Self-enforcing contracts with persistence

We show theoretically that, in the presence of persistent productivity shocks, the reliance on self-enforcing contracts due to limited legal enforcement may provide a possible rationale why countries with the worse rule of law might exhibit: (i) higher aggregate TFP volatilities, (ii) larger dispersion of firm-level productivity, and (iii) greater wage inequality. We also provide suggestive empirical evidence consistent with the model's aggregate implications. Finally, we relate the model's firm-level implications to existing empirical findings.Dumav gratefully acknowledges support from from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant # 896463, and the Ministerio Economía y Competitividad (Spain) through grants ECO2017-86261-P and MDM 2014-0431. Fuchs gratefully acknowledges support from the ERC Grant # 681575, Ministerio Ciencia Innovacion y Universidades (Spain), Grants PGC2018-09615 and MDM2014-0431, and from the Comunidad de Madrid, Grant H2019/HUM-5891

Combler le « vide institutionnel » : Le comportement social et les performances des entreprises familiales comparés à ceux des autres entreprises des marchés émergents dans le secteur des hautes technologies.

Les entreprises familiales (EF) sont réputées prendre un soin particulier de leurs employés, avec l’objectif de créer une « communauté » interne très soudée. Leurs relations et contacts avec leurs partenaires extérieurs seraient aussi plus approfondis et personnels. Ces deux attitudes favoriseraient la viabilité d’une entreprise qui doit faire vivre la famille propriétaire, ainsi que les générations suivantes. Ces liens sociaux nous paraissent pouvoir compenser le manque de capital, de produits et d’infrastructure propre aux économies émergentes dynamiques. Cette étude, menée dans un secteur très compétitif de marché émergent, les entreprises de haute technologie en Corée, examine trois points majeurs :(1) Les relations internes et les liens avec l’extérieur sont plus développés dans les EF que dans les autres. (2) Ces relations améliorent la performance des secteurs de haute technologie dans les marchés émergents, pour lesquels il est indispensable, du fait de leur nature compétitive complexe et évolutive, de disposer d’une expertise pointue et d’un capital social à l’intérieur comme à l’extérieur de l’entreprise. (3) Les performances des EF sont plus dépendantes de ces relations communautaires et de ces liens avec l’extérieur que celles des autres entreprises, parce que dans ce cadre personnel et intime, les employés et les partenaires extérieurs ont généralement tendance à récompenser la générosité, ou au contraire à punir l’égoïsme, d’une famille propriétaire qu’ils voient à l’oeuvre de leurs propres yeux. Nos observations empiriques confirment la plupart de ces hypothèses de façon significative.We argue that family businesses (FBs) will tend to treat their employees with unusual consideration to form a cohesive internal “community”. They are also expected to develop deeper, more extensive “connections” or relationships with outside stakeholders. Both behaviors should increase the viability of a business intended to support an owning family and its later generations. Such social linkages, we believe, may compensate for the lack of capital, product and labor institutional infrastructures in dynamic emerging economies. This survey study of a most challenging emerging market sector, namely, Korean high technology businesses, largely supports these expectations

Idiosyncratic volatility and firm-specific news: evidence from the Chinese stock market

This study investigates the effect of firm-specific news on the pricing of idiosyncratic volatility (IVOL) in China. Using a sample of non-financial A-share listed firms from January 2006 to June 2018, we find that the predictive ability of IVOL is much weaker around firm announcements compared to that without news, suggesting that the limited arbitrage cannot disentangle the IVOL puzzle completely in the emerging market. Additionally, we investigate the effect of news sentiment on the predictive ability of IVOL and find that it is much stronger following bad news compared to good news. Finally, when we include the macroeconomic variables known to predict returns to adjust the systematic risk, we obtain novel findings that the negative premium of IVOL becomes insignificant, suggesting that the negative premium is time-varying with macroeconomy

Panax ginseng Modulates Cytokines in Bone Marrow Toxicity and Myelopoiesis: Ginsenoside Rg1 Partially Supports Myelopoiesis

