Investor confidence and mutual fund performance in emerging markets: insights from India and Pakistan

Purpose: This paper investigates the impact of investor confidence on mutual fund performance in two relatively vulnerable but leading emerging markets, India and Pakistan. Design/methodology/approach: A pooled OLS model is used to look at two alternative measures of investor confidence and test for the relationship between investor confidence and mutual fund returns. To check the robustness of the findings, the authors also implement Two Stage Least Squares and Generalized Method of Moments techniques to control for unobserved heterogeneity, simultaneity, and dynamic endogeneity problems in the regressors. Findings: The paper finds that the returns of mutual funds are positively associated with investor confidence and an interaction effect exists between investor confidence and persistence in performance. The paper also confirms that returns from mutual funds are associated with different fund characteristics such as fund size, turnover, expense, liquidity, performance persistence and the fund’s age. These findings remain robust to alternative model specifications and measures of investor confidence. Originality/value While the previous literature mainly focuses on mutual fund characteristics and the macroeconomic determinants of mutual fund returns, this paper demonstrates that investor confidence plays an important role in determining mutual fund performance. The authors attribute this finding to two relatively unique features of the emerging markets in our study. A lack of awareness of mutual funds as being a low-cost investment vehicle and the interplay of cultural and behavioural changes have prevented investor’s savings from being channelled into investment products, away from gold or property

Minority versus majority: the choice of acquisition in Asia-Pacific countries

This paper examines the relationship between the financial constraints of the acquiring firms and their choice of a minority over a majority acquisition. Our findings show that the likelihood of bidders undertaking a minority acquisition increases with financial constraints, including the deviation from target capital structure, and overleverage deficit. We also find that the impacts of leverage deviation on the likelihood of bidders engaging in a minority or majority acquisition is asymmetric for underleveraged and overleveraged firms. In addition, international bidders are less likely to take a minority acquisition if the target is operating in i) countries with a higher degree of Political Stability and Absence of Violence/Terrorism, ii) countries with higher degree to which individuals are able to participate in selecting their government, as well as having more freedom of expression, freedom of association, and a free media. Lastly, minority acquisitions are more common in a country with a more developed market. As such, in a fluid social order it looks like acquirers really need majority control

Relativising human rights

Standards-based measures of country human rights performance yields a performance ranking for countries that is “absolute” or reflects the current state of human rights performance without taking into account the relative social, political, or economic conditions within countries. While absolute ranking is useful, it can lead to perverse outcomes in other areas of work. This article provides an alternative method for ranking country human rights performance that takes into account an array of additional variables that are related to the protection of civil and political rights. The method involves creating a relative score to compare different measures of human rights performance over time and across different regions. This approach leads to a view of relative human rights performance that should be of interest to human rights scholars and practitioners

ATRX promotes gene expression by facilitating transcriptional elongation through guanine-rich coding regions

ATRX is a chromatin remodeling protein involved in deposition of the histone variant H3.3 at telomeres and pericentromeric heterochromatin. It also influences the expression level of specific genes; however, deposition of H3.3 at transcribed genes is currently thought to occur independently of ATRX. We focused on a set of genes, including the autism susceptibility gene Neuroligin 4 (Nlgn4), that exhibit decreased expression in ATRX-null cells to investigate the mechanisms used by ATRX to promote gene transcription. Overall TERRA levels, as well as DNA methylation and histone modifications at ATRX target genes are not altered and thus cannot explain transcriptional dysregulation.We found thatATRX does not associate with the promoter of these genes, but rather binds within regions of the gene body corresponding to high H3.3 occupancy. These intragenic regions consist of guanine-rich DNA sequences predicted to form non-B DNA structures called G-quadruplexes during transcriptional elongation.We demonstrate thatATRX deficiency corresponds to reduced H3.3 incorporation and stalling ofRNApolymerase II at these G-rich intragenic sites. These findings suggest that ATRX promotes the incorporation of histone H3.3 at particular transcribed genes and facilitates transcriptional elongation through G-rich sequences. The inability to transcribe genes such as Nlgn4 could cause deficits in neuronal connectivity and cognition associated with ATRX mutations in humans

Treatment options for progression or recurrence of glioblastoma: a network meta-analysis

For treatment of first recurrence of GBM, among people previously treated with surgery and standard chemoradiotherapy, the combination treatments evaluated did not improve overall survival compared with LOM monotherapy and were often associated with a higher risk of severe adverse events. Limited evidence suggested that re‐operation with or without re‐irradiation and chemotherapy may be suitable for selected candidates. Evidence on second recurrence is sparse. Re‐irradiation with or without bevacizumab may be of value in selected individuals, but more evidence is needed

Treatment options for recurrent glioblastoma: a network meta-analysis

This is a protocol for a Cochrane Review (Intervention). The objectives are as follows:. To evaluate the effectiveness of further treatment/s for first and subsequent recurrence of glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) among people who have received the standard of care for primary treatment of the disease (chemoradiotherapy) or following development of GBM from a lower grade (radiotherapy with subsequent temozolomide at relapse); and to prepare a brief economic commentary on the available evidence

Soluble E-Cadherin: An Early Marker of Severity in Acute Pancreatitis

Background/Aims. At present, there is no simple test for predicting severity in acute pancreatitis. We investigated the use of an assay of soluble E-cadherin (sE-cadherin). Methods. Concentrations of sE-cadherin, from 19 patients with mild acute pancreatitis, 7 patients with severe acute pancreatitis, 11 patients with other acute gastrointestinal pathologies, and 12 healthy subjects were measured using a commercially available sandwich ELISA kit based on two monoclonal antibodies specific to the extracellular fragment of human E-cadherin. Measurements were made at 12 hours or less from onset of pain and also at 24 and 48 hours after onset of pain. Results. Mean (standard deviation) concentration of sE-cadherin in patients with severe acute pancreatitis at <12 hours was 17780 ng/mL (7853), significantly higher than that of healthy volunteers 5180 ng/mL (1350), P = .0039, patients with other gastrointestinal pathologies 7358 ng/mL (6655), P = .0073, and also significantly higher than that of patients with mild pancreatitis, 7332 ng/mL (2843), P = .0019. Discussion. Serum sE-cadherin could be an early (within 12 hours) objective marker of severity in acute pancreatitis. This molecule warrants further investigation in the form of a large multicentre trial