Inside debt compensation and its effect on corporate financial policy choices

This dissertation examines the effects of inside debt compensation on managerial risk-seeking behaviour. Extant literature argues that besides equity and cash, managers are also compensated with debt-like instruments such as deferred compensation and pensions. These compensation components are typically unfunded and unsecured and expose the CEO to default risk similar to that faced by external debtholders (Edmans and Liu, 2011). As a result, managers with large inside debt holdings are expected to display lower financial risk tolerance (Cassel et al., 2012). Motivated by this argument, I first examine the effects of CEO inside debt compensation on corporate financial policy choices. I document a negative association between inside debt holdings and firm book leverage and a positive relationship between CEO inside debt holdings and firm solvency. Subsequently, I examine whether women, who are perceived to possess a risk profile similar to a manager with significant inside debt holdings receive similar inside debt compensation to men. However, I document no evidence of a difference in the inside debt compensation between genders

Essays on the role of narrative disclosures in financial reporting

This thesis contains two essays on the role of narrative disclosures in financial reporting. The first essay, “Tightening rating standards: The effect of narrative risk-related disclosures” (co-authored with Argyro Panaretou and Grzegorz Pawlina), examines how narrative disclosures affect rating stringency, a phenomenon where credit rating agencies assign ratings worse than what firm fundamentals justify. Results suggest that narrative disclosures about risk and uncertainty in Form 10-K reports moderate rating stringency. Moreover, this moderating effect is more pronounced when Form 10-K reports have textual attributes that can affect how users contextualize firm risk. The second essay, “Context matters: The role of fair value footnote narratives” (co-authored with Argyro Panaretou and Catherine Shakespeare), investigates how narrative disclosures in Form 10-K report footnotes that discuss the measurement of fair values affect investor uncertainty. The findings of this essay show that longer fair value footnote narratives reduce investor uncertainty for opaque fair values, and are particularly informative to sophisticated investors. Further test results suggest that standardized and non-specific fair value narratives increase investor uncertainty for Level 3 fair values, and that fair value narratives offer incremental information to investors relative to tabulated fair value footnote disclosures. Finally, the thesis includes a technical appendix, “A guide on extracting, processing, and operationalizing Form 10-K report narratives,” on the advantages and challenges in identifying, collecting, and integrating narrative disclosure data from Form 10-K reports into archival accounting studies

Factors that affect the physicochemical characteristics of honeybees’ royal jelly (Apis mellifera L.)

