High-Speed Natural Selection in Financial Markets with Large State Spaces

Recent research has suggested that natural selection in financial markets may be a very slow process, taking hundreds of years. We show in a general equilibrium model that it may be much faster in markets with large state spaces. In many cases, the time it takes to wipe out irrational investors is inversely proportional to the number of stocks in the market, i.e., if it takes about 500 years with one stock, it takes about one year with 500 stocks. Thus, theoretically, natural selection can be very efficient even when there is high market uncertainty. The speed of the natural selection process is a known function of irrational investors' sentiment and of the real characteristics of the stock market. According to a calibration to U.S. stock data, it takes about fifty years for an irrational investor to be wiped out. This is in line with studies of individual investor underperformance.Asset pricing; Market selection hypothesis; Natural selection

Do consulting services affect audit quality? Evidence from the workforce

There is a long-standing question in the literature about whether and how consulting services in audit firms affect audit quality. We address this question by using a unique and comprehensive office-level dataset of employment profiles and skills, covering approximately 86% of all employees at large U.S. public accounting firms. We guide our empirical analyses with interviews with 15 audit partners, which reveal that consulting expertise is used in approximately 60%-80% of audit engagements, and the main rationale for such collaboration is knowledge sharing and improved audit quality. In our empirical analyses, we document a positive effect of consulting employees on audit quality. Specifically, one standard deviation increase in the share of consulting employees in an office results in a 2.7 percentage point reduction in restatements in that office. This effect is strongest when consulting employees have skills complimentary to auditors, including special industry skills, technical skills and management skills, supporting the knowledge sharing hypothesis. In addition, we demonstrate that the effect increases with of consulting employees’ tenure with a firm, does not diminish over time, is present for both Big4 and non-Big4 firms, and is more pronounced for larger, more complex and more important audit clients

Seasonal changes in the water content and level in the bank vole against the background of other gross body components

Hupeh [Hubei]GrayscaleForman Nitrate Negatives, Box

THE PURSUIT OF PLEASURE - A SELF-ASSESSED GLOBAL QUALITY OF LIFE AS A POTENTIAL SCREENING METHOD FOR PROBLEMATIC USE OF DRUGS AND ALCOHOL

Background: Notion of self-rated quality of life recently acquires more and more attention among health care professionals. The aim of this study is to determine whether one of the questionnaires measuring this theoretical concept, QOL10, could be applied to help to identify individuals who have problems with drug abuse. Subjects and methods: QOL10 questionnaire complemented with several filtering questions has been administered to 200 students in various schools in Poland. Results: The correspondence between QOL10 and the willingness to take drugs is the strongest for QOL10 above 2.5. For QOL10 >2.5 a statistically significant positive correlation (r=0.464) has been observed between the frequency of use of psychoactive substances other than alcohol (drugs, medications) and the general quality of life. Therefore they might be considered as a risk group. Conclusions: QOL10 proved to be quite a specific tool in detecting people who do not have problem with drug abuse. In spite of that, applying only QOL10 for the purposes studied does not provide conclusive grounds for detecting the problem of drug use. Nonetheless, it might be of help in serving as an indicator that some individuals belong to the risk group

On the Theory of double ICD and Applications of ICD

Interatomic or intermolecular Coulombic decay (ICD) is an efficient relaxation pathway on the femtosecond timescale, where after inner-valence ionization of an atom or molecule, the initial vacancy is filled by an outer-valence electron and the excess energy is transferred radiationlessly to its neighbor, leading to its ionization. In this thesis, ICD-related phenomena are studied. Therefore, the work is divided into two main parts. Part I treats the new decay channel double ICD (dICD), where after the relaxation of the system, the excess energy exceeds the double ionization threshold of the neighboring species, resulting in its double ionization. We derive an asymptotic and perturbative expression for the dICD decay width as an indicator of efficiency. In Part II, nuclear dynamics during ICD and pre-ICD in NeKr and ArAr dimers are investigated focusing on different aspects. In pre-ICD, the excess energy is only sufficient for the excitation of the neighboring atom or molecule and additional energy has to be provided for its ionization. While the study about NeKr dimers undergoing ICD mostly concentrates on interference effects, the main goal of the pre-ICD in ArAr dimers study is to understand the nuclear motions and their appearance in the corresponding spectrum

