Television viewing and hostile personality trait increase the risk of injuries

Individuals with high levels of hostility may be more susceptible to the influence of television on violence and risk taking behaviors. This study aimed to examine whether hostile personality trait modifies the association between TV viewing and injuries. It is a prospective study of 4,196 black and white adults aged 23 to 35 in 1990/1. Cross-lagged panel models were analyzed at three 5-year time periods to test whether TV viewing predicted injuries. Covariates were gender, race, and education. Individuals who watched more TV (0 hours, 1–3 hours, 4–6 hours, and ≥7 hours) were more likely to have a hospitalization for an injury in the following 5 years across each of the three follow-up periods [OR = 1.5 (95%CI = 1.2, 1.9), 1.5 (1.1, 1.9), and 1.9 (1.3, 2.6)]. The cross-lagged effects of TV viewing to injury were significant in the high hostility group [OR = 1.4 (95%CI = 1.1, 1.8), 1.3 (1.0, 1.8), and 2.0 (1.3, 2.9)] but not in the low hostility group [OR = 1.3 (95%CI = 0.6, 2.2), 1.1 (0.6, 2.1), and 1.4 (0.7, 2.8)]. Additionally, a statistically significant difference between the two models (P < 0.001) suggested that hostility moderated the relationship between TV watching and injury. These findings suggest that individuals who watch more TV and have a hostile personality trait may be at a greater risk for injury.     

Formation and adaptation of reference prices in grain marketing: an experimental study

This study aimed to explore how producers’ reference prices are formed and adapt over time, and how they affect marketing decisions. Results indicate that producers focus on three major variables to form their reference prices: the current market price, the highest price to date, and their expectation about price behavior. Further, they update their reference prices during the marketing season mainly in response to changes in current market prices, their own expectations about price behavior, and the general price trend. Finally, our findings suggest that producers’ marketing decisions are based on the spread between current market price and reference price, the general market trend and price expectation.     

Threshold cointegration and spatial price transmission when expectations matter

We examine the performance of the threshold cointegration approach, specifically Band‐TVECM, to price transmission analysis in an explicit context where trade decisions are made based on expectation of final prices, because trade takes time. We find that, following a standard inference strategy, a large portion of three‐regime cases are not identified as such. Results show that transfer costs are systematically underestimated, particularly in three‐regime models. The speed of price transmission is also biased in three‐regime models. Furthermore, inferences about occurrence of trade are poor, with estimated models suggesting far lower market integration than is true in the data‐generating process.     

Uncovered interest parity in Central and Eastern Europe: Expectations and structural breaks

This paper examines the empirical validity of the hypothesis of uncovered interest parity (UIP) using data from five Central and Eastern European countries with floating exchange rates for the period 2003 to 2014. The analysis includes forward‐looking as well as static expectations and allows for different types of structural break. The variable depicting the deviation from strict UIP is stationary when expectations are forward looking, suggesting that it is not possible to reject the UIP hypothesis with a constant risk premium. The deviation from strict UIP is however typically not stationary when expectations are static, even when structural breaks are incorporated, leading to the rejection of the UIP hypothesis with a constant risk premium. The results underscore the central role of expectations for the UIP hypothesis.     

Network valuation in financial systems

We introduce a general model for the balance‐sheet consistent valuation of interbank claims within an interconnected financial system. Our model represents an extension of clearing models of interdependent liabilities to account for the presence of uncertainty on banks' external assets. At the same time, it also provides a natural extension of classic structural credit risk models to the case of an interconnected system. We characterize the existence and uniqueness of a valuation that maximizes individual and total equity values for all banks. We apply our model to the assessment of systemic risk and in particular for the case of stress testing. Further, we provide a fixed‐point algorithm to carry out the network valuation and the conditions for its convergence.     

The evolution of control in the digital economy

Control over digital transactions has steadily risen in recent years, to an extent that puts into question the Internet’s traditional openness. To investigate the origins and effects of such change, the paper formally models the historical evolution of digital control. In the model, the economy-wide features of the digital space emerge as a result of the endogenous adaptation (co-evolution) of users’ preferences (culture) and platform designs (technology). The model shows that: a) in the digital economy there exist two stable cultural-technological equilibria: one with intrinsically motivated users and low control; and the other with purely extrinsically motivated users and high control; b) before the opening of the Internet to commerce, the emergence of a low-control-intrinsic-motivation equilibrium was favored by the specific set of norms and values that formed the early culture of the networked environment; and c) the opening of the Internet to commerce can indeed cause a transition to a high-control-extrinsic-motivation equilibrium, even if the latter is Pareto inferior. Although it is too early to say whether such a transition is actually taking place, these results call for a great deal of attention in evaluating policy proposals on Internet regulation.     

Does management accounting play role in planning process?

This study examines the relationship between management accounting and planning profiles in Brazilian companies. The main goal is to understand the consequences of not including a fully structured management accounting scheme in the planning process. The authors conducted a field research among medium and large-sized companies, using a probabilistic sample from a population of 2281 companies. Using analytic hierarchy process (AHP) and statistical cluster analysis, the authors grouped the entities' strategic budget planning processes into five profiles, after which the authors applied statistical tests to assess the five clusters. The study concludes that poor or fully implemented strategic and budget-planning processes relate to the management accounting profiles of the Brazilian organizations studied.     

Innovation, international R&D spillovers and the sectoral heterogeneity of knowledge flows

We analyze the relative effects of national and international, intrasectoral and intersectoral R&D spillovers on innovative activity in six large, industrialized countries over the period 1980–2000. We use patent applications at the European Patent Office to measure innovation and their citations to trace knowledge flows within and across 135 narrowly defined technological fields. Using panel cointegration we show that intersectoral spillovers have a key impact on innovation activities and that domestic R&D has a stronger effect than international R&D. However, within technological fields, estimated international R&D spillovers are 2.4 times the national R&D effects. We find significant differences across chemicals, electronics and machinery industries.     

Structural Change and Growth in a NEG Model

This paper presents a New Economic Geography model of structural change, agglomeration and growth. Assuming a non‐homothetic preference structure, our results show that a progressive reduction of trade costs allows the economy to pass from a pre‐industrialized to an industrialized stage and then, within the latter, from a dispersed to an urbanized regime. However, the introduction of capital accumulation and the dynamic setting of our model opens the door to a richer set of implications. First, an additional stage is introduced as, for some intermediate values of trade costs, a multiple equilibria regime emerges with simultaneously stable symmetric and core‐periphery equilibria. Second, the introduction of non‐homotheticity introduces a new channel through which growth is affected by trade costs and agglomeration. In particular, integration is always growth‐enhancing while agglomeration is growth‐detrimental.