Self-Selection and Advice in Venture Capital Finance

In financing start-up firms, venture capitalists carefully select among alternative projects, design incentive compatible financial contracts and support portfolio companies with value enhancing managerial advice. This paper considers how venture capitalists can induce self-selection among entrepreneurial firms with different qualities and growth potential by designing appropriate contracts and offering managerial support. We study the efficiency of the competitive market equilibrium with respect to the level and quality of entrepreneurship and the level of effort by entrepreneurs and venture capitalists. We also provide comparative static results with respect to basic preference and technology parameters.Venture capital, entrepreneurship, self-selection, moral hazard

Privatization, public investment, and capital income taxation

The authors investigate the optimal boundary between the public and private production sectors. They use a model in which government and private production coexist -in which a range of production activities can be carried out by either the government or the private sector. In effect, the government determines which activities to maintain within the public sector and which to privatize. In choosing the sectoral boundary, the government trades off the relative inefficiency of marginal government production against the private investment distortion created by tax policy. In an open economy, the private investment decision, is distorted by a source-based income tax. In a closed economy, the private investment decision is distorted by either a private investment tax or a savings tax. Either tax produces a wedge between the gross return on investment and the net-of-tax return received by savers. Because of this tax wedge, the private cost of capital exceeds the shadow cost of public capital. Optimally, the government sector is shown to be"too large"in the sense that the government carries out some activities in which it has an efficiency disadvantage and the private sector has an efficiency advantage. And it invests more in those activities than the private sector would. Generally the size of the government sector is related positively to the investment tax wedge. The level of investment taxes -and thus the size of the state production sector- may be affected by tax competition in the international economy. As international capital becomes more mobile, there seems to be more scope for international (investment) tax competition. As a result of tax competition, perhaps, corporate income tax rates have been on a downward trend in European countries. In Europe, the general lowering of corporate income taxes has coincided with a trend toward privatizing government activities. The authors focus on the relationship between capital income taxes and the size of the government production sector. Analogously, one could consider the relationship between labor income taxes and the size of the state sector. In that instance, the model predicts that a formerly state-owned enterprise, after privatization, reduces its payroll. Privatization also seems to lead to reduced employment levels. These results hold in both open economy and closed economy versions of the model.International Terrorism&Counterterrorism,Economic Theory&Research,Environmental Economics&Policies,Labor Policies,Public Sector Economics&Finance,Economic Theory&Research,Environmental Economics&Policies,Banks&Banking Reform,Public Sector Economics&Finance,Trade and Regional Integration

Survival analysis with coarsely observed covariates

In this paper we consider analysis of survival data with incomplete covariate information. We model the incomplete covariates as a random coarsening of the complete covariate, and an overview of the theory of coarsening at random is given. Various ways of estimating the parameters of the model for the survival data given the covariates are discussed and compared

Science, technology and sculpture : an investigation into the technification of sculpture

