Long-term information, short-lived derivative securities

This paper explores strategic trade in short-lived derivative securities by agents that possess long-term information about an underlying asset. In contrast to trading equity, where an informed agent will ultimately benefit from his trades, trading short-lived securities is profitable only if the price impounds the private information before expiry. A consequence is that a risk neutral informed agent's holdings of the short-lived security affect his trading behavior: Past informed trading leads to greater future informed trading. The shorter horizon in which information must be impounded for a short-lived security to pay off makes an informed agent more reluctant to trade at earlier dates. By characterizing the conditions under which liquidity traders choose to incur extra costs to roll over their short-term positions rather than trade in longer-term derivative securities, we provide a possible explanation for why most markets for longer-term derivative securities have little liquidity and large bid-ask spreads.Private information, liquidity, derivative securities, strategic trade

Long-term Information, Short-lived Securities

We explore strategic trade in short-lived securities by agents who possess long-term information. Trading short-lived securities is profitable only if enough of the private information becomes public prior to contract expiration; otherwise the security will worthlessly expire. We highlight how this results in trading behavior fundamentally different from that observed in standard models of informed trading in equity. Specifically, we show that informed agents are more reluctant to trade shorter-term securities too far in advance of when their information will necessarily be made public, and that existing positions in a shorter-term security make future purchases more attractive. Because informed agents prefer longer-term securities, this can make trading shorter-term contracts more attractive for liquidity traders. We characterize the conditions under which liquidity traders choose to incur extra costs to roll over short-term positions rather than trade in distant contracts, providing an explanation for why most longer-term derivative security markets have little liquidity and large bid-ask spreads.Priviate information, derivative securities, rolling the hedge, fixed transaction costs

Community Norms and Organizational Practices: The Legitimization of Wage Arrears in Russia, 1992-1999

What role do community norms play in the diffusion and persistence of new organizational practices? We explore this question through an examination of the widespread practice of wage arrears, the late and nonpayment of wages, in Russia during the 1990s. Existing research on wage arrears most often examines this practice as a means of flexible wage adjustment under difficult economic conditions. We develop an alternative theory that explains wage arrears through their acceptance as a legitimate form of organizational behavior within local communities. Our empirical analysis finds some support for the neoclassical position that wage arrears reflect adjustment to negative shocks, but this perspective fails to account for a number of important facts, including a high level of arrears among apparently successful firms. In contrast, our results find strong support for the institutional perspective. The statistical analysis demonstrates powerful and robust community effects both in firm adoption of this practice, controlling for firm performance, liquidity, and fixed firm effects, and in workers’ reaction to arrears, through their quit (exit) and strike (voice) behavior.institutions, norms, legitimacy, arrears, organizational practices, sociology, Russia

Community Norms and Organizational Practices: The Legitimization of Wage Arrears in Russia, 1992-1999

What role do community norms play in the diffusion and persistence of new organizational practices? We explore this question through an examination of the widespread practice of wage arrears, the late and nonpayment of wages, in Russia during the 1990s. Existing research on wage arrears most often examines this practice as a means of flexible wage adjustment under difficult economic conditions. We develop an alternative theory that explains wage arrears through their acceptance as a legitimate form of organizational behavior within local communities. Our empirical analysis finds some support for the neoclassical position that wage arrears reflect adjustment to negative shocks, but this perspective fails to account for a number of important facts, including a high level of arrears among apparently successful firms. In contrast, our results find strong support for the institutional perspective. The statistical analysis demonstrates powerful and robust community effects both in firm adoption of this practice, controlling for firm performance, liquidity, and fixed firm effects, and in workers' reaction to arrears, through their quit (exit) and strike (voice) behavior.institutions, norms, legitimacy, arrears, organizational practices, sociology, Russia

Coping with threat: some aspects of psychological functioning in male cardiac patients

