3,567 research outputs found

    The Other Side of European Integration: Effects of EU Accession Process on the non EU-regulated Policy Areas in Central and Eastern Europe. The Case of Bulgaria

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    Based on the case of the recent EU entrant Bulgaria, this paper investigates the effects of the accession process and the procedures it involves on the way policy priorities are set in the candidate countries. It establishes an EU-invoked twist in the way politicians what the key problems to address are. The fact that the EU regulates certain policy areas and leaves others on the discretion of the national governments has an un-intended negative effect on the attention paid to non-EU regulated areas which risk non-reform, and on the quality of democratic governance and policy making.European integration, Central and Eastern Europe, rule transfer, policy making, side effects of EU accession

    Data processing system for the Sneg-2MP experiment

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    The data processing system for scientific experiments on stations of the "Prognoz" type provides for the processing sequence to be broken down into a number of consecutive stages: preliminary processing, primary processing, secondary processing. The tasks of each data processing stage are examined for an experiment designed to study gamma flashes of galactic origin and solar flares lasting from several minutes to seconds in the 20 kev to 1000 kev energy range

    Increasing productivity of knowledge workers by ontological training

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    Proceedings of the International Conference «Business Sustainability BS 2008», Minho, Portugal, 2008. pp. 158-163knowledge-driven organizations, productivity of knowledge workers, learning, thinking, analyst training,

    Ontologies Development for IT Project Risk Management Teaching

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    The paper presents one practical approach aimed at developing teaching ontologies. The methodology that will scaffold the process of knowledge structuring and ontology design is described. Moreover, special stress should be placed on visual design as a powerful learning mind tool. The described process is used for developing of a practical ontology from the domain of IT project risk management

    A partner in crime : assortative matching and bias in the crime market

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    I identify a discriminatory bias in partnership formation within the property crime mar- ket in the United States. Theoretically, the prisoner's dilemma creates an incentive for a criminal to form a partnership with a counterpart with the same probability of success, re- sulting in an equilibrium pattern of positive assortative matching. Using individual matched report-arrest data from the National Incident Based Reporting System and a novel empiri- cal strategy, I pinpoint matches where the underlying probability of success of two partners differ. This difference in probability is correlated with observable characteristics, which could be evidence for discrimination and search frictions. I find patterns consistent with discrimination in male-female partnerships and patterns consistent with search frictions in black-white matches. In particular, females in a male-female partnership are more likely to evade law-enforcement than males, even though on average males are more successful as a group. This results is robust to controlling for the criminal earnings, individual criminal offenses and market characteristics. Furthermore, these patterns are found also in criminal groups of a size bigger than 2. The result could be either due to pre-crime marital matching or discrimination

    Essays on Finance and Corporate Innovation

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    No abstract availableInnovation shapes corporate life. Companies innovate in order to keep their competitive advantage on the market. Over the long run, if companies do not innovate, they lose their position on the market and may even go bankrupt if their peers continue to innovate. Corporate innovation affects many companies’ decisions – from the choice of corporate innovation strategy itself to the firms' interaction with their peers and banks. My dissertation aims to stress the importance of innovation in corporate life by showing the impact of innovation on firm boundaries, corporate disclosure policy, and lending. In the first chapter, I study how firms’ choices of M&A, licensing, collaboration, and their performance depend on the extent of their innovation linkages. I find that innovation matters for firm boundaries. Companies integrate more tightly with peers with closer follow-on innovation. Based on patent citations, I construct a measure capturing what firms are the innovation originators and what firms are the followers, which I call innovation proximity. I find that companies are more likely to acquire peers with closer follow-on innovation rather than to create strategic alliances with them or license/buy their patents. My measure of innovation proximity does not affect firms’ combined announcement returns but only the way they are split. In M&A transactions with the target with closer follow-on innovation, the bidder pays a lower premium and exhibits greater announcement returns. On the other hand, in licensing and strategic alliance deals with patent holder with closer follow-on innovation, the patent seeker obtains lower returns. These results are consistent with the hold-up theory where companies bargain over type and terms of the contract. In the second chapter, I focus on corporate nondisclosure and firm value. The evidences are based on the confidential treatment (CT) of corporate information. CT can exacerbate information asymmetry and agency problems but may also protect trade secrets; therefore whether it is valuable for shareholders is an empirical question. I address this question using novel, hand-collected data, studying the market reaction to CT requests. I document that companies with strong governance experience positive or no market reaction to redacted filings, whereas firms with weak governance obtain negative returns. I also examine whether and what types of information redaction might have negative effect on the market. Companies mostly redact information in collaboration, supply, license, and asset purchase agreements. Vis-à-vis fully disclosed filings, the market responds positively to redacted product-related information and negatively to redacted investor-sensitive information, such as settlement agreements. Taken together, this evidence is consistent with the various channels through which CT may affect firm value. The third chapter presents a joint work with Alberto Manconi and Ekaterina Neretina. We analyze the use and valuation of patents as collateral in syndicated loans to large, publicly listed U.S. firms. We provide novel stylized facts about the use and valuation of collateralized patents. Firms that pledge patents are larger than the typical Compustat firm, but smaller than other syndicated loan borrowers; they obtain smaller loans, and pledge their less valuable patents; lenders that accept patent collateral tend to be larger and have bigger market shares. The use of patents as collateral could reflect an expansion of the set of pledgeable assets, suggesting a relaxation of financial constraints; but the opacity of intangible collateral such as patents may also create room for lenders to extract rents from borrowers, lending a smaller amount per dollar value of collateral. Preliminary evidence supports the latter view

