The Effect of Disturbance on Plant Communities in Tundra Regions of the Soviet Union

An Annotated List of Plants Inhabiting Sites of Natural and Anthropogenic Disturbances of Tundra Cover: Southeasternmost Chukchi Peninsula -- B.A. Yurtsev and A.A. Korobkov; An Annotated List of Plants Inhabiting Sites of Natural and Anthropogenic Disturbances of Tundra Cover in Western Taimyr: The Settlement of Kresty -- N.V. Matveyeva; A Study of Plant Communities of Anthropogenic Habitats in the Area of the Vorkuta Industrial Center -- O.A. Druzhinina and Yu. G. Zharkov

Do personal connections improve sovereign credit ratings?

In a large sample of sovereign debt issues, we show that a personal connection between senior executives in credit rating agencies and leading politicians in the sovereign results in an improved rating. A test on bond yields suggest that the personal connection reflects a favorable treatment of the issuer

The effect of CEO power on bank risk: do boards and institutional investors matter?

We test for a link between CEO power and risk-taking in US banks. Banks are more likely to take risks if they have powerful CEOs and relatively poor balance sheets. There is little evidence that executive board size and independence have a dampening effect on the channels through which powerful CEOs influence risk-taking and some evidence that institutional investors reinforce the risk-taking preferences of powerful CEOs

Credit default swaps and firms' financing policies

This paper examines the impact of credit default swaps (CDS) on firms' financing and trade credit policies. Our results indicate firms with CDS trading on their debt increase their equity issuances. Further, firms with CDS trading on their debt and high levels of long-term debt issuances decrease their debt financing. Total and idiosyncratic risks are also higher for firms with CDS trading on their debt. These firms pay their suppliers and collect from their customers quicker. Thus, the impacts of the CDS market are not limited to the borrowing firms but also affect economically connected firms

Study of the Trilinear Neighborhood Model of Process of Formation of Temperature’s Coiling Hot-rolled Strip

The paper considers trilinear neighborhood model of process of formation of temperature’s coiling hot-rolled strip, where the parameters are the state, control and information. The methods of determining the composition of extremums of the general parametric operation are presented. Extremums’ condition for the existence, which has been tested on a concrete example, is obtained. The assumption about the area in which it is impossible to say with certainty about the system’s stability is stated. The hypothesis about the condition of the loss of the position of stable equilibrium of the system and the transition to a new state

CEO tenure and corporate misconduct: Evidence from US banks

We test for a link between CEO tenure and misconduct by US banks. We find that banks are more likely to commit misconduct when CEOs have a relatively long tenure and banks have relatively poor balance sheets. Large and independent corporate boards can mitigate but not prevent misconduct

Politicians’ connections and sovereign credit ratings

Using a unique hand-collected sample of professional connections between finance ministers and the top executives of the three largest credit rating agencies (CRAs) for 38 European sovereigns between January 2000 and November 2017, we show that professional connections result in higher sovereign ratings. This finding is attributed to ‘favoritism’, which stems from the conflict-of-interest problem in the CRA business model. We also find that the subjective component of ratings, captured by professional connections, has a more pronounced role for developing than developed countries. Our study offers new empirical evidence that unsolicited sovereign ratings are significantly lower than solicited ratings. Our results survive battery of robustness checks including propensity score matching (PSM), two-way fixed-effects, system GMM and various definitions of connection. Our findings offer wide-ranging implications for regulators, governments, market participants and CRAs

Bacterial cheating drives the population dynamics of cooperative antibiotic resistance plasmids

Inactivation of β‐lactam antibiotics by resistant bacteria is a ‘cooperative’ behavior that may allow sensitive bacteria to survive antibiotic treatment. However, the factors that determine the fraction of resistant cells in the bacterial population remain unclear, indicating a fundamental gap in our understanding of how antibiotic resistance evolves. Here, we experimentally track the spread of a plasmid that encodes a β‐lactamase enzyme through the bacterial population. We find that independent of the initial fraction of resistant cells, the population settles to an equilibrium fraction proportional to the antibiotic concentration divided by the cell density. A simple model explains this behavior, successfully predicting a data collapse over two orders of magnitude in antibiotic concentration. This model also successfully predicts that adding a commonly used β‐lactamase inhibitor will lead to the spread of resistance, highlighting the need to incorporate social dynamics into the study of antibiotic resistance.National Science Foundation (U.S.). Graduate Research Fellowship (Grant 0645960)Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Undergraduate Research Opportunities ProgramAmerican Society for Engineering Education. National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate Fellowshi

The relationship between financial reporting standards and accounting irregularities: evidence from US banks

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore whether the choice of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) vs Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) is associated with the frequency and likelihood of accounting irregularities and fraud in US banks. Design/methodology/approach: The authors examine the relationship between financial reporting standards and accounting irregularities in publicly listed US banks. Using a sample of 4,284 banks with accounting irregularities observed in the USA over the period of 1996–2014. They used logit model to estimate the likelihood of corporate misreporting having been committed in terms of accounting irregularities. Findings: The authors show that banks that use US GAAP exhibit better operating performance than fraudulent banks that use IFRS except for certain variables. They also find that fraudulent banks are more likely to commit accounting irregularities when they have to follow IFRS and banks have relatively better bank performance. Practical implications: Overall, the empirical findings result consistent with Kohlbeck and Warfield’s (2010) find that accounting standards are linked to fewer accounting irregularities. Originality/value:In this study, accounting irregularities have a significant effect on bank performance during the Dodd–Frank period. It finds that banks that choose to use IFRS are more likely to have accounting irregularities and to engage in fraud