Two Essays on Short Sellers

This dissertation examines the role of short sellers in our capital markets. The first chapter examines the impact constraints on short sellers have on the liquidity. Prior literature has struggled to cleanly identify whether constraining short sellers is harmful or not for liquidity. We exploit a plausibly exogenous shock to shorting supply that occurs on dividend record dates to test the relation between shorting constraints and market quality. This shock arises due to a combination of equity settlement rules and the tax treatment of the payments in lieu of dividends that stock lenders receive when they loan their shares. We find a temporary degradation in liquidity on dividend record dates in the form of larger effective spreads. Our evidence that liquidity deteriorates on dividend record days, especially in stocks that likely have less slack in lending supply, suggest shorting supply constraints affect the cost of transacting faced by all traders. The second chapter investigates whether sell side equity analysts use the trading activity of short sellers in their information set. By taking advantage of a lagged disclosure of short interest I can identify the relationship between analysts’ actions and the trading of short sellers more directly than prior literature. I find that analysts exhibit an increased propensity to downgrade their recommendations for a stock after a disclosed increase in short selling. I also find a significantly positive relationship between changes in short interest and the likelihood of a downward EPS revision. Overall, these results suggest that market participants extract information from short-sellers’ trading activity

Thinking about Peace Today

Discussing peace-and how to get to and maintain situations, practices, and socio-political structures that build peace-is of the greatest urgency. But the first step, both psychologically and epistemologically, is overcoming preoccupation with war and resistance to thinking about peace. This article takes on these problems and lays essential groundwork for substantive discussion of peace. Attractions of war and myths of war are deconstructed, and negative views of humans\u27 capacity for peaceful behavior are examined and rejected. Wide-ranging costs of war and war-preparedness are also exposed. The value of peace is then discussed. A concluding section offers a list of home truths (beliefs that invite universal assent), from which constructive reflection on peace might begin

First International Conference on Laboratory Research for Planetary Atmospheres

Proceedings of the First International Conference on Laboratory Research for Planetary Atmospheres are presented. The covered areas of research include: photon spectroscopy, chemical kinetics, thermodynamics, and charged particle interactions. This report contains the 12 invited papers, 27 contributed poster papers, and 5 plenary review papers presented at the conference. A list of attendees and a reprint of the Report of the Subgroup on Strategies for Planetary Atmospheres Exploration (SPASE) are provided in two appendices

Quantifying research output on poverty and non-communicable disease behavioural risk factors in low-income and lower middle-income countries: a bibliometric analysis

Objectives Low-income and lower middle-income countries (LLMICs) bear a disproportionate burden of non-communicable diseases (NCDs). WHO has repeatedly called for more research on poverty and NCDs in these settings, but the current situation remains unquantified. We aimed to assess research output on poverty and NCD risk factors from these countries in relation to upper middle-income and high-income countries. Design Bibliometric analysis of primary research published between 1 January 1990 and 4 May 2017. We searched 13 databases, combining terms for poverty and NCD behavioural risk factors (tobacco, alcohol, diet and physical activity). Independent dual review was used to screen titles, abstracts and full papers. Two-tailed t-testing and multiple linear regression analyses were used to compare differences in means. Outcomes (1) Proportion of lead authors affiliated with institutions based in high and upper middle-income countries vs LLMICs. (2) Mean number of citations for publications from each region. (3) Mean journal impact factor for studies from each region. Results Ninety-one (67%) of the 136 included studies were led by scientists affiliated with LLMIC-based institutions. These authors represented 17/83 LLMICs (20%), and their studies garnered 4.8 fewer citations per paper than studies led by high-income and upper middle-income-affiliated authors; however, this finding was non-significant (P=0.67). Papers led by authors based in high-income and upper middle-income countries were published in journals with a mean impact factor 3.1 points higher than those from LLMICs (4.9 vs 1.7) adjusting for year of publication and number of citations (P<0.001). Conclusions Most poverty and NCD risk factor research is led by authors from a small number of LLMICs. These studies are being published in relatively low-impact journals, and the vast majority of LLMICs are not producing any research in this area that is vital to their social and economic development. The paucity of domestic evidence must be addressed to inform global policy

Redistribution of critical major histocompatibility complex and T cell receptor-binding functions of residues in an antigenic sequence after biterminal substitution

Residues critical for establishing a trimolecular interaction with a major histocompatibility complex (MHC)-encoded receptor and a T cell antigen receptor (TcR) were determined for an antigenic nonapeptide. The N-terminal residue proved to be involved in binding of the peptide to both receptors and the C-terminal residue was essential for MHC binding. While substitution of either of these critical terminal residues by alanine resulted in an almost complete loss of peptide antigenicity, simultaneous substitution of both created a new functional ligand for the same MHC molecule and the same TcR. Notably, in the biterminally substituted peptide, the core residues took on new roles in the trimolecular interaction in that a residue critical in the authentic nonapeptide for TcR binding became critical for MHC binding and former spacer residues became essential to various degrees for the interaction with either receptor or both. Thus, apparently, the loss of the terminal residues' contribution was at least partially compensated by a redistribution of the roles among the remaining residues. These results reflect a cooperative contribution of all residues of an antigenic peptide to its binding to both receptors and thus challenge a static definition of agretope and epitope as MHC and TcR binding sites

Health, ethics and environment: A qualitative study of vegetarian motivations

This qualitative study explored the motivations of vegetarians by means of online ethnographic research with participants in an international message board. The researcher participated in discussions on the board, gathered responses to questions from 33 participants, and conducted follow-up e-mail interviews with eighteen of these participants. Respondents were predominantly from the US, Canada and the UK. Seventy per cent were female, and ages ranged from 14 to 53, with a median of 26 years. Data were analysed using a thematic approach. While this research found that health and the ethical treatment of animals were the main motivators for participants’ vegetarianism, participants reported a range of commitments to environmental concerns, although in only one case was environmentalism a primary motivator for becoming a vegetarian. The data indicates that vegetarians may follow a trajectory, in which initial motivations are augmented over time by other reasons for sustaining or further restricting their diet

Mix and Match: Promoting Interdisciplinary Teaching, Learning, and Community through Classroom-Level Partnerships

Developed at the University of British Columbia (UBC), UBC Mix creates interdisciplinary learning experiences for students by developing partnerships between existing courses, and between existing courses and other learning opportunities. UBC Mix connects faculty members interested in making their courses more interdisciplinary, and facilitates the creation of shared learning activities that mix” students together. The UBC Mix project provides a model for facilitating interdisciplinary teaching and learning within existing courses and programs at colleges and universities