The effect of refereed articles on salary, promotion and labor mobility: The case of Japanese economists

By using a data set of academic economists from Japanese universities, we estimated the effect of refereed articles on salary, promotion and labor mobility. Results show no effect of refereed articles on salary and on promotion. However, there is a statistically significant effect of refereed articles on labor mobility, though the magnitude of the effect is rather small. Publishing one additional refereed article increases the probability that an academic has worked in exactly two universities by 0.4%. In addition, publishing one additional refereed article in the US or Europe increases the probability that an academic has worked in exactly two universities by 1%. Refereed articles published in Japan have no statistically significant impact on the probability of working in more universities. We conclude that publishing refereed articles does not reward Japanese economists by a direct increase in salary and accelerated promotion. Our results are thus consistent with the beliefs within Japanese academia that publications do not affect salary or promotion.Academic salaries, academic promotion, academic productivity, academic labor mobility, academic economists

Essays on executive compensation

Chapter 1 provides empirical evidence of the effect of stock options and total compensation on the job turnover of corporate Chief Executive Officers (CEOs). Our estimates indicate that both the amount and the composition of the compensation package are significant determinants of turnover probability. Holding the total amount of compensation constant, an increase in the proportion of stock options in the total compensation from its median level (0.48) to the 75th percentile level (0.67), would result in a decrease in annual turnover probability from 16 percent to 13.5 percent. On the other hand, holding the proportion of stock options constant, if the total compensation increases from the median level ($2.5 million) to the 75 percentile level ($5 million), turnover probability would decrease to 14 percent. In Chapter 2 we develop a model to describe the relationship between incentive and tenure in a principal-agent setting. One of the standard results of principal agent theories is that pay-for-performance sensitivity increases with the agent's tenure, but this has been rejected by prior empirical studies in CEO compensation literature. In our model, uncertainty dictates if the principal chooses input-based compensation or output-based compensation, where input-based compensation is less incentive intensive. We show that the principal is more likely to choose input-based compensation later in the agent's tenure. This demonstrates that pay-for-performance sensitivity decreases with the agent's tenure -result consistent with the prior empirical findings in the CEO compensation literature. Chapter 3 reexamines the relationship between pay-for-performance sensitivity and tenure using CEO compensation data. Our estimates indicate that there is a strong and positive relationship between pay-for-performance sensitivity and CEO tenure. For CEOs with tenure less than or equal to six years, an improvement in firm performance from the median level to the 75th percentile level would only lead to a 0.06 percent increase in total compensation. For CEOs with tenure of seven years or more, the same improvement in firm performance would lead to an 8 percent increase in total compensation. Our new findings strongly support standard principal-agent theories, but do not support our model in Chapter 2

Coherent manipulation of nuclear spins in the breakdown regime of integer quantum Hall states

We demonstrate a new method for electrical manipulation of nuclear spins utilizing dynamic nuclear polarization induced by quantum Hall effect breakdown. Nuclear spins are polarized and detected through the hyperfine interaction between a nuclear spin system and a two-dimensional electron system located at an interface of GaAs/AlGaAs single heterostructure. Coherent oscillations between the nuclear-spin quantum states are observed by measuring the longitudinal voltage of the conductor.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figure

Dynamic nuclear polarization and Knight shift measurements in a breakdown regime of integer quantum Hall effect

Nuclear spins are polarized electrically in a breakdown regime of an odd-integer quantum Hall effect (QHE). Electron excitation to the upper Landau subband with the opposite spin polarity flips nuclear spins through the hyperfine interaction. The polarized nuclear spins reduce the spin-splitting energy and accelerate the QHE breakdown. The Knight shift of the nuclear spins is also measured by tuning electron density during the irradiation of radio-frequency magnetic fields.Comment: 3 pages, 2 figures, EP2DS-1

Comparison of Cerebral Blood Volume during Cold and Warm Stimulation in Elderly and Young Subjects

Background: Dementia involves a neuronal loss in the primary somatosensory cortex of the parietal lobe, causing dementia patients to perceive pain stimuli hardly. The function of temperature sensation declines. Studies measuring brain blood volume using near-infrared light have reported that patients suffering from dementia have less activation than healthy elderly people. However, the majority of these studies used tests related to cognitive function and the frontal lobe, and few have examined thermal sensation.Objective: The present study aimed to investigate the effect of cold and warm stimulation on cerebral blood volume in elderly and young subjects.Material and Methods: This observational study measured changes in oxygenated hemoglobin concentrations in the frontal cortex during cold and warm stimulation in elderly and young subjects using a near-infrared light device. The mean and standard deviation of the change in oxygenated hemoglobin concentration before and after cold and warm stimulation, as well as the center-of-gravity values, were compared between the young and the elderly.Results: During warm stimulation, the younger subjects showed an increase in blood oxygenated hemoglobin levels; however, the difference was not significant. For the elderly, no change was observed during the task. The center of gravity values was lower in the young compared to the elderly which was similar to the reaction threshold. No significant changes were observed during cold stimulation. Conclusion: Thermal sensation thresholds were impaired in the elderly compared to the young; however, cerebral blood volume changes were unclear