The Effect of Deferred Prosecution Agreements on Firm Performance

The recent increase in the use of deferred and non-prosecution agreements (DPAs) by government agencies as a mechanism to hold a firm accountable for having engaged in wrongdoing and to reform the firm’s practices has given rise to a vigorous debate regarding the merits and drawbacks of such arrangements, compared with the alternative of prosecuting these firms. We find that firms subject to DPAs experience significantly lower buy and hold returns in the one- to three-year period following the DPA compared with prosecuted firms. These results are consistent with shareholders experiencing a wealth loss when a firm enters into a DPA. We also show that DPA firms experience negative real consequences following the initiation of a DPA, relative to prosecuted firms, as measured by decreases in both sales and the number of employees. These results are inconsistent with the idea that DPAs reduce the collateral damage to stakeholders who are not responsible for the crimes committed by the organization (i.e., innocent parties)

Peer choice in CEO compensation

Current research shows that firms are more likely to benchmark against peers that pay their Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) higher compensation, reflecting self serving behavior. We propose an alternative explanation: the choice of highly paid peers represents a reward for unobserved CEO talent. We test this hypothesis by decomposing the effect of peer selection into talent and self serving components. Consistent with our prediction, we find that the association between a firm's selection of highly paid peers and CEO pay mostly represents compensation for CEO talent

Interaction between perceived maternal care, anxiety symptoms, and the neurobehavioral response to palatable foods in adolescents

Studies in rodents have shown that early life trauma leads to anxiety, increased stress responses to threatening situations, and modifies food intake in a new environment. However, these associations are still to be tested in humans. This study aimed to verify complex interactions among anxiety diagnosis, maternal care, and baseline cortisol on food intake in a new environment in humans. A community sample of 32 adolescents and young adults was evaluated for: psychiatric diagnosis using standardized interviews, maternal care using the Parental Bonding Inventory (PBI), caloric consumption in a new environment (meal choice at a snack bar), and salivary cortisol. They also performed a brain fMRI task including the visualization of palatable foods vs. neutral items. The study found a three-way interaction between anxiety diagnosis, maternal care, and baseline cortisol levels on the total calories consumed (snacks) in a new environment. This interaction means that for those with high maternal care, there were no significant associations between cortisol levels and food intake in a new environment. However, for those with low maternal care and who have an anxiety disorder (affected), cortisol was associated with higher food intake; whereas for those with low maternal care and who did not have an anxiety disorder (resilient), cortisol was negatively associated with lower food intake. In addition, higher anxiety symptoms were associated with decreased activation in the superior and middle frontal gyrus when visualizing palatable vs. neutral items in those reporting high maternal care. These results in humans mimic experimental research findings and demonstrate that a combination of anxiety diagnosis and maternal care moderate the relationship between the HPA axis functioning, anxiety, and feeding behavior in adolescents and young adults

Thrifty-eating behavior phenotype at the food court : programming goes beyond food preferences

Introduction: Prenatal growth impairment leads to higher preference for palatable foods in comparison to normal prenatal growth subjects, which can contribute to increased body fat mass and a higher risk for developing chronic diseases in small-for-gestational-age (SGA) individuals throughout life. This study aimed to investigate the effect of SGA on feeding behavior in children and adolescents, as well as resting-state connectivity between areas related to reward, self-control, and value determination, such as orbitofrontal cortex (OFC), dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DL-PFC), amygdala and dorsal striatum (DS). Methods: Caregivers and their offspring were recruited from two independent cohorts in Brazil (PROTAIA) and Canada (MAVAN). Both cohorts included anthropometric measurements, food choice tasks, and resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data. Results: In the Brazilian sample (17 ± 0.28 years, n=70), 21.4% of adolescents were classified as SGA. They exhibited lower monetary-related expenditure to buy a snack compared to controls in the food choice test. Decreased functional connectivity (n=40) between left OFC and left DL-PFC; and between right OFC and: left amygdala, right DS, and left DS were observed in the Brazilian SGA participants. Canadian SGA participants (14.9%) had non-significant differences in comparison with controls in a food choice task at 4 years old ( ± 0.01, n=315). At a follow-up brain scan visit (10.21 ± 0.140 years, n=49), SGA participants (28.6%) exhibited higher connectivity between the left OFC and left DL-PFC, also higher connectivity between the left OFC and right DL-PFC. We did not observe significant anthropometric neither nutrients’ intake differences between groups in both samples. Conclusions: Resting-state fMRI results showed that SGA individuals had altered connectivity between areas involved in encoding the subjective value for available goods and decision-making in both samples, which can pose them in disadvantage when facing food options daily. Over the years, the cumulative exposure to particular food cues together with the altered behavior towards food, such as food purchasing, as seen in the adolescent cohort, can play a role in the long-term risk for developing chronic noncommunicable diseases

Prevention of hypertension in patients with pre-hypertension: protocol for the PREVER-prevention trial