Royal Jelly (RJ) is a glandular secretion from the hypopharyngeal and salivary glands of bee workers and it is used in the bees’ nutrition. Unlike other bee hive products such as honey, no quality criteria have been set for RJ. In this dissertation, the influence of different bee-feedings (protein – carbohydrate), the beekeeping managements (larval age - early collection - feeding on different days from grafting day), the season, the geographical origin and the different year of production on RJ samples as well as the storage conditions of the final product were studied. In addition, the alteration of the profile of RJ melissopalynological profile from bee-feedings with bee pollen from plants of different flowering period was researched. The results showed that RJ is a highly sensitive product, with its physicochemical characteristics being changed after different treatments. In particular, the bee-feeding with carbohydrate-rich foods significantly altered the three major RJ sugars (fructose, glucose, sucrose) and hydrophilic endogenous compounds (n = 27), as well. The greatest effect on sugars and the most altered compounds were presented in the samples collected from the group of bees fed with candy paste. Any protein-based feeding of bees increased the acceptance of artificial queen (QC) cells and the RJ quantity per cell, while the moisture and the total protein content of the produced RJ remained unaffected. Protein-feeding affected a total of 17 hydrophilic endogenous compounds compared to non-feeding colonies, while the major changes were found in the colony group fed it with a commercial protein product (change in 14 compounds). It was proved that the moisture content of RJ increases by 20 % for each day that RC remain in the beehives until RJ reaches its maximum quantity of water on the third day after grafting day. The age of the grafted larvae and feeding day have no effect on the produced RJ. It was found that RJ secretion starts when bees worker are over six days old while significant production begins after the eighth day. The produced RJ has the same physicochemical characteristics either produced by young or elderly workers. Studying the different seasons of RJ production, it was found that the percentage of moisture, protein, fructose and glucose decreased during the summer months, when nectar production was limited. In contrast, sucrose and 10-HDA showed no changes during the beekeeping year. Bee colonies fed with pollen at any time of the year resulted in a change of the pollen profile of the produced RJ. The uniformity of RJ characteristics coming from similar botanical origin and from different production year, shows that it is difficult to distinguish the region of production. Regarding the post-harvest treatments, it was found that the best product storage conditions are at -18 ° C and in dark. With the increase of the storage temperature it was found that all the physicochemical characteristics and mainly the color of RJ were changed. Taking into account the findings of this dissartation, the appropriate quality control limits were suggested.