Investors' distraction and strategic repricing decisions

In this paper I analyze investors' reactions to changes in the expense ratios of equity mutual funds. I show that investment flows' response to fees cannot be fully explained by looking at investors' performance sensitivity. While performance sensitivity monotonically increases with past performance, price sensitivity does not: investors who buy top past performers seem to be "distracted" by the fund's previous return and pay relatively little attention to the expense ratios. Moreover price sensitivity increases with fund visibility while performance sensitivity decreases, and while looking at data from 1986 to 2006 no discernible trend can be observed in the average performance sensitivity, price sensitivity strongly increases due to the dramatic increase in the availability of mutual funds' information for retail investors. Finally I show that investment companies strategically time their repricing decisions in order to exploit time variations in price and performance sensitivities, and that fund governance quality affects the degree to which investment companies engage in this opportunistic behavior

Firm Opacity Lies in the Eye of the Beholder

We classify and test empirical measures of firm opacity and document theoretical and empirical inconsistencies across these proxies by testing the relative opacity of banks versus non-banks. We evaluate the effectiveness of these proxies by observing the effect of two cleanly identified shocks to firm-specific information: credit rating initiation and inclusion in the S&P 500 index. Using a difference-in-difference approach, we compare firms that are newly rated and firms that are included in the S&P 500 index with a propensity matched sample of “unchanged” firms. We find that only the number of analysts and Amihud's illiquidity ratio provide consistent patterns across different estimation specifications and different econometric settings. These two proxies show that banks are more opaque than non-banks. Based on our tests, we recommend that these proxies be used as the primary measures of firm opacity

Quantification of p38/synaptophysin in highly purified adrenal medullary chromaffin vesicles

p38/synaptophysin is a membrane protein present in clear (synaptic) vesicles of neurons and endocrine ceHs [1-4]. From the amino acid sequence deduced from cDNAs encoding p38/synaptophysin, a model with several membrane spanning polypeptide segments and a carboxy-terminal protein domain exposed to the cytoplasmic surface has been constructed [5-7]. The function of p38/synaptophysin is not known. It has been suggested to form a transmembrane channel for ions, or to interact with cytoplasmic factors via its cytoplasmic domain [7]. Since synaptophysin binds Ca2 +, it may also play a role in the release of neurotransmitters stored in clear (synaptic) vesicles [3]. Recently it has been reported [8] that p38/synaptophysin also occurs in hormone containing large dense core vesicles. This would imply that p38/synaptophysin could fulfill similar functions as described above in chromaffin and other secretory ceHs containing large dense core vesicles. In dear (synaptic) vesicles p38/synaptophysin constitutes 7.51Jfo of the vesicle membrane proteins [I]. The amount of p38/synaptophysin in large dense core vesides is not known. Here we report on the quantification of p38/synaptophysin in highly purified chromaffin secretory veside

Undernutrition, body composition and proportion among schoolchildren in two departments of Mendoza, Argentina

El objetivo fue conocer y analizar las prevalencias de desnutrición, composición y proporción corporales en relación con las condiciones socioambientales de residencia de niños de dos departamentos lindantes de la provincia de Mendoza: San Rafael (SR) y General Alvear (GA). Se realizó un estudio transversal en 5118 niños de 5 a 12 años. Se relevaron: peso; estatura total y sentado; perímetro braquial y pliegue tricipital, y se calcularon índices de masa corporal y de estatura sentado, áreas muscular y grasa del brazo. Las prevalencias de Bajo Peso/Edad (BP/E); Baja Talla/Edad (BT/E) y Bajo Peso/Talla (BP/T) se estimaron utilizando NHANES III. Las variables socioambientales se relevaron mediante encuestas semiestructuradas. La prevalencia de BT/E fue similar en ambas poblaciones y las de BP/E y BP/T, mayores en GA. El acortamiento de los miembros inferiores fue mayor en SR; y los déficits de tejido muscular y adiposo, en GA. Se concluye que GA muestra mayores prevalencias de desnutrición aguda con modificación de la composición corporal asociadas a la precarización socioambiental. En SR, el estado nutricional y la calidad de vida son mejores que en GA, ya que supera aquellas condiciones adversas que afectaron las primeras etapas de desarrollo, reflejadas en la proporción corporal.The aim was to know and to analyse the prevalence of undernutrition and body composition and proportion in relationship to socio-environmental conditions of residence in children of two adjacent departments in the province of Mendoza: San Rafael (SR) and General Alvear (GA). A crosssectional anthropometrical study was performed in 5.118 children from 5 to 12 years old. Body weight, height, sitting height, arm circumference and triceps skinfold were measured and the sitting height ratio and muscle and body mass index, fat areas of the arm calculated. Prevalences of low weight-for-age (LW/A), low height-for-age (LH/A) and low weight-for-height (LW/H) were estimated using NHANES III. The socio-environmental variables were surveyed using semi-structured questioner. Prevalences of LH/A were similar in both populations and LW/A and LW/H higher in GA. The lower limb shortening was higher in SR, the deficits of muscle and adipose tissue in GA. It is concluded that whereas GA shows a higher prevalence of acute malnutrition associate to body composition changes as consequence of the social insecurity; in SR, is evident that nutritional status and life quality are better than GA surpassing those adverse conditions that affected the early stages of development as a mirror in body proportion change.Fil: Garraza, Mariela. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico la Plata. Instituto de Genética Veterinaria "ingeniero Fernando Noel Dulout"; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Veterinarias; ArgentinaFil: Forte, Luis M.. Universidad Nacional de la Plata. Facultad de Cs.naturales y Museo. Instituto de Geomorfologia y Suelos; ArgentinaFil: Navone, Graciela Teresa. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico la Plata. Centro de Estudios Parasitológicos y de Vectores (i); Argentina. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Naturales y Museo; ArgentinaFil: Oyhenart, Evelia Edith. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico la Plata. Instituto de Genética Veterinaria "ingeniero Fernando Noel Dulout"; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Veterinarias; Argentin

