The performance of socially responsible mutual funds: the role of fees and management companies

In this paper, we shed light on the debate about the financial performance of socially responsible investment (SRI) mutual funds by separately analyzing the contributions of before-fee performance and fees to SRI funds' performance and by investigating the role played by fund management companies in the determination of those variables. We apply the matching estimator methodology to obtain our results and find that in the period 1997-2005, US SRI funds had significantly higher fees and better before- and after-fee performance than conventional funds with similar characteristics. Differences, however, were driven exclusively by SRI funds run by management companies specialized in socially responsible investment

The performance of socially responsible mutual funds: the role of fees and management companies

In this paper, we shed light on the debate about the financial performance of socially responsible investment (SRI) mutual funds by separately analyzing the contributions of before-fee performance and fees to SRI funds' performance and by investigating the role played by fund management companies in the determination of those variables. We apply the matching estimator methodology to obtain our results and find that in the period 1997-2005, US SRI funds had significantly higher fees and better before- and after-fee performance than conventional funds with similar characteristics. Differences, however, were driven exclusively by SRI funds run by management companies specialized in socially responsible investment.Socially responsible investment, Mutual fund fees, Mutual fund performance, Matching estimators

The economic geography of football success: empirical evidence from european cities

Introduction. – 1. The geography of successful football teams: an analytical framework – 2. Empirical analysis – 2.1. Data, model estimation and results – 2.2. Cities and teams: some remarks about market size and teams’ performance – 3. Conclusions – 4. Annex

The production process in basketball: Empirical evidence from Spanish league

The main objective of this paper is to provide an empirical assessment of the production process in a basketball team. We estimate a logit model in which the output produced by a team is the game outcome (win or loss) and the inputs are those play characteristics that impact on that outcome. From the results obtained it is clear that, on average, there is a substantial difference between the impact of each play characteristic on a basketball team’s winning probability and that probability varies as the quality/quantity of the inputs used changes, albeit not proportionally.sports economics, team sport, professional basketball, productive process, logit model

Sensors in agriculture and forestry

Agriculture and Forestry are two broad and promising areas demanding technological solutions with the aim of increasing production or accurate inventories for sustainability while the environmental impact is minimized by reducing the application of agro-chemicals and increasing the use of environmental friendly agronomical practices. In addition, the immediate consequence of this “trend” is the reduction of production costs. Sensors-based technologies provide appropriate tools to achieve the above mentioned goals. The explosive technological advances and development in recent years enormously facilitates the attainment of these objectives removing many barriers for their implementation, including the reservations expressed by the farmers themselves. Precision Agriculture is an emerging area where sensor-based technologies play an important role.RHEA project [42], which is funded by the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) under Grant Agreement NO.245986, which has been the platform for the two international conferences on Robotics and associated High-technologies and Equipment mentioned above.Peer Reviewe

Method to obtain nonuniformity information from field emission behavior

Copyright © 2010 American Vacuum Society / American Institute of Physics. This article may be downloaded for personal use only. Any other use requires prior permission of the author and the American Institute of Physics. The following article appeared in Journal of Vacuum Science and Technology Part B: Microelectronics and Nanometer Structures, 28(3), Article number 441 and may be found at http://scitation.aip.org/content/avs/journal/jvstb/28/3/10.1116/1.3327928.This article describes the characterization of field emission from a planar cathode to a spherical anode with the approach curve method (ACM). In such a diode configuration the electric field strength at the cathode surface is nonuniform. This nonuniformity gives an extra degree of freedom and it allows the interpretation of the current-voltage and voltage-distance (V×d) curves in terms of nonuniformity. The authors apply the ACM to Cu emitters to explain the nonlinearity of the V×d curve in ACM measurements. This analysis provides a good insight into field emission phenomena, supporting a method for nonuniformity characterization based on field emission behavior

The race to securitize the Arctic in a post-Cold War scenario

The Arctic implies a planetary struggle to stop the rapid change of its ecosystem caused by global climate change, with the global impact it could generate in the future. as a consequence of this first ecological challenge, the Arctic scenario is becoming more interesting for key transnational actors to develop new business opportunities related to mining exploitation, energy reserves and logistics services, where the result will tend to prioritize business and safety on the ecology, reaffirming the meta-tragedy in the arctic region. Due to the complexity of the Arctic scenario, the preference for intergovernmental forums and the ambiguous interests and roles of its actors, the inadequate trinomial between a global ecological tragedy, an individual economic business and a collective security career will tend to subsist and increase its tragic effects about the environmentEl Ártico implica una lucha planetaria para detener el rápido cambio de su ecosistema causado por el cambio climático global, con el impacto global que podría generar en el futuro. Como consecuencia de este primer desafío ecológico, el escenario del Ártico se está volviendo más interesante para los actores transnacionales clave para desarrollar nuevas oportunidades de negocios relacionadas con la explotación minera, las reservas de energía y los servicios logísticos, donde el resultado tenderá a priorizar los negocios y la seguridad sobre la ecología, reafirmando la meta- tragedia en la región del Ártico. debido a la complejidad del escenario Ártico, la preferencia por foros intergubernamentales y los intereses y roles ambiguos de sus actores, el trinomio inadecuado entre una tragedia ecológica global, un negocio económico individual y una carrera de seguridad colectiva tenderán a subsistir e incrementar sus efectos trágicos sobre el medio ambient