Ο Βασιλικός Πολτός (ΒΠ) αποτελεί μια αδενώδη έκκριση των υποφαρυγγικών και σιαγονικών αδένων των παραμάνων εργατριών μελισσών που χρησιμοποιείται για την κάλυψη των διατροφικών τους αναγκών. Αποτελεί ένα προϊόν για το οποίο δεν έχουν καθοριστεί ποιοτικά κριτήρια, όπως συμβαίνει για αλλά προϊόντα όπως το μέλι. Στα πλαίσια της παρούσας διατριβής διερευνήθηκαν η επίδραση της τροφοδότησης των μελισσών με διάφορες τροφές (πρωτεϊνικές - υδατανθρακικές) κατά την παραγωγική διαδικασία, των μελισσοκομικών χειρισμών (ηλικία προνύμφης – πρώιμη συλλογή – τροφοδότηση σε διαφορετικές ημέρες από την ημέρα εμβολιασμού), της εποχής παραγωγής του ΒΠ, της γεωγραφικής προέλευσης, της διαφορετικής χρονιάς παραγωγής, των συνθηκών διατήρησης του τελικού προϊόντος και η αλλοίωση του προφίλ των γυρεόκοκκων του ΒΠ από την τροφοδότηση των μελισσιών με γύρη από φυτά διαφορετικής εποχής άνθισης. Τα αποτελέσματα έδειξαν πως ο ΒΠ αποτελεί ένα ιδιαίτερα ευαίσθητο προϊόν, που τα φυσικοχημικά του χαρακτηριστικά μεταβάλλονται από διάφορους χειρισμούς. Συγκεκριμένα, η τροφοδότηση των μελισσιών με τροφές πλούσιες σε υδατάνθρακες μετέβαλλαν σημαντικά τα τρία κύρια σάκχαρα του ΒΠ (φρουκτόζη, γλυκόζη, σουκρόζη) καθώς και υδρόφιλες ενδογενείς ενώσεις (n=27). Η μεγαλύτερη επίδραση στα σάκχαρα και οι περισσότερες ενώσεις που μεταβλήθηκαν παρουσιάστηκαν στα δείγματα που προέκυψαν από την ομάδα μελισσιών που τροφοδοτήθηκε με ζαχαροζύμαρο. Η οποιαδήποτε τροφοδότηση των μελισσιών με πρωτεϊνικές τροφές είχε σαν αποτέλεσμα την αύξηση αποδοχής τεχνητών βασιλικών κελιών και απόδοσης ανά κελί, ενώ η υγρασία και το ποσοστό ολικών πρωτεϊνών του παραγόμενου ΒΠ παρέμεναν ανεπηρέαστες από αυτόν τον χειρισμό. Η πρωτεϊνική τροφή επηρέασε συνολικά 17 υδρόφιλες ενδογενείς συγκριτικά με τα μελίσσια που δεν δέχτηκαν καμία τροφοδότηση, ενώ οι περισσότερες ενώσεις μεταβλήθηκαν στην ομάδα που δέχτηκε την τροφή του εμπορίου (μεταβολή σε 14 ενώσεις). Αποδείχτηκε πως η υγρασία του παραγόμενου ΒΠ αυξάνει κατά 20 ποσοστιαίες μονάδες για κάθε μέρα που τα τεχνητά βασιλικά κελιά (ΒΚ) παραμένουν μέσα στα μελίσσια μέχρι να φτάσει στο μέγιστό της την τρίτη ημέρα από την ημέρα εμβολιασμού. Η ηλικία της εμβολιαζόμενης προνύμφης καθώς και η ημέρα τροφοδότησης δεν έχουν καμία επίδραση στον παραγόμενο ΒΠ. Διαπιστώθηκε πως η έκκριση του ΒΠ ξεκινάει όταν οι εργάτριες βρίσκονται σε ηλικία μεγαλύτερη των έξι ημερών, ενώ η ικανοποιητική απόδοση ξεκινάει μετά την όγδοη μέρα. Ο παραγόμενος ΒΠ έχει ίδια φυσικοχημικά χαρακτηριστικά είτε παράγεται από νεαρές εργάτριες είτε από συλλέκτριες (ηλικιωμένες). Στα πλαίσια της εποχιακής διερεύνησης διαπιστώθηκε ότι το ποσοστό υγρασίας, πρωτεϊνών, φρουκτόζης και γλυκόζης μειώνονται κατά τους καλοκαιρινούς μήνες, εποχή που η νεκταροέκκριση είναι περιορισμένη. Αντίθετα, η σουκρόζη και το 10-ΗDA δεν παρουσίασαν μεταβολές στη διάρκεια της μελισσοκομικής χρονιάς. Η τροφοδότηση των μελισσιών με γύρη οποιαδήποτε στιγμή του έτους έχει σαν αποτέλεσμα την μεταβολή του προφίλ των γυρεοκόκκων του παραγόμενου ΒΠ. Η ομοιομορφία των χαρακτηριστικών του ΒΠ που προέρχεται από περιοχές με παρόμοια χλωρίδα και σε διαφορετικά έτη, αποδεικνύει ότι είναι δύσκολη η διάκριση της περιοχής προέλευσης. Όσον αφορά τη μετασυλλεκτική διαχείριση βρέθηκε ότι οι καλύτερες συνθήκες διατήρησης του προϊόντος είναι σε θερμοκρασία -18 οC και σε συνθήκες σκότους. Με την αύξηση της θερμοκρασίας διατήρησης (Ψυγείου – Δωματίου) διαπιστώθηκε ότι μεταβάλλονται όλα τα φυσικοχημικά χαρακτηριστικά και το χρώμα του ΒΠ. Λαμβάνοντας υπόψη τα ευρήματα της παρούσας διατριβής προτάθηκαν κατάλληλα ποιοτικά όρια του προϊόντος

