Import Competition and the Stock Market Return to Capital

We measure the responsiveness of returns to capital invested in six U.S. industries to shocks to the prices of competing import goods. Recognizing that most capital services are not traded on spot rental markets, we treat the intersectoral mobility of capital as the outgrowth of investment behavior. Then the return to capital is realized as an asset return to equity holders. We model expected returns by CAPM, and relate "excess" returns in a period to unanticipated shocks to the variables that affect current and future profits. We find that positive shocks to import prices cause higher than normal stock market returns in all six industries. The magnitudes of the responses are consistent with the hypothesis that capital is highly sector specific in five of these industries.Research Seminar in International Economics, Department of Economics, University of Michiganhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/100736/1/ECON202.pd

Social and Financial Incentives for Overcoming a Collective Action Problem

Addressing public health externalities often requires community-level collective action. Each person’s sanitation behavior can affect the health of neighbors. We report on a cluster randomized controlled trial conducted with 19,000 households in rural Bangladesh where we randomized (1) either group financial incentives or a non-financial “social recognition” reward, and (2) asking each household to make either a private pledge or a public pledge to maintain hygienic latrines. The group financial reward has the strongest impact in the short term (3 months), inducing a 7.5-12.5 percentage point increase in hygienic latrine ownership. Getting people to publicly commit to maintaining and using a hygienic latrine in front of their neighbors induced a 4.2-6.1 percentage point increase in hygienic latrine ownership in the short term. In the medium term (15 months), the effect of the financial reward dissipates while the effect of the public commitment persists. Neither social recognition nor private commitments produce effects statistically distinguishable from zero

Lathe converted for grinding aspheric surfaces

A standard overarm tracing lathe converted by the addition of an independently driven diamond grinding wheel is used for grinding aspheric surfaces. The motion of the wheel is controlled by the lathe air tracer following the template which produces the desired aspheric profile

Somatic Mutations in NEK9 Cause Nevus Comedonicus

Acne vulgaris (AV) affects most adolescents, and of those affected, moderate to severe disease occurs in 20%. Comedones, follicular plugs consisting of desquamated keratinocytes and sebum, are central to its pathogenesis. Despite high heritability in first-degree relatives, AV genetic determinants remain incompletely understood. We therefore employed whole-exome sequencing (WES) in nevus comedonicus (NC), a rare disorder that features comedones and inflammatory acne cysts in localized, linear configurations. WES identified somatic NEK9 mutations, each affecting highly conserved residues within its kinase or RCC1 domains, in affected tissue of three out of three NC-affected subjects. All mutations are gain of function, resulting in increased phosphorylation at Thr210, a hallmark of NEK9 kinase activation. We found that comedo formation in NC is marked by loss of follicular differentiation markers, expansion of keratin-15-positive cells from localization within the bulge to the entire sub-bulge follicle and cyst, and ectopic expression of keratin 10, a marker of interfollicular differentiation not present in normal follicles. These findings suggest that NEK9 mutations in NC disrupt normal follicular differentiation and identify NEK9 as a potential regulator of follicular homeostasis

Evaluation of the impact of vasa previa on feto-placental hormonal synthesis and fetal growth

Introduction A vasa previa (VP) refers to aberrant chorionic vessels which can either connect the chorionic plate to a velamentous cord (type I) or a succenturiate or accessory lobe to the main placental mass (type II). Methods We performed retrospective cohort study of 32 singleton pregnancies diagnosed with VP. The levels of maternal serum alpha-fetoprotein (AFP), human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) and unconjugated estriol (uE3) were measured at 15–18 weeks as part of the triple test screening for Trisomy 21. The data were subdivided according to the type of VP and compared with those of a control group with central cord insertion and no succenturiate or accessory placental lobe. Results Twenty one (65.6%) parturient women presented with VP type I and 11 (34.4%) with VP type II. The mean birthweight and placental weight was significantly higher in pregnancies with VP type II than in pregnancies with VP with VP type I (3037.3 ± 400.9 gr vs 2493.5 ± 491.6 gr; p = 0.004 and 511.0 ± 47.2 gr vs 367.1 ± 64.3 gr; p < 0.0001; respectively). The mean hCG level in VP type II was significantly (p < 0.001) higher than those with type I (2.38 MoM vs 1.17 MoM) and compared to controls (2.38 MoM vs 0.99 MoM). Conclusions There is no obvious impact on both placental and fetal growth in VP type II. By contrast, VP type I is associated with slower feto-placental growth secondary to impaired development and biological functions of the placenta during the first half of pregnancy

Challenging the production function approach to assess the developmental effects of FDI

From a theoretical point of view, it is traditionally assumed that foreign firms possess a centrally accumulated firm-specific technological advantage over domestic firms (see, for example, Findlay, 1978; Dunning, 1979). Given a sufficient level of absorptive capacity and human capital, domestic firms in host economies are able to benefit from various externalities stimulated by the presence of foreign firms