(...) Esta dissertação busca compreender a relação dinâmica entre as descobertas científicas, o rápido desenvolvimento tecnológico e a expressão artística. Ao dissecar a relação desse tripartite, um discurso multifacetado envolvendo ideologia, poder, educação e ruptura do sistema é descoberto. Acadêmicos e especialistas do mais alto nível estão expressando sérias preocupações sobre a condição de nossa civilização porque - em paralelo à melhoria dos padrões de vida e acesso à informação por meio de aparelhos eletrônicos avançados - enfrentamos uma miríade de ameaças existenciais, todas remontando ao exatamente os mesmos desenvolvimentos que nos permitiram graduar na civilização moderna. Limites, estruturas e fundações existentes há milênios estão sendo desafiados nesta metamorfose de um século da condição humana. Espero, por meio da arte, como um espelho da psique humana coletiva, compreender melhor essa relação em constante evolução entre nós, humanos, e a tecnologia que inventamos. Compartilho a opinião dos pensadores a serem discutidos nesta dissertação, de que a inovação científica e tecnológica deve fazer parte de uma conversa pública e que os artistas em sua natureza expressiva, investigativa e comunicativa têm um papel a desempenhar nessa discussão. Os efeitos do desenvolvimento científico e tecnológico nas artes foram amplamente discutidos ao longo do século XX. Apresentarei 4 desses livros abordando este tópico de ângulos muito diferentes. Isso iluminará os pensamentos do início do modernismo, descreverá uma frustração de meados do século e nos deixará com uma visão quase atual sobre o assunto. A análise apresentará primeiro alguns pontos de vista ideológicos sobre a questão da segregação da sociedade em grupos especializados e as consequências disso. A importância de um sistema de educação poli-matemática e do conhecimento intersetorial geral é discutida com diferentes objetivos e razões. A segunda parte da análise descreve a transformação da escultura ao longo do século XX com foco na separação da tradição e no abraço da ciência. São oferecidos alguns pensamentos sugestivos sobre o significado dessa metamorfose. Em conclusão, uma seção de teoria discutindo o ambiente atual, incluindo uma descrição de estruturas úteis na prática de combinar arte com ciência. Focar a parte analítica de minha dissertação nesses fatores macro ambientais serve ao propósito de colocar meu trabalho na linha do tempo. Após a análise, há uma seção sobre o estado da arte. Abordo isso cobrindo algumas das ferramentas e técnicas mais recentes no campo da escultura; as práticas intimamente ligadas de modelagem 3D e manufatura aditiva. Esses dois campos, extremamente úteis no processo de fazer esculturas, sofreram um rápido desenvolvimento e melhorias nos últimos 20 anos e foram centrais para o desenvolvimento de meu próprio corpo de trabalho. O estado da arte também inclui uma seção sobre educação. A discussão de minha análise tem a ver com a introdução de novas tecnologias e seu impacto nas artes. Portanto, considero relevante olhar para o panorama atual da educação artística para ver se, e como, essas discussões se manifestaram na academia de hoje. A última parte da dissertação é dedicada ao meu próprio trabalho - o que chamo de Projeto Sistema. O Projeto Sistema é um termo abrangente que cobre meu trabalho produzido no período entre 2020 e 2021, focando na natureza em constante mudança dos sistemas vivos. Vou descompactar a base sobre a qual a obra está assentada e apresentá-la em relação a artistas que buscam caminhos semelhantes de investigação. Em seguida, ampliarei o processo de modelagem da escultura e explicarei as decisões subjetivas que tomei nessa área. Concluindo o corpo da obra, incluo um conjunto de imagens como documentação para a exposição do corpo da obra prática submetida ao curso de Mestrado em Escultura da FBAUL, realizado no espaço expositivo da Cisterna da faculdade (...

Tax Policy, Venture Capital, and Entrepreneurship

The paper studies the effects of tax policy on entrepreneurship and venture capital activity. Entrepreneurs pursue a single high risk project each but have no own resources. Financiers provide equity finance. They must structure the entrepreneur's profit share and base salary to assure their incentives for full effort and committment to the project. The extent of risk-diversification is, thus, limited by the presence of moral hazard. The contract must also be sufficiently generous to attract entrepreneurs who might pursue alternative career options. In addition to providing equity finance, venture capitalists assist with valuable business advice to enhance survival rates. Within a general equilibrium framework with a traditional and an entrepreneurial sector, the paper investigates the effects of taxes on entrepreneurship and the equilibrium level of managerial advice. It considers differential wage and capital income taxes, a comprehensive income tax, incomplete loss offset, progressive income taxation as well as investment and output subsidies to the entrepreneurial sector.

The 17 kDa band identified by multiple anti-aquaporin 2 antisera in rat kidney medulla is a histone

AbstractThe osmotic water permeability of epithelial cells of the inner medullary collecting duct of the kidney is regulated by antidiuretic hormone (ADH). ADH causes the insertion and removal of cytoplasmic vesicles containing the aquaporin (AQP-2) water channel protein which is recognized by multiple rabbit antipeptide antisera raised against amino acid sequences comprising its cytoplasmic carboxyl terminal. Immunoblots of rat kidney membrane fractions as well as human urine have all shown that AQP-2 is expressed exclusively by collecting duct cells and have identified a 29 kDa band (corresponding to the nonglycosylated AQP-2 protein), a broad 35–45 kDa band (corresponding to the mature glycosylated form of AQP-2 protein) and an additional immunoreactive 17 kDa band of unknown origin. We now report that the 17 kDa band identified by these anti-AQP-2 antisera is not an AQP-2 component but rather a denatured histone protein type H2A1. This binding of anti-AQP-2 antisera to denatured H2A1 present in protein samples derived from both kidney inner medulla and human urine is blocked specifically by preincubation of immunoblots with solutions containing the acidic protein gelatin