A Comparative Study of Healthy and American Foulbrood-Infected Bee Brood (<i>Apis mellifera</i> L.) through the Investigation of Volatile Compounds

American Foulbrood (AFB) is a major endemic disease affecting the bee brood and the absence of chemical therapeutic treatments leads beekeepers to develop alternative management plans, based mainly on the prevention and accurate diagnosis of symptoms. One of the main symptoms of the disease is the unpleasant odor caused by the rot of dead larvae. In the present comparative study, we analyzed the odor profile of bee larvae and the presence of characteristic volatile compounds (Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectometry), in an effort to discriminate healthy and AFB-infected brood. A greater number of volatile compounds was identified in the affected brood than the healthy. The presence of (Ε)-β-ocimene was prominent in healthy brood samples in percentages from 85.25 to 99.14%, a compound also detected in all samples of infected brood but in lower percentages (37%). The compounds toluene, xylene, 1,3-dimethylbenzene, 2-nonanone, dimethyl disulfide, and dimethyl trisulfide were detected in 100% of the diseased brood samples, with the latter three being absent from the healthy brood, while 2-undecanone was found in some samples of diseased brood (40.0%). Further investigation of volatile markers may contribute significantly to the successful diagnosis of the disease, aiming at its rapid treatment

Prijedlog globalnih standarda za matičnu mliječ

This article proposes guidelines for quality standards of royal jelly. The proposals are based on two sets of data; the first from our study of the factors that may affect the royal jelly’s chemical composition (protein and sugar supplementation of beehives) and the second on the analysis of a great number of samples from across Greece to establish natural variability of this product. We compared our findings with the adopted national limits, the proposals of the working group of the International Honey Commission (IHC), and the draft proposal of the International Organization of Standardization (ISO). The studied parameters included moisture, total proteins, sugars (fructose, glucose, sucrose, total sugars), and 10-hydroxy- 2-decenoic acid (10-HDA). Our results indicate that the limits for royal jelly in some countries should be amended and the proposals of the IHC and the ISO reviewed in view of recent data on variability. We believe that our proposals could be considered for setting global standards for royal jelly, as they incorporate national legislations, proposals of scientific groups, experimental data, and updated information.U ovome se članku predlažu međunarodne smjernice za kakvoću matične mliječi. U prvom dijelu istraživanja analizirali smo koliko dohrana bjelančevinama i šećerima utječe na kemijski sastav matične mliječi, a u drugom smo analizirali velik broj uzoraka matične mliječi prikupljene iz cijele Grčke kako bismo ustanovili prirodnu varijabilnost ovog proizvoda. Svoje smo rezultate usporedili s usvojenim standardima različitih država, prijedlogom standarda Međunarodne komisije za med (International Honey Commission - IHC) te nacrtom prijedloga Međunarodne organizacije za normizaciju (International Organization of Standardization - ISO). Analizom su obuhvaćeni sljedeći parametri: vlažnost, ukupne bjelančevine, šećeri (fruktoza, glukoza, saharoza) te 10-hidroksi-2-decenska kiselina (10-HDA). Naši rezultati upućuju na to da neke zemlje trebaju izmijeniti i dopuniti svoje standarde, a IHC i ISO trebaju ponovo razmotriti svoje prijedloge u svjetlu najnovijih podataka o prirodnoj varijabilnosti matične mliječi. Smatramo da bi naš prijedlog mogao poslužiti za utvrđivanje međunarodnih standarda za matičnu mliječ s obzirom na to da obuhvaća podatke iz zakona i propisa pojedinih država, prijedloge znanstvenih i stručnih skupina, podatke iz istraživanja te najnovije informacije iz literature

A suggestion for royal jelly specifications / Prijedlog globalnih standarda za matičnu mliječ

This article proposes guidelines for quality standards of royal jelly. The proposals are based on two sets of data; the first from our study of the factors that may affect the royal jelly’s chemical composition (protein and sugar supplementation of beehives) and the second on the analysis of a great number of samples from across Greece to establish natural variability of this product. We compared our findings with the adopted national limits, the proposals of the working group of the International Honey Commission (IHC), and the draft proposal of the International Organization of Standardization (ISO). The studied parameters included moisture, total proteins, sugars (fructose, glucose, sucrose, total sugars), and 10-hydroxy- 2-decenoic acid (10-HDA). Our results indicate that the limits for royal jelly in some countries should be amended and the proposals of the IHC and the ISO reviewed in view of recent data on variability. We believe that our proposals could be considered for setting global standards for royal jelly, as they incorporate national legislations, proposals of scientific groups, experimental data, and updated information.U ovome se članku predlažu međunarodne smjernice za kakvoću matične mliječi. U prvom dijelu istraživanja analizirali smo koliko dohrana bjelančevinama i šećerima utječe na kemijski sastav matične mliječi, a u drugom smo analizirali velik broj uzoraka matične mliječi prikupljene iz cijele Grčke kako bismo ustanovili prirodnu varijabilnost ovog proizvoda. Svoje smo rezultate usporedili s usvojenim standardima različitih država, prijedlogom standarda Međunarodne komisije za med (International Honey Commission - IHC) te nacrtom prijedloga Međunarodne organizacije za normizaciju (International Organization of Standardization - ISO). Analizom su obuhvaćeni sljedeći parametri: vlažnost, ukupne bjelančevine, šećeri (fruktoza, glukoza, saharoza) te 10-hidroksi-2-decenska kiselina (10-HDA). Naši rezultati upućuju na to da neke zemlje trebaju izmijeniti i dopuniti svoje standarde, a IHC i ISO trebaju ponovo razmotriti svoje prijedloge u svjetlu najnovijih podataka o prirodnoj varijabilnosti matične mliječi. Smatramo da bi naš prijedlog mogao poslužiti za utvrđivanje međunarodnih standarda za matičnu mliječ s obzirom na to da obuhvaća podatke iz zakona i propisa pojedinih država, prijedloge znanstvenih i stručnih skupina, podatke iz istraživanja te najnovije informacije iz literature