The impact of age on the ability to perform under pressure: golfers on the PGA tour

This paper is about aging and the ability to perform under pressure on the PGA tour. Performance increases with golfing skill, but may first increase and then decrease with age as experience interacts with changes in physical condition. Similarly, mental fortitude or the ability of a golfer to perform under pressure may first increase and then decrease with age as experience interacts with changes in the ability to concentrate. Net performance on the tour is the result of both physical golfing skill and the ability to perform under pressure. We control for changes in physical skill and focus on the mental side of the game. The role of experience suggests an inverted U shaped relationship between age and mental performance that could vary significantly across golfers. We use Order-m FDH to calculate a measure of performance under pressure, and we confirm an inverted U-shaped curve with age. Along the way, we examine the ability to perform under pressure at the level of the individual golfer.     

Form and content of replacement cost information: The impact upon investment criteria

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has recently required that certain registrants disclose specific current replacement cost information when filing their 10-K's. In the current research, unsophisticated investor surrogates were asked to perform an investment task using historical cost and/or variations of actual current replacement cost data for several companies. It was found that neither the content nor the form of the alternative information sets significantly affected the investor decisions.     

Property rights, labour markets, and efficiency in a transition economy: the case of rural China

We investigate the consequences of imperfect factor market development for farm efficiency in North China. We estimate the extent to which an inverse relationship in farm productivity can be attributed to the administrative (as opposed to market) allocation of land, combined with unevenly developed off–farm opportunities. Using a new household survey, we find considerable inefficiency in the use of labour. This inefficiency is alleviated by external labour markets and, to a limited degree, by administrative reallocations. The reallocations do not go far enough, however, which raises important questions about constraints on rental activity and property rights formation more generally. JEL Classification: Q15, O12 Droits de propriété, marchés du travail et efficacité dans une économie en transition : le cas de la Chine rurale. Ce mémoire analyse les conséquences du développement de marchés imparfaits des facteurs de production sur l’efficacité des fermes dans le nord de la Chine. On examine jusqu’à quel point la relation inverse entre la productivité des fermes et leur taille est attribuable à l’allocation administrative de la terre (par opposition à l’allocation par le marché), en combinaison avec le développement inégal des opportunités en dehors de la ferme. Les auteurs utilisent une nouvelle enquête sur les ménages qui révèle une grande inefficacité dans l’utilisation du travail. Cette inefficacité est atténuée par des marchés de travail externes, et, à un moindre degré, par des ré–allocations administratives. Les ré–allocations ne vont pas assez loin cependant. Voilà qui soulève des questions importantes à propos des contraintes sur les activités de location et la formation des droits de propriété en général.     

Managing supply chain risk and disruption from IT security incidents

Supply chain practices often put companies and their supply chains at risk. One of the most serious risks is disruptions. While many types of disruptions have been considered, little attention has been given to disruptions caused by information technology (IT) security incidents. Partner cooperation can assist in preventing or mitigating damage from IT security breaches in supply chains, where breaches can disrupt production, cause loss of essential data, and compromise confidential information. We develop a generalizable mathematical model that quantifies IT security risk in the supply chain. We then show how to find solutions for optimal risk reduction under several definitions of optimality: minimizing upstream risk, minimizing downstream risk, and minimizing global (supply chain) risk. We show how to develop curves for each of the above scenarios that indicate when extra funds should be spent on security, which security controls should be implemented, and when subsidies among partners are beneficial.     

Hepatocellular carcinoma and hepatitis B e antigen

Hepatitis B e antigen serum persistence in an individual chronically infected with the Hepatitis B virus may be associated with a greatly increased risk of developing cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma. This article presents an overview of the Hepatitis B e antigen and discusses the findings of a recent study evaluating its associated risk of hepatocellular carcinoma. A gross photographic image of hepatocellular carcinoma is provided.     

The Evolution and Impact of Infrastructure in Middle-Income Countries: Anything Special?

We examine the evolution of infrastructure, and the impact of infrastructure investment, in middle-income countries (MICs). We document how different types of infrastructure stocks, as well as infrastructure investment, vary with the level of development and growth performance. We then use the two-stage approach of Corsetti, Meier, and Müller (2012) to identify exogenous public investment shocks and investigate the macroeconomic impact of these shocks. We find that the provision of infrastructure varies across development stages; there is a focus on basic infrastructure, such as transport, water, and sanitation, during early stages, and an emphasis on “advanced” infrastructure, such as power and especially information and communication technology, in later stages. Better-performing MICs tend to invest more on infrastructure. They also have more information and communication technology infrastructure. Finally, we find a more significant and sustained impact of exogenous public investment shocks on output in MICs than in low-income countries.     

Tenure,land rights,and farmer investment incentives in China

The goal of this paper is to understand the nature of the property rights associated with China's land tenure systems and to study the impact of these property rights on agricultural production efficiency. The results show that land tenure and associated property rights in rural China affect the production behavior of farmers. The most robust finding is that the right to use land for long periods of time encourages the use of land-saving investments. While the results show that land tenure affects agricultural production decisions, the difference between collective and private plots, however, is small compared to the private plot - communal productivity gap that existed in the pre-reform period.     

Estimation of Treatment Effects of Recombinant Bovine Somatotropin Using Matching Samples

The production and profit impacts of recombinant bovine somatotropin (rbST) on select New York dairy farms were estimated using data over the years 1994 through 2004, by comparing matching farms that use and do not use rbST. The use of rbST increases milk production per cow and decreases the cost of production per hundredweight of milk. The cost penalty (cost reduction) is $0.39 per hundredweight for those currently using rbST to stop using rbST, while the average treatment effect is $0.73.     

Service Failure,Tipping Behavior,and the Effect of Service Industry Experience

The relationship between tipping and the service provided is not always linear. Factors such as demographic profile of the consumer, industry norms, and social norms affect the amount of tip. Results from the current study reveal that tipping varies when service failure occurs due to servers’ fault or organizational failure. Consumers with prior professional experience in the restaurant industry can distinguish between causes of failure, and tip accordingly. Consumers with prior professional restaurant experience were found to tip significantly more than those consumers that do not have prior hospitality experience. Tip rates for service failure due to organization failure tend to be higher compared with the service failure due to servers’ mistakes indicating that consumers do not penalize a server when the organization has caused the service failure.