Corporate Watchdogs

© 2019 Financial Management Association International We investigate the role of financial analysts as corporate watchdogs. We show that firms that are subject to intense analyst monitoring are more likely to be investigated by the Securities and Exchange Commission or to be the subject of a securities class action. Using cross-sectional variations in managerial entrenchment, we find that this effect is not a reflection of the “dark side of analyst coverage,” analysts pushing executives to misbehave to exceed short-term expectations. Our findings are robust to different identification strategies addressing the endogeneity of analyst coverage decisions

Lithology could affect benthic communities living below boulders

AbstractStructure and diversity of sessile zoobenthic assemblages seem to be driven not only by chemical-physical constraints and biological interactions but also by substrate lithology and its surface features. Nevertheless, broadly distributed crustose epilithic corallines could mask the role of substrate on animal settling. To evaluate the direct influence of different rocky substrates, occurrence and coverage of several sessile species, growing on the dark (i.e. coralline-free) face of sublittoral limestone and granite boulders were compared in the Tavolara MPA (Mediterranean Sea). The analysis of photographic samples demonstrated significant differences in terms of species composition and coverage, according to lithology. Moreover, limestone boulders were widely bare, while the cover per cent was almost total on granite. The leading cause of observed patterns could be the different level of dissolution of the two types of rocks, due to their different mineral composition and textural characteristics. Limestone has previously been shown to have higher dissolution compared with granite, and consequently, a more unstable surface. Our results suggest that, in dark habitats, the absence of the crustose coralline layer allows more rock dissolution and consequent lower stability of the limestone compared with granite, which, in turn, reduces the zoobenthos colonization

An analysis of the most distant catalogued open clusters -- Re-assessing fundamental parameters with Gaia EDR3 and ASteCA\texttt{ASteCA}

Several studies have been presented in the last few years applying some kind of automatic processing of data to estimate the fundamental parameters of open clusters. These parameters are later on employed in larger scale analyses, for example the structure of the Galaxy's spiral arms. The distance is one of the more straightforward parameters to estimate, yet enormous differences can still be found among published data. This is particularly true for open clusters located more than a few kpc away. We cross-matched several published catalogues and selected the twenty-five most distant open clusters ($>$9000 pc). We then performed a detailed analysis of their fundamental parameters, with emphasis on their distances, to determine the agreement between catalogues and our estimates.} Photometric and astrometric data from the Gaia EDR3 survey was employed. The data was processed with our own membership analysis code (pyUPMASK), and our package for automatic fundamental cluster's parameters estimation ($\texttt{ASteCA}$). We find differences in the estimated distances of up to several kpc between our results and those catalogued, even for the catalogues that show the best matches with $\texttt{ASteCA}$ values. Large differences are also found for the age estimates. As a by-product of the analysis we find that vd Bergh-Hagen 176 could be the open cluster with the largest heliocentric distance catalogued to date. Caution is thus strongly recommended when using catalogued parameters of open clusters to infer large-scale properties of the Galaxy, particularly for those located more than a few kpc away.Comment: Accepted for publication in A&

Indicadores de calidad de la tierra en distintas posiciones de la cuenca del Río Santa María

p.111-115La posición de los suelos en el paisaje y las diferentes prácticas de manejo se consideran elementos importantes para modificar las propiedades del suelo y la calidad del mismo. En el área en estudio, la cuenca del río Santa María en la provincia de Catamarca, es posible encontrar distintas posiciones del relieve, asociadas con cultivos intensivos a semiintensivos sujetos a prácticas de manejo inadecuadas que provocan procesos de degradación de diversa índole, asociados con la textura diferente de los suelos. El grado de afectación de las propiedades y características de los suelos en el valle no es conocido, pero es posible suponer que, dada la falta de rotaciones y la naturaleza de la producción primaria de la zona, las degradaciones físicas, químicas y biológicas, junto con los procesos erosivos están muy difundidos, por ello el objetivo de este trabajo consistió en determinar el comportamiento de los indicadores de calidad de la tierra ante cambios en la posición en el paisaje, el uso de la tierra y la profundidad de la medición. Se observó que la conductividad eléctrica (CE) tiene tendencia a disminuir en profundidad y con el uso agrícola en los suelos de la cuenca, mientras que la Relación de Absorción de Sodio (RAS) y el pH no presentaron modificaciones en estas condiciones. Todos los indicadores fueron muy dependientes de la posición en el paisaje, sin embargo este factor no pudo ser diferenciado del uso de la tierra. Se encontró además que los indicadores físicos son muy sensibles al uso agrícola, y que el Diámetro Medio Geométrico (DMG) resulta ser un mejor predictor que el Diámetro Medio Ponderado (DMP) en suelos de textura arenosa. Por último, se observó que el contenido de CO, el DMP, el DMG y la CE se incrementan hacia las posiciones más bajas