The general aim of the study was to provide an analysis of certain psychological characteristics and processes exhibited by male coronary patients during their recovery from a heart attack in a Coronary Care Unit. This analysis was conducted within the theoretical framework provided by Richard Lazarus' psychological stress model. The central construct of the model is that of threat, defined as the anticipation of future harm. This definition leads to a concern with: the appraisal of threat stimuli, threat reactions, coping processes, and the multiple determinants of these various phenomena. Using these theoretical categories, a review of the psychological literature on the recovering coronary patient was carried out. A pilot study of 40 patients' appraisals of and reactions to their Coronary Care Unit was first conducted. The qualitative data obtained indicated that social contact was of prime importance to patients. Adverse reactions to various aspects of the Unit, such as the monitoring equipment, witnessing cardiac arrests and transfer from the Unit, were strikingly infrequent. In the main investigation, variables from each of the theoretical categories listed above were assessed in a group of 50 male patients who had suffered a heart attack four to eight days previously. The particular variables measured were: appraisals of the Coronary Care Unit, the future, the patient's job and a heart attack; • the threat reactions of anxiety, depression and hostility; the coping processes of denial, inaction and anxiety; and possible determinants including: the Type A Behaviour Pattern, trait denial, recent life changes, medical history and psychosocial characteristics. To obtain comparable data from a group of healthy subjects, a stratified random sample of 50 miners was also assessed on most of the above variables. The data obtained allowed the investigation of three types of question or hypothesis: questions as to the prevalence of the study variables in the two groups; hypotheses concerning expected differences between the groups; and hypotheses concerning the relationships between the variables measured in the coronary group, derived from the theoretical model. -■The coronary patients saw both the Unit and their future in a very positive light, but displayed a very negative appraisal of a heart attack. In comparison to the miners, they found their jobs significantly more boring, and generally less attractive. The patients were significantly more anxious and depressed than either the miners or US normative groups, exhibiting levels of affect of psychiatric significance. Hostility scores in the coronary group were also significantly higher than in US samples, again approaching psychiatric significance. Type A behaviour was significantly less prevalent and intense in both groups, compared to US data. No difference was found between the coronary and miners groups. Trait denial was significantly more intense in the coronary sample than in a US normative group. On the psychosocial variables the coronary and miners groups differed in only two respects. The coronary patients were significantly older and included significantly more affiliates of the Church of England. Patients reported significantly more recent.life changes than did comparison subjects, especially concerning their work. There was some very limited evidence of a positive correlation between patients' view of their CCU and that of the future and a heart attack. The coping processes of denial, inaction and anxiety were all detected. With the exception of the cognitive repudiation component of denial, which was strikingly rare, the prevalence rates of the coping processes were similar to those found in other studies. Anxiety was less prevalent than denial, but occurred as frequently as inaction. Anxiety levels did not appear to vary significantly between the fourth and eighth days after admission, but depression scores declined significantly over time. Type A behaviour was not a determinant of threat behaviour, nor did trait denial or a psychiatric history correlate with the use of state denial. With the exception of a positive association between social class and being reassured by the Coronary Care Unit, no psychosocial variables appeared to influence threat behaviour. There was a slight tendency for patients with a coronary history to be more depressed and hostile than were patients without such a history, but no clear conclusion could be drawn. Recent life changes and depression were not significantly associated, but there was some indication of a negative correlation between life changes and appraisal of the future, and a positive correlation between life changes and appraisal of a heart attack. These results were compared with those from other studies, and discussed in the context of the Lazarus model. In general the data were found to be either supportive of Lazarus' theoretical principles, or insufficiently precise to warrant a conclusion. Finally, doubts were expressed as to whether the analytic power and precision which the model seems to promise, are in fact realisable

Case Studies in Athletic-Academic Integration: A Closer Look at Schools That Implement COIA’s Best Practices

This research follows a 2009 survey jointly conducted by the Coalition on Intercollegiate Athletics (COIA) and the John Curley Center for Sports Journalism at Penn State to assess the “best practices” of FBS institutions in regard to the integration of athletics into academics. Case studies of the six highest-scoring institutions—the University of Houston, University of Illinois, University of Maryland, Oklahoma State University, University of South Carolina, and Southern Methodist University—were conducted. The aim of these case studies was to highlight those institutions that implement more of COIA’s best practices than other surveyed schools. Further, the aim was to develop a more nuanced understanding of the relationship between COIA’s suggested practices, the “Athletics Integration into Academics” survey, and the local conditions of FBS institutions

Adaptation and acclimatization to ocean acidification in marine ectotherms: an in situ transplant experiment with polychaetes at a shallow CO₂ vent system

Metabolic rate determines the physiological and life-history performances of ectotherms. Thus, the extent to which such rates are sensitive and plastic to environmental perturbation is central to an organism's ability to function in a changing environment. Little is known of long-term metabolic plasticity and potential for metabolic adaptation in marine ectotherms exposed to elevated pCO₂. Consequently, we carried out a series of in situ transplant experiments using a number of tolerant and sensitive polychaete species living around a natural CO₂ vent system. Here, we show that a marine metazoan (i.e. Platynereis dumerilii) was able to adapt to chronic and elevated levels of pCO₂. The vent population of P. dumerilii was physiologically and genetically different from nearby populations that experience low pCO₂, as well as smaller in body size. By contrast, different populations of Amphiglena mediterranea showed marked physiological plasticity indicating that adaptation or acclimatization are both viable strategies for the successful colonization of elevated pCO₂ environments. In addition, sensitive species showed either a reduced or increased metabolism when exposed acutely to elevated pCO₂. Our findings may help explain, from a metabolic perspective, the occurrence of past mass extinction, as well as shed light on alternative pathways of resilience in species facing ongoing ocean acidification

Integration of Athletics and Academics: Survey of Best Practices at FBS Schools

The Coalition on Intercollegiate Athletics (COIA), an alliance of 57 university faculty senates, was founded in 2002 to provide a faculty voice in the national discussion about how to best maintain academic integrity in big-time college sports. COIA’s most recent white paper, Framing the Future: Reforming Intercollegiate Athletics (2007), proposes best practices for individual universities to help ensure that college sports are more fully integrated into their academic goals, values and missions. Reported here are the results of a national survey that gauged the extent to which COIA’s best practices have been adopted by schools participating in the Football Bowl Subdivision. The findings suggest that big-time athletics programs have a number of underutilized tools at their disposal that can assist them in protecting core academic values and standards at universities competing at the highest level of intercollegiate sport