Black Bear, Ursus americanus, Ecology on the Northeast Coast of Labrador

Twenty-three Black Bears (Ursus americanus) were captured, 20 were measured, marked and/or radio collared, in northeastern Labrador, between 1996 and 1997. Bears used sea ice for travel, coastal islands for denning, hunted adult Caribou (Rangifer tarandus), and were the possible cause of Moose (Alces alces) calf mortality. Body sizes were small, median weight of adult females was 48 kg, and the sex ratio for captured subjects was 1:1. Four of six radio-collared females gave birth during the winter of 1997, female reproductive histories suggest delayed sexual maturity. Den entry occurred between October and December 1996; spring emergence occurred between April and May 1997, with estimated denning period ranging from 148-222 days. Visual observations of habitat use by radio collared subjects (n = 10) were not tested statistically but suggest that barren areas are used nearly as much as forest. Location data from three GPS collars deployed on three adult females were analysed using Chi-square goodness-of-fit test with Bonferroni correction; two females appeared to prefer forest habitats (p < 0.05)

Rift Valley Fever : risk of persistence, spread and impact in Mayotte (France)

Rift Valley fever (RVF) is a vector-borne disease transmitted by different mosquito species, especially Aedes and Culex genus, to animals and humans. In November 2018, RVF re-emerged in Mayotte (France) after 11 years. Up to the end of October 2019, 126 outbreaks in animals and 143 human cases were reported. RVF mortality was 0.01%, and the number of abortions reported in polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-positive ruminants was fivefold greater than the previous 7 years. Milk loss production in 2019 compared to 2015-2018 was estimated to be 18%, corresponding to an economic loss of around Euro191,000 in all of Mayotte. The tropical climate in Mayotte provides conditions for the presence of mosquitoes during the whole year, and illegal introductions of animals represent a continuous risk of (re)introduction of RVF. The probability of RVF virus (RVFV) persisting in Mayotte for 5 or more years was estimated to be <10% but could be much lower if vertical transmission in vectors does not occur. Persistence of RVF by vertical transmission in Mayotte and Reunion appears to be of minor relevance compared to other pathways of re-introduction (i.e. animal movement). However, there is a high uncertainty since there is limited information about the vertical transmission of some of the major species of vectors of RVFV in Mayotte and Reunion. The only identified pathways for the risk of spread of RVF from Mayotte to other countries were by infected vectors transported in airplanes or by wind currents. For the former, the risk of introduction of RVF to continental France was estimated to 4 x 10(-6) epidemic per year (median value; 95% CI: 2 x 10(-8); 0.0007), and 0.001 epidemic per year to Reunion (95% CI: 4 x 10(-6); 0.16). For the latter pathway, mosquitoes dispersing on the wind from Mayotte between January and April 2019 could have reached the Comoros Islands, Madagascar, Mozambique and, possibly, Tanzania. However, these countries are already endemic for RVF, and an incursion of RVFV-infected mosquitoes would have negligible impact. (c) 2020 European Food Safety Authority. EFSA Journal published by John Wiley and Sons Ltd on behalf of European Food Safety Authority.Non peer reviewe

The source of topography across the Cumberland Peninsula, Baffin Island, Arctic Canada : differential exhumation of a North Atlantic rift flank

Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Engineering chiral light-matter interaction in photonic crystal waveguides with slow light

We design photonic crystal waveguides with efficient chiral light--matter interfaces that can be integrated with solid-state quantum emitters. By using glide-plane-symmetric waveguides, we show that chiral light-matter interaction can exist even in the presence of slow light with slow-down factors of up to $100$ and therefore the light--matter interaction exhibits both strong Purcell enhancement and chirality. This allows for near-unity directional $\beta$-factors for a range of emitter positions and frequencies. Additionally, we design an efficient mode adapter to couple light from a standard nanobeam waveguide to the glide-plane symmetric photonic crystal waveguide. Our work sets the stage for performing future experiments on a solid-state platform