Information Communication Through Distorted Earnings Reporting

In this paper we study how discretionary managerial reports can be used for information communication about the firm’s value. Equilibrium reporting strategy and investment level are derived for strategic investor (i.e., VC), and competitive investor (i.e., IPO) market settings. It is shown that when direct truthful information communication is unreliable because of incentive misalignments, costly discretionary biased reporting still allows perfect information communication. Comparative static shows that the level of earnings management and amount of capital invested differs in these two cases. Our model justifies the existence of lock up period during IPO and provides some arguments supporting a pattern of VC-IPO sequence since getting initial financing from strategic investor reduces the cost of signaling for the firm during subsequent IPO procedure. Presented analysis generates several empirical implications regarding strategic choices of earnings management depending on the investment structure

Philosophical Intuitions

What exactly is a philosophical intuition? And what makes such an intuition reliable, when it is reliable? This paper provides a terminological framework that is able answer to the first question, and then puts the framework to work developing an answer to the second question. More specifically, the paper argues that we can distinguish between two different "evidential roles" which intuitions can occupy: under certain conditions they can provide information about the representational structure of an intuitor's concept, and under different conditions, they can provide information about whether or not a property is instantiated. The paper describes two principles intended to capture the difference between the two sets of conditions---that is, the paper offers a principle that explains when an intuition will be a reliable source of evidence about the representation structure of an intuitor's concept, and another principle that explains when an intuition will be a reliable source of evidence about whether or not a property is instantiated. The paper concludes by briefly arguing that, insofar as philosophers are interested using intuitions to determine whether or not some philosophically interesting property is instantiated by some scenario (for instance, whether knowledge is instantiated in a Gettier-case), the reliability of the intuition in question does not depend on whether or not the intuition is widely shared

Studies of the Lysogenic Response as a Function of Multiplicity of Infection of Lambdoid Bacteriophages

The lambdoid bacteriophages λimmλ, λimm434 and λcI are ideal subjects for the study of gene product interactions at the molecular level due to their closely related genetic makeup. Previous work in this laboratory has indicated the possibility that phage λimm is sensitive to phage λimm434cI gene product and that phage λimm434 is sensitive to phage λimmλcI gene product. The purpose of this research was to determine if the frequency of lysogeny for phage λimmλ is affected by the multiplicity of coinfection with the λimm434 phage. By comparing the graph of the frequency of lysogeny versus multiplicity of infection for λimmλ alone with the graph of the frequency of lysogeny versus multiplicity of infection for λimmλ coinfected with λimm434 it is possible to determine whether the lysogenic response of λimmλ utilizes the cI gene product of phage λimm434. The results of this study demonstrate clearly that λimm434 has no multiplicity of infection - dependent effect upon the ability of λimmλ to enter the lysogenic state. The combined results of the present study and previous work in this laboratory suggest that although the cI gene of one phage does appear to influence the reproduction of the other, the effect does not involve the primary function of cI, that is, initiation of lysogeny. This suggests that the cI gene could possibly have other functions besides producing repressor protein

Studies of the Lysogenic Response as a Function of Multiplicity of Infection of Lambdoid Bacteriophages

The lambdoid bacteriophages λimmλ, λimm434 and λcI are ideal subjects for the study of gene product interactions at the molecular level due to their closely related genetic makeup. Previous work in this laboratory has indicated the possibility that phage λimm is sensitive to phage λimm434cI gene product and that phage λimm434 is sensitive to phage λimmλcI gene product. The purpose of this research was to determine if the frequency of lysogeny for phage λimmλ is affected by the multiplicity of coinfection with the λimm434 phage. By comparing the graph of the frequency of lysogeny versus multiplicity of infection for λimmλ alone with the graph of the frequency of lysogeny versus multiplicity of infection for λimmλ coinfected with λimm434 it is possible to determine whether the lysogenic response of λimmλ utilizes the cI gene product of phage λimm434. The results of this study demonstrate clearly that λimm434 has no multiplicity of infection - dependent effect upon the ability of λimmλ to enter the lysogenic state. The combined results of the present study and previous work in this laboratory suggest that although the cI gene of one phage does appear to influence the reproduction of the other, the effect does not involve the primary function of cI, that is, initiation of lysogeny. This suggests that the cI gene could possibly have other functions besides producing repressor protein