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Blood pressure (BP) within pre-hypertensive levels confers higher cardiovascular risk and is an intermediate stage for full hypertension, which develops in an annual rate of 7 out of 100 individuals with 40 to 50 years of age. Non-drug interventions to prevent hypertension have had low effectiveness. In individuals with previous cardiovascular disease or diabetes, the use of BP-lowering agents reduces the incidence of major cardiovascular events. In the absence of higher baseline risk, the use of BP agents reduces the incidence of hypertension. The PREVER-prevention trial aims to investigate the efficacy, safety and feasibility of a population-based intervention to prevent the incidence of hypertension and the development of target-organ damage.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>This is a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial, with participants aged 30 to 70 years, with pre-hypertension. The trial arms will be chlorthalidone 12.5 mg plus amiloride 2.5 mg or identical placebo. The primary outcomes will be the incidence of hypertension, adverse events and development or worsening of microalbuminuria and of left ventricular hypertrophy in the EKG. The secondary outcomes will be fatal or non-fatal cardiovascular events: myocardial infarction, stroke, heart failure, evidence of new sub-clinical atherosclerosis, and sudden death. The study will last 18 months. The sample size was calculated on the basis of an incidence of hypertension of 14% in the control group, a size effect of 40%, power of 85% and P alpha of 5%, resulting in 625 participants per group. The project was approved by the Ethics committee of each participating institution.</p> <p>Discussion</p> <p>The early use of blood pressure-lowering drugs, particularly diuretics, which act on the main mechanism of blood pressure rising with age, may prevent cardiovascular events and the incidence of hypertension in individuals with hypertension. If this intervention shows to be effective and safe in a population-based perspective, it could be the basis for an innovative public health program to prevent hypertension in Brazil.</p> <p>Trial Registration</p> <p>Clinical Trials <a href="http://www.clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT00970931">NCT00970931</a>.</p

The Long-Baseline Neutrino Experiment: Exploring Fundamental Symmetries of the Universe

The preponderance of matter over antimatter in the early Universe, the dynamics of the supernova bursts that produced the heavy elements necessary for life and whether protons eventually decay --- these mysteries at the forefront of particle physics and astrophysics are key to understanding the early evolution of our Universe, its current state and its eventual fate. The Long-Baseline Neutrino Experiment (LBNE) represents an extensively developed plan for a world-class experiment dedicated to addressing these questions. LBNE is conceived around three central components: (1) a new, high-intensity neutrino source generated from a megawatt-class proton accelerator at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, (2) a near neutrino detector just downstream of the source, and (3) a massive liquid argon time-projection chamber deployed as a far detector deep underground at the Sanford Underground Research Facility. This facility, located at the site of the former Homestake Mine in Lead, South Dakota, is approximately 1,300 km from the neutrino source at Fermilab -- a distance (baseline) that delivers optimal sensitivity to neutrino charge-parity symmetry violation and mass ordering effects. This ambitious yet cost-effective design incorporates scalability and flexibility and can accommodate a variety of upgrades and contributions. With its exceptional combination of experimental configuration, technical capabilities, and potential for transformative discoveries, LBNE promises to be a vital facility for the field of particle physics worldwide, providing physicists from around the globe with opportunities to collaborate in a twenty to thirty year program of exciting science. In this document we provide a comprehensive overview of LBNE's scientific objectives, its place in the landscape of neutrino physics worldwide, the technologies it will incorporate and the capabilities it will possess.Comment: Major update of previous version. This is the reference document for LBNE science program and current status. Chapters 1, 3, and 9 provide a comprehensive overview of LBNE's scientific objectives, its place in the landscape of neutrino physics worldwide, the technologies it will incorporate and the capabilities it will possess. 288 pages, 116 figure

Analyst comments and the relation between analyst and firm disclosures

This dissertation consists of two empirical essays. In the first chapter, I study analysts\u27 comments, which are written disclosures distributed to large institutional clients as part of the brokerage firms\u27 daily sales process. Analysts\u27 comments are issued three times more frequently than recommendations and forecast revisions, and represent the bulk of analyst disclosures. The tests in this paper represent the first systematic study of comments. I find that comments provide an economically significant amount of information beyond that contained in previously-studied firm and analyst disclosures. I also show that comments are less (but continue to be) informative after implementation of Regulation FD. In addition, based on an analysis of the timing of comments, recommendations and forecasts, I show that the different types of analyst disclosures strongly complement each other. In the second chapter, I study whether sell-side analysts complement or substitute for firm disclosures. My analysis indicates that analysts are mainly substitutes for firm disclosures and the degree to which they substitute is increasing for firms that are larger in size and have more variable performance, and is decreasing for firms with higher levels of R&D spending. This result is central to hypotheses in the voluntary firm disclosure literature, which generally ignore the role of analysts and hence implicitly assume analysts either have no effect or complement firm disclosures. I conduct a small-sample content analysis of the text of 1,306 analyst comments to characterize their non-firm sources of information. I find that the majority of analysts\u27 comments are associated with some new information. The primary type of new information is firm-related news, although it does not represent the majority of information. The major source of non-firm information is earnings announcements and management forecasts issued by related public firms (i.e., intra-industry transfers). The analysis also indicates that analysts do indeed gather private information and that it is focused on industry phenomena

Accounting Adjustments and the Valuation of Financial Statement Note Information in 10-K Filings

We examine the valuation of financial statement note information at the time of 10-K filings. We find that stock returns around 10-K filings are positively related to accounting adjustments calculated from financial statement note information. We further document that the likelihood of equity analysts issuing a report and updating their target price estimates at the 10-K dates is increasing in the magnitude of the adjustments. Those analysts who do update their target prices at this time revise their estimates consistent with the sign and magnitude of the adjustments. These findings are consistent with financial statement users utilizing financial statement note information to make accounting adjustments, thereby incorporating this information into stock prices.We gratefully acknowledge the financial support of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto, and the School of Management at the University of Texas at Dallas