Why does the FDIC sue?

Cases the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) pursues against the directors and officers of failed commercial banks for (gross) negligence are important for the corporate governance of U.S. commercial banks. These cases shape the kernel of bank corporate governance, as they guide expectations of bankers and regulators. Ours is the first empirical study of such legal cases that define the limits of acceptable behavior under financial distress. We examine the differences in behavior of all 408 U.S. commercial banks that were taken into receivership between 2007–2012. Sued banks had different balance sheet dynamics in the three years prior to failure. These generally larger banks were faster growing, obtained riskier funding and were more “optimistic”. We find evidence that the behavior of bank boards adjusts in an out-of-sample set of banks. Our results suggest the FDIC does not only pursue “deep pockets”, but sets corporate governance standards for all banks by suing negligent directors and officers

Why Does the FDIC Sue?

Cases the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) pursues against the directors and officers of failed commercial banks for (gross) negligence are important for the corporate governance of U.S. commercial banks. These cases shape the kernel of bank corporate governance, as they guide expectations of bankers and regulators in defining the limits of unacceptable behavior under financial distress, such as risk shifting. We examine the differences in behavior of all 408 U.S. commercial banks that were taken into receivership between 2007–2012. Sued banks had different balance sheet dynamics relative to those who are not sued in the three years prior to failure. These banks were generally larger, faster growing, obtained riskier funding and tended to underprovision. We find evidence that boards of failing banks respond to litigation by reducing the use of riskier funding in an out-of-sample set of banks. Our results suggest the FDIC does set corporate governance standards for all banks by suing negligent directors and officers

Factors associated with deep sternal wound infection after open-heart surgery in a Danish registry

Objective: To conduct a comprehensive multivariate analysis of variables associated with deep sternal wound infection, after open-heart surgery via median sternotomy. Method: A retrospective cohort of all adult patients, who underwent open-heart surgery at Odense University Hospital between 01‐01-2000 and 31-12-2020 was extracted from the West Danish Heart Registry. Data were analyzed using maximum likelihood logistic regression. Results: A total of 15,424 patients underwent open-heart surgery and 244 developed a deep sternal wound infection, equivalent to 1,58 %. After data review 11,182 entries were included in the final analysis, of which 189 developed DSWI, equivalent to 1,69 %. Multivariate analysis found the following variables to be associated with the development of deep sternal wound infection (odds ratios and 95%confidens intervals in parentheses): Known arrhythmia (1.70; 1.16–2.44), Left Ventricular Ejection Fraction (1.66; 1.02–2.58), Body Mass Index 25–30 (1.66; 1.12–2.52), Body Mass Index 30–35 (2.35; 1.50–3.71), Body Mass Index 35–40 (3.61; 2.01–6.33), Body Mass Index 40+ (3.70; 1.03–10.20), Age 60–69 (1.64; 1.04–2.67), Age 70–79 (1.95; 1.23–3.19), Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (1.77; 1.21–2.54), Reoperation (1.63; 1.06–2.45), Blood transfusion in surgery (1.09; 1.01–1.17), Blood transfusion in intensive care unit (1.03; 1.01–1.06), Known peripheral atherosclerosis (1.82; 1.25–2.61), Current smoking (1.69; 1.20–2.35), Duration of intubation (1.33; 1.12–1.57). Conclusion: Increased risk of deep sternal wound infection after open-heart surgery is a multifactorial problem, while some variables are unchangeable others are not. Focus should be on optimizing the condition of the patient prior to surgery e.g. weight loss and smoking. But also factors surrounding the patient e.g. preventing blood loss and minimizing intubation time.</p

