The Long-Term Effects of Cross-Listing Investor Recognition, and Ownership Structure on Valuation

The authors show that the widening of a foreign firm's U.S. investor base and the improved information environment associated with cross-listing on a U.S. exchange each have a separately identifiable effect on a firm's valuation. The increase in valuation associated with cross-listing is transitory, not permanent. Valuations of Canadian firms peak in the year of cross-listing and fall monotonically thereafter, regardless of the level of U.S. investor holdings or the ownership structure of the firm. Cross-listed firms with a 20 per cent or more blockholder attract a similar number of U.S. institutional investors as widely held firms, on average, but experience a lower increase in valuation at high levels of investor recognition. While U.S. investors are less willing to invest in firms with dual-class shares, these firms benefit more from cross-listing even when they fail to widen their U.S. investor base, suggesting that the reduction in information asymmetry between controlling and minority investors has a separate impact on valuation for firms where agency problems are greatest.Financial markets; International topics

Did any former St. Norbert football players ever go on to play for the Green Bay Packers?

Abbot Pennings answers a question about the history of SNC football and the Packers, archived from the SNC webpage

Natural language guidance of high-fidelity text-to-speech with synthetic annotations

Text-to-speech models trained on large-scale datasets have demonstrated impressive in-context learning capabilities and naturalness. However, control of speaker identity and style in these models typically requires conditioning on reference speech recordings, limiting creative applications. Alternatively, natural language prompting of speaker identity and style has demonstrated promising results and provides an intuitive method of control. However, reliance on human-labeled descriptions prevents scaling to large datasets. Our work bridges the gap between these two approaches. We propose a scalable method for labeling various aspects of speaker identity, style, and recording conditions. We then apply this method to a 45k hour dataset, which we use to train a speech language model. Furthermore, we propose simple methods for increasing audio fidelity, significantly outperforming recent work despite relying entirely on found data. Our results demonstrate high-fidelity speech generation in a diverse range of accents, prosodic styles, channel conditions, and acoustic conditions, all accomplished with a single model and intuitive natural language conditioning. Audio samples can be heard at https://text-description-to-speech.com/

Meta-analyses of Post-acquisition Performance: Indications of Unidentified Moderators

Empirical research has not consistently identified antecedents for predicting post-acquisition performance. We employ meta-analytic techniques to empirically assess the impact of the most commonly researched antecedent variables on post-acquisition performance. We find robust results indicating that, on average and across the most commonly studied variables, acquiring firms’ performance does not positively change as a function of their acquisition activity, and is negatively affected to a modest extent. More importantly, our results indicate that unidentified variables may explain significant variance in post-acquisition performance, suggesting the need for additional theory development and changes to M&A research methods

National Benefit/ Cost Analysis of Three Digit-Accessed Telephone Information and Referral Services

iven the enhanced profile and prospects for a national three-digit accessed (2-1-1) network for health and human services information and referral (I&R), United Way of America has contracted with the Ray Marshall Center to estimate the net value to society created by public and private investments in the system. Researchers will quantify the observed benefits and costs associated with eleven fully operational state and local 2-1-1 programs as a basis for estimating the net value of a national system, should policymakers and legislators decide to support such a system.Researchers will employ established methodologies to estimate benefits and costs. Research tasks conducted between March and August 2004 included a review of the I&R and benefit/costs literatures; recruiting and preliminarily screening sites; formally requesting fiscal and operational data; site visits and interviews with program administrators and staff; and conversations with professionals and individuals across the general public who have used 2-1-1 to address their health and human service needs.United Way of AmericaRay Marshall Center for the Study of Human Resource