The Capital Structure Decisions of New Firms

Based on data from the Kauffman Firm Survey, examines the funding sources of firms in their first year of operations. Highlights start-ups' reliance on external debt financing such as bank loans and credit cards, regardless of their credit scores

Patterns of Financing: A Comparison Between White- and African-American Young Firms

Based on Kauffman Firm Survey data, examines differences in start-up and follow-on capital injections into and capital use by firms with African-American and white owners. Explores how access to capital affects the racial gap in new business formation

What is the Price of Hubris? Using Takeover Battles to Infer Overpayments and Synergies

We present a framework for determining the information that can be extracted from stock prices around takeover contests. In only two types of cases is it theoretically possible to use stock price movements to infer bidder overpayment and relative synergies. The takeover contest for Paramount in 1994 illustrates one of these generic cases. We estimate that Viacom, the winning' bidder, overpaid for Paramount by more than $2 billion. This occurred despite the fact that Viacom's CEO owned roughly 3/4 of Viacom. These results are consistent with managerial overconfidence and/or large private benefits, but not with the traditional agency-based incentive problem.

A possible dearth of hot gas in galaxy groups at intermediate redshift

We examine the X-ray luminosity of galaxy groups in the CNOC2 survey, at redshifts 0.1 < z < 0.6. Previous work examining the gravitational lensing signal of the CNOC2 groups has shown that they are likely to be genuine, gravitationally bound objects. Of the 21 groups in the field of view of the EPIC-PN camera on XMM-Newton, not one was visible in over 100 ksec of observation, even though three of the them have velocity dispersions high enough that they would easily be visible if their luminosities scaled with their velocity dispersions in the same way as nearby groups' luminosities scale. We consider the possibility that this is due to the reported velocity dispersions being erroneously high, and conclude that this is unlikely. We therefore find tentative evidence that groups at intermediate redshift are underluminous relative to their local cousins.Comment: 16 pages, 5 figures, reference added in section 1, typos corrected, published in Ap

Public policy to promote entrepreneurship: a call to arms

We debate the motivation for and effectiveness of public policies to encourage individuals to become entrepreneurs. Reviewing established evidence we find that most Western world policies do not greatly reduce or solve any market failures but instead waste taxpayers’ money, encourage those already intent on becoming entrepreneurs, and mostly generate one-employee businesses with low-growth intentions and a lack of interest in innovating. Most policy initiatives that would have the effect of promoting valuable entrepreneurship would not be recognizable as such, because they would primarily address other market failures: A central-payer health care would remove healthcare-related distortions affecting employment choices; greater STEM education would produce more engineers of which some start valuable new firms; and labor market reform to encourage hiring immigrants in jobs they have been educated for would reduce inefficient allocation of talent to entrepreneurship

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: Evidence from Blackjack Tables

Psychologists study regret primarily by measuring subjects' attitudes in laboratory experiments. This does not shed light on how expected regret affects economic actions in market settings. To address this, we use proprietary data from a blackjack table in Las Vegas to analyze how expected regret affects peoples''decisions during gambles. Even among a group of people who choose to participate in a risk-taking activity, we find strong evidence of an economically significant omission bias: players incur substantial losses by playing too conservatively. This behavior is prevalent even among large stakes gamblers, and becomes more severe following previous aggressive play, suggesting a rebound effect after aggressive play.

Aspects of aero-engine nacelle drag

To address the need for accurate nacelle drag estimation, an assessment has been made of different nacelle configurations used for drag evaluation. These include a sting mounted nacelle, a nacelle in free flow with an idealised, freestream pressure matched, efflux and a nacelle with a full exhaust system and representative nozzle pressure ratio. An aerodynamic analysis using numerical methods has been carried out on four nacelles to assess a near field drag extraction method using computational fluid dynamics. The nacelles were modelled at a range of aerodynamic conditions and three were compared against wind tunnel data. A comparison is made between the drag extraction methods used in the wind tunnel analysis and the chosen computational fluid dynamics approach which utilised the modified near-field method for evaluation of drag coefficients and trends with Mach number and mass flow. The effect of sting mounting is quantified and its influence on the drag measured by the wind tunnel methodology determined. This highlights notable differences in the rate of change of drag with free stream Mach number, and also the flow over the nacelle. A post exit stream tube was also found to create a large additional interference term acting on the nacelle. This term typically accounts for 50% of the modified nacelle drag and its inclusion increased the drag rise Mach number by around ΔM = 0.026 from M=0.849 M=0.849 to M=0.875 M=0.875 for the examples considered

Serodiagnosis of Mycobacterium abscessus complex infection in cystic fibrosis

Early signs of pulmonary disease with Mycobacterium abscessus complex (MABSC) can be missed in patients with cystic fibrosis (CF). A serological method could help stratify patients according to risk. The objective of this study was to test the diagnostic accuracy of a novel method for investigating IgG activity against MABSC. A prospective study of all patients attending the Copenhagen CF Centre was conducted by culturing for MABSC during a 22-month period and then screening patients with an anti-MABSC IgG ELISA. Culture-positive patients had stored serum examined for antibody kinetics before and after culture conversion. 307 patients had 3480 respiratory samples cultured and were then tested with the anti-MABSC IgG ELISA. Patients with MABSC pulmonary disease had median anti-MABSC IgG levels six-fold higher than patients with no history of infection (434 versus 64 ELISA units; p<0.001). The test sensitivity was 95% (95% CI 74–99%) and the specificity was 73% (95% CI 67–78%). A diagnostic algorithm was constructed to stratify patients according to risk. The test accurately identified patients with pulmonary disease caused by MABSC and was suited to be used as a complement to mycobacterial culture

Shearing Interferometer for Quantifying the Coherence of Hard X-Ray Beams

We report a quantitative measurement of the full transverse coherence function of the 14.4 keV x-ray radiation produced by an undulator at the Swiss Light Source. An x-ray grating interferometer consisting of a beam splitter phase grating and an analyzer amplitude grating has been used to measure the degree of coherence as a function of the beam separation out to 30 m. Importantly, the technique provides a model-free and spatially resolved measurement of the complex coherence function and is not restricted to high resolution detectors and small fields of view. The spatial characterization of the wave front has important applications in discovering localized defects in beam line optics