Multiclass Classification of Policy Documents with Large Language Models

Classifying policy documents into policy issue topics has been a long-time effort in political science and communication disciplines. Efforts to automate text classification processes for social science research purposes have so far achieved remarkable results, but there is still a large room for progress. In this work, we test the prediction performance of an alternative strategy, which requires human involvement much less than full manual coding. We use the GPT 3.5 and GPT 4 models of the OpenAI, which are pre-trained instruction-tuned Large Language Models (LLM), to classify congressional bills and congressional hearings into Comparative Agendas Project's 21 major policy issue topics. We propose three use-case scenarios and estimate overall accuracies ranging from %58-83 depending on scenario and GPT model employed. The three scenarios aims at minimal, moderate, and major human interference, respectively. Overall, our results point towards the insufficiency of complete reliance on GPT with minimal human intervention, an increasing accuracy along with the human effort exerted, and a surprisingly high accuracy achieved in the most humanly demanding use-case. However, the superior use-case achieved the %83 accuracy on the %65 of the data in which the two models agreed, suggesting that a similar approach to ours can be relatively easily implemented and allow for mostly automated coding of a majority of a given dataset. This could free up resources allowing manual human coding of the remaining %35 of the data to achieve an overall higher level of accuracy while reducing costs significantly

Institutional Logics and Hybrid Organizing in Public-Private Partnerships

Cross-sectoral collaboration has been touted as a solution to a range of problems in various sectors. In the construction context, public-private partnerships have recently given promises of increased productivity and innovative solutions through business models combining logics and governance structures from both the public and private sectors. Little is, however, known about how partnerships are established to combine different logics in response to competing institutional demands. Drawing on a study of a municipality\u27s efforts to create cost efficient services, we analyse the formation of two partnerships as emerging hybrid organizations in the intersection between four institutional logics. We show how different logics are mobilized in the process of shaping the partnerships in response to the institutional pluralism and complexity they face. On this background, we discuss how the contours of two different forms of hybrid organization emerged, even though the partnerships initially operated and responded similarly to the institutional demands. We conclude that partnerships can be seen as \u27trading zones\u27 that follow different trajectories in coping with institutional demands, and hence the development of hybrid organizational forms

Towards a revised understanding of resources and economy in the circular economy

While the circular economy (CE) is gaining political traction, with steps being taken to embrace CE principles at European and national levels, practical progress remains elusive. One reason for this is that the transition to the CE is predicated on the need to decouple economic activities from the consumption of finite resources. Yet most initiatives treat the notion of economy as a mere contextual backdrop for proposed actions, an aspirational outcome rather than a realized process of consumption and production. More critically, policymaking, research, and practical efforts to adopt CE principles often draw on dogmatic neoclassical economic assumptions that markets and the economy work as naturalized phenomena that are disembedded from other societal functions. Moreover, these approaches crucially fail to recognize that the concept of the/an ‘economy’ is not a pregiven entity, but a construct shaped by social, political, and not least, material processes in the form of the very resources that are the central focus of the CE.This results in an underdeveloped understanding of the relationship between economic activities and processes of production and consumption. Drawing on insights from the sociology of economics, our project aims at addressing this by developing a dialectical understanding of two pivotal constructs within the circular economy namely 'economy' and 'resources'. Thus, rather than seeing CE as a question of how to decouple economic activity from the consumption of finite resources, we consider consumption and production processes as economic activities per se that contribute to shaping the boundaries of markets.We do so by studying how ‘non-economic’ aspects of the circular economy, such as new design and production methods, recycling, and reuse, are translated into economic terms, thereby making them subject to valuation, calculations, and decision-making. This translation reveals deeper insights into how specific consumption and production practices may be realized, and how to create a new performative economics of circular consumption. We apply a similar understanding in our study of resources. Instead of seeing resources as tangible and fixed goods that are innately valuable, we advocate an approach that emphasizes the processes through which a potential resource is transformed into a ‘resource in use’. This entails a focus on the relationship between resources and the existing institutionalized rules, norms, and conventions which constitute a framework of. This perspective enables us to understand how frameworks for action can be altered to accommodate the use of certain resources instead of others.We pursue these understandings in a study of how alternative forms of economic organization, business models, and market mechanisms can be developed to support the circulation of products and services that mobilize new resources or new types of resource use in the construction industry. In doing so, the project provides a more critical perspective on the dynamics and processes involved in the transition to the circular economy compared previous efforts in the Danish and international contexts