    Formula for love

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    Essays on Finance and Corporate Innovation

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    No abstract availableInnovation shapes corporate life. Companies innovate in order to keep their competitive advantage on the market. Over the long run, if companies do not innovate, they lose their position on the market and may even go bankrupt if their peers continue to innovate. Corporate innovation affects many companies’ decisions – from the choice of corporate innovation strategy itself to the firms' interaction with their peers and banks. My dissertation aims to stress the importance of innovation in corporate life by showing the impact of innovation on firm boundaries, corporate disclosure policy, and lending. In the first chapter, I study how firms’ choices of M&A, licensing, collaboration, and their performance depend on the extent of their innovation linkages. I find that innovation matters for firm boundaries. Companies integrate more tightly with peers with closer follow-on innovation. Based on patent citations, I construct a measure capturing what firms are the innovation originators and what firms are the followers, which I call innovation proximity. I find that companies are more likely to acquire peers with closer follow-on innovation rather than to create strategic alliances with them or license/buy their patents. My measure of innovation proximity does not affect firms’ combined announcement returns but only the way they are split. In M&A transactions with the target with closer follow-on innovation, the bidder pays a lower premium and exhibits greater announcement returns. On the other hand, in licensing and strategic alliance deals with patent holder with closer follow-on innovation, the patent seeker obtains lower returns. These results are consistent with the hold-up theory where companies bargain over type and terms of the contract. In the second chapter, I focus on corporate nondisclosure and firm value. The evidences are based on the confidential treatment (CT) of corporate information. CT can exacerbate information asymmetry and agency problems but may also protect trade secrets; therefore whether it is valuable for shareholders is an empirical question. I address this question using novel, hand-collected data, studying the market reaction to CT requests. I document that companies with strong governance experience positive or no market reaction to redacted filings, whereas firms with weak governance obtain negative returns. I also examine whether and what types of information redaction might have negative effect on the market. Companies mostly redact information in collaboration, supply, license, and asset purchase agreements. Vis-à-vis fully disclosed filings, the market responds positively to redacted product-related information and negatively to redacted investor-sensitive information, such as settlement agreements. Taken together, this evidence is consistent with the various channels through which CT may affect firm value. The third chapter presents a joint work with Alberto Manconi and Ekaterina Neretina. We analyze the use and valuation of patents as collateral in syndicated loans to large, publicly listed U.S. firms. We provide novel stylized facts about the use and valuation of collateralized patents. Firms that pledge patents are larger than the typical Compustat firm, but smaller than other syndicated loan borrowers; they obtain smaller loans, and pledge their less valuable patents; lenders that accept patent collateral tend to be larger and have bigger market shares. The use of patents as collateral could reflect an expansion of the set of pledgeable assets, suggesting a relaxation of financial constraints; but the opacity of intangible collateral such as patents may also create room for lenders to extract rents from borrowers, lending a smaller amount per dollar value of collateral. Preliminary evidence supports the latter view

    A Controlled Examination of Motivational Strategies: Reviewing Positive Consequences for Goal Achievement, Negative Consequences for Undesired Behavior, and a Relaxation Exercise

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    Introduction: Motivation is an integral part of human life and one of the most fundamental aspects of behavior change. Of interest to the present study are two motivational approaches, Negative Consequences Review (NCR) and Positive Consequences Review (PCR). NCR is an intervention component originally designed as part of Family Behavior Therapy (FBT) to motivate individuals with their goals through a discussion of negative consequences associated with undesired behaviors. PCR was developed as an auxiliary component of FBT to inspire individuals’ motivation to achieve their goals through a discussion about positive consequences of reaching goals. Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine the relative effects of NCR, PCR, or a relaxation exercise (active control) in their ability to (1) increase motivation of college students to perform healthy lifestyle behaviors, (2) facilitate goal achievement, (3) improve mood, and (4) increase openness to seeking professional assistance. Method: Participants were 93 undergraduate students who were randomly assigned to one of the three conditions. They were assessed at three time-points: baseline, post-session, and 7-day follow-up. Results: Separate mixed-design repeated measures ANOVAs with one between-subjects factor (i.e., condition, three levels) and one within-subjects factor (i.e., time, three levels), and subsequent Fisher’s Least Significant Difference (LSD) post-hoc tests, indicated both NCR and PCR were more effective than the active control condition in enhancing motivation, goal achievement, and positive affect, with PCR yielding larger effect sizes (ps \u3c .05). No significant interaction effects were found in reducing negative affect and increasing desire to seek professional assistance (ps \u3e .05). Discussion: This randomized controlled trial provides robust empirical support for the efficacy of these interventions as brief motivational techniques that can be used as stand-alone interventions or complementary techniques for other treatment approaches. Other future directions are discussed in light of the results
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