Banking Globalization: International Consolidation and Mergers in Banking

This paper surveys recent literature on international mergers and acquisitions in banking. We focus on three main questions. First, what are the determinants of cross-border mergers of commercial banks? Second, do cross-border mergers affect the efficiency of banks? Third, what are the risk effects of international bank mergers? We begin with a brief summary of the stylized facts, and we conclude with implications for policymakers.mergers and acquisition, international banking, survey

Phenotypically Plastic Responses to Predation Risk Are Temperature Dependent

Predicting how organisms respond to climate change requires that we understand the temperature dependence of fitness in relevant ecological contexts (e.g., with or without predation risk). Predation risk often induces changes to life history traits that are themselves temperature dependent. We explore how perceived predation risk and temperature interact to determine fitness (indicated by the intrinsic rate of increase, r) through changes to its underlying components (net reproductive rate, generation time, and survival) in Daphnia magna. We exposed Daphnia to predation cues from dragonfly naiads early, late, or throughout their ontogeny. Predation risk increased r differentially across temperatures and depending on the timing of exposure to predation cues. The timing of predation risk likewise altered the temperature-dependent response of T and R0. Daphnia at hotter temperatures responded to predation risk by increasing r through a combination of increased R0 and decreased T that together countered an increase in mortality rate. However, only D. magna that experienced predation cues early in ontogeny showed elevated r at colder temperatures. These results highlight the fact that phenotypically plastic responses of life history traits to predation risk can be strongly temperature dependent

Brief Note: A New Genus, Platypona, and New Species of Gyponinae (Homoptera Cicadellidae) Related to Gypona and Hecalapona)

Author Institution: Department of Entomology, Ohio State Universit

Devolana, New Genus of Mexican Deltocephalinae, and a New Species of Devolana (Homoptera: Cicadellidae)

Author Institution: Department of Zoology and Entomology, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OhioA new genus of Deltocephalinae, Devolana, and one new species, D. hemicycla, are described from specimens collected in Iguala, Mexico. Forms resemble species of both Exitianus and Spinulana, to which they are closely related, but differ in the morphology of their genital structures. Holotypes are preserved in Delong collection

An Alaskan Leafhopper that Lives Normally Beneath Icy Tidal Submergence

Author Institution: The Ohio State UniversityA leafhopper of the Macrosteles fascifrons (Stal) complex lives on an alkali grass, Puccinellia nutkaensis (Presl) Fern. & Weath., on the tidal flats of Muir Inlet in Glacier Bay, Alaska. The tidal water, with icebergs and a temperature of approximately 1° C, covers the grass twice daily and the leafhoppers in all stagesegg, nymph, and adultsurvive beneath the water for extended periods of time. The winged adults do not attempt to leave the plants when the tidal water begins to submerge them and none were obtained from vegetation surrounding the tidal fiats either before or after submergence

A New Genus, Arapona, and Two New Species of Gyponinae (Homoptera: Cicadellidae) Related to Clinonella

Author Institution: Department of Entomology, Ohio State UniversityA new genus Arapona and two new species, A. vallea and A. devisa n. sp. related to Clinonella axe described