developing informal networks to ensure food provision and safety. It leads to high levels of food‐neophobia as consumers perceive traditions as the most important guarantee for healthy food. On the other hand, German participants indicate a number of formal institutions that are trustworthy and through which information concerning novel and healthy attributes in foods can be communicated. We provide exploratory views on the importance of social trust in consumers' perceptions of functional foods and lay out mechanisms that consumers develop to deal with increasing risk and complexity in food choices.