Attitudes à l’égard des messages de santé: rapport entre attention subjective et intensité des attitudes

Introduction. – Many efforts are invested in promoting healthy attitudes and behaviors; nonetheless there is no clear, definitive evidence of sustained effectiveness of those efforts in all cases. Objective. – The present study examined the role of perceived attention in changing attitudes toward vegetable consumption as well as the perceived stability and resistance of those changes (attitude strength). Method. – Participants were randomly assigned to read a strong or weak health communication arguing in favor of vegetable consumption. After reading the message, participants reported attitudes toward this health issue, the perceived attention, and the perceived strength associated with their evaluations. Results. – Participants who reportedhigh(vs.low)perceivedattentionshoweda greater effect of argument quality on persuasion. Furthermore, such participants also reported stronger attitudes compared to those who reported low perceived attention. Conclusion. – This study showed that attitudes toward vegetable consumption can be changed after reading a persuasive message, and thatthe extent of perceived attention moderated the extentto which those changes were perceived as stable and resistant (stronger attitudes)Introduction. – On ne ménage pas les efforts pour promouvoir les attitudes etles comportements de santé ; il n’y a pourtant aucune preuve à l’appui de leur efficacité sur le long terme. Objectif. – Cette étude examine le rôle de l’attention subjective dans l’évolution des attitudes envers la consommation de légumes, ainsi que la persistance et la résistance de cette évolution. Méthode. – Les participants ont d’abord dû lire un rapport de santé qui vante les bienfaits des légumes ; certains recevaient un rapport peu convaincant, les autres des arguments plus puissants. Tous ont ensuite rendu compte de leurs attitudes envers cette question diététique en précisant la portée, selon eux, de leurs évaluations. Résultats. – Les participants démontrant une attention subjective élevée (par opposition à faible) à la lecture du rapport ont aussi produit les arguments les plus persuasifs. De plus, les attitudes de ces mêmes participants ont été plus assurées par rapport à ceux qui démontraient une faible attention subjective. Conclusion. – Cette étude montre que les attitudes envers la consommation de légumes peuvent être modifiées par la lecture d’un message fort, et que leur persistance et leur résistance est fonction de leur degré d’attention subjectiveThis work was supported in part by the Spanish Government (grant number PSI2014-58476-P

Chemical characterisation of the X-shooter Spectral Library (XSL): [Mg/Fe] and [Ca/Fe] abundances

The X-shooter Spectral Library (XSL) is a large empirical stellar library used as a benchmark for the development of stellar population models. The inclusion of $\alpha$-elements abundances is crucial to disentangling the chemical evolution of any stellar system. The aim of this paper is to provide a catalogue of high-precision and accurate magnesium and calcium abundances from a wide variety of stars well distributed in the Hertzsprung-Russell (HR) diagram. We originally performed an analysis of the derived Mg and Ca abundances for medium-resolution spectra of 611 stars from the XSL Data Release 2. For this purpose, we used the GAUGUIN automated abundance estimation code to fit the ultraviolet-blue (UVB) and visible (VIS) spectra. We tested the consistency of the atmospheric parameters and chemical abundances with the Gaia DR3 and the AMBRE Project datasets. We have finally obtained precise [Mg/Fe] and [Ca/Fe] abundances for 192 and 217 stars respectively, from which 174 stars have measurements in both elements. The stars cover a broad range of effective temperature 4000 < T$_{\rm eff}$ < 6500K, surface gravity 0.3 < log(g) < 4.8 cm s$^{\rm -2}$, and metallicity -2.5 < [Fe/H] < +0.4 dex. We find an excellent agreement with the abundance estimates from the AMBRE:HARPS and the Gaia/RVS (Radial Velocity Spectrometer) analysis. Moreover, the resulting abundances reproduce a plateau in the metal-poor regime followed by a decreasing trend even at supersolar metallicities, as predicted by Galactic chemical evolution models. This catalogue is suitable for improving the modelling of evolutionary stellar population models with empirical $\alpha$-enhancements, which could significantly contribute to the analysis of external galaxies abundances in the near future.Comment: Accepted for publication in A&