The price, quality and distribution of mortgage payment protection insurance: a hedonic pricing approach

Mortgage payment protection insurance (hereafter MPPI) provides varying combinations of accident, sickness and unemployment insurance and is used to protect the mortgage payments of policyholders in the event of a fall in income. Despite alleviating housing market failures, this service has been heavily criticised for providing poor value for money and being associated with unhelpful sales techniques especially when sold jointly with a mortgage in the UK. Consequently, the Competition Commission (2009) ruled that after February 2011 MPPI should not be sold jointly with mortgage lending within seven days of the credit transaction. We examine whether this prohibition was justified and if the form of distribution, either jointly with the mortgage or independently influences the premium levels. This assessment uses a hedonic pricing approach with details and premiums of MPPI policies in 2010 and 2012. Despite the success in reducing MPPI premium levels, we conclude that the Competition Commission judgement has raised concerns as to mortgagee protection

Does the form of state ownership and political connections influence the incidence of financial statement fraud?

Do forms of state ownership and politically connected senior management affect the incidence of financial statement fraud? In this study, we consider these questions and provide new evidence as to the factors influencing fraud commission and detection for Chinese listed firms between 2007 and 2018. Six major types of financial statement fraud activities are identified. Using a bivariate probit model, developed to address partial observability concerns, we report state ownership lowers the likelihood of fraud detection, while increasing a firms’ propensity to commit fraud. In addition, state-owned enterprises (SOEs) controlled by local government are more likely to engage in fraud and escape regulatory punishments, relative to SOEs controlled by central government. The effect of politically connected senior management over fraud commission or regulatory detection is also diluted by the presence of state ownership. Moreover, the role of state ownership in encouraging fraud commissions and escaping from regulatory punishments is more pronounced for the local non-politically connected SOEs

Does the form of state ownership and political connections influence the incidence of financial statement fraud?

Do forms of state ownership and politically connected senior management affect the incidence of financial statement fraud? In this study, we consider these questions and provide new evidence as to the factors influencing fraud commission and detection for Chinese listed firms between 2007 and 2018. Six major types of financial statement fraud activities are identified. Using a bivariate probit model, developed to address partial observability concerns, we report state ownership lowers the likelihood of fraud detection, while increasing a firms’ propensity to commit fraud. In addition, state-owned enterprises (SOEs) controlled by local government are more likely to engage in fraud and escape regulatory punishments, relative to SOEs controlled by central government. The effect of politically connected senior management over fraud commission or regulatory detection is also diluted by the presence of state ownership. Moreover, the role of state ownership in encouraging fraud commissions and escaping from regulatory punishments is more pronounced for the local non-politically connected SOEs

Realizing Gender Diversity on Corporate Boards

This study examines the effectiveness of soft law through scrutinizing national policies for enhancing the proportion of women on corporate boards. While using soft laws, which have less precision and obligation dimensions than conventional laws, is widespread within financial regulation, the relative performance of soft laws is unexplored. To resolve this, we undertake a comparative examination of 14,012 firms from 99 nations, using a three-stage analysis to examine the effect of different policies, their format and influence of institutional factors on female board representation. We report that soft laws are effective for promoting gender equality on corporate boards and the effectiveness of policies is strongly influenced by the enforcement, implementation and compliance dimensions of policy, and institutional factors. Policies are most potent when enforced using a moderate level of sanctions, with a longer compliance period and a diversity target less distant from a firm’s precedent gender diversity level

Is the Journey more Important than the Destination? EU Accession and Corporate Governance and Performance of Banks

This article examines how accession to and subsequent membership of the EU has influenced the dissemination of corporate governance characteristics and the financial performance of the banking industry. Using a hand-collected, cross-national dataset from EU member and candidate states the analysis indicates the candidacy period is associated with the better financial performance of banks than the latter period of EU membership. EU membership also has a significant negative influence on adopting some corporate governance arrangements. We infer this result is consistent with instrumental rationality explanations of Europeanization. While the process of accession has brought benefits, these are not always reinforced by subsequent EU membership

Angiogenic regulatory influence of extracellular matrix deposited by resting state asthmatic and non-asthmatic airway smooth muscle cells is similar

The extracellular matrix (ECM) is the tissue microenvironment that regulates the characteristics of stromal and systemic cells to control processes such as inflammation and angiogenesis. Despite ongoing anti-inflammatory treatment, low levels of inflammation exist in the airways in asthma, which alters ECM deposition by airway smooth muscle (ASM) cells. The altered ECM causes aberrant behaviour of cells, such as endothelial cells, in the airway tissue. We therefore sought to characterize the composition and angiogenic potential of the ECM deposited by asthmatic and non-asthmatic ASM. After 72 hours under non-stimulated conditions, the ECM deposited by primary human asthmatic ASM cells was equal in total protein, collagen I, III and fibronectin content to that from non-asthmatic ASM cells. Further, the matrices of non-asthmatic and asthmatic ASM cells were equivalent in regulating the growth, activity, attachment and migration of primary human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs). Under basal conditions, asthmatic and non-asthmatic ASM cells intrinsically deposit an ECM of equivalent composition and angiogenic potential. Previous findings indicate that dysregulation of the airway ECM is driven even by low levels of inflammatory provocation. This study suggests the need for more effective anti-inflammatory therapies in asthma to maintain the airway ECM and regulate ECM-mediated aberrant angiogenesis.</p

Angiogenic regulatory influence of extracellular matrix deposited by resting state asthmatic and non-asthmatic airway smooth muscle cells is similar

The extracellular matrix (ECM) is the tissue microenvironment that regulates the characteristics of stromal and systemic cells to control processes such as inflammation and angiogenesis. Despite ongoing anti‐inflammatory treatment, low levels of inflammation exist in the airways in asthma, which alters ECM deposition by airway smooth muscle (ASM) cells. The altered ECM causes aberrant behaviour of cells, such as endothelial cells, in the airway tissue. We therefore sought to characterize the composition and angiogenic potential of the ECM deposited by asthmatic and non‐asthmatic ASM. After 72 hours under non‐stimulated conditions, the ECM deposited by primary human asthmatic ASM cells was equal in total protein, collagen I, III and fibronectin content to that from non‐asthmatic ASM cells. Further, the matrices of non‐asthmatic and asthmatic ASM cells were equivalent in regulating the growth, activity, attachment and migration of primary human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs). Under basal conditions, asthmatic and non‐asthmatic ASM cells intrinsically deposit an ECM of equivalent composition and angiogenic potential. Previous findings indicate that dysregulation of the airway ECM is driven even by low levels of inflammatory provocation. This study suggests the need for more effective anti‐inflammatory therapies in asthma to maintain the airway ECM and regulate ECM‐mediated aberrant angiogenesis

MILEPOST GCC: machine learning based research compiler

International audienceTuning hardwired compiler optimizations for rapidly evolving hardware makes porting an optimizing compiler for each new platform extremely challenging. Our radical approach is to develop a modular, extensible, self-optimizing compiler that automatically learns the best optimization heuristics based on the behavior of the platform. In this paper we describe MILEPOST GCC, a machine-learning-based compiler that automatically adjusts its optimization heuristics to improve the execution time, code size, or compilation time of specific programs on different architectures. Our preliminary experimental results show that it is possible to considerably reduce execution time of the MiBench benchmark suite on a range of platforms entirely automatically