In this study, we have demonstrated that Korean Panax ginseng (KG) significantly enhances myelopoiesis in vitro and reconstitutes bone marrow after 5-flurouracil-induced (5FU) myelosuppression in mice. KG promoted total white blood cell, lymphocyte, neutrophil and platelet counts and improved body weight, spleen weight, and thymus weight. The number of CFU-GM in bone marrow cells of mice and serum levels of IL-3 and GM-CSF were significantly improved after KG treatment. KG induced significant c-Kit, SCF and IL-1 mRNA expression in spleen. Moreover, treatment with KG led to marked improvements in 5FU-induced histopathological changes in bone marrow and spleen, and partial suppression of thymus damage. The levels of IL-3 and GM-CSF in cultured bone marrow cells after 24 h stimulation with KG were considerably increased. The mechanism underlying promotion of myelopoiesis by KG was assessed by monitoring gene expression at two time-points of 4 and 8 h. Treatment with Rg1 (0.5, 1 and 1.5 µmol) specifically enhanced c-Kit, IL-6 and TNF-α mRNA expression in cultured bone marrow cells. Our results collectively suggest that the anti-myelotoxicity activity and promotion of myelopoiesis by KG are mediated through cytokines. Moreover, the ginsenoside, Rg1, supports the role of KG in myelopoiesis to some extent

Price experimentation in confidential negotiations

I develop a model in which a long-lived seller concurrently negotiates with multiple long-lived buyers over two periods. Within this framework, I consider two protocols: a public negotiation process and a confidential negotiation process. In the confidential negotiation process, buyers competitively engage in “price experimentation”: they sacrifice part of initial profits so that they can enjoy informational advantages over competitors later. Due to this channel, the seller benefits from (1) maintaining confidentiality over past offers and (2) reducing the number of buyers in the confidential negotiation process, even without any entry cost.Financ

Regeneration of limb joints in the axolotl (Ambystoma mexicanum).

In spite of numerous investigations of regenerating salamander limbs, little attention has been paid to the details of how joints are reformed. An understanding of the process and mechanisms of joint regeneration in this model system for tetrapod limb regeneration would provide insights into developing novel therapies for inducing joint regeneration in humans. To this end, we have used the axolotl (Mexican Salamander) model of limb regeneration to describe the morphology and the expression patterns of marker genes during joint regeneration in response to limb amputation. These data are consistent with the hypothesis that the mechanisms of joint formation whether it be development or regeneration are conserved. We also have determined that defects in the epiphyseal region of both forelimbs and hind limbs in the axolotl are regenerated only when the defect is small. As is the case with defects in the diaphysis, there is a critical size above which the endogenous regenerative response is not sufficient to regenerate the joint. This non-regenerative response in an animal that has the ability to regenerate perfectly provides the opportunity to screen for the signaling pathways to induce regeneration of articular cartilage and joints

Wastewater bypass is a major temporary point-source of antibiotic resistance genes and multi-resistance risk factors in a Swiss river

Untreated combined sewage (bypass) is often discharged by wastewater treatment plants to receiving rivers during stormwater events, where it may contribute to increased levels of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) and multi-resistance risk factors (multi-resistant bacteria and multi-resistance genomic determinants (MGDs)) in the receiving water. Other contamination sources, such as soil runoff and resuspended river sediment could also play a role during stormwater events. Here we report on stormwater event-based sampling campaigns to determine temporal dynamics of ARGs and multi-resistance risk factors in bypass, treated effluent, and the receiving river, as well as complimentary data on catchment soils and surface sediments. Both indicator ARGs (qPCR) and resistome (ARG profiles revealed by metagenomics) indicated bypass as the main contributor to the increased levels of ARGs in the river during stormwater events. Furthermore, we showed for the first time that the risk of exposure to bypass-borne multi-resistance risk factors increase under stormwater events and that many of these MGDs were plasmid associated and thus potentially mobile. In addition, elevated resistance risk factors persisted for some time (up to 22 h) in the receiving water after stormwater events, likely due to inputs from distributed overflows in the catchment. This indicates temporal dynamics should be considered when interpreting the risks of exposure to resistance from event-based contamination. We propose that reducing bypass from wastewater treatment plants may be an important intervention option for reducing dissemination of antibiotic resistance